Kuwait Cricket’s National U 19 team returned home after their best ever performance in the ICC U 19 CWC Asia Qualifier Division 2, 2017, hosted by Malaysian Cricket Association for the Asia region. Kuwait won all league matches and semi-final and finished in a respectable 2nd Place. I caught up with one of the top players and captain, Nomaan Sidiq Budroo and talked to him of his cricketing skills, about the tournament at large and his future plans.

Karthik (YR): When did you start playing cricket?

Nomaan: I started playing cricket from Class 2 and was inspired by my elder brother who is also a very good player. My parents always encouraged us to give our best on the field and did not pressure too much on our studies.

Karthik (YR): Did you play any tournaments at school, club level earlier?

Nomaan: I am playing cricket for my school DPS, Ahmadi from a long time and we were the winners of the Nelson Mandela trophy in the Year 2012. DPS has a formidable team and performed very well for the last few years. Our coach Joshi Sir has been very keen to develop good cricketers and I have benefitted a lot under him. I also play club cricket in seniors’ team called the TACK tournament and I won many trophies for my performance in the past tournaments. I also played last year in U19 Asian Cricket Championship (ACC).

Karthik (YR):- It was commendable for Kuwait U-19 Team to win all their three league matches with Maldives, Qatar & Iran quite convincingly and top the Table standings in Group B. Tell me about the main strengths of the team and how did you manage to motivate them at every stage?

Nomaan:- We practiced for about 6 months in Kuwait i.e., 40 matches before the tournament started. Bowling was our main strength. And as far as motivation is concerned, I kept reminding the players about their roles & responsibilities, what to do in each match at the league stage and also in the knockout stage when we qualified for semi-finals and finals.

Karthik (YR):-How did your players cope with the pitch conditions in Malaysia? And what was your diet plan?

Nomaan: -The tournament was scheduled to be played here, in Kuwait. But one week before it was to be started, it was relocated to Malaysia. And the pitches in Malaysia are faster, way faster than the ones in Kuwait. But out of the 11 in our team, 8 of us have already played in Malaysia before, and this being my third time, it wasn’t that tough to adjust to the pitch conditions. For food, we obviously couldn’t get home made food. We had to sometimes eat junk food. But we ate in a balanced manner, so that it doesn’t disturb our training regime.

Karthik (YR):- Tell me about some challenging situations and how it was overcome?

Nomaan:-One of the biggest challenges was when the venue was changed in the last moment to Malaysia. It was heartbreaking but then we had to adjust to the Malaysian conditions especially the humid climate and we had to increase our fitness levels, but as a team we stayed as one and when we all are together, it is easier to overcome any situation.

Karthik (YR): - Defeating Oman in the Semi-final (Knock-out game) was top class. Your thoughts?

Nomaan: - Yes, that is because until the semis, we didn’t get any challenging match as the three tough teams (Oman, UAE & Bahrain) were in the other group. In that match there was a rain in between when they needed 60 runs to win and had 6 wickets in hand. We had already dropped 8 catches and gave them a target of 150. Anyways, Oman’s batting squad was not in great form and bowling was our main strength. We thought the rain wouldn’t stop. But as the rain stopped, we felt it was our turn and our mental strength led us the way.

Karthik (YR): -As the captain of the team, would you highlight the top performance of players you can be proud of?

Nomaan:-Our vice-captain Abdul Haseeb performed very ell and took 15 wickets in the tournament. In the first match itself, he took 4 wickets. Also, another bowler Akhil Sujeev gave good performances.

Karthik (YR): -How good is your coaching staff, other support staff and Kuwait cricket body in general?

Nomaan: -The coaching staff changed this year. Last year we had a different coaching and supporting team. I feel it has become better. It has raised its standards this time and they ensured we had more practice matches than last year. This year, as mentioned earlier, we practiced for about 6 months playing 40+ matches here in Kuwait on turf and not on concrete pitches like last year. Also, we had fruitful practice sessions with the senior Kuwait team.

Karthik (YR): - This is the 3rd time you’re representing Kuwait. What were the major differences you felt?

Nomaan: - The first time when I played, I was young. As I didn’t have the experience to win, just going there, representing a country was a great thing. That was enough at that point of time. And as time kept going, we built the hunger to win. This time, our preparations were more focused. But it was different for us this time and we’ll definitely strive to do better next year.