Thailand: Full-time national coach appointed; four teams head league

Four teams - ICC, Elite, Southerners and YTSA - are setting the pace in the Thai Cricket League's 50 overs league at the halfway mark.

In a season where there have been some close matches mixed in with some lop-sided ones, Royal Bangkok Sports Club and British Club lie in midfield, still with outside title chances while Jogani, Bangkok Cricket Club and Punjab Cricket Clubs are no hope.

At this early stage ICC and Elite are likely finalists although former 25-over league experts YTSA have balanced their 50-over game and could cause surprises.

Key performers for ICC have been "Vincent" and Dheeraj Vikram while "Zeeshan", Faizal and Kasif have shone for Elite. Likewise, for YTSCA, "Richard", "Gupreet" and "Dimpy" have been the pick.

Southerners, at full strength, are capable of upsetting any team as they have a fine opening attack backed up by steady medium pace bowling. Unlike the middle to lower teams they can bat out their 50 overs.

Their prominent batsman, Vaughan McClear, along with Elite's Zeeshan, is one of two batsmen to strike a century this season, while Southerners' bowler, Richard Oster, has taken the season's biggest haul with seven wickets in an innings.

Among the lower placed teams, Anil Tanwani, David Currie, Abininder Singh (RBSC), "Andre", "Peter" (British Club), "Mahesh" (BCC), "Asutosh" (Jogani) and "Wanchai" (PCC) have been the standouts.

Although individual performances have been scattered throughout the teams, it is the depth of the higher placed sides which has made the difference.

Unfortunately ground availability meant that the 25 over league has had to be sacrificed, said to be "bad news for old timers and beer loving teams."

Consistent with the development minded approach of the Thai Cricket League, it has been decided that each team should field at least one player who is either a Thai citizen or locally born.

Similarly, in Bangkok, Thai Cricket League Development Officer, Captain Ravinder Ghai, has visited six schools where approximately 950 Thai children have had their first taste of the game.

It is part of an approach, with the cooperation of the Education Department, which could see visits to 400 Thai schools.

Meanwhile, in Chiang Mai over 1000 Thai children are playing cricket, rapid growth since the game was introduced by organisers of the Chiang Mai Sixes two years ago.

A further boost has been the appointment of Australian Brian Wiggins as full-time national coach and development coordinator. Wiggins, a level three qualified coach, has 15 years experience coaching, the last eight working with the New South Wales Cricket Association.

Mr. Wiggins will work with Captain Ravinder in the Thai Cricket League's ongoing bid to attract Thai children to the game.

Umpiring standards were also aided with the visit of the experienced, KT Francis, of Singapore, a veteran of 25 Tests as well as 62 One Day Internationals. Eleven potential recruits to the umpiring ranks attended the two day seminar at the Royal Bangkok Sporting Club.

None of this can open without officials and at the season's start the following were elected to the General Committee:
Chairman - Ravi Sehgal; Vice Chairman/Development Officer - Captain Ravinder PS Ghai; Vice Chairman - Ravi Sharma; Secretary - Prakash Malani; Treasurer - Mr. Jackson.