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Sharjah: Former Pakistan Test player Kabir Khan, who took over as the coach of the UAE cricket team recently, has a tough task ahead of him.
He has to prepare the team for a busy international schedule which includes the prestigious Asia Cup tournament to be held in Pakistan in June.
"It is a big challenge for me because the players in the UAE team are not full time professionals. I come from a background of professional cricketers in Pakistan, where I coached the Habib Bank and also a county team in Scotland," said Khan, who has played in ten One-dayers and four Test matches.
"The biggest drawback of the UAE team is that cricket is not the first choice for the players. They have to go for their jobs to earn their living and hence cannot play the game full time.
"When other countries play six days a week we are lucky if we get to train three days a week. Sometimes even those three days may not be possible due to the demands of their jobs," he added.
Yet Khan is hopeful. "Most of the UAE players are naturally talented. But to fully utilise their talent they need to come to the nets and correct their mistakes.
"We have some very good batsmen and spinners. Some young pacers are also coming up. The cricket academies here are producing good cricketers," he said.
"There is talent here and cricket is in their blood as most the boys are from Pakistan, India, Bangaldesh and Sri Lanka. The facilities here are also excellent. Anything that I need is available except the players on a regular basis," he said.
Last week, UAE lost to Namibia despite taking a first innings lead. "If players can be free they can put up better performances. Now they are not even able to gain match practice. Now, they straight away come for international matches.
The grind
"Some of the boys come after night shifts which do not allow them to practice. A few of them working in the airlines fly out and come back only after two weeks," he pointed out.
"The way we performed in Namibia in the ICC qualifying revealed that we have the talent to take on the best. They were all together for a few weeks and they jelled very well. So if the players can afford to be together for longer periods we can go on to beat the best teams," he assured.
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