Many are surprised when they hear that the world’s second most popular sport (after football or soccer for the Americans) is not basketball or tennis, but actually cricket. Though its 2.5 billion fans are concentrated mostly in the Indian subcontinent, United Kingdom, and various former English colonies, cricket is played in some form or capacity in China and 104 other member nations of the International Cricket Council (ICC, cricket’s governing body). It’s gaining popularity in several nations, from the United States to Papua New Guinea.
While China is not known as a cradle for this bat and ball sport, it’s a target market for the ICC. Cricket in Beijing has been played since the 1980s and 1990s when embassies in the city would organize matches and tournaments between each other. There was also a Cricket Sixes tournament that was held annually, but this sadly ended after 1996, due to the lack of suitable grounds and difficulty in sustaining interest. The dawn of the new millennium brought rays of hope. A cricket ground at Dulwich College Beijing was built in 2006, with the pitch soil imported directly from Australia. Concurrently, dedicated efforts by expatriates spurred the establishment of the Beijing Cricket Club (BCC), a premier cricket club that represents the city in national and international competitions. More importantly, the club focuses on organizing regular cricket in Beijing for all those interested and willing. It organizes several competitions, the most prominent one being the BCC International Cricket Sixes. In the 2019 edition, three teams competed in the BCC International Cricket Sixes: Beijing Ducks Cricket Club, Beijing Zalmi, and Phoenix Cricket Club. However, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, no matches have taken place yet this year.
A Beijing Ducks batsman shapes up to hit the ball into the stands for 6 runs
Taking up cricket in Beijing has its challenges. Apart from the small community of interested patrons and the lack of dedicated venues and grounds to play in, acquiring equipment can get expensive. The cost of a good quality cricket kit with a bat, gloves, pads, and guards can cost around USD 300, or RMB 2,100. Moreover, there are very few to no local suppliers of cricket equipment in China, so one must also spend to bring the equipment into the country, whether that be through extra baggage fees at airports or international shipping. Renting out the few pitches and grounds available for practice or games isn’t cheap either.
So, yes, it’s quite a hefty cost, monetarily and logistically, to take up the sport here. However, being a cricket fanatic and having lived in Beijing for almost all my life, allow me to present a few arguments that might convince you to at least try cricket in a casual setting, let alone make you consider joining Beijing’s top-flight cricket clubs.
Cricket can be played almost anywhere, with few equipment
It’s Not Boring Anymore
There are several formats that cricket can be played in, one of the prominent ones being the first-class/Test format, where the game goes on for 4-5 days. The format can be boring for mainstream cricket viewers, as players bat time to build huge scores, eke out draws and ultimately avoid defeat. However, the development of Twenty20 (T20) cricket and various global T20 leagues have shortened the game to a 3-hour spectacle. There’s no space for defensive, safe tactics in T20 when explosive batting, entertainment, innovation, and athleticism are the norms of the format. The ICC is keen to promote cricket around the world through T20 as well; every cricketing nation plays T20s, but only 12 out of those 105 nations play Tests. This means more and more T20 games are played than Tests and first-class cricket annually.
The Gentleman’s Game
Cricket is known as ‘The Gentleman’s Game’, and for good reason. There’s no place for cheating, abuse, violence, and hooliganism, as such behavior is considered reprehensible in cricketing circles. In international matches, players are handed out fines and match bans for unruly behavior on a cricket field. The tenets that make up the ‘spirit of cricket’, such as playing hard but fair, accepting umpires’ decisions, and showing respect and self-discipline, are extended to all players, coaches, and support all levels of cricket, from the grassroots club level right up to top-flight international cricket.
Social Engagement
Cricket is an exciting game that encourages leadership, friendship, and teamwork, and brings together people from different nationalities and cultures. Playing cricket is also a great way to interact with people and learn how to cope with winning and losing. Being a collaborative sport, all players of the team must work together, sometimes for several hours and multiple days, to utilize strategies, defeat the other team, and win matches and competitions. In the process, one learns cooperation while building a sense of pride and accomplishment when their team wins. The social side of cricket is also often found off the field, with cricket club members usually meeting outside the field for a beer and having a chat about the game. The Beijing Ducks Cricket Club is the perfect example of social cricket, and their activities off the field have been featured by ESPNCricinfo, one of the most credible global cricket news websites.
Develop Physical and Mental Fitness
Playing cricket has a lot of health benefits. Running while batting and fielding boost your stamina and endurance. While batting, having a sound technique to play shots requires a good balance of the body. Players develop their hand-eye coordination and flexibility when they bat and field. Strategy is also an important facet of the game, as you’ll often see teams setting unique fielding positions to stop batsmen from scoring runs and eventually getting them out caught or run out. It also makes you mentally tough, as one has to get into a high-intensity competition between batsmen, bowlers, and fielders and actually revel in those situations.
Now, cricket purists (like me) love watching Tests, where players’ mental and physical fitness are drained to the maximum as they give it their all to win and save matches. In fact, that’s why the format is called ‘Tests; it a test of your physical and mental skills across multiple days. But mental and physical fitness are just as important in T20s and other short formats of the game. In the shorter formats, we see fielders making miraculous saves to stem the flow of runs and taking acrobatic catches to get batsmen out. And when it’s all down to the wire, like how the final few balls of the Cricket World Cup Final last year unfolded, it’s all down to just which team blinks first.
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Images: Unsplash, Tom Ashton
