United Arab Emirates: Controversial end to successful Ramadan tournament

New Medical Centre captain, Vijay Mehra, has fended off criticism regarding the manner of his team's win over Emirates Airlines in the final of the United Arab Emirates cricket's most prestigeous event, the Ramadan Floodlit Tournament.

In what was a disappointing end to an otherwise successful tournament, the team from Abu Dhabi was awarded the trophy when Emirates Airlines declined to take part in a bowl-out, intended to produce a result after fog caused the abandonment of play. The deadlock was broken through NMC having previously beaten Emirates Airlines in a Group A match.

Sizeable crowds attended what is generally regarded as UAE cricket's most atmospheric cricket tournament outside the one-day international events to see the UAE's best repel teams from England, Pakistan and Oman.

The standard of cricket was emphasised by the fact that Consolidated Shipping Services, containing numerous provincial under-age representative players from Pakistan were defeated in the semi-finals by Emirates Airlines.

Further proof was the showing of the UAE national team, recent winners of the Asian Cricket Council Trophy, who, playing as Emirates Cricket Board Colts, lost all of its group matches easily.

Mehra repelled flak over the merits of the win.

"The rules of the tournament were clearly laid down prior to the start and if any team had a problem with those, then they should have raised them then - you don't go all the way through a tournament saying nothing and then complain if they go against you in the final."

He agreed it wasn't the most ideal way to win a tournament of such importance, but added his team had suffered the same experience.

"It is a bit of a disappointment because eventually you want to see the best team win, but we've been in a similar situation several seasons ago where we were put out due to a rule like this, but we didn't complain."

Mehra said he was obviously pleased with the victory, given the quality of the opposition, and credited it to a team performance.

"It's a good tournament to win because the opposition is not only domestic, but from overseas as well. I think we deserved to win as we were the only team to remain undefeated. Everyone contributed - we played as a unit."