HKCA releases fixtures, formats for 2012-13 domestic season

The HKCA has released fixtures for the upcoming 2012-13 domestic cricket season. The published fixtures, which are available for viewing on the HKCA website, are still subject to change, pending final confirmation of ground availability and team registrations/eligibility.

The 2012-13 season sees the introduction of some new competitions and the return of some old ones. The first matches will be played on 1st September 2012.

There will be three different Premier League competitions in 2012-13 featuring 2-day, 1-day and Twenty20 matches.

The blue ribbon Premier League 2-Day competition will be contested by four teams in 2012-13 - namely Hong Kong Cricket Club, Kowloon Cricket Club, Little Sai Wan and Pakistan Association. The three rounds of matches will be played in October, December and January.

The Premier League 1-Day completion will involve five teams - those named above plus Lightning XI. Matches will be played in September, November, February, March and April.

The five Premier League 1-Day teams will contest a new Premier League T20 competition. Matches will be played on Saturday afternoons, with the majority of games played during December. The Premier League T20 final will be played at KCC on 6 January 2013.

Premier League Links:

The 2012-13 Sunday League will feature 11 teams with each team playing the others once only, for a total of 10 games per team. The Sunday League champions will be the team at the top of the ladder at the end of the round-robin matches. There will be no finals/play-off series.

Sunday Championship League Link:

The Sunday Cup 50-over knock-out competition makes a return to the Hong Kong domestic cricket scene. The top ten teams finishing the Sunday League will participate in this competition. Teams finishing in positions 7th to 10th will play qualifying matches to join the top six finishing teams in the Sunday League to contest the Sunday Cup. The competition will take place in April.

Sunday Cup Link:

The Saturday Championship Division has been expanded for 2012-13 and will now feature two divisions of eleven teams. Each team will play the others once only, for a total of 10 games per team. The champions of each division will be the team at the top of the ladder at the end of the round-robin matches. There will be no finals/play-off series.

To accommodate the extra teams, KCC Crusaders have been elevated from Division 2 to Division 1. Two new teams join the competition - a KCC junior team provisionally named 'KCC Dragons' and a new team from Premier League sponsors 'KARP Group'. In addition, Mainlanders have been replaced by a new all-Chinese team from 'Pioneers Cricket Club' while Millennium has joined forces with the United Services Recreation Club to form 'USRC/Millennium'.

Saturday Championship Division Link:

*Note - currently only two matches for GLHS have been confirmed. Further fixtures will be notified once PTC availability is confirmed.

The Saturday Cup 35-over knock-out competition also makes a return and will be played at the conclusion of the Saturday Championship Division competition. The top 10 teams in each division will play. Teams finishing in positions 7th to 10th in each division will play a qualifying round to join the top six finishing teams in their division to contest the Saturday Cup.

Saturday Cup Divisions Link:

There will be two women's competitions in 2012-13 - a new Women's Twenty Cup competition will be played in the first part of the season, followed by the Women's League.

The Women's Twenty20 Cup has been introduced to (1) give women players more cricket and (2) to provide exposure to the T20 format and give players match practice before the Hong Kong Women's team heads to Guangzhou for the ACC Women's T20 Asia Cup in late October. Most games will be played on grass wickets.

Matches will be played on Sundays or public holidays with multiple games being played at the same venue on the same day. There will be three rounds of matches played over the long weekend from 30 September to 2nd October. Each of the six teams will play the others once. A series of finals will then be played to determine the Women's T20 Cup champion. The first round will be played on 2nd September 2012.

The Women's League will start in November. Fixtures are currently not available, as ground availability at St Stephen's College (SSC) won't be confirmed until the end of August. Women's League matches will be played on Sunday afternoons with most matches played at SSC and at the new Po Kong Village Road Reservoir ground.

Women's Cricket Links:

Junior cricket fixtures have not been published. The registration of junior players will be conducted during September and junior league matches will start is expected to start in October.

The following are the proposed days/times/venues when each league will be played:

Schools cricket will likely start in October. Matches to be played at Mission Road with some games at KCC. All matches will be played following the T20 format.

A Secondary Schools Girls League will be played - as long as four or more teams are available. Matches will be played at the PKVR Reservoir ground.