Hong Kong Cricket All-Stars 2021

The Cricket Hong Kong (CHK) All-Stars Series postponed from last December will now take place later this month at Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground in Kowloon. Thirty-six cricketers from across the region have been split into three teams, each of which represents a major district of Hong Kong.

The Kowloon Lions, Hong Kong’s most populous district in the shadow of Lion Rock, will be lead by current Hong Kong skipper Aizaz Khan. While current HK vice-captain Kinchit Shah will lead New Territories Tigers named after the wild tigers that used to roam the area.

Former HK captain Jamie Atkinson will lead the Hong Kong Islanders, home to many of Hong Kong’s distinctive landmarks. The three teams will play each other once in a single round-robin stage, with the top 2 sides playing each other in a Final.

All-Stars Squads

Kowloon Lions: Aizaz Khan (Captain), Zeeshan Ali (Wicketkeeper), Nizakat Khan, Hamed Khan, Ehsan Ayaz, Jack Metters, Mehran Zeb, Dan Pascoe, Dhananjay Rao, Ahan Trivedi, Gandeep Sandhu, Charlie Wallis

New Territories Tigers: Kinchit Shah (Captain), Adit Gorawara (Wicketkeeper), Babar Hayat, Wajid Shah, Akbar Khan, Daniyal Bukhari, Aftab Hussain, Ashley Caddy, Bilal Akhtar, Sheryar Khan, Mohammad Hassan Khan, Ateeq Iqbal

Hong Kong Islanders: Jamie Atkinson (Captain, Wicketkeeper), Umar Mohammad, Ninad Shah, Waqas Khan, Haroon Arshad, Simandeep Singh, Zakir Hayat, Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Waheed, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ayush Shukla, Mohsin Khan

All-Stars T20 Series

The T20 series will see all three teams compete across 2 days, playing 3 round-robin matches followed by a winner takes all final.

The 50 over competition will see the teams re-drafted with the Hong Kong Islanders taking on the Kowloon Lions in a best of 3 series.

Friday 26th March

9:30am: Kowloon Lions vs New Territories Tigers

1:30pm: Hong Kong Islanders vs Kowloon Lions

Saturday 27th March

9:30am: New Territories Tigers vs Hong Kong Islanders

1:30pm: FINAL

All games played at Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground in Kowloon.

The T20 series will be followed by a 3-Match ODI Series between the Kowloon Lions and Hong Kong Islanders.

All games will be screened live and free on Youtube

Ladies Day @ Kowloon Cricket Club – 17 February 2019

Kowloon Cricket Club hosted its second annual Ladies Day on the 17 February 2019 at it’s Cox Road home. KCC‘s Ladies Day looks to raise awareness of women’s cricket locally and this year to raise money for the McGrath Foundation – a breast cancer support and education charity in Australia.
Click here or any photo for the full gallery of images.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2019/Ladies-Day-Kowloon-Cricket-Club-19-February-2019/n-pnND7f/i-4PC8tpk

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Rath Leads Hong Kong at ACC Emerging Nations Cup

Captain Anshuman Rath returns to lead Hong Kong at the ACC Emerging Nations Cup, a round robin tournament, that’s being jointly hosted by Sri Lanka and Pakistan from 6-15 December.

Rath, who missed the recent South China Cup defeat to Papua New Guinea, returns with Hong Kong drawn in Group B alongside Pakistan, Bangladesh and UAE. Group B will be played in Pakistan. India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Oman are in Group A with their matches being played in Sri Lanka.

Looking ahead to the tournament Hong Kong coach Simon Cook said “The recent tour to PNG and return series in Hong Kong has been really good for Hong Kong Cricket as a whole. We have seen players like Waqas Khan and Ghazanfer Mohammad really take steps forward and start to own their place in the side which starts to strengthen the playing squad. There is now fierce competition for places within the starting 11.”

“The Emerging Nations tournament is another great chance to learn and bench mark ourselves as a team and as individuals which is critically important for us with the World Cricket League Division 2 tournament coming up in April next year,” continued Cook.

Chairman of Selectors Tabarak Dar added “The Tournament will provide Hong Kong some great opportunities to play against some quality teams.”

The top 2 in each group progress to the semi-finals and finals to be played in Sri Lanka. Hong Kong, Oman and UAE will field national sides while the ‘test nations’ will be fielding U-23 sides, with 4 over-age players permitted per team.

Group A: Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, India, Oman
Group B: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates

ACC Emerging Nations Cup
Thu 6-Dec Pakistan vs Hong Kong at NSK, Karachi
Bangladesh vs UAE at SG, Karachi
Fri 7-Dec Sri Lanka vs Oman at RPICS, Colombo
India vs Afghanistan at CCC, Colombo
Pakistan vs UAE at NSK, Karachi
Bangladesh vs Hong Kong at SG, Karachi
Sat 8-Dec Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan at CCC, Colombo
India vs Oman at RPICS, Colombo
Sun 9-Dec Pakistan vs Bangladesh at NSK, Karachi
UAE vs Hong Kong at SG, Karachi
Mon 10-Dec Sri Lanka vs India at RPICS, Colombo
Afghanistan vs Oman at CCC, Colombo
Tue 11-Dec Rest Day
Wed 12-Dec Rest Day
Thu 13-Dec SF1: B1 v A2 at RPICS, Colombo
SF2: A1 v B2 at CCC, Colombo
Fri 14-Dec Rest Day
Sat 15-Dec FINAL: SF1 winner v SF2 winner at RPICS, Colombo
Hong Kong Squad

Anshuman Rath (Captain) Hong Kong Cricket Club
Aizaz Khan (Vice Captain) Kowloon Cricket Club
Nizakat Khan – Hong Kong Cricket Club
Raag Kapur – Hong Kong Cricket Club
Kinchit Shah – Hong Kong Cricket Club
Babar Hayat – Pakistan Association Cricket Club
Waqas Khan- Diasqua Little Sai Wan Cricket Club
Ehsan Nawaz – Pakistan Association Cricket Club
Ehsan Khan – Diasqua Little Sai Wan Cricket Club
Ghazanfer Mohammad – Diasqua Little Sai Wan Cricket Club
Tanwir Afzal – Pakistan Association Cricket Club
Tanveer Ahmed – Hong Kong Cricket Club
Hassan Mohammad – Diasqua Little Sai Wan Cricket Club
Shahid Wasif – Diasqua Little Sai Wan Cricket Club
Haroon Arshad – Diasqua Little Sai Wan Cricket Club

Reserves:
Nasrullah Rana – Pakistan Association Cricket Club
Aftab Hussain – Diasqua Little Sai Wan Cricket Club
Hamed Khan – Pakistan Association Cricket Club

Additional reporting and images: Cricket HK, ACC

Hong Kong Hosts Men’s East Asia Cup

Hosts Hong Kong will be joined by China, Japan and Korea in the 4 team East Asia Cup with matches scheduled at Hong Kong Cricket Club, Kowloon Cricket Club and The Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground. A full list of fixtures are shown below. All matches will be free entry.
Date  Time Team  Location 
Thursday 13th September 2018 9:30am China vs Korea Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground (Mission Road)
Thursday 13th September 2018 13:30pm Japan v Hong Kong Dragons Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground (Mission Road)
Friday 14th September 2018 9:30am Korea v Japan Hong Kong Cricket Club
Friday 14th September 2018 13:30pm Hong Kong Dragons v China Hong Kong Cricket Club
Saturday 15th September 2018 9:30am Japan v China Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground (Mission Road)
Saturday 15th September 2018 13:30pm Hong Kong Dragons v Korea Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground (Mission Road)
Sunday 16th September 2018 9:30am 3rd/4th place play-off Kowloon Cricket Club
Sunday 16th September 2018 13:30pm Final Kowloon Cricket Club

Men’s East Asia Cup
Date: 13-16 September, 2018
Venue: Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground, Hong Kong Cricket Club, Kowloon Cricket Club
Tickets: Free

Additional reporting and images: Cricket Hong Kong

HK Beat UAE to Qualify for Asia Cup

In a rain-affected final of the Asia Cup Qualifier 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong beat the United Arab Emirates by two wickets (DLS method) to book their place in the Asia Cup.

A fine five-for from Aizaz Khan first helped Hong Kong restrict UAE to 176/9 in 24 overs, the innings affected by a long rain break, before Hong Kong found enough contributors right through their chase to get to their revised target of 179 with three balls left.

Hong Kong captain Anshuman Rath won the toss and elected to bowl first in the cloudy and humid conditions. A bigly game for both teams with the winners guaranteed a place in the Asia Cup – in the group with Pakistan and India.

The UAE innings – a two-part affair, of 15.2 overs first and then 8.4 overs, broken by a long interruption because of rain and a wet outfield – started well with the opening pair of Ashfaq and Suri negating the early movement making their way past 50 in the first 12 overs.

Tanwir Afzal made the initial breakthrough with an excellent delivery hitting the top of off stump to dismiss Suri leaving UAE 52-1. Aizaz Khan was bought into the attack and had made an immediate impression dismissing the UAE captain Mustafa for an 8 ball duck and Shahzad for 2 before play was halted for almost 4 hours with UAE on 65-3 off 15.2 overs.

The rain delay saw the match reduced to 24 overs per side. After the restart Ashfaq and Anwar attacked the Hong Kong bowlers with a number of boundaries struck with Ehsan Khan being targeted on a flat Kinrara wicket. Nadeem Ahmed made the breakthrough dismissing Anwar for 22 and Ashfaq who top scored with 79. A flurry of wickets and boundaries saw UAE through to 176-9 off their allotted 24 overs. Aizaz Khan was magnificent in taking 5-28 to lead the seam attack on a flat batting wicket.

Hong Kong, with the benefit of knowing their target and the number of overs at their disposal, started well with Nizakat Khan and Anshuman Rath, two of their most pedigreed batsmen. The two added 64 runs in just six overs to put Hong Kong in front before Rohan Mustafa had Nizakat’s number, sending him back for a 20-ball 38.

Then followed a good phase for UAE as Babar Hayat and Kinchit Shah followed Nizakat to the pavilion to leave the scoreboard reading 68/3, which became 82/4 in the 10th over when Ahmed Raza bowled Rath for 28.

The UAE were in front at that stage, but Christopher Carter (33 in 32 balls) and Ehsan Khan (29 in 24) made sure the game was back on an even keel with a 53-run stand for the fifth wicket. A dramatic game took another turn when Carter was run out and Mohammad Naveed struck twice in one over to leave Hong Kong at a precarious 147/7.

The closer the Hong Kong team got to the target the more the drama unfolded. Ehsan Khan and Aizaz Khan departed with 33 still needed and. The experienced duo of Tanwir Afzal and Scott McKechnie came together and played with a great deal of courage and experience to continue to whittle away at the target. The danger man for UAE (Naveed) returned to bowl his final over with the game in the balance. A full blooded pull for 6 by Afzal was followed by an audacious scoop over fine leg by McKechnie to leave 12 runs required with 12 balls remaining.

The dismissal of Afzal off the last ball of the 23rd over left Hong Kong needing 3 to win off the final 6 balls with 2 wickets remaining. The first ball offered the chance of a run out at the non-strikers end which was missed…… 2 off 5 needed. McKechnie looking to finish with glory missed his pull shot but scampered a single to 3rd Man…… 1 off 4 needed. The winning run saw the batsman scamper through for a bye after the keeper fumbled the ball standing back… Hong Kong win by 2 wickets with 3 balls remaining and qualify for the Asia Cup!

Hong Kong will now prepare for their Asia Cup opener against Pakistan, to be played in Dubai on 16 September, followed by the fixture against India, also in Dubai, on 18 September.

Hong Kong captain Anshuman Rath, acknowledged UAE’s efforts “The UAE batsmen batted tremendously well after the rain delay. To get that many runs in 10 overs is no joke on any ground. The momentum was with them, but we knew it was a good wicket. Games like that can go either way, so credit to UAE for playing such an awesome game. We knew we had the batting firepower to chase it down, and luckily that happened.”

UAE’s coach, Dougie Brown, was understandably very disappointed at the result. He said: “Gutted doesn’t even come close to describing the feeling right now. I think the guys deserve a hell of a lot of credit for the way they fought. We didn’t get everything right. We maybe didn’t bowl as well as we can do. We maybe didn’t field quite as well as we know we can, but to get into the position we did, to get into the position where we had the total to defend we ended up with, was a phenomenal effort. Credit to Hong Kong, they won some critical moments in a game of very fine margins.”

Additional reporting and images: HK Cricket, ICC

Hong Kong Dragon’s Squad for East Asia Cup

The Hong Kong Dragons squad for the East Asia Cup being held in Hong Kong between 13-16 September has been announced. Li Kai Ming will captain the 14 man squad which includes batsman Ken Tsang and all-rounder David Fang two recent call-ups to the training squad.

After finishing a disappointing third in the last East Asia Cup Dragons Head Coach Chris Pickett is looking forward to the tournament and commented that the squad has worked hard to improve all aspects of their game. “Since the last East Asia Cup in Japan two years ago the squad have lost some faces, through work commitments overseas but also gained some new faces.”

CHK Dragons Squad for the East Asia Cup 2018
Li Kai Ming (CHK Pioneers) (Captain), Arthur Chiu (CCC Hung See), Bobby Chan (CCC Hung See), Damien Yee (CHK Pioneers), Danny Lee (CHK Pioneers), David Fang (CHK Pioneers), Henry Siu (CCC Hung See), James Chan (CHK Pioneers, Jason Lui, Ka U Lynn (CCC Hung See), Ken Tsang (CHK Pioneers), Nigel Sun (CCC Hung See), Rob Lee (CCC Hung See), Siegfried Wai.

Reserve Players
Bosco Szeto (CHK Pioneers), Horace Leung (CHK Pioneers), Howard Kwan (CHK Pioneers), Michael Tsing (CHK Pioneers), Thomas Tsang (CHK Pioneers), Vans Chan (CHK Pioneers)

Officials
Head Coach: Chris Pickett
Assistant Coach: Richard Waite
Team Manager: Phil Daniels
Physio: Max Yeung

Men’s East Asia Cup
Date: 13-16 September, 2018
Venue: Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground, Hong Kong Cricket Club, Kowloon Cricket Club
Tickets: Free

HK Women Beat Malaysia in Super Over

At the Asean Women’s T20 Cup in Thailand, Hong Kong faced Malaysia in their fourth match, still looking for their first win after a disappointing start to the tournament.

The pitch had dried considerably and upon winning the toss Captain Mariko Hill chose to bat first. After several disappointing performances with the bat there was considerable pressure on the team to post a respectable score. Coach Richard Waite rejigged the batting order opting to have Mariko Hill and Shanzeen Shahzad open the batting. With the early loss of Shanzeen Shahzad in the second over, it looked as though the players hadn’t learnt from the previous games and were failing to adapt to the pitch and the situation.

Yasmin Daswani though scored an elegant half-century (56 from 57 balls) as she and Hill put on 59 for the second wicket. Wicketkeeper Bella Bo Yee came in at number five and the pair added an unbeaten 60 runs to lift Hong Kong to 119 for 3 after 20 overs.

Malaysia got off to a good start but lost opener Yusrina Yaakop at the end of the second over bowled by the 14-year-old Maryam Bibi for 1. Allison Siu bowled Winifred Duraisngam for 6 with the score on 38 after 7.4 overs. Hong Kong’s bowlers though were spraying the ball all over the place, conceding 20 wides in the innings, and Christina Baret (44 not out) and Elysa Yasmin (33) looked to have combined for a match winning partnership with Malaysia needing just five off the last over.

With two runs Shahzad bowled Yasmin with the second to last ball, leaving Mahirah Izzati to score two off the last ball for victory. A scampered single tied the scores to create the first ‘super over’ of the tournament.

Malaysia batted first in the super over and Hill conceded just 5 runs while taking 2 wickets. With Hill and Shahzad opening Hong Kong needed 6 runs to win the match. If Hong Kong scored only 5 they would still win based on amount of boundaries scored during the innings (10 against 4).

Hill faced the first ball and got a single, Shahzad had a big swing and a miss at the second. On the third Shahzad steered the ball past third man for 4. Needing just 1 to win, Shahzad smashed another four to lift Hong Kong to their first win of the tournament.

Hong Kong face Tanzania in their final game on the 13 March.

Additional reporting and images: HK Cricket, Cricket Thai

Hong Kong Beat Afghanistan at ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers

Hong Kong resurrected their ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier campaign with an historic triumph over Afghanistan in Bulawayo. The 30-run win was the first ever victory for Hong Kong over a Test playing nation in the One Day International format.

Results in other matches now mean Hong Kong can guarantee a passage through to the Super Six stage with one win in their remaining two matches against Zimbabwe and then Nepal.

After being dismissed for just 91 against Scotland in their opening encounter, Hong Kong’s batsmen produced a much improved performance against an Afghanistan team containing the world’s top ranked bowler, Rashid Khan.

Cameos from Nizakat Khan (28) and Babar Hayat (31) got Hong Kong’s innings going but the starts meant the innings threatened to lack substance at one stage 4-93 in the 24th over.

But 20-year-old Anshuman Rath showed great determination to hold the innings together as he compiled 65 off 90 balls from number five in the order. That allowed the lower order to chip in around him but it was the final overs assault from Tanwir Afzal (22 off 9 balls) who lifted the Hong Kong target to a more imposing mark of 241-8.

In reply it was Tanwir (1-37) who gave Hong Kong the early breakthrough but at 56-1 Afghanistan were trundling along steadily in pursuit of 242 when Ehsan was brought on from the clubhouse end in the 16th over. With loop and flight, he tempted Rahmat Shah into an expansive drive. With dip and turn, he spun the ball sharply in between bat and pad to disturb the stumps. With that, Afghanistan were 56 for 2, and Hong Kong had their opening. Before his first over was up, Ehsan had also dismissed the set Ihsanullah for 20, a gloved sweep landing in the hands of Rath, tumbling to his left at slip.

The pressure built up by the bowlers brought desperate strokes and with the required rate closing in on six an over, Samiullah Shenwari bent low to sweep Ehsan but missed the ball entirely to be bowled for 9, as Afghanistan slipped to 73 for 4.

From there Hong Kong continued to keep the scoreboard pressure on and the climbing rate brought more wickets when rain intervened at 7-167. Play did resume but Afghanistan only had 18 balls to chase a revised target 226.

Eshan later picked up a fourth wicket as Afghanistan were held to 195-9 and for his career best figures of 4 for 33, Ehsan was named Man of the Match.

Hong Kong coach Simon Cook said “We sat down after the Scotland game an had an honest chat and the players got together as a group and talked about what they needed to do to beat Afghanistan. Each individual identified how they were going to play and what impact they wanted to have and executed that in training yesterday. The pitch spun a lot and so it’s a credit to how our guys nullified their spin options. We trained with purpose and got results.”

“240 was about par, however the pitch – spun quickly and a lot so it was a challenge for anyone going out there. We learnt from the experience of playing Rashid in Hong Kong in November and it was hugely pleasing to see the improvement.” Cook continued “We had a World T20 victory against Bangladesh which stands out as our biggest – today was great but it is only one game in a tournament that means so much so we will enjoy it tonight and then refocus quickly for Zimbabwe.”

Additional reporting and images: HK Cricket