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Chinese are masters with the bat and ball given their huge success at table tennis, badminton and most recently tennis. However a cricket bat has been mostly out of their grasp.

The old English game, which is hugely popular in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia and the West Indies, has received little recognition in China although the first recorded game of cricket was played here in 1858.

So when China Cricket Association (CCA) launched an ambitious development blueprint last year, cricketing nations around the world were quick to turn their heads to the most populous nation.

"We are so happy to see China starting to play cricket seriously," said Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the International Cricket Council who finished a five-day inspection tour in China last week. The CCA, forming in 2004, started to break grounds for cricket by developing players, umpires and coaches in two of China's noted cities Beijing and Shanghai since last September.

"As we now know more about cricket, we started to realize that we should develop it in China. We are looking for variety of sports in China," Cui Zhiqiang, deputy director China's multi-ball games administrative centre, explained their initiative.

Cui and his colleagues are proud of what they have done in the past 10 months.

"Back to last September, it was a zero. We had nothing, no athletes, umpires or coaches," Cui said. "Now we already have 63 qualified umpires and coaches and 995 players from 51 school teams."

The association also set up cricket courses in 19 primary schools, 20 high schools and 25 colleges. Another six interest clubs were also established.

Plus a huge training base is under construction in South China's Hainan Province while the association is looking for a place to build a cricket pitch in Beijing.

The fast growth has impressed the ICC. "The China Cricket Association is really making a wonder on working China into the cricket map," Speed said. "This is a beginning of a new era."

The ICC is trying hard to bring a huge and influential nation like China into the cricket world, hoping to break the developing boundary for the sport. ICC has 97 members but the sport still hardly wins enthusiasm in North America and most European countries.

"Everyone is keen for China to succeed," said Syed Ashraful Huq, chief executive of Asian Cricket Council (ACC), who also joined in the tour with Shaharyar Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

The ICC and ACC have allocated considerable development funds to CCA. The newest amount is US$400,000 with each council contributing the half. The money will go towards funding school cricket programmes and also helps China to set up a team to participate in the Under-15 ACC Champions Trophy held in Thailand later this year. "The prospect is enormous. China has a good future," Huq said.

With such support, China is expected to stand on its own feet in the near future. CCA still has to obtain specialised cricket equipment and also secure sponsorship. "I believe China can produce their own cricket equipment. China can produce anything anywhere," Huq said.

A combined sponsorship programme, including cricket and seven other sports managed under the multi-ball games centre, has been launched by CCA.

Despite the ambition, the ICC and ACC know any comprehensive achievement may come slow in China.

The CCA is also planning to hold international competitions on the mainland and develop its own cricketing stars. It hopes to copy China's successful tennis strategy, which has created stars and hopes this "star power" can boost cricket's national appeal.

Speed hopes China will be able to participate in the Women's World Cup in 2013 and men's World Cup in 2015.

However the Chinese camp has a more realistic goal. It is an uphill battle for China to qualify in the 12-team women's world cup competition and 16-team men's event, considering the inexperienced Chinese team has to compete against the other 96 ICC members.

"We hope to have 30,000 players, 600 coaches and 600 umpires by the end of 2007," Cui said.

CCA plans to target Tianjin, Liaoning and Guangdong in the coming months to attract more players.

(China Daily September 26, 2006)