It is difficult to imagine a battle more forlorn than the one cricket must wage to register on the sporting scene of the United States.
Even to call it a battle is overheating matters; a noble effort is probably more accurate.
Those inclined towards history will know, of course, that the very first international game of cricket was between the US and Canada in 1844 and that cricket was very popular there around that time.
Over 168 years, however, the sport has slipped quietly into obscurity, a curious, pedantic game.
At the forefront of the noble effort is the US side currently participating in the World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE, which theoretically gives them a chance to appear on the big stage in September at the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka.
They are unlikely to do it; on Tuesday they lost to Uganda in Sharjah and yesterday, at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, they were beaten by Italy in another close game.
Their squad is a young one (eight of the 11 were making their T20 debuts against Uganda) and as is usual at this level, made up mostly of naturalised citizens, the vast bulk of them from India, Pakistan and the Caribbean.
None of them are professional cricketers, though that is not to say they aren't achievers: at least three are management consultants.
One of them, the Karachi-born Usman Shuja, knows well the plight of cricket in the US.
"It's a chicken and egg problem. We have to raise funds to make cricket professional but some people believe we have to do well in these tournaments to make it professional," he said.
It is not as if there is no infrastructure. There are many city-based club leagues [in Dallas alone there are 44 clubs]. The leagues fall under eight regions, which come under the purview of the USA Cricket Association (USACA).
There are grounds too but not enough have turf wickets on which international cricket is played (most grounds put a matting-type carpet over a concrete pitch).
"The standard is there but it is only weekend cricket," said Asif Mujtaba, the former Pakistan international who has relocated to Dallas and is with the side in a part-time coaching capacity.
"We have to work hard to implement a proper programme and we need a set of coaches, a chief coach. Until you have a permanent set-up it will be difficult."
This is where the shortest format of the game has its uses.
Not only is T20 cricket accessible (Americans no longer need to grapple with the concept of competing over five days and still not producing a result), it is also lucrative if done right.
So, in collaboration with New Zealand Cricket (NZC), USACA plans to launch a professional T20 league in 2013, headed by the former Everton FC chief executive Keith Wyness. The plan is to sell six franchises to raise roughly US$200 million (Dh734m), and broadcast rights as well.
It will not be straightforward. As the journalist Peter Della Penna has persistently highlighted, USACA's administrative track record is in no danger of breaking the already low bar for governance set by cricket globally; twice in the last decade in-fighting has seen USACA suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The proposed league was actually supposed to launch this year.
"The league could change things big time because a lot of guys will want to start playing again," said Steven Taylor, at 18, the squad's youngest member. "At the moment many guys have stopped because cricket wasn't going anywhere."
Taylor is a useful peek into what the future could be. He is the only US-born member of the squad - indigenous so to speak - though his twang reveals his Jamaican heritage.
He is gifted, wants to bat like Chris Gayle and break Brian Lara's record Test score of 400a runs, plays basketball, and he has lived all his life playing and learning the game in the US. "I do sometimes feel like, 'what am I doing playing cricket?', but it's the game I love," he said.
Major League Soccer (MLS) is proof that sports sustained on an ethnic fan base can survive and grow into something beyond a pastime. It is a grass roots model Shuja and others believe needs to be used by cricket, more than just relying on a flashy T20 league.
"Cricket in the US right now is where soccer was 15 years ago," said Andy Mohammad, another young, bright thing. "Now soccer is big but I think in five to seven years we'll be getting some sponsorships and that's all we need."
In today's action, Shakti Gauchan took a hat-trick as Nepal beat Denmark by nine wickets in the Twenty20 World Cup Qualifier. In other Group B matches, Ireland beat Kenya by 10 wickets and Italy defeated USA by eight runs while Oman lost to Uganda by three wickets.
In Group A Jamie Atkinson, the captain, led Hong Kong to an eight-wicket victory over Bermuda by hitting a superb half century while Papua New Guinea suffered a second successive defeat when they lost to Canada by six runs.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
