Bharath in Dubai
Dubai International Stadium (DIS) is also famously called the ‘Ring of Fire’. Obviously, we are not referring to the “horseshoe-shaped path around the Pacific Ocean”, which is hit by numerous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. So, what is it then? Here, it is basically related to the 350 lights that are installed around the perimeter of the DIS. The resultant outcome is that there is no need for the light towers associated with a lot of other cricket grounds.
That lighting arrangement though doesn’t exactly help the fielders in the deep while taking high catches. The lights fall lower on the fielder’s eyeballs. And to make matters worse for the fielders, the colour of the ball in limited-overs cricket is similar to that of the lighting system. Just to extend the point further, here we are thinking of 350 lights around the circumference of the ground, and not just a few floodlights. So, at every angle, the fielder has to be on the money while grabbing a catch.
The 2024 T20 Women’s World Cup in the United Arab Emirates serves as an example to gauge how the fielders have struggled to pick the trajectory of the white ball under lights at the DIS. The catching percentage during that tournament was just over 65%. In one of the games played between Pakistan and New Zealand, the former dropped as many as eight-nine catches. In the crucial England-West Indies encounter, there were as many as five fluffed chances.
The catching percentage isn’t a great deal better in the men’s game either. In the 2025 Champions Trophy summit clash held at the DIS, six catches were dropped. In total, a whopping 21 catches went down in just five matches, at the aforementioned ground, in that tournament.
So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that on September 8, after practicing at the ICC Academy, the Indian players went over to the nearby Dubai International Stadium for fielding drills. In that 40-minute session, the main theme was clearly on taking high catches. The fielding skills of the UAE and the India team will be put to test when they take on each other at the DIS, on September 10. After all, it is the ‘Ring of Fire.’
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