Men's and Women's teams start build-up for Asian Games

The Hong Kong Men and Women's cricket teams will start their build-up for the 16th Asian Games in earnest over the coming weeks as they embark on short tours.

The men's team has been invited to Papua New Guinea to play in the inaugural Air Niugini International Super Series - a multi-format quadrangular tournament also featuring teams from Singapore, Malaysia and hosts PNG. The tournament, which will feature both 50-over and Twenty20 format matches, is schedule to be played during the first week of September.

Many of the men's team have been getting some good pre-season match practice at the recently completed Elite Player Series, which was played at the Kai Tak Cricket Ground. A women's series will be played in September.

Members of the Hong Kong Women's cricket team and the Hong Kong Under-19 Women's cricket team travelled to Guangzhou in mid-August to play against regional teams from China in the China National Women's Cricket tournament. Hong Kong played four matches against teams in the competition, however their matches did not count towards the championship title. All matches were played at the new Guangzhou Cricket Stadium - the venue to be used for cricket matches at the 16th Asian Games in November 2010. Hong Kong's match against Shenyang University on 14th August was the very first match played on the new ground.

The Hong Kong Under-19 Women's Cricket team will play in the ACC Under-19 Women's Championships in Singapore from 30 September to 10 October 2010.