Headline, June30, 2013

'''CHINA'S -CRACKING- CRICKET'''

Cricket is not unknown in China. The first recorded match was in 1858, and Shanghai had a Cricket ground, albeit in the middle of a racecourse, by 1863. The International community kept the game alive until the Communist Revolution in 1949.

It didn't stir again until after Deng Xiaoping opened China's door to the outside world in the late 1970s. Teams from Hong Kong started to visit in the 1980s, and by the late 1990s enthusiasts an International six-a-side tournament that is now held annually in Shanghai and attracts some well-international names, mostly from Australia.

So, officials have started to build a pipeline of young cricket players, looking at the example of Hong Kong, where Cricket is long established because of the British connection. An ACC backed development program there has 6000 local school children playing the game. 

Some schools in Beijing and Shanghai have also been instructed to start playing the game, as have those in southern China's Guangzhou, where the warmer climate is more conducive to a longer playing season.

The sport ''is perfectly suited to the Chinese people" said Zhiang Xiaoning, a division director at the sports ministry. Cricket is not a contact sport  -a point that struck Li forcibly in 1996 as his young Rugby players were suffering badly at the hands of larger, heavier opponents. While Cricket requires stamina, good balance, timing and a quick eye, it doesn't necessarily require being big. Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the world's finest batsman, stands just 5 foot 6.

Couple this with China's top down approach to sports, which has made it world class in swimming and track in less than 30 years, and it would be very foolish to bet against it.

''The official will is there to make it happen, as they very much want to engage with Asia via Cricket,'' said an official of the ACC.

Professional sports looks at the promise of the Chinese market as dreamily as any other industry. But forget the rap of leather on willow, and cricketing gentlemen in cream flannels. Cricket's epicenter has move to Asia, where it will always be raucous and highly charged affair before huge crowds.

And with all these happenings, The Chinese language will soon be richer too, with words like Zooter, Googly, Flipper, Nightwatchman, and Beamer.

Be that it may, what the students and professors of China must remember is to say, Howzat?

That too, on top on their voices and furious askance faces.

With respectful dedication to Short Sportsmen, Colossal Talents 

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless