Best foot forward

It's a little odd that Malaysia is hosting an international sports tournament involving 16 teams across seven venues in three cities and the average Amir in Kuala Lumpur hasn't a clue about it. The few who do know are surprised that Malaysia have an Under-19 team in the competition.

The issues with cricket in Malaysia are quite the opposite from the problems that India and Pakistan faced back in the day. In their cases, there was a lack of infrastructure but no dearth of interest. In Malaysia there are adequate facilities but the interest and awareness levels for cricket are low. Most of the sporting attention is focused on football from all over the world, hockey and badminton. In the lead-up to the Under-19 World Cup, one daily had just one article on cricket in its numerous sports pages, and that was about Stephen Fleming's retirement.

It was with the aim of spreading interest among the local community that P Krishnaswamy, the deputy president of the Malaysian Cricket Association and chairman of the organisation committee, went to the ICC to bid for the U-19 World Cup. What swung the deal for Malaysia, according to him, was that the ICC felt the country had the necessary facilities to host such a tournament.

Those facilities were put in place when Malaysia hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1998. Cricket was part of the Games that year and several grounds had to be built in Kuala Lumpur. "We opened up a lot of turf wickets," Krishnaswamy told Cricinfo. "The Commonwealth Games kickstarted the establishing of facilities."

However, the biggest challenge ahead of the U-19 World Cup was redoing the venues to meet the standards required for an ICC event. "We had to have at least nine turf-wicket grounds up to the necessary standard. There are four practice grounds, three main grounds in Kuala Lumpur, and two in Penang and Johor. That was the biggest challenge - we had to get the grounds up to world standard.

"A lot the work involved improving the wickets and ensuring the outfield and the irrigation was in good condition. The ICC has requirements for the change rooms, and they needed anti-doping centres, so we had to get all that done. We are not a Test-playing nation, so we needed to build all these things."

Upgrading seven venues plus the practice grounds cost pots of money and the MCA, which had to bear the cost of the refurbishment, was aided by the Malaysian government and some sponsors. Those sponsors, however, aren't easily visible due to the protection the ICC gives its rights holders.

Indeed, there isn't much by way of conspicuous advertising for the tournament. There weren't many signs at the airport and there are almost no billboards around the city. Efforts at publicity, it seems, have been made directly in schools for it is that age group of Malaysians that the MCA is trying to bring into the sport. The MCA will have between 300 and 500 school children coming in to watch the matches every day and will try to instil interest by organising games and cricket trivia.

Unlike other ICC tournaments - the senior World Cup and Champions Trophy, for instance - where tickets are exorbitantly priced, it costs nothing to watch the under-19s in action. Still, though tickets are free for the entire tournament, Krishnaswamy didn't expect hordes at the stadiums at the start of the tournament. He was optimistic of interest levels picking up once the quarter-finals got underway. Ten matches will be telecast live on television, although they will be available only on a pay-per-view channel.

At the end of the day, no matter how much effort is put into publicising the tournament, there's no substitute for a few wins by the home side to generate public interest.