Ricky Ponting and Cricket in Japan
For a split second, a sea of blank faces seemed to stare at me pondering the question I had posed that had been translated into Japanese for their benefit. Did they really know nothing about cricket?
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Then suddenly, a glimmer of recognition lit the face of one of the young Japanese boys as he tentatively raised his hand to respond to the crazy foreigner. Eagerly I gestured towards him and waited with anticipation for the response that was to come from his lips. He lurched forward and offered, "Ricky Ponting". In two beautiful words a couple of things occurred. Any doubts that had formed in my mind due to the countless many people who had questioned whether they actually knew of cricket in Japan when told of my impending trip immediately disappeared. Secondly, a new nickname was created as young Takumi became "Ricky" during my visit, and for the ensuing ICC EAP U15 Tournament that followed.
Apart from the cricket experiences that the trip offered, the chance to become immersed in a different culture was an enlightening experience. It is different to what we have here in Australia in so many ways, but the same in other ways. It is these differences that are some of the biggest threats to cricket really growing in Japan, but in some ways they present some of the biggest opportunities for the game.
Some of my perceptions of Japan are summarised as follow:
- Japanese people are extremely polite
- Japanese people are wonderful hosts and look after their visitors extremely well
- Japanese trains always run on time. In fact, when you know what time your train is coming but you aren't sure if it is on the line that you should be getting on, just get on the train that turns up at that time.
- When you get on a later train (some 20 minutes) that you know is the line you are after, your wonderful Japanese host may get flustered when you are not on the first train
- Japanese people are extremely polite
The ICC in their infinite wisdom, continue to send Development Officers from Australia and New Zealand, to all corners of the East Asia-Pacific region. This is done to help spread the word of what is a great game and to impart knowledge and insight to people whose understanding of cricket is still in its infancy. However, after witnessing the ICC EAP U15 Tournament in Melbourne recently between seven developing cricket countries from the region, I wonder if the teaching is not a two way street.
After participating in a particularly "tense and competitive" game of club cricket, those which we in established cricket nations regularly thrive on due to it sating our competitive urges (and I am no different may I confess), I thought back to that wonderful week in February. I witnessed a Fijian team who ran in as a team and shook hands or back slapped every player they dismissed from the opposition, then sang them a traditional Fijian song at the end of the game. I saw an Indonesian player get out on the last ball of the innings by hitting a catch to one of the opposition players who had dropped a couple during the innings. When quizzed by his team mates he replied, "I wanted to make him feel better." And these were just the tip of the iceberg of feel good stories.
We talk about the "Spirit of Cricket" and have made some inroads in this respect over the last couple of seasons. These improvements have been good but still allow for a healthy bit of "gamesmanship" to continue. Something I admit to partaking in myself on occasion. However, next time we pat ourselves on the back as to how well we are doing in cleaning up the game of cricket, maybe it is the cricketing minnows of the East Asia-Pacific region who are showing us the true meaning of the "Spirit of Cricket". Sometimes the teacher and student roles can get a little bit blurred.