UAE coach Dougie Brown believes his team can qualify for the World Cup

The ICC World Cup Qualifiers are all set to commence on Sunday with ten teams battling it out for a couple of spots ahead of the marquee event next year. The likes of Afghanistan and Windies are the favourites going into the tournament with Ireland and Netherlands also not far behind them. However, the UAE coach Dougie Brown feels that every player in his team believes that they can make it to the World Cup if they play to their potential during the competition.

The United Arab Emirates will play their first match against Papua New Guinea on Sunday at Harare Sports Club. They are in the group A which comprises of Ireland, Netherlands and Windies as well. It would be a tough ask for them to make it to the knockouts and would be considered as one of the huge upsets if UAE manages the same.

Retaining the ODI status is very important

The coach of the UAE Dougie Brown admitted that they are the lower-ranked side in the tournament and the teams like Windies and Afghanistan have all right to feel that they will go ahead to play the World Cup. “Obviously, we come here as a lower-ranked side and it would be wrong of us to just say that we are going to qualify for the World Cup. There are four Test nations here, they are probably, and quite rightly, thinking they have World Cup qualification very much in their hands,” he said according to My Khel.

The former England cricketer felt that it was important for UAE to retain their ODI status during the course of the tournament. “But for us, retaining the ODI status is very important. In order to do that, we have to qualify for the Super Six. That said, there is a little bit of dream and all of us believe we might qualify for the World Cup,” Brown added.

He also went on to say that it is tough to predict the finalists of the Qualifiers as the warm-up games saw some of the exciting encounters. “Obviously at this stage, a lot of cricket has to be played and we have to play exceptionally well, but we have seen so far in the warm-up games, everybody can beat everybody in this tournament. But, retaining the ODI status is very much forefront of the thought, but who’s to say we can’t qualify for the World Cup,” Brown concluded with confidence.

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