Sunday, Feb 28, 2010

Gulf News

Dubai Dubai's new cricket grounds will be unveiled tomorrow at ‘The Sevens'. Located on the Dubai-Al Ain Road, this new cricket facility has been created by Emirates airline.

Test stars Brett Lee, Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan will attend the unveiling ceremony along with Gary Chapman, President of Emirates Group Services and Dnata. This ground will be another facility for the game in Dubai following Dubai Sports City's international cricket stadium, which was inaugurated on April 22, 2009.

Following the eviction of Dubai Cricket Council's (DCC) two turf grounds and five cement pitches in Al Jadaf in 2006, over 1,500 registered cricketers of the DCC were deprived of facilities for the game.

Turf grounds

These grounds had to be vacated for the construction of the Dubai Health City. Emirates airline had created the two turf grounds at Al Jadaf with an investment of Dh800,000.

The new cricket facility at The Sevens will be equipped with floodlights to play day-night cricket. The action at this facility is expected to commence from March 19 with a two-day cricket festival for the Emirates Airline Twenty20 Cup. England's Twenty20 Cup holders and NatWest Pro40 champions Sussex County Club, Surrey County Club, South Africa's Cape Cobras and Fly Emirates will take part in the festival.

Many top Test stars will play in this tournament. Shahid Afridi will play for Fly Emirates while Luke Wright, Ed Joyce and James Kirtley will be in the Surrey team. Sussex will have Mark Ramprakash and Steven Davies.

Tournament director and Arabian Cricket Challenge (ARC) founder Matthew Jackson has also plans to host Emirates Airlines Forty40 involving Surrey, Sussex and two other English county clubs.

An official announcement of the facilities for the game will be made following the unveiling ceremony. It will be Brett Lee's first tour out of his country after his decision to retire from Test cricket.

Anil Srivatsa, chief executive officer of Kings XI Punjab, and Yousuf Abdullah, the South African and Kings XI player, will also attend the programme.

By K.R. Nayar

Gulf News 2010. All rights reserved.