Dubai may host N.Z. cricket team

Press, 18 March 1988, Page 26

Dubai may host N.Z. cricket team

New Zealand. no strangers to cricket in the desert, could soon be contemplating Kerry Packer-style flood lit matches on the shores of the Arabian Gulf. Work has just started in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, on a . £9 million sports complex housing a 22,000-seater cricket ground and a 10,000 capacity hockey stadium. Already an international tournament has been pencilled in for November or December this year. It will be run on the same lines as the ones which have seen New Zealand clash with Australia and India battle it I out against Pakistan in! the neighbouring emirate i of Sharjah. New Zealand: travels to Sharjah for an-l other tournament next!

1 : week. The difference this 1 time is that some of the • i games will be played at ■ , night, with floodlights illut i minating the desert sky in f a modern city surrounded by the desert and the waters of the Gulf. , Getting top-class cricket i under way in Dubai will | be the job of a famous I j personality from the Test arena who will be ap- : j pointed to take charge of i the complex. I Final plans for the com- ■ plex were approved re--1 cently by H. H. Sheikh * Hamdan bin Rashid Al ; Maktoum, the UAE’s Min- ; I ister of Finance, whose i family’s affection for .! sport is best illustrated by their involvement in horse . I racing. ij I Sheikh Hamdan’s II brother H. H. Sheikh •I Mohammed bin Rashid. :j the Minister of Defence,

is financing the construction of the only grass championship golf course between Rome and Singapore. which will open on the outskirts of Dubai towards the end of the year. An Englishman, Stephen Trutch, project engineer and co-ordinator for the new complex, has emphasised that Dubai is not out to steal the limelight from Sharjah, which in recent years has staged tournaments involving New Zealand, India, Pakistan, England, Australia, the West Indies, and Sri Lanka. “There’s plenty of room for the both of us," he said. Trutch added: “I don’t see any problems in bringing top-class cricket to Dubai. We will be negotiating with the various cricket boards concerned, and not with individuals.” New Zealand were in the UAE in April last year for the Australasia Cup, won by Pakistan. Australia, India and Sri Lanka also took part.