Asia Cup 2022 will be a celebration even if UAE are watching from sidelines yet again

The bus back from Muscat to Dubai must have been a morose place to be on Thursday morning.

Pondering the beauty of the Hajjar Mountains would almost certainly have given way to more gloomy thoughts for the players of the UAE national team.

Like, just how have we managed to pass up the chance to play at a major tournament in our own backyard for the third time in four years?

The Asia Cup has gone the same way it did back in 2018, and the way of the T20 World Cup of 2021.

When it starts at Dubai International Stadium on Saturday night, Wanindu Hasaranga and Rashid Khan will be there.

A day later, Babar Azam and Haris Rauf will be taking on Virat Kohli and all the other household names of the Indian Premier League.

The stars of the world game will shine brightly under the ring of fire floodlights. It is going to be a captivating show between now and the final on Sunday September 11.

But, yet again, the leading players of the host nation will be ghosts at their own feast.

Four years ago, it was Hong Kong who denied them a place in their home Asia Cup, on a stormy day in the final match of the qualifier in Malaysia.

Pakistan's Babar Azam bats against India during the 2018 Asia Cup Super Four match in Dubai. Chris Whiteoak / The National

A year later, UAE were the second highest ranked side in a tournament that offered five places to the next T20 World Cup.

As it turned out, that ended up being played in the Emirates two years later because of the effects of Covid. It passed off without the UAE, though, their hopes having been lanced by a corruption crisis that has since seen seven senior players banned.

This time around, UAE were the best-ranked side in the qualifying tournament, a full 11 places higher in the standings than