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China Embrace Cricket!

Blaze

Banned
By Mary-Anne Toy Herald Correspondent in Beijing
March 4, 2006

CRICKET is not a sport one normally associates with China, but the world's most populous nation has embarked on an ambitious plan to change that.
China's sporting mandarins have dubbed it "the noble game", and with communist single-mindedness have plotted a five-year plan to become a cricketing nation.
The Asian Cricket Council's media officer, Shahriar Khan, said China's interest in cricket was simple. It realised that the biggest game in Asia is cricket - a game that China's major rival in the region, India, happens to be rather good at. With China increasingly making its presence felt in the region, learning to play cricket makes good sense.
"China very much wants to engage with Asia via this game - they've seen Sri Lanka, a tiny country of 20 million winning a World Cup, and with 1.3 billion people are thinking: surely, surely we can win this as well," Mr Khan said.
This month, 30 of the country's leading physical education teachers and coaches from sports such as baseball, softball and table tennis were accredited as China's first cricket umpires and coaches. They have been instructed to go back to their schools and universities and start spreading the word.
By 2009, according to the five-year plan, there will be at least 720 teams across the country in a highly organised system designed to channel promising youngsters from primary schools into the top secondary schools and then China's elite universities.
The aim is to qualify for the 2019 World Cup, and to ultimately beat its rising economic rival India in a Test.
This might seem far-fetched for a country that does not have even one cricket pitch yet, where the game is not shown on TV and where cricket is the almost exclusive domain of expats in Beijing and Shanghai.
China's cricketing association admits there are probably only 100 cricketers in China - including foreigners. The game has been introduced to just eight schools. But never underestimate the Chinese, especially when national pride and politics is at stake.
China quietly began turning itself into a cricketing nation two years ago. It joined the International Cricket Council as an affiliate, engaged Cricket Australia as a consultant and hired the former Sri Lankan Test player Rumesh Ratnayake as head coach.
Last September Cricket Australia ran its first six-day training camp in Beijing. Led by the Asian project leader, Ross Turner, the Australians gave a crash course to sport coaches and 50 Beijing primary schoolchildren. A second camp was held this year.
For the ICC, the experiment is fascinating because, although a cricket game was recorded in 1858 in Shanghai, the Chinese have no colonial baggage or grudges. "To them it's just a bat and ball game, so it's a very pure experiment. It's not about social graces or elitism," Mr Khan said.
 

Chubb

International Regular
I would not want the current Chinese regime getting anywhere near world cricket.
 

age_master

Hall of Fame Member
I think its fantastic that China is makinga huge effort to become competitive in cricket, with their huge population it would be a massive boost for the game of cricket as a whole
 

Fusion

Global Moderator
I think it would be great if China were to join the cricket community. Their huge poppulation and the subsequent money/interest their entry will pump bring in has to be a positive.
 

cpr

International Coach
Chubb said:
I would not want the current Chinese regime getting anywhere near world cricket.

Aye we dont want to tarnish Crickets international reputation.

Thats Zimbabwe's job.

Personally think its a good thing. More people playing cricket, watching cricket, enjoying cricket, surely must bring more positives than it does negatives.
 

andyc

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Chubb said:
I would not want the current Chinese regime getting anywhere near world cricket.
Pah. China's hardly communist any more. It's not as if they've done anything bad to soccer or baseball (alright, the swimming thing wasn't good).
In terms of cricket, it'd be one of the best things for the sport, having so many people play it. And I'd just love it from a personal point of view, too, having lived there and played in the first league there. The problem is, it does need to start being broadcast on TV, because people just have no idea what it is. We'd be playing games and passerbys would stop for up to ten minutes to watch what was going on. Even during the Sixes when it was free entry to the ground and we had ex-international players, we didn't really have any local Chinese coming in. In fact, the only locals we had playing were in the woman's team, who were mainly brought in by single expat men.

However, as Richard said, there has been things like this said for a long time, and there wouldn't even be a national team, unless you count the Shanghai club team.
 
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GotSpin

Hall of Fame Member
andyc said:
Pah. China's hardly communist any more. It's not as if they've done anything bad to soccer or baseball (alright, the swimming thing wasn't good).
In terms of cricket, it'd be one of the best things for the sport, having so many people play it. And I'd just love it from a personal point of view, too, having lived there and played in the first league there. The problem is, it does need to start being broadcast on TV, because people just have no idea what it is. We'd be playing games and passerbys would stop for up to ten minutes to watch what was going on. Even during the Sixes when it was free entry to the ground and we had ex-international players, we didn't really have any local Chinese coming in. In fact, the only locals we had playing were in the woman's team, who were mainly brought in by single expat men.

However, as Richard said, there has been things like this said for a long time, and there wouldn't even be a national team, unless you count the Shanghai club team.
True. Bit ambitious about the aiminig for 2019 world cup, though i guess its possible with their population and resources available. Would be great for the game of cricket if they did well.
 

GotSpin

Hall of Fame Member
Chubb said:
I would not want the current Chinese regime getting anywhere near world cricket.
Hardly a communist country apart from title anymore, and its not like the ICC have a glowing reputation that the Chinese might tarnish
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
Chubb said:
I would not want the current Chinese regime getting anywhere near world cricket.
Early India after independence came under huge communist influence (Nehru saw China as a very useful country indeed to get into bed with for a time). Of course, the Ladakh situation changed all that.
 

Chubb

International Regular
It's not about China no longer being truly Communist, that is blatantly obvious. What I mean is that we should not allow dictatorships that engage in wholesale oppression of their peoples to enter into world cricket. There is no democracy in China, nor any intention of it being introduced. Neither is there a transparent justice system. Zimbabwe has taught us that human rights aren't important to the ICC, so doubtless China will eventually get in. When the Chinese want to be good at a sport, they get very good at it, usually very fast. I have nothing against the Chinese people, but I do have a lot against dictatorships, and I do not think that another one should be allowed into the cricket world.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
Chubb said:
It's not about China no longer being truly Communist, that is blatantly obvious. What I mean is that we should not allow dictatorships that engage in wholesale oppression of their peoples to enter into world cricket. There is no democracy in China, nor any intention of it being introduced. Neither is there a transparent justice system. Zimbabwe has taught us that human rights aren't important to the ICC, so doubtless China will eventually get in. When the Chinese want to be good at a sport, they get very good at it, usually very fast. I have nothing against the Chinese people, but I do have a lot against dictatorships, and I do not think that another one should be allowed into the cricket world.
I don't think it's the role of the ICC to take a political stance over China, especially the way that they have abrogated any responsibility with respect to Zimbabwe.
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
Surprised nobody has mentioned China getting the next Olympic games..

Lets hope the athletes aren't worried about reading a non government controlled newspaper or watching television that hasn't been rigerously censored.. Oh and the smog!
 

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