Coleridge in Dubai

In the land where impossible doesn't exist, cricket's World Cup begins

When you step off the plane at the Dubai International Airport one of the first images that greets you is of a skier coming down fresh white powdery slopes, juxtaposed with rolling sand dunes burnished by the fierce desert sun.

The tagline with that photo is Dubai’s motto: impossible does not exist.

Indeed, it is hard to not be taken by just what this place is a land of gold and commerce in the middle of nowhere. Skyscrapers rising to imposing heights where once beduin roamed with groups of camels.

The tagline is apt in a modern cricketing sense as well.

At a time when a four-day tour of Pakistan is cancelled by England for the most vague of reasons and a Test match in Manchester is postponed by a year and given to another venue, the one place where it seems there is certainty of cricket taking place is the United Arab Emirates.

Aside from their efficiency in handling the Covid-19 crisis and their attitude that business, even if not necessarily the show, must go on, has ensured that it has become a sought after cricket destination.

The Indian Premier League was finished here after it became clear that it could not be played in India beyond a point and now the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup is upon us.

It doesn’t hurt that you can play here virtually all year, with no chance of rain playing spoilsport.

In 2019, the UAE formed an actual Ministry of Possibilities. No, this is not some Harry Potter style ministry, but rather one that is charged with “develop proactive solutions to tackle critical issues.”

You may not believe it, but back in 2016, the UAE Government created a post: Minister of State for Happiness, and appointed Her Excellency Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi.

There are statistics that can be easily pointed to when highlighting just how wondrous a place this is, for want of a better word.

As late as 1968, there were only 13 cars registered in Dubai, and the corresponding figure for 2020 was 1.83 million. There is also a Formula 1 race in the region now.

The United Arab Emirates has a penchant for building things that the biggest, tallest, longest, ranging from the improbable to the downright silly.

World tallest sculpture: tick. Largest human sentence? 6,958 students from 35 schools came together to speak one word each in an uninterrupted greeting. Longest gold chain? Only 5,522 metres.

Why, the UAE takes pride in holding the most records recognised by the Guinness book for the Middle East and North Africa region.

It is in this land of the possible and the improbable that cricket’s format built for exactly such a purpose finds itself.

The shortest version of the game is the one which is most wide open, and this was most recently underscored by Namibia joining Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Scotland as the qualifiers, completing the list of 12 teams that will take place.

It is customary before each world event now to put India down as favourites. This is in part because the team has such impressive results in the recent past, across all formats, in all regions, but also because of the powerhouse Indian cricket is off the field.

India has the most money, the largest market, the biggest talent pool to choose from and even record-obsessed UAE cannot do anything about this.

But, looking at India’s Twenty20 team for this tournament there are issues of form and fitness over key personnel, not to mention changing batting positions, that ensure that they are not the only team to beat.

Also, it is argues that India’s players go through the grind of the best domestic T20 competition, the IPL, but this conveniently leaves out the fact that its players are not allowed to take part in any other franchise cricket.

This means that the rest have the advantage of having played in multiple competitions with different team mates and opposition and have been forced to adapt to a variety if conditions.

England are a mighty force in Twenty20 and even with Ben Stokes missing they have a clear strategy of going hard from start to finish and the personnel that allow them to do so.

In the UAE, with long boundaries and slow pitches, you would be a fool to write off West Indies. The six or nothing approach of most of their batsmen could work, especially given that they tend  to hit the ball not just over the ropes but deep into the stands.

Pakistan have more experience of playing in the UAE than anyone else, this is their second home in cricketing terms after all, and they have pace, spin and batting to make the most of the conditions.

In that sense, this tournament is not just wide open, it is one of seemingly infinite possibilities.

While looking out at the Burj Khalifa, a friend recently told me her mind skipped to a most unlikely place, to Xanadu.

There is no record of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet, ever having visited Dubai, but in his 1797 poem, Kubla Khan, he wrote:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

Sometimes it feels as though all of the United Arab Emirates is a pleasure dome dreamed up by a powerful man and decreed by some powerful man. Cricket fans will be hoping it’s the perfect stage for a tournament of endless joy.