We belong with test-playing nations, says Hong Kong cricket coach after biggest ever win

Hong Kong deserve their place among the world’s elite after stunning hosts Bangladesh at the ICC World Twenty20, ecstatic head coach Charlie Burke said.

With the world, including all the test-playing nations who have turned up for the biggest cricket carnival this year, watching on television, Hong Kong scored their biggest ever win, beating Bangladesh by two wickets.

It was the first time a Hong Kong team have defeated a full member of the International Cricket Council at a world event.

“Hopefully, this will show the ICC and the other test nations how important it is to have associate countries at tournaments like this,” Burke said. “This format is a great way to promote the game and we showed we deserved to be here.”

This tournament in its original form was meant to be a 16-team event – the 10 full members plus six associate members who qualified. But politics and the fact that next year’s 50-overs World Cup was changed to a 14-team event – the ICC had to backtrack after cutting it down to 10 – resulted in the world governing body moving the goal posts at the last minute in a fit of pique and bringing in another qualifying stage before the Super 10 which starts today.

If not for stage fright, and dropped catches against Nepal and Afghanistan, Hong Kong might have still made it through to the Super 10 stage.