Chinese takeaway

China have a long way to go to become a cricketing superpower on the basis of their international debut today when they were walloped by the small matter of 302 runs by Iran, who themselves had never won an international match.

Iran batted first and made 369 for six, helped by 44 wides, and then China were dismissed for 62 in 24 overs with extras (20) being the top scorer. China next play Thailand, the hosts for the Asian Cricket Council Trophy Challenge, and then the Maldives. Further big defeats are feared.

OK, so expectations should not be too high. It took New Zealand 26 years to win their first Test. But the ICC has targeted China as a big growth area, throwing buckets of development money at the country (two years ago they were given $400,000 to grow the game) and sending IS Bindra, the former head of the BCCI, out as an envoy. There is a target of China playing in the World Cup by 2020, which, coincidentally, is when the ICC is trying to get cricket accepted as an Olympic sport.

Their display in the ACC under-17 tournament before Christmas gave little sign of there being a batch of talented teenagers coming through. China bowled out the Maldives for 68, but then made only 29 themselves. Against Thailand they were dismissed for 17. Against Oman, replying to 298 for two, they were bowled out for 48. At this rate they would be worthy opposition for my hapless charity side this summer (in fact, if someone from the China Cricket Board is reading and fancies a game, let me know).

If China do not start to show an improvement, other nations might start to gripe at such favouritism - and suggest, just for a change, that the ICC is more concerned about revenue than growing the game in areas that care about it.

Comments

[Dave]

China beat Myanmar

[Mike Tsesmelis]

I believe these 12 kids are all taken from just one school that was told they are playing cricket a couple of years ago. China's hopes are not for this batch of cricketers to make an impact, but for the ones starting now that and that will grow up with it for the next 10 years.

[Ai Rui Sheng]

Cricket has only been played by drunken ex-pats, (tautology?), until recently. Last year we had the first game between two of our top universities in Shanghai and it created a good amount of publicity. This may one day be looked upon as the equivalent of the Oxford/Cambridge rugger match here in China.

[Andrew Nixon]

There's a little more to the Under 17 story. China went to the tournament with only 12 players and no reserves. Three of them got injured in their first game and they played the remaining matches with just 9 players.

I'm a big supporter of the development program, but when a country the size of China can only find a dozen kids for a tournament, despite all their ICC money, there's something seriously wrong.