Your E Mails`

Beyond The Test World appreciates hearing from readers with information and views regarding cricket at the non-Test level. Emails will be edited where necessary. After this edition, readers will be asked to include first and last names and the city and country of residence. If you have an opinion or info which you think others may find interesting, please email tonymunro@cricinfo.com

Dear Tony,

Great to read regular updates of your excellent column (easily the most interesting thing on CricInfo [Disclaimer to CI management - the views of readers do not necessarily reflect those of BTW!TM]). As a young cricket fan it's very exciting to hear about the game being played in so many far flung corners of the globe, and especially all the regional tournaments that the ICC are helping to set up. I personally hope that 14 countries will be allowed into the 2003 WC, and that there's further expansion to 16 and 20 teams in the following tournaments. Can't wait to see who comes out on top at next year's ICC Trophy; I hope you can keep up the good work in the lead-up to cricket's biggest tournament!

Cheers

Edd Oliver
Alfrick nr. Worcester
Worcestershire
England

I think the basic idea of your proposal is a good idea, but getting all the top class players in Australia to play in an exhibition tournament against, well, much lesser countries, is quite unrealistic. No offence.

I saw on the ACB site that one of their plans in their strategic plan for Australian Cricket is to try and get the Australian team players to play for their State more often, to help lift attendances to Shield games. They haven't had much success, with them changing the schedule for International games they still haven't been able to get players the Waughs and Warne playing more for their state. It is just about impossible, they have such a cramped schedule already and this event wouldn't exactly be high on their list of priorities ahead of state and international games.

A better idea for this sort of tournament is to go back a couple of levels and start modest and see where it goes from there. I reckon have Darwin host it, seeing as it has no Shield or MMC team, yet and have the main A grade champion teams come from each state (Carlton in the VCA has Carl Hooper), territory and one each from the North and South Island of N.Z., Also have maybe the Australian and N.Z. Cricket Academy teams. An All-Aboriginal teams and Australian Country teams also.

The rest should be teams from non-test countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Fiji, China, Japan etc. Maybe the overseas teams could be national teams?

The attendances should be good seeing as the NT don't have or see first class games and the fact that they are seeing an international competition. The overseas teams should be given preference so a majority of the teams should be from non-test countries and also there should be a max. of five? non-citizens of that country to start off with to develop the local talent. Maybe after a few years the tournament could move to Malaysia, PNG, Indonesia, Thailand etc. The thing is the standard of competition will still be high, the Australian teams will still be quite good, but they wouldn't totally dominate and the non-Test teams will feel they have a chance against these teams.

Maybe after a few years depending on how successful it is, they could have another HK Sixes (or Max eights), or better a Canton (China but still near HK), Shanghai or Beijing Sixes (or eights). The Darwin tournament should not have any other teams from Australia or N.Z. and should not have any other teams from any other test nations at all. The Darwin tournament could have an invitation each year to an ex-high profile first class/international player/s like like David Boon, Craig McDermott or Gavin Larsen to come as a guest to play for one of the lesser teams in the tournament. How is this idea? Too low key? Is it not what your idea is aiming at?

Nathan M.
Perth, Australia

Dear Tony:

It is always fascinating to read your column and to discover that cricket is played in the most unsuspected places. It was also great to see how the Nepali [sic] team got through to the second stage of the U-19 World Cup - even if it required rain and a statistical freak to do so - had it not been for your column I would never even have imagined that such a thing as cricket exists in Nepal. For the Nepali team it must have been a wonderful experience to measure their level against the top sides. If only the Cricket World Cup would also consider a Plate Competition for the early losers particularly if, as expected, the number of teams participating team is increased again...

Living and working in Tenerife I miss cricket a great deal. The local Indian community does actually play some cricket on a site outside the town of Santa Cruz (no grass on the island except in parks and gardens, so forget any ideas of a verdant pitch or outfield - it's dirt or nothing!), but I have never had the nerve to go along and see if they'll let me join in.

Your proposal for an annual tournament has great merit. You comment that the best players did go to the Hong Kong sixes and need to be encouraged to play in such a contact tournament for the lesser nations. The key to Hong Kong's success was, I think, the fun and the environment. Players went not to earn a lot of money so much as to have a good time and to play some cricket for enjoyment - it's a rare pleasure for them these days. For such a tournament to be a success it would need to have the fun element; if the players know that they are going to enjoy themselves, they'll make themselves available. What it sounds like you need though is for this is for it to be a pre-season training excercise. In other words, something that the players can use to get the feel of a bat and ball and as preparation for the new season... that way there would also be a better chance of avoiding gross mismatches that may hinder the development of minor teams more than help (has anyone heard anything of the Japanese rugby team since New Zealand put 130 points past them in the World Cup?).

Mark Kidger
Tenerife, Canary Islands

Hi,

I should commend you for a superb job you are doing on the spread of world cricket. I am an undergraduate student from Canada and read your articles about cricket from non-test playing nations and find it very interesting. I have a few points to express why cricket is failing to progress beyond a handful of countries.

1) Poor marketing from ICC, the sports ruling body.
2) Not enough cricket is shown on television in non-Test playing nations.
3) Development program is not enough and under-funded. The best way to spread cricket is through aggressive marketing. Cricket as a game has tremendous potential.

The ICC should be revamped. It should include former Test players to spread the game. The old English style of sipping tea and eating biscuits and watching five days of cricket will go nowhere. However, cricket exists in countries like Kenya and Holland due to expats who bring their cricket to these countries.

If they show more cricket on television in countries like the U.S., I am sure the game will catch up. Right now, not even the World Cup finals is shown on TV in these countries.

Not enough is being done to spread cricket.

Suresh Lambert,
Scarborough, Canada

Tony,

First let me say that you are doing an excellent job keeping everyone informed about cricket in not so well known cricket areas of the world.

I am always especially interested to read the news about cricket in Kuwait as I worked there for a year and played cricket for the Casuals, an expatriate bunch of mainly English, Aussies and the odd Kiwi (me!). I was particularly interested to read the report about huge scores of 400+ runs in 50 overs. The writer mentioned the dry air which doesn't allow the ball to swing much but didn't mention the fact that it is the outfield that is the main cause. He did say it is lightning quick, but the reason that it is lightning quick is that it is what the locals call "desert". That means it is like rolled earth but with little sharp stones in it. Diving in the outfield is out of the question as you lose any skin that is unfortunate enough to come in contact with the ground.

What this means is that the batting side will only be confronted with 2 fielders on the single, the other 7 will be on the boundary from ball one. Of course, for the batsman, sometimes blocking the ball is enough to obtain a 2!

Containment is the name of the game (restricting the boundaries), which does nothing for the fielding skills of most Kuwaiti players as they know nothing about placing pressure on a batsman by having a ring field. Slip catches? I don't think so.

In my year there I only played on a grass field (the wicket was a mat layed down over the grass - not much bounce) once at the University on a football field with a running track around it, so the boundaries were very short. In my opinion they desperately need more grounds (The 2 main ones in Ahmadi have desert outfields) with grass outfields to improve the quality of their cricket. There are some superb players there, no question and it is a shame that more locals are not attracted to the game. Sadly it is still very much an ex-pat game in Kuwait and indeed the whole Gulf.

The reason that they have only recently adopted 50 over games is the scarcity of grounds. The 2 main grounds at Ahmadi manage to fit in 2 30 over games in one day. Imagine reporting to the ground at 7.30am to play at 8am Sunday morning! Welcome to cricket in Kuwait!!

Which brings me to my final point. While I applaud the efforts of organisers to hold an inter Gulf tournament, I seriously question the the authenticity of the term "National" sides. Most of the players in the Kuwaiti side are expats. Only 2 are Kuwaiti "Nationals" i.e. entitled to Kuwaiti passports. The residency situation in Kuwait is such that even if the other 9 players were born in Kuwait, they will never be entitled to Kuwaiti passports. They are either there as dependents under parents with a work permit or have a work permit themselves. The situation is the same in all the other Gulf countries also. This is obviously different from other ICC countries e.g Bangladesh, Holland, Kenya. Without doubt this is a political issue but it is a shame that these players will represent their "countries" without the chance of ever becoming a citizen. Sadly it is just this situation that, despite the efforts of dedicated and enthusiastic people like Mahmoud Bastaki (we played together for BKME) prevents cricket from obtaining more and better facilities in Kuwait.

On a more positive note, I have played cricket in New Zealand, England, Northern Ireland and Kuwait (I'd like to experience cricket in more countries) and it doesn't matter where you play or what the facilities are like, the enthusiasm of the players and administrators is the same, which can only augur well for cricket.

I salute all the players and administrators in all the far flung outposts of cricket, keep up the good work and keep enjoying this greatest of games. Who knows, I could be ringing up looking for a game soon.

Pat Hounsell
Ex Auckland, New Zealand
and (for now) London, UK.

Tony,

I was roaming the Cricinfo site when I happened upon the Cricket in non-test playing nations section. I was surprised, amazed and extremely happy to see that cricket is developing in places I'd never dreamed it would be played. I am from Australia where summer consists of cricket.....cricket.....and um....cricket. I will definitely be coming back to read more about the "World Game"!! I play in a local competition on sythetic wickets, we aren't playing for sheep stations, but the competition can be fierce. I'm unsure if we could ever organise to make it to Penang for a hit, but I might just talk to my Association hierarchy to see if there would be any chance of a Representative squad doing anything like that.

Keep up the good work, and if you need a hand with anything, please ask. I may not be able to help, but you never know!!

Gavin Clarke
Canberra, Australia

I think that Cricket Max should be introduced to all countries over the world, Especially for non test playing nations. I say this because if you introduced tests to other countries they would think it is boring. Cricket Max, invented by Martin Crowe, could really build up interest in other countries about cricket. Cricket Max has now been in New Zealand for 3 years now and is definately the most action packed game of all versions of cricket.

"The Hobbs Family"
New Zealand