The Nation
Published on September 14, 2005

The thrilling Ashes cricket series between Australia and England has knocked Premier League football off the front and back pages of all the major English newspapers in the past few weeks, but it is a game that continues to baffle many in Thailand. But maybe not for much longer.

The game the English invented for “gentlemen” last century is rapidly taking hold in Thailand, with large numbers of schoolchildren around the country taking up the sport.

In Chiang Mai province children from 45 small schools play in a regular competition which has been running since 2000, with a little help from the International Cricket Council (ICC) - the sport’s world governing body - and the United Nations, which in 2000 launched a programme to promote the game around the world.

Up to 600 children now play regularly in Chiang Mai and one of the first schools in the province to introduce the sport was Montfort, which counts the prime minister as a former pupil.

The game has taken off in an even bigger way in Petchabun, with 800 schoolchildren from Grade 5 (10-years-old) playing regular competitions with both boy’s and girl’s teams. Expert Australian coach Brian Wiggins, who is based in Petchabun, is very proud of the cricket programme he’s helped set up in the area.

Khon Kaen, better known as the home province of tennis star Paradorn Srichaphan, also boasts a healthy cricket programme, providing several members of Thailand’s national team.

Chon Buri is another province where the sport is becoming popular with youngsters and there are two full-time coaches working there.

St Andrews International School in Pattaya has recently decided to introduce cricket for its students and the Thai Cricket League is keen to promote the game in the area, particularly because of the large number of expatriates in the district who would like to see their children play the “gentlemen’s” game.

More cricket programmes for youngsters, and adults, are being started in Phuket, where a very successful international tournament was held for the second time earlier this year. The Phuket International Cricket Sixes is now a regular event on the Thai sporting calendar and attracts a large number of players and spectators.

But one of the biggest sporting events in Thailand, and one which goes largely unnoticed by the local media, is the annual Chiang Mai International Cricket Sixes.

Arguably the biggest amateur cricket tournament in the world, the Chiang Mai Sixes has been played for 18 years in the beautiful grounds of the 107-year-old Chiengmai Gymkhana Club and every year attracts some of the biggest names in the game.

Thailand’s status with the ICC has been elevated recently and if the game keeps expanding - a solid cricket programme is also now up and running in some schools in Bangkok - in a few years who knows, terms like “leg before, googlie, silly-mid-on and stumped” may even creep into the Thai vocabulary.

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Thousands hail heroes

nEngland’s victorious cricketers were treated yesterday as national heroes by tens of thousands of cheering Londoners as they paraded through the streets of the capital in an open-top red double-decker bus.

Dressed in dark suits and ties and accompanied by their wives and children, the players smiled and waved to the crowds a day after they regained the Ashes trophy from Australia for the first time in 18 years.

Dozens of police officers in fluorescent yellow jackets marched beside the slow-moving bus, followed by a similar bus with the English women’s cricket team, as the parade moved past St Paul’s Cathedral to Trafalgar Square.

The red and white English flag fluttered from office windows on Fleet Street as hundreds of employees descended to the street to welcome stars like Andrew Flintoff and South African-born batsman Kevin Pietersen.

Queen Elizabeth II hailed the team for their “magnificent achievement”, while Prime Minister Tony Blair said the dramatic seven-and-a-half week battle with the Australian side “lit up the whole summer”.

Alan Parkhouse

The Nation