Playing for UAE matters, don't pay attention to India or Pakistan: Haider Ali

India Today

UAE cricketer Haider Ali, in an exclusive interaction with India Today, said the focus is on playing good cricket for the UAE, as the India-Pakistan tensions have had no impact on the camaraderie within the UAE cricket team, which includes expatriates from both countries.

Transcript

00:00So, this time, the politics of India-Pakistan, India-Pakistan, India-Pakistan, India-Pakistan,

00:03but all of your team are in India-Pakistan origin players.

00:06So, is there something uncomfortable there?

00:09No, no, no.

00:11We don't think that any player is India or Pakistan.

00:14We represent the UAE.

00:16Because the UAE has given us respect.

00:19So, we have a respect element of respect.

00:21So, we are a family.

00:23So, we don't play as a player in India or Pakistan.

00:26We play as a player.

00:27And we play as a UAE.

00:29But we play as a player in India or Pakistan.

00:32We play as a player in India.

00:33We live as a brother.

00:34We share food and dressing rooms.

00:37We go a bit off to the outing.

00:39So, there is no system that there is India or Pakistan.

00:42We all live in a family.

00:44Especially our coach and LAL Sir.

00:47They keep our children as well.

00:49And we never have a family of our team.

00:54So you live together on the ground and when cricket happens together, when the war is happening,

01:00do you ever talk about these things?

01:02No, no, no.

01:03Look, I have added a thing that we represent the U.A.

01:08We play as a U.A. national player.

01:10It doesn't matter what is going on in Pakistan or what is going on in India,

01:13it's not our headache.

01:15So as a U.A. player, our focus is on our cricket.

01:18And we don't bother these things.

01:20So when you play with India, you have played in Pakistan.

01:24You have played a lot of cricket.

01:26So I ask from Indian players, they say they do extra with Pakistan.

01:29They say they do extra with India.

01:31In some cases, they say they do extra with India.

01:34So you have to do 100-101 percentage.

01:36No, look, India and Pakistan are both world-class teams.

01:39If you look, as people say, it's a non-test nation.

01:44Overall, it was very good.

01:46There were some things that we could do better.

01:49But it's not that if you're playing against India,

01:52if you're playing against Pakistan,

01:54then I don't have to do anything.

01:55For me, they're the same team as Pakistan.

01:57So I don't think these things.

02:00When I'm on the ground,

02:01I always think that I'm the best.

02:03So I'm the best.

02:04So I live on that.

02:05Look, it's a hard game.

02:07We had a little collapse in the betting.

02:10If you look at Pakistan,

02:12it's almost like our bowlers.

02:15But I don't think that India, Pakistan,

02:19whatever, even Australia,

02:20we don't mind anything.

02:21So we focus only on cricket.

02:23If anyone is playing against them,

02:24we don't mind anything.

02:25So I'll congratulate you.

02:27Not only for bowling,

02:28I'll say that you're good.

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