The United Arab Emirates has made a landmark move by granting citizenship to five cricketers, including Pakistani-born Khuzaima Tanveer, marking a historic first for the sport in the country.
According to reports, Khuzaima Tanveer, Ajay Kumar, Akshdeep Nath, Harpreet Bhatia, and Adeeb Usmani have been given UAE citizenship through naturalization. These players have become the first cricketers to receive this honor.
Although many football, rugby, and judo players have been granted UAE citizenship since a 2018 presidential decree, cricket has mostly consisted of foreign players who represented the country under the ICC’s three-year residency rule. Now, all five players will be able to represent the UAE as full citizens and passport holders.
They are currently part of a 17-member squad in Nepal for two T20 matches and a tri-nation ODI series.
Ajay Kumar said that from the day he arrived in the UAE, it was his dream to represent the country internationally.
![Muslim pilgrims gather at the top of the rocky hill known as the Mountain of Mercy, on the Plain of Arafat, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. [Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo]](https://mmnews.tv/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Mount-Arafat.jpg)
