The Hong Kong Cricket Association has appointed Mark Burns as full-time organiser of the popular Hong Kong Sixes.
Burns (pictured), formerly the HKCA's operations manager, will become the first official to be paid to run the annual tournament, which drew rave reviews from the International Cricket Council for being the best promoted and marketed tournament last year. 'The tournament is becoming too big for only part-time guys like us to handle and that is why we have decided to appoint a full-time tournament director. The rest of us are volunteers,' said HKCA chairman Clive Howard.
The Board of China Cricket International - an HKCA company which runs the Hong Kong Sixes - has offered Burns the role of full-time tournament organiser for 12 months. He will work from offices in Sheung Wan.
One of the first tasks facing Burns, who takes over from Glyn Davies, who was tournament director for the past four years, will be to secure sponsors for the November 8-9 tournament at Kowloon Cricket Club.
Previous title sponsors Cathay Pacific and Standard Chartered have still not come on board, while there are also doubts whether last year's promoters, Zero Friction, will carry on.
'Negotiations for sponsorship rights are in progress and we expect them to be finalised soon,' said Howard.