The UAE will have their work cut out this week when they play a bilateral one-day international series against a Test-playing nation for the first time.
The national team face Zimbabwe in four ODIs Harare, starting on Wednesday. Although the assignment is a testing one, the away side have had some insightful insider knowledge to draw on in the lead up to it.
Graeme Cremer was the Zimbabwe captain up until the World Cup Qualifier last year. That competition ended in heartbreak for the host nation when, with a place at this summer’s main event in England in their grasp, they lost out by three runs to the UAE in an exhilarating encounter at the Harare Sports Club.
Cremer was subsequently removed from the captaincy, and has not played for Zimbabwe since.
Not long after that fateful match, the 32-year-old leg-spinner relocated to Dubai with his young family, where his wife works as a pilot for Emirates.
In recent months he has been working as a coaching consultant for the UAE’s representative teams, after an invitation to join the fold from Dougie Brown, the coach, and Will Kitchen, the performance manager.
Ironically, that has meant trying to ready the UAE players to beat his former colleagues in Zimbabwe.
Cremer was even offered the chance to return to Harare, his home city, as part of the backroom staff of the touring side for this week’s series. He declined, though, out of respect for his former teammates.
“After the Qualifier, I was axed from the captaincy, so I suppose there was a bit of bad blood there, but that wasn’t the reason that we left,” Cremer said.
“It was more about my wife fulfilling her career. Yes, it was tough for me to leave, and, who knows, maybe one day I will go back, but we are really enjoying it here. We love Dubai.
“We decided that, for the security of what Dubai offers, we would move the whole family across here.
“It happened overnight that Dougie and Will contacted me. We had a good chat, and it has been nice to be involved with the main side.”
My first flight with Emirates into my beautiful country #zimbabwe I felt like the happiest girl alive when we crossed into #zimbabwean airspace. The Captain gave me the flight and I landed the #Boeing777 for the first time into #harare dream come true 🙏♥️✈️
pic.twitter.com/MBKv5E5sYa
— Merna Cremer (@MernaCremer767) March 11, 2019
Happiness is … #family pic.twitter.com/yTRbA7Z95r
— Merna Cremer (@MernaCremer767) March 15, 2019
Cremer’s international career is currently paused on 144 matches and 211 wickets across the three formats for Zimbabwe, and he has not ruled out a return at some point in the future.
For now, though, he is content with the decision to relocate to the UAE, and the role he has parenting two young children, dovetailed with coaching cricket.
“It was up to me in the beginning phase,” Cremer said.
“We have two kids. We wanted them to settle, and we didn’t want them to be in a situation where their mum and dad are both always gone, and they are just at home.
“I took it upon myself that my wife can fly, and I will be here and settled the kids and family. I had no immediate plans either to go back, or stay here. We are just seeing how it goes as we go.
“[The UAE team] are a great bunch of guys, and I enjoy working with Dougie and Will. It is really nice to be wanted, coming in to a consultancy role like this.
“I was really happy to come and help these guys, because I knew they were really talented. They just haven’t been exposed to that higher level yet.”
