Newly established South Asian Cricket Academy to face Middlesex second team in friendly

Moeen Ali is SACA's president, while Kabir Ali – recently appointed as Yorkshire's new bowling coach – is its director of cricket. Jim Troughton and Owais Shah are also part of the coaching staff

Middlesex's second team will face the South Asian Cricket Academy in a 50-over friendly this summer.

The venue for the game is yet to be confirmed, but the sides will meet on July 21 – a first for the organisation since it was established over the winter to encourage opportunities for more players of Asian origin to forge careers as professional cricketers.

Middlesex are one of nine second teams that SACA have matches confirmed against for 2022, with multi-day fixtures scheduled against Worcestershire, Yorkshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire.

Moeen Ali is the scheme's president, while Kabir Ali – recently appointed as Yorkshire's new bowling coach – is its director of cricket. Jim Troughton and Owais Shah are also part of the coaching staff.

According to SACA's website, among the players currently enrolled on the initiative are Andrew Umeed, the former Warwickshire opener, and Zain ul Hassan, who has played second-team cricket for Worcestershire.

The scheme, based on the PhD research of Tom Brown at Birmingham City University (BCU), is aimed at correcting the current trend which sees 30 per cent of recreational cricketers in England and Wales classified as 'British Asian' but the figure drop to around five per cent when it comes to men's professional cricket.

In an attempt to help improve those figures, SACA offers a three-pronged approach aimed at developed players, coaches and conducting more research in the area. As far as the players are involved, they will be provided individual training programmes, dietary advice (SACA has engaged Dr Lewis Gough, a nutritionist used by Olympic swimmers and cyclists) and coaching to enable the players to have a better chance of fulfilling their potential and gaining a contact at a first-class county.

^{Kabir Ali is Yorkshire's new bowling coach (Clint Hughes/Getty Images)}

Their targets include an attempt to increase the percentage of British Asian players within the professional game to eight per cent by the end of 2024 and 15 per cent by the end of 2027.

It is seen as a short-to-medium term strategy to support players and coaches whose career cycle does not allow them the time to wait for systemic change. Brown aims for SACA to be disbanded within six years in the hope that the changes made to the game in England and Wales will have rendered it unnecessary.

Alan Coleman, Middlesex's head of men's performance cricket, added: "With Covid hopefully not affecting our plans this year, we're pleased to be able to re-ignite our desire to play against some non-county opposition, and we're really excited to have arranged an inaugural fixture against the South Asian Cricket Academy, who will be visiting us this year for the very first time.

"Both fixtures (Middlesex will also face the Cricket Club Conference) will give our players the opportunity to go head-to-head with a group of players who have reached the pinnacle of the recreational game, who will no doubt be right up for the challenge and looking to showcase their own skills against Middlesex's line-up."