T20 debut as Hong Kong coach 3 days after arrival – but Simon Willis says anything is possible

‘This is going to be a really good indicator for me, straight into the competitive nature of cricket,’ former Sri Lanka and Kent coach says

Targets for Willis include regaining ODI status and developing more local players

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Nizakat Khan (batting) will again captain the Hong Kong team under new coach Simon Willis. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 8:00am, 6 Mar 2023Updated: 8:05am, 6 Mar 2023

Simon Willis won’t have to wait long to discover the size of the task that lies ahead of him as the coach of the Cricket Hong Kong men’s team.

His new charges are playing a series of T20 and one-day games over the next two weeks, and there is little time between those and the ACC Premier Cup in Nepal at the end of April.

The latter serves as the qualifier for the Asia Cup, and with matches against the likes of Malaysia, Singapore and Oman on the horizon there will ample evidence of how realistic the goals he has been set are.

“There’s no place to hide,” Willis said. “We could have been training for weeks and months, and you make various assumptions, and then suddenly you find out you’re not where you think you are. So, this is going to be a really good indicator for me, straight into the competitive nature of cricket.”

Former skipper Anshuman Rath is back in Hong Kong after playing in India. Photo: AFP

Willis arrived in the city on Sunday, ahead of the team’s first game in the APC Group T20i Series on Wednesday against Bahrain, and said he was hoping to find out about the players “as people as well, not just as cricketers”.