Rashid Khan, the former Pakistan allrounder now coaching China, says the country is developing cricket the right way by focussing on local grass-roots cricket rather than relying on expatriates.
"The biggest plus point for the development and promotion of cricket in China is that the locals are taking interest in it," Khan told Reuters. "The local boys and girls show a lot of potential and interest in cricket. Realistically speaking China is a viable commercial growth market (for cricket)... in the next 10 years.
"It is the ideal platform to globalise the sport," he said. "These people are serious about their cricket. Their fantastic sporting culture gives them a big edge over other countries where cricket is still being promoted."
The ICC sees China as a key country for the growth of cricket. Its delegates frequently visit China and are assisting the Chinese Cricket Association in establishing more facilities.
Khan, who has been coaching China for the past nine months, managed the women's side during the recently concluded Asian Cricket Council tournament in Malaysia.
Commercial market in China is largely dependent on broadcast revenue from national broadcasters such as CCTV and potential revenue from pay per view down the line.
Public interest will rise if the sport is widely broadcast and features local players playing at the elite level. That will in turn attract fans and hence sponsors.
If 10 years if the proposed time frame then are we to assume that the ICC is hedging their bets on producing a competitive ODI side at World Cup level by 2017?
Posted by: Madhu at July 23, 2007 6:14 PM
This is interesting ... It's a huge market ... Hopefully Australia will have some serious competition.
Posted by: Fat_Bulborbs at July 24, 2007 4:47 AM
I'm hoping Cricket in China will be better run than its Asian counterparts...or else we'll never actually see a decent, consistent team
Posted by: amrit doley at July 24, 2007 12:26 PM
its been great to know that cricket is taking a huge sride forward in china.hopefully china become worldchampion within a decade.it would be graet that two of the world most populous country will have cricket as most popular sports. india and china will be wolrd champions.australia has really a bad times ahead
Posted by: Raheel Hashmi at July 24, 2007 2:09 PM
I hope that China will have a bright future in cricket. Though it won't be an early break but this nation excels in all those things where it take some interest.
Posted by: Someone spread the message to Canada..... at July 25, 2007 6:24 AM
Promoting and developing cricket from the grass roots level rather than relying on expatriates for players.........something Canada should try rather than sending 40 year old former West Indian has beens to represent them. Hopefully cricket will grow in China and prosper for years to come. Canada too do have some young talented players, but there is some bigotry going on in the scenes of Canadian Cricket as to favoring West Indians rather than the huge South Asian population that has the talent and hunger to further the Canadian Cricket identity.
Posted by: Adnan Nasim at July 25, 2007 9:45 AM
I am surprised to know such good results and such positive development in Cricket in China.
I will love to see China playing Cricket regionally and internationally.
Shanghai Sixes will take place in September, 2007 in China. I am sure this kind of club tournaments and participation opportunities will help promote Cricket in China. Needless to say that China is a big market. However, indoor games are more popular in China but there is a rising trend in outdoor games too in recent years e.g Baseball, Filed Hockey etc which is encouraging.
Posted by: Marcus Johns at July 26, 2007 2:47 AM
I'd like to see China develop cricket but, if anything's happening at the moment, it's not happening anywhere near where I live. Cricket is exclusively played by ex-pats in the North-East. I work for an English Coaching newspaper and have tried to contact the Chinese Cricket Association but have consistently failed to get in contact with anyone
Posted by: kamrul hasan at July 26, 2007 9:39 AM
nice article. i didn't ever see this type of article before. really nice. carry on. you will get success.
RSS feed
