For someone who first arrived on these shores to play an exhibition cricket match on a nondescript ground in 1981, when a narrow road with nothing but sand on both sides connected Sharjah with Dubai, Ravi Shastri can’t stop admiring the UAE’s glorious transformation.
For Shastri, the UAE’s resilience amid the raging war in the Middle East is just as inspiring as its gleaming skyscrapers.
No wonder the former India cricket coach flew to Dubai recently to be part of a new real estate project.
The 64-year-old is the brand ambassador for the partnership between TheBlock. and CENTURY 21 UAE & India, which brings together property developers and investors to explore the future of real estate tokenisation.
A crowd-puller in his heyday, with his good looks and all-round skills as a cricketer, Shastri is proud to be the face of Dubai’s new real estate project.
In an interview with Khaleej Times, the former India captain also opened up about his tenure as India’s head coach and revealed his admiration for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Q. You first came to Dubai in 1981, when the city was largely surrounded by desert. Having watched its evolution over 45 years, how remarkable has the transformation been?
Cricket started here in 1981 with an exhibition match against Pakistan, and it has never looked back. I’ve been coming here for 45 years. Back then, Sheikh Zayed Road didn’t exist as we know it today. You could go perhaps 100 yards along the road, and that would be the end of Dubai. It was mostly Bur Dubai, what we now call Old Dubai, and from the high-rise buildings there, you could see all the way to Sharjah. It was all desert. The transformation since then has been unreal. It reflects Sheikh Mohammed’s vision for Dubai and his early recognition that it could become a financial hub. The city had all the facilities needed to achieve that, and I felt Dubai was far more proactive than any other state in the Middle East. When you look at the UAE’s progress, particularly Dubai’s development and the way it has embraced the real estate market, the transformation has been extraordinary.
Q. Dubai has also become a major global sporting destination…
Of course, from the sporting point of view, it’s the sporting capital of the South Asia and Middle East region. You can have any sport. You could be watching golf one day, cricket the next, and then tennis. There’s Formula One in Abu Dhabi. So there’s no shortage of people from across the globe coming. For me, it’s a great place because it’s the centre of the cricketing world. From here, like tomorrow, I’ll step on a plane and be in Auckland. I can go to South Africa. I can go to any part of India. And the number of Indians that exist here, you know, apart from people from Lebanon, Jordan, and elsewhere in this part of the world, it’s a place like no other. Yes, there have been disturbances of late, but if any place recovers, it will be Dubai, quicker than any other place.
Q. You have witnessed two remarkable transformations — Dubai’s rise as a global city and Indian cricket’s growth since the 1983 World Cup, followed by the incredible transformation brought about by the IPL since its launch in 2008…
The game has to evolve; otherwise, it will stagnate. If the IPL hadn’t come along, T20 cricket wouldn’t be what it is today. I think it’s much the same with Dubai. It started with what it was good at, then real estate took off, and now the property market is evolving through tokenisation, which is fabulous. There’s always something happening here. Dubai probably has the best cross-section of society in the world.
Q. You also play a lot of golf, and Dubai now has some of the world’s best golf courses…
Absolutely, you can’t get better. I mean, they’ve put in five or six top-of-the-line golf courses. See, one thing with Dubai: if they put their hand into something, there are no shortcuts. There are no half measures. It has to be the best, you know. Otherwise, they don’t do it.
Q. It’s been five years since your tenure as India’s head coach ended. Do you miss the hot seat?
I was in the hot seat for seven years. You know, cricket in India is like football in Brazil. You know, there’s a gun pointing at you every day. There’s no war, no COVID that can stop you. You have to win. There’s no empathy in cricket. You either win, or you’re the target. So it was seven years. You tell me which coach has lasted seven years?
Q. Coaching India is one of the most challenging jobs in world cricket. There were some incredible moments under you, especially the Brisbane victory in 2021, when a depleted Indian team beat a full-strength Australia to seal a famous Test series win…
I’ve also been part of a World Cup-winning team as a player. I’ve done broadcasting for 35 years. I’ve been a coach for seven. You ask me which is the most challenging? I’d say being the coach. Because when you play, you have the bat and ball in your hand, so you can control things. When I do broadcasting, I have this in my hand, the mic. As a coach, once the players go on the ground, I can only twiddle my thumbs. I can’t do anything. I might be giving all the choices I might use in the dressing room, and things don’t go well. But that’s all I can do. So it’s thankless at times, but if you pull it off, it’s the most rewarding.
Q. You are no longer part of the dressing room. But do you feel sad that a world-class bowler like Mohammed Shami has been repeatedly snubbed by the selectors?
It is sad. I was asked, and I said he should have been in the side, simple.
Q. Where would you rank him among India’s all-time fast bowlers?
He’s among the top three or four who have played for India. No question.
Q. Finally coming back to Dubai, there is also a cricket museum in this city, built by Indian businessman and cricket enthusiast Shyam Bhatia. He has an astonishing collection of signed memorabilia. We know that you have visited the museum several times, just like many cricket legends such as Viv Richards, Sunil Gavaskar and Imran Khan, How amazing is it that a Dubai resident has a built such a beautiful private cricket museum?
That is special. I have known Shyam ever since I first came to Dubai. He is a cricket tragic, let’s put it that way. What he has done is unbelievable. It takes that kind of commitment, passion, hunger and patience to keep chasing memorabilia the way he has. And when we go there, it gives us goosebumps. The whole search for memorabilia is so rich in history and stories.
Source: Khaleej Times