Follow UsThe United Arab Emirates (UAE) team consists of plenty of Indians and Pakistanis playing together for quite some time now. UAE skipper Muhammad Wassem, who hails from Multan, has the likes of Haider Ali, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Rohid, and Asif Khan from Pakistan. While Simranjeet Singh, Rahul Chopra, Harshit Kaushik, Dhruv Parashar, and Alishan Sharafu are some of the players who have roots in India.
However, Waseem says that the players do not discuss the ongoing Indo-Pak tensions, especially after the terror attack in Pahalgam, and claims that they play in a united fashion to make UAE proud.
"No, we are not talking about that (Indo-Pak tensions) as we play a lot of cricket together. We are like a family here. There is no Indian and no Pakistani. We play for UAE team. We play as a family and live as a family," Waseem said, according to the New Indian Express.
The match between Pakistan and the UAE was delayed by an hour on September 17 (Wednesday), after Salman Ali Agha's team protested the non-removal of Andy Pycroft as match referee despite the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) appeal. However, Waseem said that he was unfazed by such a delay.
"First of all, this is not our responsibility or our work. We were focusing on our game. We came here to play the game, and we did that," he said.
"Didn't matter if we were playing on time or we were playing late. Doesn't matter if we are playing at 6:30 or 7:30 pm. This is not our work. This is organiser's work. We came here to play the game and we played the game."
With their 41-run loss against Pakistan, the UAE have crashed out of the Asia Cup 2025. Pakistan will take on India in the Super Four fixture on September 21 (Sunday).