Shandong, the second-most populous province in China, has become the seventh region after Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Liaoning, Chongqing and Tianjin to officially take up cricket, according to a media release from the Asian Cricket Council.

“The Shandong people are well known for their good physical condition in China … the majority of rugby players are from Shandong,” Aminul Islam, the ACC’s development officer for China, said. With cricket being aligned with rugby in the multi-ball games administrative centre in China, the Chinese Cricket Association (CCA) felt a partnership between both bodies to make use of athletes all-year round would be ideal.

Continue reading "Slow progress continues in China"

On May 2, Taesongsan Park in Pyongyang will be the host venue for the first ever formal cricket matches in North Korea. Two teams from Shanghai and the newly-formed Pyongyang Cricket Club will take part in a triangular Twenty20 tournament with the winners receiving the inaugural DHL Pyongyang Cricket Friendship Cup.

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The Asian Cricket Council has confirmed Malaysia as the venue for the 2008 ACC Trophy Elite Division. The 10-team tournament will be held from July 25 to August 3, with all matches likely to be staged in Kuala Lumpur.

It was also confirmed the ACC Trophy will be held as two separate tournaments for the first time.

The ACC Trophy Elite tournament will be contested by the top 10 ranked ACC members: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the holders, the United Arab Emirates.

The ACC Trophy Challenge for the remaining ACC members is likely to be staged in Kuwait from January 11-17, 2009. Among the invitees are Bhutan, Brunei, Burma, China, Iran, the Maldives, Oman and Thailand, although it remains to be seen whether China fields a team.
Tony Munro

Not have the ICC cut the number of Associates at the next World Cup from six to four at the behest of the hosts, but the Asian Cricket Council hopes that two of those slots will be taken by Asian counties.

"India beating Australia is very good for cricket in Asia and will encourage nations like Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, China and Afghanistan," Ashraful Huq, a former secretary of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, told AFP. "I watched both the finals in Australia and was amazed how the young Indian team paid the Australians back, both on and off the field."

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China have recruited former Pakistan Test player Rashid Khan to coach the national team for the 2010 Asian Games in Beijing. He has been coaching China's junior and women's teams since 2006.

"To prepare a cricket team for the Asian Games is a big challenge but the Chinese have a lot of pride in what they do," Khan told Reuters. "I have been given this responsibility now."

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

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Saudi Arabia won the ACC Under-19 Challenge Cup, but the tournament was marred by six of the ten participants withdrawing.

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The Chinese Cricket Association (CCA) has received cricket equipment worth US$20,000 from the Pakistan Cricket Board as a goodwill gesture to promote cricket in China.

"We badly needed this equipment because the CCA wanted to fulfill the needs of different teams for holding tournaments," Jiang Zhenyuan, a director of cricket with the CCA, told the Asian Cricket Council website.

The equipment - bats, balls, pads, stumps and gloves - will be first distributed to schools across the country and then what is left will be used in national tournaments, the website reported.

The PCB had pitched in last year by appointing Rashid Khan, a former fast bowler, as China's coach. Khan managed the women's side in the recent Asian Cricket Council's women's tournament.

Syed Ashraful Huq, the chief executive of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) believes that China's foray into the game will boost the chances of cricket making it as an Olympic sport.

"China's standing as the world's leading sporting nation can play a major role in influencing future Olympic rosters," Huq was quoted by the Associated Press of Pakistan. He said that China's say could help cricket's chances to make it to Olympics and that's why the game needed to be developed in the country. "I don't know if cricket can make it into the London Olympics in 2012, where it could have demonstration status, but maybe the one after that."

Continue reading "China can help cricket's Olympic bid"

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.

The Hong Kong women's team scored an emphatic ten-wicket victory over China in an historic match played at the Shenzhen University Stadium. While records of matches between teams from Hong Kong and Chinese clubs date back to the 19th century, this match was the first full international played between teams from Hong Kong and China.

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A group of schoolchildren are off to China to teach them cricket, according to a report at the BBC. Nine boys and two girls, aged 13 and 14, from King Edward VII School in King's Lynn will visit the country and also help translate the rules into Mandarin.

The 10-day visit in July is part of the school's twinning scheme with Tsinghua High School in Chongqing.

The school's director of sport, Paul Tebay, said: "I believe we're the first school to do this and we aim to show that young people can teach and learn from each other.

"If the Chinese take cricket seriously and treat it as a priority, I think they will do very well."

And you can read more about the infrastructure China has in 2007's Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

This week saw the publication of the 2007 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Ranajit Dam takes a look at cricket in China

The official term to describe China’s mixed economy is “Socialism with Chinese characteristics”. As the country embarks on its journey towards world domination in the cricket field, it uses an approach never before seen in the history of the sport: “Chinese characteristics” would not be a terribly inaccurate way to describe it either.

Continue reading "Willow pattern"

The USA’s ABC News reports how China has used the World Cup to score diplomatic points over rivals Taiwan. The Chinese involvement in building various stadia in the Caribbean has been well documented, but it appears the knock-on effect has been more wide reaching:

China gave Antigua a $55 million grant to build the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium. It gave $30 million to Jamaica for a new Trelawny stadium. St. Lucia has both a cricket and a football stadium courtesy of Beijing. The 70,000 people of Dominica have received the aid equivalent of $1,600 per person in the form of a cricket grounds, new drains for the capital and better roads.

The immediate reason for this largesse is Beijing's determination to diplomatically isolate Taiwan. Says Harry Sung of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C.: "Their top priority is to isolate Taiwan. Most of the remaining countries that recognize Taiwan are located in the Caribbean and Latin America."

China's cricket diplomacy led to two West Indian countries, Grenada and Dominica, derecognizing Taiwan as an independent country. Of the remaining 24 countries that recognize Taiwan, four are in the Caribbean and two of these play cricket.

	A spectator looks on during an MCC match at Beijing Jiaotong University © Getty Images

Thus far, many of the clichéd reports of cricket gripping the Chinese have been just that — the truth has been much more fragile. But as they say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and there has been genuine movement in the past two years.

Continue reading "China ... the fragile reality"

It won't get many column inches in the mainstream cricket press, but the World Cricket League, which started in Nairobi yesterday and continues into next week, features the best of the rest, the six sides just under the ten Test-playing countries. For the two finalists, the rewards are bountiful - a place among the big boys in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa this September, along with $250,000. For countries used to surviving on annual handouts from the ICC of less than $200,000, that's big money.

Continue reading "A long way from home"

The Cricket Association of China, in a letter sent to the Pakistan Cricket Board, has praised the services of former Test player Rashid Khan who has been working with it as coach for the last two months. Rashid was sent as coach to China by the board after they received a request from the Asian Cricket Council to nominate someone for the coaching assignment.

“There is a lot of enthusiasm for cricket in China and the best part is they have all local players. They are a very determined and disciplined lot and I have no doubt that if they put their mind to it they will emerge as a good cricketing force soon,” Rashid told Dawn newspaper.

Rashid has also received a coaching offer from Saudi Arabia Cricket Association after his fine work with the Chinese.

Rashid Khan, the former Pakistan fast bowler, has been appointed by the Pakistan Cricket Board to train young cricketers in China. The move is part of a joint effort by the International Cricket Council and the Asian Cricket Council to give a fillip to cricket in China.

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	An MCC cricketer watches the one-day match against Shanghai Cricket Club ... was this the kind of deeply subversive image the Chinese wanted to prevent? © Getty Images

Morris was asked to travel with MCC to record their first tour of China at the end of September. He was planning to work on the first leg only, to Beijing, host city for the 2008 Olympics. MCC applied for the visa on Morris's behalf nine days before the tour party left, sending his application with those for the rest of the members of the tour party - players, umpires and management. The Chinese government told MCC that, because of his role as a photographer, they would have to refer his application to administration in Beijing, which would take more than nine days. All other applications were successful.

Continue reading "China crisis"

The Asian Cricket Council has announced that it allocated $200,000 to the Chinese cricket authorities to promote the game inside the country, and that sum will be matched by the ICC, making the total investment $400,000.

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Hardly a week goes by these days without someone excitedly claiming that cricket is about to take-off in China. Now it emerges that ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed will be in Beijing next week to find out how the land lies.

The China Cricket Association has unveiled a strategic plan that has 60,000 schoolchildren playing cricket in three years and 150,000 in five years, with Beijing, Shanghai and Dalian the hubs for promoting the game. Mandarin editions of the Laws of Cricket are now available in China while Australian cricketing officials have visited the country to conduct coaching courses.

But perhaps the real reason that cricket’s bosses are so keen on China was found in a remark by Syed Ashraful Huq, the boss of the Asian Cricket Council when he told DNA Sport that if China participated in future World Cups then “lucrative commercial windfalls would follow”. He added: “As soon as China breaks through, I foresee the total global revenues for cricket increasing by up to 30 to 40%."

As Gordon Gekko said in Wall Street: “Greed is good, greed is right … greed works.”

An MCC touring team, managed by J.A.F. Vallance – who will be accompanying Tony Lewis, the MCC president, on his last official engagement – and captained by Min Patel (Kent and England), will leave Lord’s on September 25 for a 16-day tour of China and Hong Kong. The strong side – which also includes Dougie Brown (Warwickshire, Scotland and England), Simon Smith (Scotland) and Craig Wright (Scotland) – will play six matches on the tour, including a game against Hong Kong CC, one of MCC’s reciprocal clubs. This will be the first tour which the club has undertaken to China, and it is intended that as many coaching sessions as possible will be held in order to foster the game in the region.

On September 26, a separate touring team will visit Botswana and Zambia for a 14-day visit to play five matches. The side will be managed by R.W. Ibbotson and captained by Stuart Barnes (Gloucestershire).

The Chinese Cricket Association is to take delivery of two innovative artificial wickets thanks to a donation from a UK-based supplier. Only just introduced in Hong Kong and new to the rest of Asia, the wickets are a major step forward for cricket in China.

Much has been written of late about the progress of China in cricket, and this week the People's Daily reports that the growth will see the game introduced into more schools in the coming year.

But amid all the euphoria/concern at the news - and which one depends on your view of China's growing involvment in a variety of sports - a note of caution was sounded by Asian Cricket Council (ACC) development officer Rumesh Ratnayake.

"On a scale of one to 100, Australia are maybe a 98, Sri Lanka a 95. Here we're talking a three or a four."

If the Chinese Cricket Association's development plans are even half successful, it is only a matter of decades before the cricket world could be looking at the new giants of the game, The Age reports.

The Chinese Cricket Association is hoping that by the end of 2007 China would have 30,000 players, 600 coaches and 600 umpires. Their target is for 150,000 players by 2020.

Today the Great Wall, tomorrow the world. Chinese children get to grips with cricket © Cricinfo Magazine

Liu Pingping is not quite John Buchanan, at least not yet. The 47-year-old schoolteacher from Shanghai has never played cricket in his life, and is yet to even watch a match on TV. A baseball player while in college, Liu is one of the 30 former athletes from other ballgames such as baseball, and from track and field, handpicked to undergo cricket training by the Chinese Cricket Association (CCA). Liu was teaching softball to teenagers in Shanghai's No. 3 Girls Middle School when the CCA approached him.

The game of cricket, which becomes a national obsession in Australia over summer, is developing greater appeal in China. World cricket authorities are eager to capture the competitive spirit infecting the world's most populous nation. Radio Australia's Emily Bourke took a look at what's happening: