Chinese feast on cricket in Hong Kong

All-Chinese teams playing cricket and passionate about it - it's not expanionists dreaming about the year 2020

12-Mar-2000

All-Chinese teams playing cricket and passionate about it - it's not expanionists dreaming about the year 2020.

It is happening right now between the high-rises of Hong Kong, where the Hong Kong Cricket Association is running its inaugural 16 team Primary School playground league.

Since last month, eight all-Chinese primary schools are among 12 taking part in the latest HKCA initiative aimed at proving the white flag did not go up for cricket when the British flag came down almost two years ago.

Children aged from nine to 11 in grades Four to Six are playing eight-a-team Mini-Cricket games on basketball-court sized grounds. The totally participatory nature of Mini-Cricket where every player gets to bat and bowl is proving popular to kids from a culture completely unfamiliar with the game.

According to HKCA Development Executive, Mr. Ravi Nagdev, children of Chinese origin are enthusiastically taking to the game.

"Well, they love it - most kids have only been taught the game two months before playing their first matches.

They are following the game and it is great competition in schools among students to make it to the school team. The rules are quite simple to learn and the kids pick up the game very quickly.

Some local schools have arranged matches to be held during school hours and ask the entire school to come and watch the game. This creates a great home team atmosphere with the entire school cheering when the home team takes a wicket or hits a six."

Mr. Nagdev said the HKCA employed the time-honoured business strategy of winning over the person, in enticing Chinese schools.

"It is important for the school administrator to like the game as well. The Level O Coaching course (mentioned below) helps the cause as it gives a qualification to the teacher to be a qualified coach and the teachers enjoy playing cricket as well."

To this end, a five point plan is implemented:
(1) Six hours coaching from a HKCA Qualified Coach
(2) One set of Mini-Cricket equipment donated to the school
(3) Fun Cricket coaching manuals (bilingual) and Fun Cricket videos (Cantonese)
(4) An information folder containing various information regarding the game and the league
(5) Two scholarships for teachers to attend a HKCA Level "O" Coaching Course

This is part of a specific approach to luring the Chinese schools.

Once the hard part is done, it is down to basics.

"Once the school knows the game of cricket, with the help of the schemes, then it is the same method of developing the game as it is with non-Chinese children.

"The main difference is you have to go down one level as most children with no background have no idea about the rules and the first few sessions are spent teaching the very basics like how to make a run, what is a sixer, how to hold a bat etc. Once they know all this, they very quickly can catch up and competing with the International Schools. From then onwards the approach is similar to both groups."

As part of a 'whollistic' approach, the HKCA has been sending coaches to all participating schools to educate both the children and teachers in the rules of cricket.

In an area where over 16,000 people compete for each square mile, the obvious difficulty which cricket shares with all sports is finding suitable space to play the game.

Mr. Nagdev tells how the Hong Kong schools cope: "Schools in Hong Kong usually only have only a basketball sized playing area allocated to them - some schools do not even have a playing area, so two or three schools share one basketball court.

This is the only immediate space available to school.

But when playing the short version of the game such as the Eights, we can do with smaller football sized pitches and in mini-cricket even basketball sized playgrounds."

As a result of hard work put into this area, the HKCA has secured one more full international sized ground which will be available to HKCA from next year onwards.

Mr. Nagdev said the main cultural barrier in penetrating the 'lucrative' Chinese talent pool was that youngsters had few people of Chinese origin to relate to.

"Well, the main problem is a lack of role models for the local children as they are not aware of the International players, the expatriate children have their cricketing heroes to look up to. This is where players like Louis Chan can be looked upon as role models."

Mr. Nagdev said he attributed the success of the programme to this: "The HKCA development program and the Mini-cricket games is ideal for these schools because it takes all the values and spirit of the game of cricket and puts it in a small fast exciting and simple version so small children can enjoy the game as well as learn about co-operation and team spirit in a basketball court."

Here is a list of major HKCA organised competitions:

Competition                     No of teams Format
Primary Schools' Playground League 16          8-a-side pairs 8 overs tapeball
U11 League                          6          8-a-side 10 overs tapeball
U13 League                          7          8-a-side 14 overs in 1st round
& 11-a-side 25 overs in 2nd Rd
hardball
U15 League                          8          8-a-side 14 overs in 1st Rd
& 11-a-side 25 overs in 2nd Rd
hardball
U19 League                          6          8-a-side  6 overs hardball
Secondary School Senior            10          11-a-side 25 overs hardball
and Junior Leagues
Saturday League      16          11-a-side 35 overs
Sunday League                       9          11-a-side 50 overs

Apart from these we have various other minor competition (e.g. sixes competitions, eights festivals, summer 8s, Mainland vs Island matches). We also have cricket coaching centers at various location all over HK.

Please refer to HKCA website for more details.

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