30 November 2009
“UAE has always been among the best destinations. It has one of the best and world-class stadiums. When it comes to organising a tournament here, we know we won’t have any problems.”
But Huq said that the frequency of having UAE as a venue would be difficult considering the costs. “Our main constraint is the finance. For ACC to hold a tournament in UAE is a great experience, but there are other costs involved which are higher than other Asian countries. The expenditure here exceeds our budget.
“We could afford UAE this time because they came down and really helped us so that the cost came within our budget. If UAE can hold tournaments within our budgets then we are very happy to give the tournaments here since we can be sure that it will be a success.”
Huq said the tournament too has been successful with most of the teams exceeding expectations. “It’s gone very well. It is encouraging to watch the matches, which have been very competitive. That is what cricket is all about. The teams have played well and improved a lot. Though Twenty20 is more of an entertainment kind, the format is very popular. It is good to popularise the game.” Despite the popularity of the Twenty20 version, Huq still batted for the longer version that actually help these teams hone their skills better. “We are encouraging the countries to play the longer version of the game. Our longest format for now in our tournaments is the 50-over format, which is a good compromise between a three-day match and Twenty20. It is where your skills come into play.”
But conducting longer version of the game incurs a lot of expenditure and Huq feels that due to financial constraints arranging such tournaments become tough. “We cannot have three-day matches mainly because of financial problems. But then there are lot of longer version tournaments like the Intercontinental Cup conducted by the ICC which is good. We encourage individual countries to source their own resources and play the longer version of the game.”
“The ideal development for a country is to play three-day matches. But then this is a peculiar situation whereby the country has to really excel in ODI cricket to get recognition and play the three-day matches.
“It should be the other way round. But that’s how the programme around the world is. Like for example, Afghanistan, which has a very good side, has got the ODI status. It would be good to see them play more three and four-day matches and eventually play Test cricket. Now, that’s a logical progression.”
Expressing his delight that the Asian Test playing countries including India were supporting ACC, he said: “They do support a lot. India fully supports the cause of Asian cricket. It is because of the blessings of the four Test playing Asian nations that ACC is existing.”
He said encouraging players from the Associate countries to play in the Test playing nations shows that they are keen to support the growth. “Players from Afghanistan, Oman and UAE have been going to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to play matches. Both the women’s and men’s teams travel to these countries to gather experience. It is a positive sign that all the Test playing countries are more than giving a helping hand.”
Noting that the development projects were on right track, Huq said: “The future is very bright. One can see for themselves. We have two countries playing in the under 19 World Cup — Hong Kong and Afghanistan. Afghanistan and UAE missed out on the qualifying for the 2011 World Cup by a narrow margin. It would be good if these two of our associate members had qualified for the World Cup. We are happy with the progress. Afghanistan has got the ODI status and that is a boost. We will do our best to help them as much as possible. We are also conducting the High Performance Programmes and sending them out other countries to play and putting them in camps. So we are doing our best to support them.”
About encouraging other countries, he said: “Countries like Vietnam, Cambodia are being encouraged to play cricket. But it is difficult since they do not have a cricketing culture. It was so difficult to start cricket in China but now there has been a beginning so there is lot of hope.”
