T20 World Cup 2022: Class of 2014 a reminder how much UAE cricket has changed

Eight-and-a-half years feels like a lifetime in UAE cricket. But it is no longer than anywhere else.

When the national team make their second appearance at a T20 World Cup this month, their squad will have one survivor – Ahmed Raza – from that which debuted at the tournament in Bangladesh in 2014.

That is the same amount as West Indies have remaining from their 2014 vintage, and one more than Pakistan, whose squad is now entirely different.

And yet that competition in Sylhet seems like a different age altogether. The landscape of UAE cricket has changed entirely in the time since.

Their squad to take on the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Namibia this month is almost exclusively professional, save for a few university students, and – in the form of Aayan Afzal Khan – a schoolboy.

Back in 2014, the squad included a cargo loadmaster, a flight catering worker, a receptionist, cabin crew, students, and banking staff.

They were not short on talent, but their lack of big-match experience counted against them. They lost all three of their matches against Netherlands, Ireland and Zimbabwe, and failed to progress beyond the first round. Despite that, the competition carries with it fond memories for the pioneering players from the UAE.

“It was a huge thing because after a very long time, a huge gap [18 years since the 1996 50-over version], we had managed to qualify for a World Cup,” said Vikrant Shetty, a former middle-order batter for the UAE.

“Playing at a World Cup is obviously the pinnacle of everything for us. With that comes a whole load of pressure, press interviews, cameras, so for us it was a huge, huge thing.

“It didn’t go completely in our favour, but the experience was amazing. For all us to be on that stage, in front of