Daqing, a city in north-east China, is the latest in the People’s Republic to take to cricket. About as far away as you can be from any Test-playing country without being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Daqing is the significant step in the evolution of China’s cricket. “We’re very impressed by their enthusiasm and welcome to cricket,” says Chinese Cricket Association’s Deputy Secretary General Zhang Tian.

The city in north-eastern Heilongjiang province, bordering Russia and Mongolia, is under snow for four and a half months of the year, so cricket, as with other sports relying on turf, is not easy to play. Nevertheless, spurred by the fact that an overwhelming percentage of China’s gold-medal winners have traditionally come from the north-east (“They are tall and with good stamina,” says Zhang Tian) the CCA very much wanted to bring cricket to the region. The success of Shenyang Sport University from neighbouring Liaoning province in China’s national championships has led to Daqing’s sporting authorities taking an interest in cricket. A number of university and high-school coaches were invited to Level I coaching courses in China who then took the game back to Daqing.

Daqing Normal University (as in not a specialist Science or Sport University) is the centre of Daqing’s cricket. With a high-school and primary school aligned to it, it is able to have cricket running throughout its sporting curriculum. Former Bangladesh international Manjurul Islam is coaching there now, assisted by women's national team player Sun Mengyao. They will be in Daqing until the arrival of the first frosts in mid-October. They have already unearthed a left-arm spinner, (“left-arm spin is a very useful weapon,” says the left-arm pace bowler) who Manjurul reckons has every chance of playing for China in the years ahead.

Forty-eight teams took part in the final round of the Chinese National Cricket Championships this year, 21 more than last year. The senior finals were played in Shanghai and the junior finals in Linhai. Shenyang Sport University, as they always have been, were the men’s champions, this time joined by their women’s team and a local high school team win as overall victors.

In all other categories there were new champions. “The matches were competitive and the standard was higher than in other years,” says ACC Development Officer for China Aminul Islam.

Sixty-six schools and universities across Beijing, Jinan, Linhai and Shanghai took part in the qualifying round for the championships. Eighty-nine T20 matches were played in the final rounds for the men, women and youth teams. Eight grounds, as yet with artificial turf, were used in Shanghai and Linhai and they. along with local umpires and scorers, were all in good condition. The highlights of the men’s final and the results were shown on Shanghai television.

“This is a milestone achieved as this will help to promote cricket in the country,” said Chinese Cricket Association Deputy Secretary General Zhang Tian.

Asian Cricket Council

Shenyang Sport University have maintained their dominance of cricket in China, recently winning the men's national championship for the fifth year in a row.

They are the only team to have won the championships since they began in 2007.

According to the Asian Cricket Council, 98 teams from across China took part in University, High School Senior, High School Junior, High School Women, Combined Primary School Boys and Primary School Girls divisions. A total of 28 teams competed in the finals which were held in Linhai, Zheijiang Province in eastern China for the first time. Previous finals have been played in Beijing and Shanghai. In 2009 61 teams took part nationally.

There are expatriate competitions in Shanghai and Beijing. However, the Chinese Cricket Association (CCA) in its professed desire to develop cricket among the Chinese has had little or no interaction with the expatriates, who do not fall under the CCA umbrella.

The winners and runners-up in each division:

University:
1. Shenyang Sport University
2. Shanghai Aviation University

Senior High School
1. Beijing Zhichunli High School
2. Shenyang 28 High school

Junior High School
1. Shenzhen Tongle School
2. Zhejiang Shaojiadu High School

High School Women
1. Zhejiang Shaojiadu High School
2. Shandong Yuhua Middle School

Primary School Boys and Girls
1. Shandong Kuangshan Middle School
2. Shenzhen Yucai Primary Middle School

An interview with Wang Lei, China’s captain, in the National newspaper highlights how far the game has to go to get a foothold in the country, despite the gushing enthusiasm of the ICC and ACC.

Speaking at the recent ACC Twenty20 tournament, where China were thrashed by all comers, Lei said he had been playing the game for two years.

When I was asked if I was interested in playing cricket, I had no clue of the sport. I had never seen or even heard of cricket, so I was curious at first to know more about what this game was all about. Nothing seemed to sink in when they tried to explain how cricket was played, even after watching some video footage and demonstrations.

The introduction to the game was from the very basic, using soft balls. The first few months were all about fielding and then I was taught how to bowl. I never got anything straight but a few days later I did pretty well to hit the stump a few times. I know how to bowl a leg break and an off break, but I decided to take the easier option to bowl medium fast.

When I got to bat for the first time, after a few lessons and seeing how the drive-shot was played, I hammered the first ball like a baseball hit. I was later told that was the pull shot. I have learned to play all the strokes in the book yet the pull shot is my favourite.

The catching and throwing wasn’t difficult to learn, but batting and bowling need skills.
And two years on, I feel I have done reasonably well for a first timer.

Initially, cricket sounded similar to baseball. In teaching the children, it became more interesting for me, and not only was I passing on the knowledge but I was learning more by doing the basics over and over again.

Whereas those running the game see China as a great untapped (commercial) market, Lei was more sensible in his expectations.

Ours is an experimental side but wait and see when the children start to come out from the production lines. We have some as young as nine and they hold a better future for China. I am one of the older players at 23 and the rest are very young … six of them are 16. So this team are going to be around for some time.

The rumbling debate over the number of expats included in several leading Associate sides has resurfaced after comments from Syed Ashraful Haq, the chief executive of the Asian Cricket Council, that some of them should not enter next year’s Asian Games.

Haq’s remarks came because of a change of rules regarding eligibility for the Games which state only passport holders of the participating countries can take part. For some that would leave them fielding second or third XI teams. UAE, for example, only had two eligible players in their side at the recently-completed ACC Twenty20 tournament.

Asked if UAE should send a side to the Games, Haq said: “My conviction is that they should not … they should not undermine the tournament.

“They cannot send a team who cannot play the game. They cannot bowl out a team like India or Pakistan and then get bowled out for 10. It will undermine the whole game and also jeopardise our chances of taking the game forward. It takes out all the countries from the Middle East.”

Haq’s comments brought a predictably stinging response from the man managing the all-Emirati side. “I have worked with Ashraful Haq for many years and have never heard him give a good piece of advice,” Abdulrazzaq Kazim told the local National newspaper. “Why should we listen to him now? We will go. Of course, if we play against India or Sri Lanka or Pakistan, we will lose. But if we don’t go, from where will get the experience? It is of benefit for us to go and play there.”

Dilawar Mani, chief executive of the Emirates Cricket Board, endorsed that view. “Of course we are not in the same level of the elite teams but if China can field a team as the host, why not the others,” he told the newspaper.

It seems unlikely the UAE will not send a team, but Haq’s comments have raised a genuine question being asked by many. If a team consists almost entirely of expats, can it be considered truly representative?

Three of the semi-finalists were decided on the fourth day of the ACC Twenty20 Cup, with the three unbeaten teams - Afghanistan, Oman and UAE - all progressing to the last four.

UAE grabbed the headlines with a 209-run rout of the hapless China side, the biggest margin in a representative Twenty20 match. UAE made 236 for 5 and then bundled out China for 27, 15 of which were extras. In a week Australia’s chief executive claimed the ICC would be better off promoting cricket in China than in some existing Associates, it again highlighted the yawning chasm between the hopes of those running the game and the reality of the side itself.

Afghanistan bowled out Saudi Arabia for 72 to win by nine wickets, but Oman were made to struggle more, even so they beat Malaysia by 35 runs after posting 197 for 5. Nepal’s stop-start tournament continued with a six-wicket win over Qatar.

The closest game was between Hong Kong and Singapore where Singapore scraped home by one wicket off the penultimate ball.

The individual performance of the round came from Kuwait’s Khalid Butt who smashed 142 off 53 deliveries, including ten sixes, in his team’s nine-wicket win over Bahrain.

	Afghanistan will be hoping to build on their success at the World Cup qualifiers © Getty Images

Afghanistan and China will be star attractions in the 12-nation Asian Twenty20 Cup which starts in Dubai on November 22.

Afghanistan surprised the world by finishing among the top six in the 2011 World Cup qualifying tournament to gain one-day international status earlier this year, while China will be making their debut in an Asian Twenty20 event.

The tournament serves as a qualifying round for next year's Asian Games and Mazhar Khan, administrator of Emirates Cricket Board, is hoping it will help expand cricket in Asia. "It's great to have China and Afghanistan in the event and a step forward towards promoting the game in Asia."

Sharjah and Abu Dhabi will host the matches from which the top three teams will join Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China. Twenty20 cricket became an Asian Games sport after it was approved by the Olympic Council of Asia in May, a decision that could bring Twenty20 closer to full Olympic status.

Alongside China and Afghanistan, teams from Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Singapore, Qatar, Hong Kong, Nepal, Saudi Arab, Malaysia and Bahrain will compete in the event which runs until November 30.

Khan believes the Cup will also help Asian teams tune up for the World Twenty20 qualifiers to be held in the UAE in February next year.

"These teams will have some good preparations for the World Twenty20 qualifiers from where two teams will get a place in the third World Twenty20 Cup to be held in the West Indies next year.”

Hong Kong beat Thailand to win the inaugural Asian Cricket Council’s women’s Twenty20 in Kuala Lumpar.

Hong Kong posted 106 for 4, thanks to a late charge engineered by Connie Wong, who made 23 off 21 balls. In reply, Thailand were always slightly behind the asking rate, and were left needing 17 off the final two overs and six off the last ball. Ishitaa Gidwani kept things interesting by bowling a wide, but she followed with a dot ball to secure the win.

Nepal thrashed China by 73 runs, bowling them out for 30, to win the third-place play-off.

The ICC Americas region launched its centenary celebrations at the Annual Beach Cricket Tournament in Chile on February 27 and Argentina hosted the 110th edition of the classic North v South match on March 6, 2009.

The Catch the Spirit celebrations are aimed at promoting the ICC’s centenary, the Great Spirit of cricket and the wide appeal and diversity of the game. While the Full Members including Bangladesh, the West Indies and recently South Africa, have played their role in celebrating the ICC’s centenary, the spotlight fell on Chile and Argentina to showcase the spirit of the game in their country.

The Annual Beach Cricket Tournament at Viña del Mar’s Playa del Deporte on Chile’s coast captured the sun, sea and sand which represents the spirit of the game in Chile. India successfully defended the title they won last year, by beating England in the final, while Australia came third beating Argentina in the play-off. It was the two Chilean teams though which provided the tournament with the excitement, illustrating the great potential for the game in South America.

The beach cricket festival was followed by the 110th Edition of the North v South three day game at the Belgrano Athletic Club, Buenos Aires. The idea for this historic fixture was born in a railway station in the far northern city of Tucuman, when the proposal was made and accepted to challenge Buenos Aires. Early in November of 1891, the cricketers of the North travelled to play the South at Palermo in Buenos Aires, and the legendary tale of this famous game had begun.

The 2009 fixture saw the South beat the North by eight wickets (North 151 and 69, South 162 and 61 for 2). The South took just ten and a half overs to knock off the 59 runs they needed to complete, in less than two days, the first outright win in this historic fixture since their 22-run victory in 2000. Billy MacDermott, with 8 for 44 and a crucial innings of 31, won the Man-of-the-Match award, with Diego Lord (7 for 38) and Gary Savage (52 not out and 26) named as Best Bowler and Best Batsman respectively. Miguel Rowe took the Spirit of Cricket Award. ICC

Javed Miandad, the former Pakistan batsman, has said cricket has tremendous potential to grow in China, having observed how the youngsters have taken to the game following a visit to the country as a Pakistan cricket ambassador.

"The interest of cricket in China is amazing and I think the country can progress by leaps and bounds," Miandad told AFP on his return home. "I saw great interest among the students and the support from the government adds to the potential which is very heartening. I would love to go back and help them make a strong team for international events."

Miandad had quit as director general of the Pakistan Cricket Board in January and in his new role as ambassador, was approached by Afghanistan to help them qualify for the 2011 World Cup. He said Pakistan will play an active role in developing cricket in China by providing the right facilities and expertise.

"Pakistan and China have signed a memorandum of understanding under which we will provide them coaches so that they can learn the basics and improve at a grass-roots level," he said.

China has been an affiliate member of the Asian Cricket Council and the ICC since 2004. China won the ICC global development award for the region in 2005. There’s a chance of Twenty20 cricket being included at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou.

However, Miandad stressed that China will still require a lot more support to entertain thoughts of competing at the world stage. "They need support from the cricket world and I firmly believe that if they get the necessary support they can give some quality players to the game and through their interest the boundaries of the game will spread."

China finally turned in a performance to quell if not silence criticism of their large-scale funding in beating Myanmar by 118 runs in the Asian Cricket Council Challenge, a game one wag labelled "the battle of the dictatorships". That the victory was in the bottom-place play-off and came after three massive defeats will not be lost on those watching China's progress carefully.

Click here for full report

Oman and Thailand retained their unbeaten records with emphatic wins over Myanmar and China on the fourth day of the Asian Cricket Council Trophy Challenge in Chiang Mai, Thailand, but the standard of the teams continued to cause concern.

Click here for the full round-up.

China will make their debut in international cricket at the adult level at next month's ACC Trophy Challenge in Bangkok, with the spotlight very much on them after an appalling display in the Asian Cricket Council's Under-17 Challenge Cup in Bangkok last month.

Chaina have benefited from considerable funding by both the ACC and ICC, but a woeful display in Thailand raised considerable questions regarding the wisdom of the investments.

China will be in Group B, the weaker of the two which includes Maldives and Thailand. Their first match will be against Iran on January 13

Tournament favourites, Oman, are in Group A with Bhutan, Brunei and Myanmar.

Oman have an interesting playing schedule in the next few months. In January they play the likes of Myanmar and Brunei in the ACC Trophy Challenge and in April will contest the World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa against teams such as Ireland and Scotland.

Afghanistan beat Oman by 42 runs to win the Asian Cricket Council's Under-17 Challenge Cup in Bangkok, but the event was hardly an inspiring advertisement for the sport in general, and China's development programme in particular.

Click here for the full report of the tournament ... and China's nightmare

Mamatha Maben, the former India women's captain, will coach the Chinese women's side in the lead-up for the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, which includes cricket among the 41 sports to be played. "I have just got the contract and I will leave in probably ten days' time," Maben, a qualified Level 1 coach, told the Hindu. "I will be handling their senior women's team as well as the age-groups. It is also time to move on as I have been playing cricket for about 20 years."

Maben's first assignment will be the Asian Cricket Council's Under-19 Women's Championship in Thailand in December. "Each and every person, no matter what her role, is very important to the team. As a captain, I tried to motivate my team. I think that's my strength. I talk to the girls about the effects of positive thinking. I believe it makes a difference." Maben has also worked as a journalist in the past.

The ICC has formalised the scope of IS Bindra's role as its principal advisor. Bindra, who began his two-year tenure in the newly-created post in July, will focus on "developing the game in China, implementing the ICC vision, assisting relations between the ICC and its members, and working with host members to ensure the success of ICC events.

Read the rest of the story at Cricinfo, and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Next week's ICC annual get-together promises to have more than its fair share of politicking, posturing and controversy. But, unless there is a major about-turn, it should also be a watershed for the Associates and Affiliates.

In 2009, income from the ICC's six-year media deal with ESPN-Star, worth over US$1 billion, kicks in, and while the game's big boys will still keep the lion's share, the rest will see substantial increases in their incomes.

Although the ICC draws considerable flak on many fronts, it is quietly committed to promoting the game in as many countries as possible, and it does that by means of a myriad of competitions and initiatives. Most do not warrant much media attention, but they are there and they work.

Until now, the gripe of the smaller countries, and especially those bubbling just underneath the top flight, has been about the inequality of the way in which the game is financed. That was never more apparent than when it came to earnings from last year's World Cup.

Ireland got a flat fee of US$125,000 a year for four years for taking part, and on top of that they received another $50,000 for reaching the Super Eights. However, because of the extra costs involved in their progression, not least because their players are not professional cricketers and their absences from their full-time jobs had to be underwritten, Ireland's success actually left the board out of pocket.

Zimbabwe, on the other hand, turned up, tied with Ireland and never threatened to progress after being thumped by Pakistan and West Indies. For those three matches, Zimbabwe Cricket received US$11 million, their share of the pot as a Full Member.

The top six Associates receive no more than US$500,000 a year - some substantially less - to fund their entire operations. Out of that they have to pay all their cricketing and administration costs. Only those with a low cost of living, such as Kenya, can hope to maintain a professional squad on that kind of money.

The gulf between the haves and have-nots is further widened by the limited sums Associates can earn from sponsorship and media contracts. Zimbabwe can exploit home series against, say, India to carve out lucrative TV deals worth millions, and on the back of that, attract shirt- and other corporate sponsorship. As highlighted by Scotland's failure to secure any TV deal for their forthcoming ODI against England, the Associates struggle to get such income streams.

The new deals will provide a substantial increase for Associates, especially for the countries who are pressing for space at the top table. Until now the share has been roughly equal, rewarding Netherlands and Kenya on par with Thailand and Fiji. The new system will see more demarcation between the top Associates and the rest.

The leading ten could earn as much as US$1.5 million a year from 2009. There will then be an onus on them to professionalise their administrations, but several of them are already well down that route. They will also be more accountable - the ICC does not want a repeat of the mess that came following a spike in Kenya's funding earlier in the decade.

The second-string Associates will also get more - around US$160,000 as a base figure - but then again the demands on them are less. Even Affiliates will receive US$15,000, with the opportunity for more should they make a good enough case. There will also be more cash in the pot for participating and hosting competitions.

There have never been more opportunities for development outside the Full Member countries, but there remain some nagging worries.

The main one is how to bridge the gap between semi and full-blown professionalism. Almost all the Associates rely on dedicated amateurs, both on and off the field. As the number of ICC competitions has increased - and they have to be welcomed - the pressure has begun to tell. Scotland and Ireland particularly have already found players cannot meet all their commitments, and even the increased income will not allow them to employ a full-time squad.

"So much of putting players on full-time retainers depends on how many fixtures we can command," Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland's chief executive, said. "At the moment, all we can promise the squad in 2009 is a World Cup qualifying campaign, eight FP Trophy matches, an England game, and probably some Intercontinental Cup matches. Of course, we hope to have more, but can't be sure at the moment.

"Our top players are already plying their trade in county cricket, while others have full-time jobs which they may not wish to give up. The actual number of players that the coach will want to put on a full-time contract, or else the number that even want to have one, may not be that many."

The other quandary is how to get them fixtures. Kenya, widely regarded as the leading Associate, have found it almost impossible to get Full Member countries to visit or host them. As a result they invariably play other Associates. Good for the win-loss ratio, not so clever in providing the kind of experience that no amount of money can buy.

These issues will need to be addressed, but for now the future has never looked so promising beyond the Test world.

In 2005-06, they were a few men far from home, playing cricket with a tennis ball, often on a basketball court.

The Beijing Cricket Club (BCC) is where Indian and Pakistani expats have found common ground as it quickly grew into four teams that play Shanghai and Hong Kong tournaments.

Every weekend, members hop on to a bus that picks up expats for cricket at the Dulwich College’s new ground. Trophies are stored at Beijing’s oldest sports pub Frank’s Place, the club’s unofficial base.

Click here for the full story in the Hindustan Times

Shandong, the second-most populous province in China, has become the seventh region after Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Liaoning, Chongqing and Tianjin to officially take up cricket, according to a media release from the Asian Cricket Council.

“The Shandong people are well known for their good physical condition in China … the majority of rugby players are from Shandong,” Aminul Islam, the ACC’s development officer for China, said. With cricket being aligned with rugby in the multi-ball games administrative centre in China, the Chinese Cricket Association (CCA) felt a partnership between both bodies to make use of athletes all-year round would be ideal.

”The local education bureau has said that they would organize the local junior students to learn cricket for promotion and then build for high performance,” said CCA secretary-general Liu Rongyao.

The appeal of taking the game to China is not hard to see. "The potential benefits and commercial revenues from [China's] presence in the cricket world are enormous," said Syed A shraful Huq, the ACC’s chief executive. "As soon as China breaks though, I foresee the total global revenues for cricket increasing by 30% to 40%.”

On May 2, Taesongsan Park in Pyongyang will be the host venue for the first ever formal cricket matches in North Korea. Two teams from Shanghai and the newly-formed Pyongyang Cricket Club will take part in a triangular Twenty20 tournament with the winners receiving the inaugural DHL Pyongyang Cricket Friendship Cup.

Click here for more details.

The Asian Cricket Council has confirmed Malaysia as the venue for the 2008 ACC Trophy Elite Division. The 10-team tournament will be held from July 25 to August 3, with all matches likely to be staged in Kuala Lumpur.

It was also confirmed the ACC Trophy will be held as two separate tournaments for the first time.

The ACC Trophy Elite tournament will be contested by the top 10 ranked ACC members: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the holders, the United Arab Emirates.

The ACC Trophy Challenge for the remaining ACC members is likely to be staged in Kuwait from January 11-17, 2009. Among the invitees are Bhutan, Brunei, Burma, China, Iran, the Maldives, Oman and Thailand, although it remains to be seen whether China fields a team.
Tony Munro

Not have the ICC cut the number of Associates at the next World Cup from six to four at the behest of the hosts, but the Asian Cricket Council hopes that two of those slots will be taken by Asian counties.

"India beating Australia is very good for cricket in Asia and will encourage nations like Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, China and Afghanistan," Ashraful Huq, a former secretary of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, told AFP. "I watched both the finals in Australia and was amazed how the young Indian team paid the Australians back, both on and off the field."

Click here for the full story

China have recruited former Pakistan Test player Rashid Khan to coach the national team for the 2010 Asian Games in Beijing. He has been coaching China's junior and women's teams since 2006.

"To prepare a cricket team for the Asian Games is a big challenge but the Chinese have a lot of pride in what they do," Khan told Reuters. "I have been given this responsibility now."

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

Click here for the full story.

Saudi Arabia won the ACC Under-19 Challenge Cup, but the tournament was marred by six of the ten participants withdrawing.

Click here for more

The Chinese Cricket Association (CCA) has received cricket equipment worth US$20,000 from the Pakistan Cricket Board as a goodwill gesture to promote cricket in China.

"We badly needed this equipment because the CCA wanted to fulfill the needs of different teams for holding tournaments," Jiang Zhenyuan, a director of cricket with the CCA, told the Asian Cricket Council website.

The equipment - bats, balls, pads, stumps and gloves - will be first distributed to schools across the country and then what is left will be used in national tournaments, the website reported.

The PCB had pitched in last year by appointing Rashid Khan, a former fast bowler, as China's coach. Khan managed the women's side in the recent Asian Cricket Council's women's tournament.

Syed Ashraful Huq, the chief executive of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) believes that China's foray into the game will boost the chances of cricket making it as an Olympic sport.

"China's standing as the world's leading sporting nation can play a major role in influencing future Olympic rosters," Huq was quoted by the Associated Press of Pakistan. He said that China's say could help cricket's chances to make it to Olympics and that's why the game needed to be developed in the country. "I don't know if cricket can make it into the London Olympics in 2012, where it could have demonstration status, but maybe the one after that."

Huq indicated that although over a 100 countries played the sport, a major nation like China playing the game could help it qualify as a truly global sport. He felt that cricket's debut at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games will give the game a fillip in China.

He expressed confidence over the game's progress in Asia. "Eventually cricket will become the biggest game in the Asian Games - the number one, because it is seen by the most and it is followed by the most," he said.

Huq, who visited Guangzhou to see the cricket facilities being developed for the Asian Games, also praised the Pakistan Cricket Board for their assistance in promoting the game in China.

Cricket has been played only once at the Olympics, in 1900, though only one match was played, between England and France. Cricket also featured in the 1998 Commonwealth games in Malaysia.

Rashid Khan, the former Pakistan allrounder now coaching China, says the country is developing cricket the right way by focussing on local grass-roots cricket rather than relying on expatriates.

"The biggest plus point for the development and promotion of cricket in China is that the locals are taking interest in it," Khan told Reuters. "The local boys and girls show a lot of potential and interest in cricket. Realistically speaking China is a viable commercial growth market (for cricket)... in the next 10 years.

"It is the ideal platform to globalise the sport," he said. "These people are serious about their cricket. Their fantastic sporting culture gives them a big edge over other countries where cricket is still being promoted."

The ICC sees China as a key country for the growth of cricket. Its delegates frequently visit China and are assisting the Chinese Cricket Association in establishing more facilities.

Khan, who has been coaching China for the past nine months, managed the women's side during the recently concluded Asian Cricket Council tournament in Malaysia.

The Hong Kong women's team scored an emphatic ten-wicket victory over China in an historic match played at the Shenzhen University Stadium. While records of matches between teams from Hong Kong and Chinese clubs date back to the 19th century, this match was the first full international played between teams from Hong Kong and China.

Click here for the full report

A group of schoolchildren are off to China to teach them cricket, according to a report at the BBC. Nine boys and two girls, aged 13 and 14, from King Edward VII School in King's Lynn will visit the country and also help translate the rules into Mandarin.

The 10-day visit in July is part of the school's twinning scheme with Tsinghua High School in Chongqing.

The school's director of sport, Paul Tebay, said: "I believe we're the first school to do this and we aim to show that young people can teach and learn from each other.

"If the Chinese take cricket seriously and treat it as a priority, I think they will do very well."

And you can read more about the infrastructure China has in 2007's Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

This week saw the publication of the 2007 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Ranajit Dam takes a look at cricket in China

The official term to describe China’s mixed economy is “Socialism with Chinese characteristics”. As the country embarks on its journey towards world domination in the cricket field, it uses an approach never before seen in the history of the sport: “Chinese characteristics” would not be a terribly inaccurate way to describe it either.

It isn’t just the way cricket is viewed as a “project” to be completed (“Cricket is one of the three big sport projects in Britain and Australia,” an official release declares), but also the fact that the sport’s administrators believe that mass production of home-grown talent is the ideal way forward.

The Chinese Cricket Association (CCA) has trained around 75 PE teachers from schools and colleges in week-long training camps, with the idea that the newly certified coaches would teach the game to students at their respective institutions. A national Under-15 tournament was also hastily organised in the blazing July heat in Beijing, but it was a bit too hasty: the China Daily interviewed participants who were unaware of the existence of the game even a week earlier.

But it was enough to impress both the ICC and the Asian Cricket Council, who, excited by the prospect of 1.3 billion more cricket fans, threw themselves into the project with much enthusiasm. Malcolm Speed duly arrived in Beijing, gushed about the progress that China had made in only a year, and handed over $US200,000 for further development.

Accompanying him was Shaharyar Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board; he also provided US$200,000 and promised to send former Pakistan allrounder Rashid Khan to coach the Under-15s. As is the norm in China, actual statistics about cricket are dubious, where they exist, while new targets are available on an almost daily basis. A claim of 5,000 players on the mainland during the summer was reduced to the more exact figure of 995 by September, although there are apparently 6,416 students learning the sport. The target is 150,000 players by 2020, big numbers for a country that does not have either a proper ground or training facilities, and children are still learning cricket on tennis courts and hockey pitches.

Infrastructure, however, is a minor obstacle in the process of “cricket popularisation”. China needs to find a way to raise the awareness of a game in a nation completely obsessed with basketball and football. When you realise that millions of Chinese stayed up all night to watch every kick of the FIFA World Cup – and 12 even died in the process – the CCA’s tactic of marketing cricket as shen shi yun dong (“The Noble Game”) might be far from enough.

Ranajit Dam is a sports reporter for the Shenzhen Daily newspaper.

The USA’s ABC News reports how China has used the World Cup to score diplomatic points over rivals Taiwan. The Chinese involvement in building various stadia in the Caribbean has been well documented, but it appears the knock-on effect has been more wide reaching:

China gave Antigua a $55 million grant to build the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium. It gave $30 million to Jamaica for a new Trelawny stadium. St. Lucia has both a cricket and a football stadium courtesy of Beijing. The 70,000 people of Dominica have received the aid equivalent of $1,600 per person in the form of a cricket grounds, new drains for the capital and better roads.

The immediate reason for this largesse is Beijing's determination to diplomatically isolate Taiwan. Says Harry Sung of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C.: "Their top priority is to isolate Taiwan. Most of the remaining countries that recognize Taiwan are located in the Caribbean and Latin America."

China's cricket diplomacy led to two West Indian countries, Grenada and Dominica, derecognizing Taiwan as an independent country. Of the remaining 24 countries that recognize Taiwan, four are in the Caribbean and two of these play cricket.

	A spectator looks on during an MCC match at Beijing Jiaotong University © Getty Images

Matthew Pryor in The Times take a look at the reality behind stories that cricket is about to take off in China:-

Thus far, many of the clichéd reports of cricket gripping the Chinese have been just that — the truth has been much more fragile. But as they say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and there has been genuine movement in the past two years.

Malcom Speed, never a man to miss an opportunity for massive new markets for the game has his own thoughts.

“There’s been a very good start in China …this is a ten-year project and no one should be under any illusion that results will appear overnight.”

But Robin Marlar, who as president of MCC led a club tour there last year, makes clear that the state, as with most walks of life, is in control and wants to remain that way.

“The Chinese Government want to keep the two streams apart. For them it is politically essential. They want it to become their game, not an expat game.”

And, Marlar asked, what about the lack of coaches?

“They [the Chinese officials] said, ‘Don’t worry, we will take them into camp for three months’ and when I pressed the point they said it may well be six months. That is how they launched table tennis and swimming, in which they now excel. They just did it. The potential is enormous.”

It won't get many column inches in the mainstream cricket press, but the World Cricket League, which started in Nairobi yesterday and continues into next week, features the best of the rest, the six sides just under the ten Test-playing countries. For the two finalists, the rewards are bountiful - a place among the big boys in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa this September, along with $250,000. For countries used to surviving on annual handouts from the ICC of less than $200,000, that's big money.

With the exception of Bermuda, cricket is not a mainstream sport in any of the participants. And yet it survives, and in some instances thrives, despite the lack of attention and a relatively small number of enthusiasts.

The ICC, who do sterling work in supporting the game's second and third tiers, will rightly use the event to highlight that cricket is not just about the Indians and Australias of the world.

But there remains a nagging worry. The ICC boasts that the game is spreading across the world. But is that right? Is it taking root or is it surviving because more people from its hotbed - south-east Asia - are emigrating and keeping it alive for the duration of their careers?

In last year's Wisden Almanack, Matthew Engel raised this very issue. "Overwhelmingly, the game in non-traditional countries is played by expatriates, mostly South Asian. Journalists were kidded into believing that cricket was about to burst on China, on the basis of some warm comments by civil servants and a couple of coaching courses. I have seen not one shred of evidence to back this up. Are the kids playing with tapeballs on the streets of Shanghai? Are they heck!"

Take Canada. Of the squad in Nairobi at the moment, only three were born in the country, and two of those are over 35. Of the rest, five come from the Caribbean, four from India and each from Pakistan and Uganda. Whereas other Associates have a smattering of expats, Canada are utterly reliant on them.

Engel's comment attracted fierce criticism from those who either argued that England had more than their share of "imports" or that the game only spread in Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Caribbean through expats playing it in the first place.

The worry in some countries is that rather the game is not being continued by the second and third generations but is only being maintained by a steady flow of new immigrants

With regards to England, yes there have been quite a few non English-born players who have been picked for the side, but the game still has a massive stronghold in the country. The selection has been more about improving a solid side. And as for the ex-pats argument? Well, yes, but that's the crucial point. In the regions flagged the game was brought in but it was then embraced by the indigenous population and taken on as their own. This is exemplified no better than in CLR James's seminal work, Beyond A Boundary.

The worry in some countries - and again I come back to Canada - is that rather the game is not being continued by the second and third generations but is only being maintained by a steady flow of new immigrants. Canada's cricket heritage is rich but there is little sign that it has been built on. This is best underlined by the selection of former West Indies international Anderson Cummins. Forty years old and without a major match to his name since 1995-96, he made his debut in Mombasa last week. What message does that send out about the strength in depth of cricket in Canada?

It's not just Canada. Look at the USA, whose 2004 Champions Trophy side was a collection of ageing expats whose performances verged on the disgraceful. And the UAE, which is almost entirely dependant on its ex-pat workforce to keep the game alive.

Cricket's expansion should not be about filling teams with expats and expecting the locals to get excited about it. The only way cricket can gain a foothold in emerging countries is by actually getting the indigenous population to embrace the game, and two excellent examples where this is happening are Nepal and Uganda.

Anderson Cummins of Barbados, West Inbies ... and now Canada © Eddie Norfolk

Does it matter? Yes, because as the ICC looks to develop the game in as many places as possible, that means the financial cake has to be cut in ever thinner slices. The ICC needs to concentrate on a smaller number of countries where the chances of the game taking off. It is invidious that Uganda gets the same basic allowance as Belgium.

Cricket is in trouble in its traditional homes in Africa - Zimbabwe are hell-bent on destruction and South Africa seems to be falling out of love with the game. So efforts should be made in Uganda . And in Asia, which everyone accepts is the game's stronghold, a side like Nepal should really be given the leg up. It's about targeting rather than a scattergun approach.

In fairness to the ICC, they have a tough time and a lot of countries scrambling for a share of the spoils. It's about weeding out the weak and really looking to grow the game in areas where it has the best chance of taking root. It's an almost impossible ask. Look at the repeated failure of American Football to crack Europe ... and if football itself still battles for acceptance outside expats and schools in the USA, then the size of the ICC's task becomes clear.

Of course expats have a key role to play in expansion. But if the game is basically played by them, is it the game spreading or is it more about diehards clinging to the traditions of their homelands? In the UK there are baseball and American football sides, but they are almost all expat Americans and so few would seriously claim the games have taken hold. However, basketball and ice hockey are widely played by locals, boosted by some imported players and expats, and, crucially, the national side can stand on its own two feet. That's the difference.

The Cricket Association of China, in a letter sent to the Pakistan Cricket Board, has praised the services of former Test player Rashid Khan who has been working with it as coach for the last two months. Rashid was sent as coach to China by the board after they received a request from the Asian Cricket Council to nominate someone for the coaching assignment.

“There is a lot of enthusiasm for cricket in China and the best part is they have all local players. They are a very determined and disciplined lot and I have no doubt that if they put their mind to it they will emerge as a good cricketing force soon,” Rashid told Dawn newspaper.

Rashid has also received a coaching offer from Saudi Arabia Cricket Association after his fine work with the Chinese.

Rashid Khan, the former Pakistan fast bowler, has been appointed by the Pakistan Cricket Board to train young cricketers in China. The move is part of a joint effort by the International Cricket Council and the Asian Cricket Council to give a fillip to cricket in China.

Click here for the full story

	An MCC cricketer watches the one-day match against Shanghai Cricket Club ... was this the kind of deeply subversive image the Chinese wanted to prevent? © Getty Images

Less than a month after the ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed described China as the sport's biggest growth market, the cricket photographer Graham Morris was refused a visa to enter the country.

Morris was asked to travel with MCC to record their first tour of China at the end of September. He was planning to work on the first leg only, to Beijing, host city for the 2008 Olympics. MCC applied for the visa on Morris's behalf nine days before the tour party left, sending his application with those for the rest of the members of the tour party - players, umpires and management. The Chinese government told MCC that, because of his role as a photographer, they would have to refer his application to administration in Beijing, which would take more than nine days. All other applications were successful.

"I have absolutely no idea why they wouldn't let me into the country," says Morris. "The most controversial photo I would have taken would have been the MCC team sitting on the Great Wall of China."

Following the initial refusal Morris wrote to the Chinese government assuring them he would seek written permission from them if he wished to sell any images to publications. They still refused.

"If the ICC is so keen for China to play cricket, then it should go out of its way to make sure these things don't happen," says Morris. "The success and joy of cricket isn't just about playing; it's about reporting it too. It's integral.

"You'd like to think the ICC would get involved. If it had been a Sky TV reporter and camera crew that had their visa application denied, then I'm sure they would have got involved. It's what the ICC is there for."

"MCC is very disappointed that Graham wasn't allowed a visa," says Iain Wilton, MCC's head of communication. "The tour was supposed to be good for MCC, good for cricket in general and good for the growth and promotion of the game in China."

When The Wisden Cricketer contacted the ICC, it admitted it was the first it had heard of the incident. The ICC approached the Chinese Cricket Association, who offered no official comment but did say that the vetting of media personnel is more diligent than that of tourists and can take up to two months. It assured the ICC that "Graham Morris wasn't singled out." The CCA also said that visa applications for the media will be relaxed in time for the Olympics.

Speed and the former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan - appointed by the Asian Cricket Council to chair a 'Committee to Evaluate China' - visited Beijing in mid-September. There they announced that the ICC and ACC had granted the CCA £200,000.

Syed Ahraful Huq, chief executive of the ACC, said during Speed's visit: "The potential benefits and commercial revenues from (China's) presence in the cricket world are enormous. As soon as China breaks through, I foresee the total global revenues for cricket increasing by 30 or 40%."

The Asian Cricket Council has announced that it allocated $200,000 to the Chinese cricket authorities to promote the game inside the country, and that sum will be matched by the ICC, making the total investment $400,000.

Clcik here for full story

Hardly a week goes by these days without someone excitedly claiming that cricket is about to take-off in China. Now it emerges that ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed will be in Beijing next week to find out how the land lies.

The China Cricket Association has unveiled a strategic plan that has 60,000 schoolchildren playing cricket in three years and 150,000 in five years, with Beijing, Shanghai and Dalian the hubs for promoting the game. Mandarin editions of the Laws of Cricket are now available in China while Australian cricketing officials have visited the country to conduct coaching courses.

But perhaps the real reason that cricket’s bosses are so keen on China was found in a remark by Syed Ashraful Huq, the boss of the Asian Cricket Council when he told DNA Sport that if China participated in future World Cups then “lucrative commercial windfalls would follow”. He added: “As soon as China breaks through, I foresee the total global revenues for cricket increasing by up to 30 to 40%."

As Gordon Gekko said in Wall Street: “Greed is good, greed is right … greed works.”

An MCC touring team, managed by J.A.F. Vallance – who will be accompanying Tony Lewis, the MCC president, on his last official engagement – and captained by Min Patel (Kent and England), will leave Lord’s on September 25 for a 16-day tour of China and Hong Kong. The strong side – which also includes Dougie Brown (Warwickshire, Scotland and England), Simon Smith (Scotland) and Craig Wright (Scotland) – will play six matches on the tour, including a game against Hong Kong CC, one of MCC’s reciprocal clubs. This will be the first tour which the club has undertaken to China, and it is intended that as many coaching sessions as possible will be held in order to foster the game in the region.

On September 26, a separate touring team will visit Botswana and Zambia for a 14-day visit to play five matches. The side will be managed by R.W. Ibbotson and captained by Stuart Barnes (Gloucestershire).

The Chinese Cricket Association is to take delivery of two innovative artificial wickets thanks to a donation from a UK-based supplier. Only just introduced in Hong Kong and new to the rest of Asia, the wickets are a major step forward for cricket in China.

Much has been written of late about the progress of China in cricket, and this week the People's Daily reports that the growth will see the game introduced into more schools in the coming year.

But amid all the euphoria/concern at the news - and which one depends on your view of China's growing involvment in a variety of sports - a note of caution was sounded by Asian Cricket Council (ACC) development officer Rumesh Ratnayake.

"On a scale of one to 100, Australia are maybe a 98, Sri Lanka a 95. Here we're talking a three or a four."

If the Chinese Cricket Association's development plans are even half successful, it is only a matter of decades before the cricket world could be looking at the new giants of the game, The Age reports.

The Chinese Cricket Association is hoping that by the end of 2007 China would have 30,000 players, 600 coaches and 600 umpires. Their target is for 150,000 players by 2020.

Today the Great Wall, tomorrow the world. Chinese children get to grips with cricket © Cricinfo Magazine

No pitches, no cricketers, no infrastructure, but the game is still finding a way in China, as this month's article in Cricinfo magazine by Ranajit Sankar Dam and Wei Jie highlights:

Liu Pingping is not quite John Buchanan, at least not yet. The 47-year-old schoolteacher from Shanghai has never played cricket in his life, and is yet to even watch a match on TV. A baseball player while in college, Liu is one of the 30 former athletes from other ballgames such as baseball, and from track and field, handpicked to undergo cricket training by the Chinese Cricket Association (CCA). Liu was teaching softball to teenagers in Shanghai's No. 3 Girls Middle School when the CCA approached him.

The game of cricket, which becomes a national obsession in Australia over summer, is developing greater appeal in China. World cricket authorities are eager to capture the competitive spirit infecting the world's most populous nation. Radio Australia's Emily Bourke took a look at what's happening: