The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Asia Development Head, 1992 World Cup-winning former Pakistan all-rounder, Iqbal Sikander said yesterday that the creation of a proper cricketing infrastructure in Bahrain would greatly benefit the ‘fantastic talent’ present in the kingdom.
“Bahrain has some seriously fantastic talent,” Sikander, 63, told the GDN during a one-day course, arranged by the Bahrain Cricket Federation (BCF), that he was conducting for aspiring cricket coaches. “We’ve already seen evidence of that in the men’s team: they won the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia A Qualifer last year in Qatar. And, just two months ago, in Oman, they narrowly missed out on qualifying for the main draw of the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.”
Women cricketers in the kingdom are just as talented, Sikander added.
“You saw what they did in the GCC T20 Championship in Oman in March,” he said. “Less than six months ago, Bahrain didn’t even have a women’s national team. And then, they went to Oman in March and set three world records in one match: the highest T20I individual score, the highest T20I team total and the highest T201 partnership for the second wicket. Something like that doesn’t happen without talent.”
Sikander, who has been visiting the kingdom for the past 18 years as, first, an Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Asian Development Head and, then, in his current capacity with the ICC, said the development of proper infrastructure, including cricket grounds and an academy, would immensely help the development of the game going forward.
“I’ve been coming here since 2004,” he explained. “I met with officials in previous administrations – I know about the lack of facilities, the problems, the issues, etc. But this new administration, which has been in place for less than a year, is very proactive: they’re working hard to develop the game in the country, they’re receptive to new ideas and open to new suggestions.”
The BCF’s dedicated focus on working towards creating a world-class cricket ground and an academy was encouraging, he said, adding that land for the facilities had been promised to the administration by Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
“When Shaikh Khalid says it will be done, it is only a matter of time before it happens,” Sikander said. “He has taken a keen personal interest in the development of the sport in the country and understands that a cricket ground and academy is the first major step towards propelling Bahrain cricket onwards and upwards.”
Once the infrastructure was in place, he added, the pace of the game’s development in the kingdom would receive a substantial boost.
Difference
“Right now, they play on concrete wickets or on astro-turf,” Sikander explained. “That is not helpful in the least. When a proper cricket ground has been built, these same players will have turf wickets and grass in the outfield instead of sand – and you’ll be able to see the difference in the way they play almost immediately.”
Sikander, who played four One-Day Internationals (ODIs) for Pakistan and nearly 200 first-class matches, taking more than 650 wickets with his leg-spin and scoring over 4,000 runs as a right-handed batsman during a career that ran from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s, joined the ACC as their cricket development officer for Asia in 2001. He switched to his current role with the ICC in 2015.
“I am also a ‘Master Educator’ for the ICC,” Sikander, an ICC-certified level 3 coach, explained. “I have also completed both the ‘Educator’ levels. A master educator trains the tutors, who train the coaches who, in turn, train the players. And as the regional development head for Asia, it is my job to focus on facilities in different countries and to try to ensure that they come up to par.”
He smiled as someone brought up a reference to Pakistan’s only ICC men’s ODI World Cup triumph in Australia in 1992 – the 30th anniversary of which was celebrated on March 25 this year.
“One can never forget that,” Sikander said, modestly. “Especially, given that, at one point in the league stage, we were close to being eliminated from the competition. If we had lost one more game, that would have been it. But that’s when skipper Imran Khan made his now famous speech.
“We were on the team bus to the Sydney Cricket Ground for our fifth match and Imran stood up, pointed to his T-shirt which had a picture of a tiger on it, and said: ‘Look, boys, this tiger has his back to the wall. The only direction to go in is forward. So, don’t give me 100 per cent today – give me 110 percent. If we still lose, I will take all the blame.’ Now, that is a leadership statement!”
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