KCC still in the pink at 90

THE shirts were in all hues. Pink and purple, green and red. The stumps were orange. The balls were yellow. The sightscreen was blue. The cricket traditionalist seeking a break from this kaleidoscope would only have had the green, green grass of the KCC to be thankful for.

Yes. The 90th birthday celebrations of the Kowloon Cricket Club were a riotous orgy of colour, fun and games as a dozen teams enjoyed themselves in a day-long fiesta of six-a-side cricket.

''The main thing was to participate and enjoy,'' said Roger Nissim, captain-of-cricket at KCC. Everyone did enjoy. Especially arch-rivals Hong Kong Cricket Club, who came, enjoyed and plundered the main prize of the day - the trophy in the Cup competition.

Having scorned their given name of Taipan's VI and taking on the more saucy tag, the Victorians, the team, comprising Stewart Brew, Malcolm Brown, Ian Hardy, Jonathan Orders, John Hung and Rod Eddington, triumphantly whisked the silver from under their rivals' noses.

Batting first, the Victorians hit 79 in their allotted five overs with Brown (36) and Hardy (32) amongst the runs. Even the presence of former Australian Test opener Tom Moody failed to lift opponents, the Governor's VI, who finished their overs 11 runs behind the target.

Moody, the tallest cricketer on show yesterday, stood out easily with his elegant batting as he hammered 33 in the final. But it was not enough, with Bharat Gohel the only other batsman to reach double figures.

It might have been KCC's birthday party, but it was the HKCC who blew the candles out, cut the cake and ate it too.

''It is unfortunate we did not win,'' said KCC captain Nissim.

The highlight of the day, however, was the presence of the Hong Kong Dragons in the Cup semi-finals, where they lost to the Governor's VI.

The all-Chinese side, bolstered by the inclusion of guest and former Australian vice-captain and opening batsman Geoff Marsh, played spiritedly to reach the latter stages of the main competition.

Unlike Marsh, who has played in 50 Tests and scored 2,854 runs, cricket is a new ball game to most of the Dragons. But yesterday, they showed the seeds of cricketing maturity have been planted.

Whether Hong Kong will ever reap the benefits of their cricket development programme is anyone's guess.

But it was still nice to see a glimpse of the future, especially on a day, when the past turned 90 years old.