Javed Miandad, the former Pakistan batsman, has said cricket has tremendous potential to grow in China, having observed how the youngsters have taken to the game following a visit to the country as a Pakistan cricket ambassador.
"The interest of cricket in China is amazing and I think the country can progress by leaps and bounds," Miandad told AFP on his return home. "I saw great interest among the students and the support from the government adds to the potential which is very heartening. I would love to go back and help them make a strong team for international events."
Miandad had quit as director general of the Pakistan Cricket Board in January and in his new role as ambassador, was approached by Afghanistan to help them qualify for the 2011 World Cup. He said Pakistan will play an active role in developing cricket in China by providing the right facilities and expertise.
"Pakistan and China have signed a memorandum of understanding under which we will provide them coaches so that they can learn the basics and improve at a grass-roots level," he said.
China has been an affiliate member of the Asian Cricket Council and the ICC since 2004. China won the ICC global development award for the region in 2005. There’s a chance of Twenty20 cricket being included at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou.
However, Miandad stressed that China will still require a lot more support to entertain thoughts of competing at the world stage. "They need support from the cricket world and I firmly believe that if they get the necessary support they can give some quality players to the game and through their interest the boundaries of the game will spread."
Posted by: Hassan Farooqi at March 25, 2009 6:42 PM
The very idea of the world's biggest population finally playing cricket is exciting. I know it is a very long way to go but I hope the speed picks up.
Posted by: Gg at March 26, 2009 10:31 AM
One must visit the shanghai cricket sixes to see how good the standard is. The chinese women's team beat several men's team last year.
Posted by: safwan at March 26, 2009 12:00 PM
China is a great friend of ours and an amazing nation that thrives on commitment to hard work.....i hope with some of our help they can develop into a competent cricketing nation....not only that, with the current security crisis in south-Asia, our home matches could also be probably hosted in China??
Posted by: umar farooqi at March 26, 2009 1:51 PM
China is a great friend of ours that is why we should not be sending 'tried and failed' administrators of PCB there. Miandad is by definition a good ex-player but a horrible cricket administrator. Pakistan has failed to match their arch rivals India's hold on almost everything that cricket has to offer. It can only hope that China imports this game to rival the big market offered by India. One must not forget that Cricket can only prosper in China if the communist cadres discard their love for American sports (read Baseball, Basketball etc) in favour of Cricket or perhaps more importantly, if the Olympics start offering a Gold medal for it.
Posted by: Vikram Maingi at April 1, 2009 6:45 AM
I agree with Safwan.
China is an amazing nation that thrives on commitment to hard work.
But what Umar mentioned is also cent percent true... Cricket can only prosper in China if the communist cadres discard their love for Baseball & Basketball in favour of Cricket.
With the advent of T20, possibility of including cricket in Asian/Olympics has gone up. This will certainly trigger Cricket revolution in China.
Posted by: friend at May 13, 2009 1:53 PM
china is becoming biggest sorting nation in the world. they have ability to catch sports quickly. as example rugby is introduced to chine in 1990s but now they are playing big role in asian rugby. i think they will do same for cricket within next decade. china is a closest friend of sri lanka. as a sri lankan we are ready to give every support to boost the cricket in china. its nice to see china participating cricket world cup and play test cricket as cricketing nation. 2010 Asian games have added t20 as a sport and china expect to participate it as a host nation and that experience will help them to boost their cricket in their country. i like to congratulate china and hope to see china playing cricket in international arena with other major teams shoulder to shoulder.
Posted by: Faraz at October 22, 2009 6:21 AM
It is extremely heartening to note that player of Miandad’s caliber is being considered for Chinese cricket if it materializes then I think China can take great benefit from the Crickets immortal legend and the finest cricketing brain on the planet. But I sincerely hope that Miandad should devote time to Pakistan Cricket which is in not good shape. I wish we could clones of Miandad (at least 6 of them to bat from number 1 to 6) to bat in Pakistan line up!!!
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