BEIJING: These days when China says something everybody sits up and takes notice.
However, when China says it has big plans for cricket we are probably entitled to a little snigger. But those who mock China’s ambitions do so at their own peril. Some 1,000 baseball trainers have been identified as possible cricket coaches and China is serious about playing in the 2015 World Cup.
Cricket experts are likely to point out that China just doesn’t have enough cricketing tradition. But in reality, cricket is not new to China.
The first cricket match in China was held in 1858 when a team of British naval officers played a Shanghai XI. China is already an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Recently, a national cricket championship was held at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Now, the Chinese are stepping up their efforts to popularise the game. And they are going about it with typical, authoritarian determination.
Zhang Xioaning, director of the Multi-ball Games Administration Centre, has also said cricket “is perfectly suited to the Chinese people”. What he probably meant is that while cricket requires a quick eye, balance and timing, it doesn’t require being physically big.
If the Chinese take up cricket seriously, there is every chance that they would soon be able to compete with the best. Sports history proves that.
In the 1950s, China was behind India in the Asian Games medals tally. Look where China has reached today not only in the Asiad but also in the Olympics. Even in hockey, China beat India and Pakistan in the last Asian Games in spite of having begun playing the game fairly recently.
We should welcome China’s efforts to excel in cricket. After all, if China becomes a serious contender in cricket the game would become truly global. The potentially huge Chinese market would also transform the economics of cricket. If things go according to plan, the cricketing world might be in for a rude shock from the land of the dragon
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