Meet Indian expat Shyam Bhatia: Dubai’s untiring good samaritan of cricket

Gulf News

A global charity programme, a Museum for the Ages and own awards - he has done it all  Read the full story: https://bit.ly/35CBUV5  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  #Indian #Dubai #cricket

Transcript

00:00Hello everybody and welcome to our show. My name is Leslie Wilson and I'm very

00:05honored to have a very very special guest with us today

00:07Mr. Shyam Bhatia who is a pioneer in promoting sport in this country. Welcome

00:14to our show Shyam and thank you for your time. Thank you. Can I ask

00:17you to just enlighten our readers, many of men who may not have met you before

00:23all about you. Who are you and why are we doing this here today? Well

00:28Leslie I came from India when I was 21 years in an insurance company and then

00:351979 when I came here there were hardly any cricket so but we developed the game

00:43with our Indian Sports Club. I bought the matting from India and the opening

00:48ground we used to lie down, matting and play. It was great fun and 1979 I started my

00:57own company in the name of Alam Steel Limited and then so much it's a 1981-82

01:08CBSF tournament started and that was the greatest one ever. We enjoyed in the

01:14cricket, got associated with all the players, they will come, hosting them.

01:19They were a great bunch of the good human being and fun people all. There are a lot

01:27of successful people in Dubai but very few have done what you've done. Whatever

01:32you've given back to our society, given back to our sport in a huge magnanimous

01:36fashion. Why did you do that Shyam? Cricket is my passion, not only a passion

01:43it has become way of life. I used to play cricket. When I came here everybody

01:51knew some cricketeers come. I was a better than others here at that time

01:55because I used to play in India. I was a fast bowler and a very useful batsman

02:00number six or seven. Lovely to know that. And then I followed the cricket

02:06principles and I never failed. Like we say, bat with a straight bat, including

02:14my life, including my business. So I said cricket has given me so much, I must

02:21give back. How to give back? First I want to write a book. I don't know what's a

02:28book. I'm not a journalist or author or anybody. But I had an idea, I wanted to do

02:34something different than any cricket book earlier. I got hold of my great

02:41great friend late Kishore Bhimani and his wife Rita and I showed them my

02:46project, this project. They loved it. The whole project was, I want people to

02:53know that what cricketeer talk which is not a paper. So the whole idea was that

03:03we will ask them a questions that what is the best moment in the game. I didn't

03:09want the pictures. So we got hold of one artist, great artist called Ritchie Royle

03:17in Cape Town and we discussed with him. He did illustrations. Illustrations are

03:25out of this world and we might want to make coffee table book. It took us two

03:31years to interview all the players. We are not offering any money because all

03:36for charity purpose and a book we don't sell. There's book only to the players,

03:44clubs, schools and then friend of mine, banker, he said okay give us a book. We

03:56give as corporate gift and this is the best sports book we have seen and that

04:02money you can put in the cricket. We started making cricket kits for the

04:09children and distribute this cricket kits to worldwide children. Some underprivileged,

04:17some schools who can't afford, some clubs and we went everywhere. You're like a

04:26godfather to cricket. A lot of people from England, India, Australia, they come to Dubai

04:34to work and hopefully make some money or whatever and go back. You seem to have made

04:39this your home. This is my home after living here 55 years. What about the city that has

04:45captured your heart and your family and everybody and of course your philanthropic

04:51vision to promote cricket. You're the only gentleman in this whole country who does so

04:55much for cricket. This is our home. Our kids are born here and I don't think Dubai, when

05:05I say born here, Dubai, Dubai. I'm a man Dubai. It's all great but Dubai is my home.

05:18That's one thing and then Dubai, we had 300 cricket teams playing here and we worked hard

05:32to bring cricket up and then we qualified first 1996 in the World Cup, which is one

05:40small thing. Everybody contributed a big way, including we got a coach from India, Madan Lal.

05:50So we worked very hard on cricket here. Do you think the IPL, the fact that for the first time

05:56the entire tournament is being played here, when the whole world is reeling under the pandemic,

06:01we have successfully hosted the IPL. Do you think that could change things for

06:06the region to have more Emiratis involved? Do you think Emiratis are watching the IPL as well?

06:11I'm sure they are. Some are watching, some are watching. This is the greatest event in cricket

06:19here and one of the great events in sports here. Like we have tennis, we have golf, now we have

06:28cricket. Worldwide, world players are coming here to play golf, come and play tennis. It's the same

06:37way. Thank you Shyam, that was wonderful. Thank you so much and we've all heard so much about

06:42your fantastic cricket museum, the Hard Rock Cafe of Cricket. So can we show our viewers a

06:49bit about your extraordinary museum? Thank you.

07:20This is a shoe Grant Simmons gave to me. He played 100th test match with this shoe.

07:30This must be a size 12 or 14. A big man.

07:35Yeah.

07:46All, whatever you see here is created by us. This is a match, it's not an

07:55original bat they have played. But this is a bat, we have the action and still photograph.

08:02That's extraordinary, that's lovely. And then, the full record. Aesthetics.

08:09In a way, this place is a tribute to cricket. I can see you've got your test cricket captains

08:15going back in time. Yeah, and this is a tribute to my great friend,

08:22Raj Singh Rangarapur. Yes. My great friend, great lover of the game. He did wonderful things for

08:29the Indian cricket. Yes, of course, sir. Wonderful man. And then, you can see here,

08:39if you see, this is my favourite card.

08:43I asked my artist, Richie Ryle, to please, I want you to make a painting of ICC Cricket World

08:53cup-winning captains. So, he did a beautiful job and everybody is a nice thought.

09:00And then, you see this, my best batsman, my best all-rounders, best spinners.

09:12That's extraordinary, that's really extraordinary, you know.

09:15Very nicely put together, very informative.

09:26And this is the

09:27time, this, and the cap of every test player in the country.

09:34Who is

09:46your favourite straight bat short jump? Straight bat. Perfected.

09:50So, again, thank you again for your time and your patience and the passion you've already

10:06showed us for the last half an hour or so. And Gulf News is really appreciative of

10:11this visit. Extraordinary peek into your vision for the future. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

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