Graeme Smith never was one for standing on ceremony. So, just as the DP World International League T20 was running through the final dress rehearsals for its opening one ahead of its third season, the former South Africa captain was only too happy to air his views.
Smith is now the commissioner of the SA20, a T20 event whose season clashes almost exactly with that of the ILT20. And he certainly knows which one he prefers.
“We’re a South African league, with a majority of South African players and our ultimate goal is to benefit South African players,” Smith said.
“We’ve been built up against ILT20, so it’s very difficult for me to not come across like I’m bad-mouthing them. But I do feel like a league like that is not good for the game; that there’s that many international players required to build a team; there’s no investment back into local cricket.
“That is a challenge for the world game and something that needs to be managed going forward.”
Why don’t you tell us what you really think, Graeme?
On the eve of ILT20’s Season 3, Tom Moody, the director of cricket for Desert Vipers, provided the most reasoned response to Smith’s spikiness.
“He’s obviously got the right to his opinion, and he’s protecting his own patch, so to speak, in the SA20 and the success of that tournament,” Moody said
“When you have two tournaments that are running parallel you're always going to have that sort of critical eye on your opposition. But I think if Graeme spent time on the ground here and saw the growth of the domestic game here, I think he might have a slightly different view in what the impact of this tournament has had.
“I understand that having nine overseas players is on the heavy side with regards to other leagues around the world. But what people have got to understand is that this is an emerging country.
“This is a country that is looking to build their game from grassroots upwards. Something that we're very proud of as a franchise at Desert Vipers is the work that we're doing right from school level, with the programmes we have in place all year round, right through to seeing the improvement of [the first team] players.”
Smith’s offensive continued. “We’re a full member nation,” Smith said. “Our priority is to put on a global league but to benefit South African cricket. That’s important for us.”
That feels like thinly veiled antipathy not just because ILT20 is a competitor, but because of where it is played.
Associate nations – such as the UAE - should be allowed to try to grow the game in their own countries. How they go about it, though, is the critical issue.
Smith has a good point: there are too few UAE players involved in the ILT20. And the playing conditions only serve to limit their chances to make a genuine contribution further still.
The league has special dispensation from the ICC – whose offices overlook the fields where the ILT20 teams practice at Dubai Sports City – to have just two locally based players per XI.
The impact player rule has been retained this season. That means a substitution can be made during the game to bring a on specialist batter or bowler as the match situation suits.
Even though two UAE players must still be on the field, in almost every game last year, the impact player rule served to limit the involvement of the local player.
If Graeme spent time on the ground here and saw the growth of the domestic game here, I think he might have a slightly different view
Tom Moody,
director of cricket, Desert Vipers
It doesn’t need to be that way. Other Associate countries are building franchise competitions based on local talent, complemented by judicious overseas signings.
They are not exactly like markets, but the Nepal Premier League concluded recently and was a great success. Each playing XI in that tournament had a majority of Nepal-based players, with the odd star involved like Shikhar Dhawan, Martin Guptill and Jimmy Neesham.
The NPL matches were played out in front of packed crowds in Kathmandu, even though most of the talent on show was home-bred.
The players of the UAE national team, by contrast, enjoy nothing like the public recognition here that the home-based players of the NPL do it Nepal. As such, it is understandable the organisers would want as many household names from overseas on the field as they can get away with.
But the UAE players need to be backed. They are no less capable than Nepal’s. The national team did, after all, beat Nepal to a place in the Asia Cup last year.
Whether that was down to what the UAE players have learnt via two seasons of minimal involvement in the ILT20 is questionable.
“I’m sure the league have got an eye into the future to expanding the number of domestic players that will be playing in this tournament, but you’ve got to learn how to crawl before you walk, before you run,” Moody said.
“It’s a little bit different when you have an established Test playing nation in South Africa to be able to say well we only need X or Y number of overseas players to complement an established domestic system.
“We don't have that established domestic system to the point Australia has, or South Africa has, or England has. But we hope in five to 10 years we can look back and think well the ILT20 teams like Desert Vipers have played a critical role in fast tracking the game here and the in the region.”
Often, players come to the ILT20 and offer lip-service about giving back to the game, and helping develop UAE cricket. But Sikandar Raza, the Dubai Capitals captain, is well qualified to judge.
The Zimbabwe all-rounder was the player of the tournament last season as the Capitals finished as runners-up. Before he established himself as one of the leading stars in international cricket, he spent time as a little-known overseas player in UAE domestic cricket.
He has many friends within the game here. When he was asked the qualities of the Capitals’ four UAE players ahead of the new season, he was immediately able to name check each, and offer a run down on their qualities. It might be easy to assume not all of the captains would have been able to do the same with the local players in their own ranks.
And Raza thinks the ILT20 is helping progress the game in the Emirates. “The UAE players play a huge part in the combination of the teams and also for their own growth and development as well,” Raza said.
“A tournament like ILT20 has suddenly raised the standard of cricket in the UAE and for the local boys as well. It is nice to see the pool of UAE players is growing.”
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Results
Men's finals
45kg:Duc Le Hoang (VIE) beat Zolfi Amirhossein (IRI) points 29-28. 48kg: Naruephon Chittra (THA) beat Joseph Vanlalhruaia (IND) TKO round 2.
51kg: Sakchai Chamchit (THA) beat Salam Al Suwaid (IRQ) TKO round 1. 54kg: Veerasak Senanue (THA) beat Huynh Hoang Phi (VIE) 30-25.
57kg: Almaz Sarsembekov (KAZ) beat Tak Chuen Suen (MAC) RSC round 3. 60kg: Yerkanat Ospan (KAZ) beat Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) 30-27.
63.5kg: Abil Galiyev (KAZ) beat Nouredine Samir (UAE) 29-28. 67kg: Narin Wonglakhon (THA) beat Mohammed Mardi (UAE) 29-28.
71kg: Amine El Moatassime (UAE) w/o Shaker Al Tekreeti (IRQ). 75kg: Youssef Abboud (LBN) w/o Ayoob Saki (IRI).
81kg: Ilyass Habibali (UAE) beat Khaled Tarraf (LBN) 29-28. 86kg: Ali Takaloo (IRI) beat Emil Umayev (KAZ) 30-27.
91kg: Hamid Reza Kordabadi (IRI) beat Mohamad Osaily (LBN) RSC round 1. 91-plus kg: Mohammadrezapoor Shirmohammad (IRI) beat Abdulla Hasan (IRQ) 30-27.
Women's finals
45kg: Somruethai Siripathum (THA) beat Ha Huu Huynh (VIE) 30-27. 48kg: Thanawan Thongduang (THA) beat Colleen Saddi (PHI) 30-27.
51kg: Wansawang Srila Or (THA) beat Thuy Phuong Trieu (VIE) 29-28. 54kg: Ruchira Wongsriwo (THA) beat Zeinab Khatoun (LBN) 30-26.
57kg: Sara Idriss (LBN) beat Zahra Nasiri Bargh (IRI) 30-27. 60kg: Kaewrudee Kamtakrapoom (THA) beat Sedigheh Hajivand (IRI) TKO round 2.
63.5kg: Nadiya Moghaddam (IRI) w/o Reem Al Issa (JOR).
Porsche Macan T: The Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 265hp from 5,000-6,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm from 1,800-4,500rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto
Speed: 0-100kph in 6.2sec
Top speed: 232kph
Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km
On sale: May or June
Price: From Dh259,900
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The biog
Name: Timothy Husband
Nationality: New Zealand
Education: Degree in zoology at The University of Sydney
Favourite book: Lemurs of Madagascar by Russell A Mittermeier
Favourite music: Billy Joel
Weekends and holidays: Talking about animals or visiting his farm in Australia
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Countries recognising Palestine
France, UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, Luxembourg, San Marino and Andorra
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
The years Ramadan fell in May
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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