U A E C R I C K E T . C O M

Nothing new for Bukhatir, who personally constructed a world famous one day cricketing venue from the desert sands of Sharjah, one would say. "No," said Bukhatir. "It was easy to build up cricket in the UAE. There were a lot of people from India, Pakistan and elsewhere, already interested in cricket and they quickly took to the sport, both as spectators and as participants.

"Morocco is different and difficult. Cricket is completely new to this part of the world, so it is a bigger challenge to develop the sport there," the stalwart said. There was, apparently, some cricket being played in this North African country, but it was restricted to embassy teams, he reminisced.

Striding hand-in-hand with Bukhatir in this venture is former Indian ace, Mohinder Amarnath. Despite having to adapt to completely new social, cultural and linguistic conditions, Amarnath has already supervised the creation of three centres in Morocco in Tangiers, the capital Rabat and Casablanca.

A local league, consisting of nine teams, has already been put into motion and a season ending tournament is to be played later this month, Amarnath stated.

Bukhatir added: "We were surprised, delighted, with the response our early overtures have received. The number of youngsters that came to be part of the cricketing movement was unbelievable..."

In fact, Bukhatir is already looking at Morocco as a future affiliate member of the International Cricket Council an achievement which should not be very far in the offing.

What is also remarkable, Amarnath stated, is the composition of the teams all are locals, rather than largely composed ofex-patriates. To this, Bukhatir added that the Moroccans are natural athletes what with the Atlas mountains providing them with the right venue to indulge in fitness activities.

If the several long distance athletes, the Atlas Lions (Morocco's soccer team) and the tennis triumvirate of Hicham Arazi, Younes El Aynaoui and Karim Alami, are any indication, there is every possibility that cricket could find a new lot of loyal and performance oriented adherents here.

Monday, October 09, 2000.
source : Gulf Today.

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