I found cricket here was going nowhere — Sajan
HEAVYWEIGHTS DANUBE CLOSES DOWN INDOOR AND OUTDOOR TEAMS
n another body blow for UAE’s domestic cricket, heavyweights Danube have closed down their indoor and outdoor teams following disillusionment with the standard of competition and the manner in which tournaments are held here.
Starting off as an indoor cricket team, Danube dominated the local scene for two decades sweeping all the titles. In outdoor cricket, the building materials company hired top players and won almost all the leading tournaments in the UAE. Pakistan Test stars like Yasir Shah and Asad Shafiq played for this team.
Speaking to Gulf News, Anis Sajan, the Managing Director of Danube and owner of the team, said: “I started the outdoor team with lots of passion hoping that cricket too will progress in UAE. I employed 30 cricketers who were to focus only on cricket and become professional cricketers.
“Unfortunately, I could not find the same vision with the people running cricket here. Though the infrastructure is the best for playing cricket with good facilities like ICC Academy, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi stadia, cricket was being played without a vision. Everyone was going through the motions of just staging a tournament. Winning trophies and being the No. 1 team was good but that was not my goal. I hoped the overall standard of the game will also improve here. It reached a stage where tournaments had to be played under insufficient lights, sometimes our own players had to even change the scoreboard and shift the sightscreen. I found cricket was going nowhere, so I decided to shut down my team and focus on my work, family and myself,” he said.
Bukhatir League winner
Danube became the seventh local team to shut shop over the past year — the others being Yogi Group, Ibsons, Seven Seas, Nucaf Tellicherry, Farooq Clubs and Wings.
Sajan’s Danube office cupboard overflows with trophies which they won in both forms of cricket. “We have been winning five to six indoor tournaments every year. The reason we dominated indoor cricket was after seeing indoor cricket in countries like Australia and Sri Lanka that dominate in indoor cricket, I hired professionals, gave them jobs and gained edge over other teams,” said Sajan.
Danube, who had the legendary Sunil Gavaskar as their brand ambassador, also became one of the most respected teams in outdoor cricket.
“We won the prestigious Bukhatir League once and the finals three times in a row, won the Abu Dhabi 50 overs tournament twice and became runners-up once. We also won the Dubai 50-overs tournament once and all major Twenty20 tournaments played in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Ajman and even lifted the prestigious Super Stars Cup.
“We even emerged champions of the three-day Test format organised by us. My biggest satisfaction in forming the outdoor team was to see Yasir Shah, who was playing for Danube, become a hero in international cricket. Yasir played for Danube for three years when suddenly one day, he got a call from Pakistan as Saeed Ajmal was banned to bowl and you can see where Yasir has reached now. Asad Shafiq too was playing for us and he too has excelled in international cricket,” he said.
Danube has now released his players to play for other teams. “I have given all my players a month’s time to look for teams who will hire them for cricket. Those who were working in the office have been retained.”
To a query whether the sudden decision to shut down was part of any cost-cutting measure, Sajan said: “My passion for cricket will never go down and I will keep supporting cricket in my own way wherever I feel it is adding value to cricket in this country. I never thought of cutting down on my costs due to cricket.”