Our aim is to take cricket to new level of professionalism: Bukhathir
The father of cricket in the United Arab Emirates, Abdulrahman Bukhatir, asserted his commitment to the game by reiterating that all ongoing related projects were intended to take cricket to new levels of professionalism in the region.

Addressing the media after officially inaugurating the Al Dhaid Cricket Village (about 40mnts  from sharjah on the Dhaid road) on Thursday, Bukhatir said all ongoing projects were functioning with the sole aim of developing the game and not for financial gains.

“We are not looking at financial gains and do not intend to make money out of cricket. Once we set up training institutions, I’m sure cricket as a game can survive, despite the fact that there are strings being pulled for using it as a financial tool rather than a sports development programme. We are very proud to say that we are giving cricket a major slice of development.”

But it takes people, organisations and institutions for support and this is what we are hoping for the future. And we sincerely hope it benefits the society in UAE and the whole world,” he said.

The sole owner of newly build Dhaid cricket village Bukhatir observed, “The UAE has been witnessing the game at a major level, but the development aspect was not really considered. Now we are looking at that aspect much more closely and will ensure that the UAE becomes a good centre for cricket development by establishing more training centers, providing good coaches and other specialized services.”

Expressing his delight at the Dhaid Cricket Village, which hosted its first international match recently, he said, “I am very excited that we finally got something going on a high level here. We are planning further improvement. This is ideally located and one can reach here from any emirate in the UAE in about 30 to 45 minutes. There are enough grounds here to have major tournaments at any point of time. This is an ideal ground for young cricketing boys to hone their abilities.”

Detailing future plans for the Dhaid Village, he said: “We will first lay grass and put turf wickets on all the grounds and also provide them with services such as pavilions and dining facilities. For the future, we are also thinking of building an apartment, where we can house young foreign teams who can stay and play. In another four years, we will have all major infrastructure in place here. We will also look at organising training facilities. We have to establish this part as the major cricket development infrastructure in the near future.”

Noting that floodlights installed at the cricket village were proven successful, he said: “We have tried the lights. This success will allow us to host evening tournaments.”

Referring to the Asian Cricket Council, Bukhatir said the ACC were happy with the facilities. “The ACC seems to be quite happy to see more centers coming up. In fact, such major development projects will have to be done on a larger scale with greater involvement from the ACC. We are looking at various opportunities and we want to get it to a stage where we can look out for sponsorship from major institutions to keep the ball rolling,” he added.