Cricket Develops in The Philippines (at last)

It seems to have taken a while but at last cricket seems to be on the march in the Philippines.

Of all the East-Asia Pacific members, the Philippines seems to have taken the longest to launch a junior development plan aimed at growing the game beyond the expatriate community.

The East-Asia Pacific region accounts for just 10 ICC member countries but in most of those cricket is either fully entrenched or prolific at junior level.

Cricket is a mainstream sport in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Cook Islands. PNG and Vanuatu also have very large junior development programs in place although the PNG initiative was somewhat stifled by a school teachers strike in 2007. In Samoa and Tonga, cricket comes in second to the all conquering rugby union code but is nevertheless an established part of the sporting culture. Indonesia, like PNG and Vanuatu, is in the midst of a massive junior push. Japan too now, has an ever expanding junior presence to compliment a popular university competition while South Korea appears to be also taking the university route.

Until recently, the same could not be said of The Philippines but all that is changing.

Editorial: ICC Must Reject Proposed World Cup Format Changes

The International Cricket Council must insist that there is no reduction in teams for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

The tournament’s hosts India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have proposed that the number of teams that should compete at the 2011 event be reduced to just 14, with four associate countries “allowed” entry instead of six.

In other sports, such a proposal would be laughed at and shown the door without hesitation. Cricket, however, is a game that pays little attention to the spirit of competing and the cultural diversity that should automatically constitute a “World” Cup event.

Subsequently, this narrow minded and ill conceived proposal is actually being considered by the game’s governing body. Cricket World Cups are owned by the ICC and allocated to grateful and supposedly gracious hosts but such is the financial clout wielded by India (BCCI) these days, it is feared that the game’s keepers will cave in to BCCI pressure.

Japanese Coach Richard Laidler

Japan’s national coach Richard Laidler was recently interviewed for Overview Online.

Stanford 20/20 Comes to Colorado USA

American businessman Allen Stanford has come up with a unique plan to promote cricket in the US. The city of Fort Collins, Colorado, has been singled out to be a testing ground for cricket and specifically the Stanford 20/20, a tournament that features countries of the Caribbean and is played in Antigua. The city’s 131,000 residents will receive television broadcasts of the matches and have the chance to win large cash prizes and attend numerous viewing parties in bars and bistros. A mass advertising campaign has taken place in the city with promotions featured in newspapers, on television and radio, on billboards, bus shelters and around shopping malls.

An Interview With Argentina Captain Esteban MacDermott

Argentina is perhaps cricket’s most mysterious outpost. This is a country that speaks Spanish but has a slight majority of citizens with Italian heritage. Famous for it’s barbecued meats, tango, passionate people, the Avenida 9 de Julio, soccer, suburbs named after generals and wonderful architecture.

It is said that Argentines have their eyes pointed at Europe and their feet planted firmly in South America. Certainly Buenos Aires is a city with the flavour of the very best Europe has to offer. Having said that, Argentines are proudly South American with a culture and heritage that is individual and ever evolving.

Surprisingly, Argentina has an estimated 100,000 people with British ancestry, many of whom arrived in the 19th century in search of a better way of life or work opportunities. Four Argentine Presidents, Ignacio Alvarez Thomas, Arturo Rawson, Edelmiro Julian Farrell and Roberto Levingston, were apparently of British or Irish descent. Until quite recently Buenos Aires housed the only Harrods department store apart from the famous London icon. Old British style red phone boxes, pubs and grandiose houses still exist to this day. As does the English language Buenos Aires Herald newspaper and there are literally hundreds of streets named after Anglo-Argentine men and women.

Argentina has mastered Britain’s most quintessential sports.

Soccer, rugby union, tennis, polo and field hockey are part of the culture yet cricket has remained on the fringes, surviving for sure but never capturing the imagination of the public quite like the other sports. Historians, particularly those who view everything old with an unhealthy admiration may point to the 1900’s and 1930’s as Argentine cricket’s best period but that would be underscoring the current squad which is now ranked 22nd in the world and within touching distance of a World Cricket League Division 1 appearance.

So things are looking up for cricket in Argentina. It seemed further investigation was required into this elusive cricketing land, which was, until the recent acceptance of Brazil and Chile into the ICC fraternity, the lone purveyor of the sport in the region. What better way to find out more about Argentine cricket than to sit down and discuss the game over a hot gourd of mate tea with national captain and development manager Esteban MacDermott. Well actually, the interview was conducted by e-mail but no one needs to know that do they?

Australian Country Cricket Championships: EAP Averages

The Australian Country Cricket Championships have been completed with New South Wales winning the tournament on percentage. The East-Asia Pacific regional side performed poorly losing 3, winning 0 and drawing 2. Here are the EAP batting and bowling averages.

Cricket in Nepal

More than a year ago I began writing a feature about cricket in Nepal. Midway through the process I began to have doubts that an outsider like myself could do justice to such a vibrant and exciting scene despite the best efforts of CAN board member Pawan Agrawal, who was kind enough to answer my questions in great detail. Now I have had a change of heart. This is a mini-profile about cricket in Nepal.

Peter Roebuck Gives His Support to the Emerging Nations

Cricket writer and ABC radio commentator Peter Roebuck has produced a fine article supporting the cultural diversity that the associate and affiliate countries bring to the game. Different edits of the piece were published in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Brisbane Times and The Melbourne Age. This version was published in The Age.

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Asad Vala: An Outstanding PNG Prospect

20 year old Asad Vala is fast developing into one of PNG’s best batsmen. In season 2007/08 he is playing club cricket in Townsville, Australia and recently scored his maiden century (120) for Wanderers. Craig Baxter of The Townsville Bulletin newspaper finds out more.

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Uganda’s Young Captain Davis Arinaitwe

Here is a nice feature about Ugandan captain Davis Arinaitwe courtesy of Paul Mbuga from Uganda’s Sunday Vision newspaper.

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Associate Nations Under-19 World Cup Squads

Namibia, Bermuda, Malaysia, Ireland, Papua New Guinea and Nepal have announced their final 15 man squads for the ICC Under-19 World Cup to be held in Malaysia starting on February 17.