HKCA International Committee Report

The HKCA International Committee is responsible for organizing all international tours and matches played under the HKCA Banner. The Committee is also responsible for the development of all teams that represent Hong Kong at various international competitions including the National Team as well as Junior Age Group Teams and the Ladies Team.

HK National Team
2007 was not a great year for the HK squad, with disappointing performance in the ICC World Cricket League Div 3 as well as in the ACC Twenty20 Tournament.

Also the HK team had two setbacks early in the year when we lost the services of our National Coach, Robin Singh to Indian Cricket Team and our Captain Tim Smart to personal work commitments.

The Team was coached in the interim by former Indian International, Sameer Dighe and Captained by Ilyas Gul for the ICC World Cricket League Tournament in Darwin in May 2007.

However by the start of the New Season, a new full time National Coach, was appointed; England International, Aftab Habib, to be based in Hong Kong.

After spending some time with the National Team in Kuwait for the Twenty20 and having a good look at cricket played in Hong Kong at all levels, a working plan has put in place to get Hong Kong's ICC World Ranking from its current 25th in the world to be in the top 20. (The top 10 are the Ten Test Playing Countries).

Hong Kong is currently in the ICC World Cricket League Division 4, the first goal is to get the team back in Division 3 and then aim for Division 2.

The only way to have a strong cohesive unit representing HK is to have a long term plan to build a HK Team for the near future; there are no short term fixes.

Coaching Support
A coaching team including a fitness trainer has been appointed to work with the National Coach and a greater emphasis has been placed on commitment to Training and player fitness. Squads at all age levels will be monitored on their body weight and fitness levels as well as video analysis data kept on squad members.

HK Junior Squads
Trainings will be held all year around for HK U19s, HK U17s and HK U15s and they will have the same monitoring process as the National Squad. This will create a strong work ethic amongst the junior cricketers and when they progress to the Senior team they will bring this work ethic with them.

Tournaments for 2008
HK Team faces a busy International Calendar in 2008. Their schedule includes a number of important tournaments such as the ACC Trophy 2008, ICC World Cricket League Division 4 and the Asia Cup.

All these tournaments are very important for HK cricket. ASIA CUP gives HK the opportunity to play two One Day Internationals against India and Pakistan under floodlights.

The main target for 2008 is to reach the final of the ICC World Cricket League Div 4 (to qualify for Div 3) and to reach the final of ACC Trophy 2008 (to qualify for Asia Cup 2010).

We also have the HK International Cricket Sixes in Nov 2008

The first step towards our goal starts in January when the Bangladesh National Academy Team arrives in HK to play three one day games. International committee has been instrumental in arranging this tournament as this is the first time a test playing country has given so much support to an associate country.

Also the ACC U17 Elite Trophy will be held in November 2008 in Nepal

Women's Cricket
The Women have almost as busy a schedule as the men. In Easter they will travel to Bangladesh to play 4 ODIs against the Bangladesh National Team, followed by the inaugural ACC U19 Girls Tournament in June 2008.

Building relationships with other Cricketing Countries and ACC. International committee in November 2007 attended the ACC conference in Kuwait. This was very helpful in building bridges with other associate members and also with the executives of the cricketing boards from the four test playing countries in the region.

The committee has been instrumental in building bridges between the Hong Kong players and other committees in HKCA. They have been working very closely with development committee and the head coach in order to enhance the quality of cricket and to attract a younger group of players for the future.

We in the international committee have the resources and support of the executives and hope to take Hong Kong cricket to the next level.

Sohail Murshed
Chairman
International Committee
HKCA