Encouraging signs in China as Shanghai sixes grow in appeal

This weekend's FPDsavills Shanghai Sixes has been hit by the late withdrawal of a South African side. The South African side, which in past visits has featured former great, Clive Rice, was forced to withdraw following "foreign assignment commitments" elsewhere.

Teams from China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Australia will take part in the two day event, which starts on Saturday.

The twelve participating teams will be split into three groups:
Group One - Hong Kong Dragons, Shenzhen Sporting Club, University of New South Wales (Australia)
Group Two - Korea, Shanghai Cavaliers, China
Group Three - Mlebourne Cricket Club (1), Beijing, Hong Kong Pirates
Group Four - Melbourne Cricket Club (2), Japan and Shanghai Hairy Crabs

This is the fourth staging of the event, which is viewed as a key development tool for the game's expansion in China. Organisers are proud of the participation of an all-Chinese team, which created history of sorts in an earlier edition of the Sixes, when it played an entirely indigenous Japanese national team.

The Chinese "national" team will be led by Bruce Wang Xiaodong, arguably China's best native player. A former hockey international, Wang developed an interest in cricket during his three years in Sydney. He plays for the Australian Embassy team in the Beijing competition.

Melbourne Cricket Club, (two teams), and the Shenzhen Sporting Club will be making their debuts, while Japan (fourth visit), Korea, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong Pirates (third visit) have all been frequent participants. A reflection of the growing stature of the Sixes has been its ability to attract sponsors with such status as Unilever, General Electric, Steinlager and Coca Cola.

Last northern autumn, the ICC sent Hong Kong-based official, Russell Mawhinney, to China to investigate the potential for development.

Further adding colour to the Sixes is the visit of Englishman Jason Barry, who is roaming the world on a charity fund-raising mission to play cricket in 100 countries by 2000. A brief summary so far...Jason has played in 84 cricket matches in 70 countries and travelled 325,000 air miles...he a broke a foot in Monaco, was arrested in Moscow, imprisoned in the Czech Republic, shot at in Johannesburg and suffered a near-fatal tropical disease in Borneo.