Ahmed Raza praises UAE players after packed schedule: 'I think we've earned a break'

Played 19, won 13, lost five, and tied one. As always with cricket, the bare stats scarcely tell the whole story of what has happened to UAE cricket over the past six-and-a-bit weeks.

In the space of 44 days, the national team played more than three times the amount of cricket they did in the whole of 2021, when Covid restricted them to a mere six games.

By the end of it, they were running on fumes, yet still managed to put Nepal away and grab two more precious points towards qualifying for the next 50-over World Cup.

In the space of those 44 days, UAE had achieved their primary aim. Namely, booking a place at the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year after reaching the final – and dominating that, too – in the Qualifier in Muscat.

They got another trophy, besides, by winning a T20 quadrangular series involving Oman, Nepal and Ireland.

For the first time, one of their players was nominated for the ICC’s monthly award. Vriitya Aravind, the student wicketkeeper-batsman, was robbed of the title of player of the month for February by India’s Shreyas Iyer. But, still, to be mentioned in such company represents progress.

(place, team, played, won, drawn, points)

Chirag Suri might have joined him among the nominees, so good was his form last month. Basil Hameed, Rohan Mustafa and Junaid Siddique should figure heavily in the thinking for the March award, too, given their exploits in back-to-back series in Cricket World Cup League 2.

These are heady times for the country’s leading cricketers. And just a little bit tiring, too, according to captain Ahmed Raza.

“It is not so much physical as mental,” Raza said. “We had a tough month in the World Cup Qualifier.

“We started off playing against Oman [in a bilateral one-day