The UAE are peerless in Asia when it comes to senior-level cricket. They have the best players and the best grounds as well as deep-rooted cricket patronage. Carrying all before them in the ACC Trophy since 2000 (Bangladesh were the winners in 1998), they have always had the best-balanced and the best-prepared sides on display.

In three-day ACC cricket, only Nepal have beaten them (in 2005 in Kathmandu) and that with what the UAE would say was a second-string side. In the return fixture in Sharjah in 2006, the UAE gained revenge with a 98-run victory. They always have just that more in the tank than the other Asian countries. Oman beat them in the group stage of the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 during the year, but when it came to the Final between the two teams, UAE ran out convincing winners. Their performances in the three-day cricket of the ICC Intercontinental Cup are a cause of concern but the three matches they have lost to the teams of Africa and Europe in 2008 have been close.

There are many reasons, socio-economic ones notwithstanding, why the UAE have the best team in Asia. One of the key factors in their players’ performance however is the UAE’s competitive domestic format. It’s easy for the national team to play at their best in international fixtures because they have to play at their best in domestic ones.

At age-group level other Asian countries tend to find the UAE beatable but even there, such is the depth of their talent pool, they remain one of the strongest teams.

UAE pioneered the take-up of women’s cricket in the Gulf by fielding a team in the 2007 ACC Women’s Tournament and have subsequently continued to promote women’s participation in the game.