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HONG Kong cricket's showpiece event of the season - the Rothmans Cup final at the Hong Kong Cricket Club on Sunday - will be a match to remember for the captains of Vagabonds and Little Sai Wan.

 For it will be the last game of cricket in the territory for Vagabonds' Australian skipper, Jason Penrose, and for Sai Wan's Bangladesh-born captain, Rizwan Farouq.

 After nine years in Hong Kong, Farouq, 35, will be heading home to Dhaka to set up his own corporate finance business.

 And 26-year-old Penrose, who has made his mark on and off the field as the event manager for the Hong Kong International Sixes, will be returning to Australia to find a job in Brisbane.

 Said Farouq: ''This will be my first Rothmans Cup final in nine years in Hong Kong so it's a big day for me anyway.

 ''And the fact that it will be my final match in Hong Kong makes it extra special.

 ''I have reached the semi-finals before with Sai Wan and also with BCC [Bank of Credit and Commerce] but never got through to the final.

 ''Hopefully I'll have a winner's medal to take back with me on March 25.''  Farouq, a stylish batsman who represented Hong Kong in the 1990 International Cricket Council Trophy in The Netherlands, led Sai Wan to the Saturday League title in season 1992-93.

 Free-scoring opener Penrose arrived in the territory midway through the 1991-92 season and won the Saturday League's Butani Cup with Hong Kong University at the end of that season.

 In the summer of 1992, however, Penrose left Hong Kong Cricket Club's Optimists to join Kowloon Cricket Club's Templars and helped them win the Sunday League and Rothmans Cup double in 1993.

 Work commitments with Cricket World International have restricted him to only two games in the past three months but he hopes to sign off in style on Sunday - and win his third Saturday or Sunday knockout title in three seasons.

 ''Leaving Hong Kong was a difficult decision to make because I am enjoying the work and the cricket,'' said Penrose.

 ''I was always going to go back to Australia and, with my girlfriend being offered quite a good job in Brisbane, the time has come to leave.

 ''It would be a good one to win on Sunday and I know we can do it because we've had two very close games with Sai Wan in the league but had two losing draws.''  Penrose will open the batting for Vagabonds with Burji Shroff in a side showing only one change to the team which beat Optimists in last Sunday's semi-finals, David Cross returning at the expense of Bill Wadsworth.

 Left-arm paceman Cross, who played for Hong Kong in the ICC Trophy in Kenya recently, will open the bowling with Steve Weatherley, with Phil Glenwright and Adam Williams providing medium-pace support.

 In the slow bowling department, Penrose can call on left-arm spinner Tim Edmunds and off-spinners Dave Edwards and John Garden, who will bat three.

 Farouq has named a squad of 13, packed with medium-pace bowlers and with leg-spinner Nick Waters to provide the variety.

 ''We could have done with one more off-spinner but overall it's a well-balanced team,'' said Farouq.

TEAMS Vagabonds: Jason Penrose (captain), Burji Shroff, John Garden, Phil Glenwright, Adam Williams, James Agar, Tim Edmunds, Rob Gill (wicketkeeper), Steve Weatherley, David Cross, David Edwards. Twelfth man, Bill Wadsworth.

 Little Sai Wan (from): Rizwan Farouq (captain), Mike Mehaffey, Riaz Farcy, Nick Waters, Daniel Happell, Monty Noble (wicketkeeper), Adnan Butt, Mohanna Marzook, Ian Barker, Eddie Tse, Paul Howe, Justin Wakefield, Maurice Ling.



Rival skippers' parting shots