Rugby, cricket teams arrive

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from China

Sri Lanka’s cricket and rugby teams for the 16th Asian Games are due to arrive in this Southern Chinese city tomorrow (18) afternoon. Sri Lanka cricket team, led by national Test and ODI player Jehan Mubarak and Sri Lanka rugby team, captained by Radhika Hettiarachchi, are due to check in at the Athletes Village later on Thursday. Mubarak, the 29-year-old left-handed top order batsman has represented Sri Lanka in 10 Tests, 38 one day internationals and 16 Twenty20. Internationals.

Hattiarachchi is a veteran rugby player who has shown tremendous form in Caltex Premier League as well as at Rugby Union Tests for Sri Lanka. He has a vast experience in international sevens. Both men’s and women’s championships have been included in cricket as well as in rugby. However, Sri Lanka will be competing only in the men’s events of both the disciplines.

The inclusion of cricket for the first time in the 59-year-old history of the Asian Games has transformed the 45-nation Games into a complete sporting extravaganza. Perhaps, the influence of the cricketing heavyweights in the sub continent – Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan, would have prompted the OCA to include cricket in the Games proper even at this very late stage, a decade later than cricket was included at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Sri Lanka cricket team has received a bye to play direct in the quarter finals scheduled for next Wednesday (24) at Guanggong Cricket Stadium, the venue for both the men’s and women’s cricket matches which will be Twenty-20 affairs. Sri Lanka has a good chance of winning a medal in cricket.

The women’s cricket tournament has been in full swing and Pakistan and Bangladesh have made early bookings for the semi finals scheduled for tomorrow. In the qualifying round games played yesterday, Bangladesh beat Japan by 54 runs, Thailand beat Malaysia by 54 runs, Nepal beat Hong Kong by seven wickets and Pakistan beat the hosts China by nine wickets. Sri Lanka will scrum down with China in their opening match of the Asian Games seven-a-side rugby tournament on Monday (22). In the other matches scheduled for the same day, Hettiarachchi’s men will take on South Korea and India in their group ‘C’ qualifiers.

Press Attache of the Sri Lanka NOC here, Buddhika Iddamalgoda said Sri Lanka athletes are preparing hard for the track and field competition of the Games which is yet to begin.

Playing at Asian Games level is a new experience altogether for cricket and rugby players as those sports have customary been non-Olympic sports. Most cricketers and ruggerites have hardly been to this type of a sports extravaganza. Hence, their sporting world is limited most cricketers in the subcontinent, their fans and even certain media personalities, think cricket is everything. But it’s only when you play at Asian Games that they realize the greater horizons of the wide world of sport. This is one classic example from the Athletes Village itself.

Guangzhou Asian Games has made Pakistan women’s cricket captain Sana Mir feel like a big-screen star. Her Pakistan team, seeded No.1, is fancied to win the gold, launched their campaign with a handsome win over hosts China, but that sparkling effort was not what truly impressed Mir. “We never get this kind of media coverage back at home. I am just so glad the sport made it to the Asian Games,” said the 26-year-old. “There is always TV coverage when our national men’s team plays in Pakistan because it is huge audience and business, but you never see us playing on big screens or TVs,” she said.

Although Pakistan has 500 to 600 professional women players under the age of 19, and about 1,000 to 1,200 playing at the senior level, they are overshadowed by the men’s game, said Ayesha Ashhar, Manager of the Pakistan’s women’s cricket team. “Our earnings can’t compare with what the men make. It’s the love of the sport that keeps us going,” said Mir. “We would like to be treated and rewarded just like the men’s team.”

Unlike some of the women players whose families are against them playing due to strict traditions, Mir’s family is happy for her to play the game. “I have to thank my parents and brother for their support, otherwise I couldn’t have made it this far.”

The Pakistan team Manager said women’s cricket in his country has improved rapidly over the past two to three years, thanks to an effective domestic structure which helps players to train and progress at a young age. “The team’s performance at the international level wouldn’t be as good as it is now without that.”

“Cricket needs many years to become established in a country. For China, the challenge is to attract enough talented players and coaches. But I believe when China chooses to develop a sport, it succeeds,” Ashhar said. “All we need now is time,” said Liu Rongyao, Manager of China women’s cricket team. “In ten years’ time, China will be among the top three women’s teams in Asia,” a determined Chinese Manager said. In fact, China showed early signs of proving this when they beat Malaysia by 54 runs in their opening match. GUANGZHOU, Wednesday.