Charlie Burke bemoans lack of first-class experience in Hong Kong cricket team
Coach says his charges need to learn quickly to have any hope in Intercontinental Cup after opening loss to Namibia
Hong Kong head coach Charlie Burke says his inexperienced team will have to learn fast if they are to make an impact in the ICC Intercontinental Cup after being hammered in their first fixture.
Eight of his team were making their first-class debut in the four-day game and were beaten by 114 runs against a team boasting more than 400 caps.
"Overall I'm disappointed as whenever we play we want to win, however Namibia showed their experience at this format," Burke said. "In patches we showed we are not far off in four-day cricket but we must learn quickly before we face UAE in our next match in November."
Our batsmen will only benefit from learning to play the longer format and spending time at the crease
The tournament is a pathway to play test cricket in 2018, with the winners earning the right to play off against the bottom-ranked test team.
"We simply didn't score enough runs in the first innings and the top seven only produced 164 runs for both innings as well as one partnership over 50," Burke pointed out. "Our batsmen will only benefit from learning to play the longer format and spending time at the crease."
Nizakat Khan and Tanwir Afzal made half-centuries in the first innings while opener Skhawat Ali (43), Haseeb Amjad (41) and Afzal again (38) made runs. Youngster Ehsan Nawaz was unbeaten in both innings.
