Ahmed Raza and Rohan Mustafa have praised the impact Dougie Brown has had since he was appointed as the UAE head coach last year.
Brown, 48, has been in his role for one year now after being named as Aaqib Javed’s permanent successor last May following a successful three-month stint as interim coach.
Under the former England and Scotland international, the UAE national team have rediscovered their best form since the departure of Javed, winning 25 of 39 matches in all competitions.
During that period, the UAE not only retained their ODI status until 2022 but also claimed their first-ever triumph against a Test nation when they defeated Zimbabwe in March’s World Cup Qualifier.
And Raza had nothing but praise for the ex-Warwickshire supremo.
“I think Dougie’s influence to everyone has been very good,” said Raza. “I really like the way he deals with everyone and coaches us. He’s probably one of the coaches who keeps things so simple and only focuses on the simple bits of cricket. He talks about one thing very often which is ‘the teams who do the basics well, come out as winners.’ His thought has always been like that. He has improved our game so much that even a lower-order batsman will go into the field, knowing he can bat.
3 Most Important Person For UAE Cricket In One Pic 🙏🏼🙏🏼 https://t.co/b9K7OOdJwO
— Rohan Mustafa (@rohanmustafa88) April 29, 2018
“Just his mindset that he’s given to us, in any game we’ve played in recent times, we’ve never thought the opposition was a better team than us. Even if we think about the West Indies (in the World Cup Qualifier where they lost narrowly), we were not fazed out about the stars they had, the result didn’t go our way but we played a very good game of cricket.”
Captain Mustafa echoed Raza’s view but also felt his players should receive equal praise as Brown.
“When the team wins, people credit the players and coaches. But I feel it should go to the players. Brown is one of the best coaches UAE have had. He’s a professional coach and he understands what’s going on the ground but also outside the ground. He will listen to our problems and he’s a caring person and always working hard.”
