Dubai, Sep 18 (PTI) The India-Pakistan tensions have had no impact on the bonhomie within the UAE cricket team, which is a mix of expatriates from the two countries, insisted skipper Muhammad Waseem as he ducked queries on their rather dramatic and delayed Asia Cup clash against Pakistan here.
The UAE cricket team has an equal number of players of Indian and Pakistani origin with Simranjeet Singh, Rahul Chopra, Harshit Kaushik, Dhruv Parashar, and Alishan Sharafu on one side and Multan-born skipper Waseem, Haider Ali, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Rohid, and Asif Khan making the other half.
The team is like a family, said Waseem despite the tense relations between the two countries, who recently had a military showdown following the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 Indian lives.
Asked if the ongoing tensions has had any effect on the inter-personal relationships within the team or if there have been any conversations in the change room, Waseem replied in the negative.
"No, we are not talking about that (Indo-Pak tensions) as we play a lot of cricket together. We are like a family here. There is no Indian and no Pakistani. We play for UAE team. We play as a family and live as a family," he said.
The frosty relations caused a stir at the ongoing tournament when India skipper Suryakumar Yadav did not shake hands with his Pakistan counterpart Salman Ali Agha at the toss of their match on Sunday.
There were no pleasantries exchanged even after the game as the Indians took the decision to show solidarity with Pahalgam attack victims.
An irate Pakistan threatened to pull out and blamed match referee Andy Pycroft for the fiasco, accusing him of prohibiting the traditional exchanges.
The team even delayed the start of the match against the UAE on Wednesday after the ICC rejected its demand to remove Pycroft.
The players eventually showed up after claiming to have got an apology from Pycroft even though the ICC insisted that the Zimbabwean veteran had done no wrong and that Pakistan had failed to back its allegations with any proof.
UAE lost to Pakistan by 41 runs despite doing a good job with the ball, restricting the opposition to 146 for 9. Waseem's men could have appealed for a walkover after the delay caused by Pakistan as the hosts had reported to the stadium on time, which is two hours before scheduled start.
However, the Pakistan-born Waseem made it clear that he never thought of asking for such a decision.
"First of all, this is not our responsibility or our work. We were focusing on our game. We came here to play the game, and we did that," he said.
He insisted that his team was not affected by the delay caused by the Pakistani team.
"Didn't matter if we were playing on time or we were playing late. Doesn't matter if we are playing at 6:30 or 7:30 pm. This is not our work. This is organiser's work. We came here to play the game and we played the game," he said.
Waseem's bid to steer clear from any controversy was palpable as he didn't want unnecessary attention.
When asked if their pre-match routine was disturbed, he asked a counter-question, "Watching our bowling performance, did you feel that?" Waseem played in the Pakistan Super League in 2021 as a replacement player for Multan Sultans while in 2024 he was picked by Islamabad United but couldn't take part due to international commitments.
Senior Pakistan pacer, Haris Rauf, who got a couple of wickets on his return to the playing eleven, also didn't wish to be dragged into the ongoing controversy.
"See, I wasn't feeling the pressure as these things weren't under my control, this is the Board's (PCB's) headache and they can manage it well.
"I had a match to play and focus on. The rest of the things on the outside was management's matter and they tackled it really well," Rauf said.
India and Pakistan will face each other in a Super 4 clash on Sunday and the Indians have already made it clear that the 'no handshake' policy will continue.
The two teams could also play each other in the final on September 28.
This report includes content sourced from Press Trust of India (PTI), edited for clarity and context.
