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NELSON. — Even in the professional era, there’s room for every man. UAE have a squad packed with them. Despite having Associate status, almost all players in the Afghanistan, Ireland and Scotland squads are at least semi if not full-time professionals. Not so for the UAE. Although the Emirates Cricket Board has started offering some players retainer contracts since qualifying for the World Cup in February 2014, their roster is essentially a group of glorified amateurs.

Nobody embodies this spirit of amateurism more than vice-captain Khurram Khan.

By day, he works as a flight purser for Emirates Airlines and part of his fitness routine involves doing push-ups in between meal services for passengers.

In his spare time, he fits in the odd game of cricket, which makes it all the more amazing that Khurram, at 43, is consistently among UAE’s leading scorers.

The Emirates Cricket Board made a curiously timed decision in January by appointing 43-year-old off-spinner Mohammad Tauqir as captain for the World Cup, with Khurram demoted to the vice-captaincy, in a politically-motivated move.

Khurram had served as captain since July 2008 and Tauqir would have had a tough time making it into a first-choice starting 11 under normal circumstances, but the board wanted a native-born Emirati leading the team at the World Cup.

The board’s hope is that having Tauqir as a visible role model on a global stage will help promote the game to the indigenous Emirati community in a country where the sport has traditionally been stigmatised as a game reserved for the expatriate working class.

Giving Tauqir the reins with this sentiment in mind is a noble intention, but it may wind up producing the opposite of the desired effect if he struggles to pull his weight during the tournament.

It’s been 19 years since UAE appeared in the World Cup.

They’ll be playing the role of the Washington Generals going up against the Harlem Globetrotters in every match of the tournament.

One hopes though that they can provide a few moments of genuinely competitive action rather just a sideshow during the group play.

UAE registered a solitary victory over the Netherlands in the 1996 World Cup and avoided finishing at the bottom of their group.

This will be just their second appearance in the tournament.

Most of the major teams will have little knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of UAE.

Because so few of UAE’s matches are televised, it makes scouting them more difficult. The best thing going for UAE is the element of surprise.

Fact box Squad
Mohammad Tauqir (capt.), Fahad Alhashmi, Amjad Ali, Shaiman Anwar, Nasir Aziz, Andri Berenger, Krishna Chandran, Manjula Guruge, Saqlain Haider (wk), Amjad Javed, Khurram Khan, Rohan Mustafa, Mohammad Naveed, Swapnil Patil (wk), Kamran Shazad — Cricinfo