Finding love in the right places
Hong Kong's cricketers should not look to the public for applause, but rather government officials who hold the purse strings
So, Hong Kong cricketers want to feel the love. A stalwart of the city's team, Roy Lamsam, told an international news agency last week that despite reaching the Twenty20 World Cup in Bangladesh next year, the achievement had hardly registered on the public radar. He was talking of Hong Kong winning one of the six berths given to associate members of the International Cricket Council in the final stages of the tournament.
Yes, it was a remarkable accomplishment. But was it a historic one? We will reserve judgment, simply because of the ICC's decision to move the goalposts. Having promised an expanded 16-team tournament, the world governing body has now decided that next year's showpiece will be limited to 10 teams only.
The six teams who came through the qualifying process in the United Arab Emirates will now play Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to decide which two teams make it through to the World Cup proper and join the big guns like Australia, India and England.
So, have Hong Kong really qualified for the World Cup? Not yet, unless they defeat the likes of Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan in the final qualifiers. And let's be honest, when it comes to recognition by the community at large: cricket is still a sport that is the preserve of the European and South Asian communities which have deep roots in this town.
The land at Penny's Bay will remain fallow for the next few years, thanks to those not-so-forward-looking people at the Tourism Commission
When it comes to a historic accomplishment, another team sport has already qualified for a World Cup - rugby sevens. Hong Kong have played in every Rugby World Cup Sevens since the tournament's inception in 1993 and this is a proud record.
Cricket, in reality, is still a step away from doing the same. But Mike Walsh, chairman of the Hong Kong Cricket Association, was closer to the mark when he said the achievements of captain Jamie Atkinson's team should make people sit up and take notice. "They have to take us seriously," said Walsh.
And let's hope the first people to do so will be those in government, who thumbed their noses at a plea from HKCA president Rodney Miles, who had presented a novel bid to acquire a piece of land next to Disneyland on Lantau Island on a temporary basis. His plan was to set up a polo ground to feature an international event, after which the land would be used to provide much-needed playing facilities for the ever-growing cricketing community in Hong Kong.
The plot of land in Penny's Bay has been lying vacant for years. It has been identified as a site for Disneyland's expansion sometime in the future. The Lands Department had welcomed Miles' idea but another government department, the Tourism Commission, shot it down. An international polo event would have attracted the attention of the world's media. An added bonus would have been a ground to accommodate Hong Kong's cricketers until Disney decided to go ahead with its expansion project.
Instead what we got was a flat rejection from the government. The land at Penny's Bay will remain fallow for the next few years, thanks to those not-so-forward-looking people at the Tourism Commission.
It is these bureaucrats whose mindset has to change. Forget the general public because cricket is never going to be a main draw in Hong Kong. Lamsam might lament the fact that cricketers are under-appreciated. But why worry about this triviality? What matters is making the people who count happy. The HKCA should be shouting from the rafters about their "World Cup" triumph and targeting those within government ranks. These are the people with clout and who have the authority to make things happen. These are the people who hold the purse strings and have the power to say if the Hong Kong Sixes should get financial aid.
Let's forget about the love from Joe Wong. While it is always nice to be recognised for achieving things - and let's make no bones about it, if not for the ICC's change of heart the city's team would have been playing against the likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli next April in Bangladesh - the main goal is to get rewarded in the best currency: love from the government.
