What Hosting the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Means for the Future of the UAE National Women’s Cricket Team
It is fair to say that Cricket has become somewhat of a religion in the UAE, which can be attributed to the massive expat population in the country.
Cricket remains one of the most popular sporting pastimes amongst South Asian communities, who measure up to roughly sixty percent of the estimated 11 million population of the UAE.
While a lot of international attention has been paid to the men’s game, in recent years women’s cricket has become more high profile especially in the UAE. So just how has this love for the female side of the game impacted the national team?
The UAE Women’s National Cricket Team made its international debut in 2007 with a game against Bangladesh. Since then, it has grown exponentially, attracting millions of fans.
At present, the UAE Women’s National Cricket Team is ranked at 16th in the world by the ICC with its best ever ranking being 14th as of October 2018.
Even though its team will not be competing in the competition, with the UAE hosting the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, it is important that the reaching implications for the women’s sport are understood.
2003-2009: The past
In 2003, the UAE ‘women’s’ team had only seven girls, while the rest of the playing XI were boys, which was due to the fact that parents were “reluctant” to send their girls to play cricket.
Fortunately, former UAE men’s player, Shahzad Altaf set up some of the first girls only cricket tournaments in the country to identify young talents from school level.
By 2007, the UAE women’s team were finally able to field a starting XI, composed of schoolgirls that were scouted from the tournaments, as well as players who were expats from India and Pakistan with domestic cricket experience.
However, the UAE’s first fixture was a day to truly forget against Bangladesh at the 2007 ACC women’s tournament in Malaysia, as they were bowled out for a measly score of just 9 runs.
Then 12-year-old Natasha Cherriath was the captain of this first women’s team, who despite her age displayed a much more mature output, akin to her role as a leader, looking to “remind everyone that it was fine”.
She stated she wanted to “focus” on what the team can do better, and it was “important” to put things into perspective after that innings.
In 2009, The UAE women travelled once again to Malaysia for the ACC women’s T20 championship, which was the true turning point for the national team.
The Falcons secured their first ever win, beating Oman by 49 runs, a winning side that featured four players from that first game against Bangladesh in 2007, including captain Cherriath who won the player of the match award in this fixture.
The UAE then incredibly followed up this result with another win in the same competition, beating Kuwait by 56 runs.
These pivotal victories were an incredible cap off to the journey of women’s cricket in the UAE, as they went from just seven girls who just wanted to play cricket to securing two wins at an international tournament in just over half a decade, meant this rise was something truly phenomenal and just the start to women’s cricket taking off in the Emirates.
2010s-2024: The Present
While the UAE women’s team were still actively participating in ACC competitions, the growth of women’s cricket was still quite stagnated in the UAE, as there were roughly just 15 to 20 women involved in competitive cricket around 2016.
The Emirates Cricket Board Development Officer, Andy Russell, then started a movement to “push” up and coming players into getting more match experience and created a “girls-only programme” which saw around 25 to 30 players getting weekly match exposure through participating in an U16 boys cricket league.
This change ideally coincided with the UAE women’s team receiving their full ICC T20I membership in April 2018, playing their first game as a full women’s T20I team against the Netherlands in July.
With this status, the national team received more opportunities to play internationally against full member nations such as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the prestigious women’s Asia cup, where they have already made two appearances, debuting in 2022 and once again participating earlier this year in August.
2024 and beyond: Looking to the Future
Hosting the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup will undoubtedly provide an opportunity for young girls to be inspired by the sport in the UAE. Given the sheer size of these expat groups in the county, a match between India and Pakistan has the potential to sell out tickets.
This was demonstrated in March 2020 which saw a large attendance for an Indian women’s cricket match with 86,174 present for the World T20 final between India and Australia in Melbourne.
Similarly, in May 2024, 10,000 tickets were sold for a T20I match at Headingley between England and Pakistan showing that both South Asian teams have the power to draw in large crowds.
With India set to go head to head with Pakistan on October 6th, the fixture is expected to be sold out, as both expats and international fans are set to attend. With Dubai having served as a popular destination to host the men’s teams fixtures often with sold out stadiums, it is likely that this women’s match could have a similar effect.
In regards to the UAE team, there have also been pathways for improvement outside of the UAE national team. Reading-born Mahika Gaur, who played for the UAE between 2019 and 2022 before switching her international allegiance to England, her country of birth. Gaur was awarded a development contract with the English national team in December 2023.
While taking place in her old stomping grounds, Gaur was not included in England’s world cup squad due to an injury she picked up in July.
Gaur’s story is one that has brought great traction to women’s cricket in the UAE, however she is just one of the many examples who have greatly benefited from the rapidly expanding development system for women’s cricket in the UAE. Early promotion of the sport in schools and regular competitions at all levels has now led to over 700 women and girls participating competitively in the UAE.
With regular participation in major international competitions, hosting a major ICC women’s event and a flourishing youth system, women’s cricket in the UAE is surely on a trajectory that is going nowhere but upwards.
