Published: Mar 10, 2017, 11:43 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 10, 2017, 01:39 PM (IST)
Rodney Miles, the president of Cricket Hong Kong (CHK), graced the Hong Kong T20 Blitz on its second day. The cricket at the Blitz has been excellent so far. The likes of Misbah-ul-Haq, Chris Jordan, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels and others have already ensured that this edition of the tournament has started off well. Blitz aside, Miles is happy with the way the Hong Kong national team has progressed over the years. “The progress we have made over the last years has been quite tremendous. We owe an awful lot to the coach and the team we’ve had during this period of time. We took a decision to focus on youth about eight years ago and it has paid off tremendously,” Miles said in an exclusive chat with CricketCountry.
“The danger always in associate countries is that you get quite a lot of good, slightly older players and you don’t bring youth quiet quickly enough. Full credit to all of our coaching staff and selectors here, they made that move about eight years ago and now we got a very young side, which has its own difficulties of course, in terms of experience and so on. But they have been very competitive,” he added
Talking about the cricket, the Mission Road Cricket Ground is the largest Hong Kong have, with others located at the Kowloon Cricket Club and the Hong Kong Cricket Club. But Miles does not want to read too much into the facilities. He is content with the fact that the Hong Kong cricketers – though small in number –play like a close-knit unit. “Although we have a smaller number of cricketers – by a million times than India – they also have an advantage that they are much closer together. So, they train together, they are more of a unit together and they play against each other in the same conditions. So, you can see the progress, to become where we are in the world compared to countries with much higher populations,” said the CHK President.
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One of Hong Kong’s biggest moments in international cricket came when they beat Bangladesh in the ICC World T20 2014 at Chittagong. Miles points that out with pride. “We have already beaten Bangladesh. Just consider the numbers involved. We have less than 1,000 cricketers here. But they are focused and concentrated here, that’s their strength.”
Miles feels the Blitz is a good launch pad, but acknowledges that he has doubt over Hong Kong playing Test cricket. He is however happy to see the progress that the team has made in ODIs and T20s. “I think its [Biltz] a launch pad certainly amongst the bigger nations. I’m a great believer that cricket should be extended across all countries. We should be having world cup of 48 for example, 24 at least. Football has just gone to 48 in a world cup. It should encompass all countries, have an opportunity, in the same was as football. Sure, you will screen that and braid it in different ways. I doubt whether we would ever reach Test status. I don’t think that’s the objective. The objective is to be playing ODIs and T20s amongst the top group of 20.”
“I went to see Hong Kong play England in Dubai. England had their whole ODI side out. We were with them 70 per cent of the game. We were up there in terms of keeping their runs down, and getting their runs. But 30 per cent, no. They just overtook us. But it was very impressive to see in that period of time that we could hold our own.”
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Miles says the fact that Hong Kong put up an excellent fight against the Netherlands in the four-day match and the two 50-overs match recently are very encouraging. Hong Kong finished with scores of 301 for 8 and 325 for 9 in the two games respectively, failing to reach their target by a narrow margin. Talking about the matches, Miles says, “Given the luck, we could’ve beaten the Netherlands. Looks like they [Netherlands] are going to go on to win the 50-over league. The first game we should’ve won against them and the second game we could’ve won. Both times chasing over 300, we got over 300. That was a huge significant step. Everyone here is very proud of it.”
