Down but not out - Women's cricket looking towards a positive future

The Hong Kong Women's Cricket team has returned from Guangzhou after an unsuccessful campaign at the 16th Asian Games that saw them fail to win a match despite heading to the Games with genuine medal prospects.

Buoyed by recent successes at ACC Women's tournaments, including victory at the 2009 ACC Women's Twenty20 Championships and a third place finish at the 2010 ACC Under-19 Women's Championships, Hong Kong's young team was confident of at least making it through to the medal rounds with a bronze medal firmly in their sights.

Any illusions of glory were soon blown away in the first match by the very professional and polished Bangladesh Women who condemned Hong Kong to its worst ever defeat (all out for 25) and quite possibly the lowest ever score by a women's team in a full international Twenty20 fixture. Worse was the nature of the defeat that saw Hong Kong's crease-bound batters attempt impossible runs that led to another unwanted record - most run-outs in a single innings - seven.

With their confidence down, Hong Kong then faced Nepal in a do or die encounter for survival. A well struck 47 by skipper Connie Wong lifted Hong Kong to a total of 71-2 from 18 overs but then another bout of suicidal running between the wickets saw them capitulate to 72-9 off 20 overs, with run outs accounting for another six victims. Hong Kong's bowlers couldn't rescue their team as Nepal streaked to a seven-wicket victory with almost five overs to spare.

Given the recent successes, it's hard to point the finger at what went wrong in Guangzhou.

Alice Jones, Women's Cricket Representative on the HKCA Executive Committee, put a positive spin on the team's performance. "After a very strong showing in the recent ACC Under-19's Women's Tournament, our Asian Games performance was disappointing but at the same time some encouragement should be derived from the fact that the majority of players in the Hong Kong team, including the captain, were Hong Kong Chinese women." "Now, as some women have acquired experience by competing in these Asian Games I am sure we will be a force to be reckoned with in the 2014 Games," she added.

Jones's sentiments were echoed by National Coach Charlie Burke who said, "We underperformed but we have also had the opportunity to develop some players at this level and we have a positive side that is keen for future success. Let's judge our success in a few years time when I expect us to be the best in Asia hands down!"

Realistically, Hong Kong was never likely to match the professional sides such as Pakistan or Bangladesh but why the lack of form against Nepal?

Clearly the coaching staff have their hands full with addressing the deficiencies in technique that were evident with some of Hong Kong's players. Many of the players are still young so there is still time to iron out these areas as the players mature and they should be a better unit by the time the next Asian Games comes around in Incheon, South Korea in 2014.

There won't be too much time for the team to get their act into gear, as Hong Kong will head to Kuwait in February 2011 to defend its ACC Women's Twenty20 title.

"The average age of our side was 21 years old (youngest at the Asian Games) and we have got some positive plans in place to ensure we have a good 2011 ACC tournament in Kuwait," said Burke.

"Some of our developing players have a long way to go in their technique which will not happen overnight and we need to ensure our female athletes play more cricket at domestic level," he added.

Although cricket has been confirmed as a sport at those 2014 Asian Games, there is no guarantee that Hong Kong's women cricket team will compete. That decision will rest with the Hong Kong Olympic Committee so it will be up to the Hong Kong Cricket Association, its coaching staff and the players to work very hard over the next few years to prove their case for inclusion in the Hong Kong Asian Games team for Incheon. Between now and then, there will need to be some tough decisions made by both players and officials alike on how best to develop the women's game in Hong Kong.

One option would be to get the girls playing more competitive matches against the men. "[We need to] support the young players in particular by playing competitive games against the boys," says Jones.

What is apparent from these Games is just how far countries like China and Japan have progressed and developed women's cricket in the few years that the game has been played there. While Hong Kong's amateur players have done their best to lift their standards under National Coach Charlie Burke over the past six months, their Chinese and Japanese counterparts have been in serious training for this event for the past two years. Their top players are bordering on being full-time professionals given the amount of time they now spend on the game.

Burke has his own ideas about where women's cricket in Hong Kong needs to go. "Let's not be too reactive to a poor performance but just driven to have some success in 2014 if we can get another opportunity at this level with an almost complete Chinese team on merit. We MUST get the girls playing more cricket and we need to seriously restructure our Women's Competition," he said.

Burke will reveal his plans for the development of the women's game in Hong Kong when he convenes a "Women's Cricket Think Tank" as soon as he returns from the Asian Games.

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