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.