UAE head coach Dougie Brown questions the language Zimbabwe newspaper used for his side

ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 saw UAE shock the hosts Zimbabwe with their 3-run (D/L) victory at the Harare Sports Club. This defeat killed Zimbabwe’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup 2019. UAE had no chance of making it through but their performance in the last game meant that they would head home with a win over a Test playing team under their belt.

However, the press in the host country Zimbabwe wasn’t pleased with the ouster of their side as they took an ugly stance after their side lost the game against the UAE. One of the country’s leading news daily The Herald Sport in their report of the match termed the opponent UAE as ‘rag-tag team of amateurs’. The match report titled “The Day Our Cricket Died” mentioned that the newspaper will not show the pictures of the match but it will just use the black background on the newspaper marking the death of their cricket.

Zimbabwe having restricted the UAE for a decent total after Sikandar Raza‘s yet another 3-fer would’ve thought that game was in their pocket when Sean William along with Raza were stitching a potential match-winning partnership. However, once Raza fell, trying to score quickly, the Zimbabweans failed to keep up the asking rate, eventually falling short of the target by 3 runs.

UAE coach questions the language used

Former England player who also went on to play for the Scotland, Dougie Brown – the head coach of the UAE national team took to Twitter to register his displeasure in the way his side has been described by the newspaper. He asked the paper to give his side the due credit for their brilliant performance.

Thanks @HeraldZimbabwe… I quote… ‘rag tag team of amateurs’ @EmiratesCricket Nice use of language to describe us… Sorry you didn’t qualify for the WC but at least give us some credit for how we played! pic.twitter.com/vhNhZNgSid

— Dougie Brown (@dougie1brown) March 23, 2018

Zimbabwe had to win 1 game out of two to qualify for the World Cup but their loss against Windies meant that this was the virtual finals if they had to qualify. Their loss opened the gates for Ireland-Afghanistan to enter in the World Cup. Afghanistan beat the Irish side to join Windies in the finals of the World Cup Qualifier as well as 2019 World Cup.

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