Changing face of UAE cricket can bring hope rather than despair after World Cup dream ends

The death rites were accompanied by a soundtrack of the Macarena booming out of speakers at a quaint cricket ground between some tennis courts and bowling greens in Bulawayo.

The winning players celebrated as if it was nothing more than routine. The losing ones had long since accepted their fate.

There were some excitable schoolchildren cheering, but that was probably more the fact they had wangled a whole day out of the classroom to watch cricket rather than because their favourite team had won.

Three and a half years after they had started their labyrinthine quest for 50-over World Cup cricket, the UAE’s chances were finally killed off by Scotland on Friday.

For the third time in five days, they had been soundly beaten. A 111-run loss in the 44th match of their bid to win one of two places at the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India.

Honestly? They never stood a chance. If there was an air of ambivalence after the loss to the Scots, it was understandable.

At some point in the time since 2019, maybe they had harboured hopes that the dream might be possible. By the end, that had long given way to realism.

The make up of the squad picked for the Qualifier in Zimbabwe suggested as much. It contains two 17-year-olds, an 18-year-old, a 19-year-old, and two 21-year-olds. Maybe they will be able to compete at the equivalent of this competition in four years’ time. This time around, not remotely.

The losses – by 175 runs, five wickets, and 111 runs – were so insipid, so one sided, they were not even painful. They did not throw a punch, let alone land one.

It followed on from three similar thrashings by the West Indies in a sapping home bilateral series in Sharjah. With the benefit of hindsight, that series did them few favours.