Column | Rex Tso and T20 Blitz both hugely popular Hong Kong sports events, so why the contrast in support and coverage?

Innovative cricket tournament had a massive global audience yet went largely unreported as the Wonder Kid dominated local media – but the more top contests in the city the better

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Rex Tso Sing-yu celebrates his latest win. Photo: Felix Wong / SCMP

Published: 1:58pm, 16 Mar 2017Updated: 7:20pm, 18 Mar 2017

There were two hugely popular sporting contests last weekend in Hong Kong, a relatively rare occurrence in a city where top-drawer events remain thin on the ground.

While Rex Tso Sing-yu’s latest boxing match dominated the media, you wonder how many people in the city even knew the Hong Kong T20 Blitz cricket tournament was even on.

Tso’s latest win, against Japan’s Hirofumi Mukai, was the 21st of his unbeaten career. Eight thousand people packed the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai for a brutal contest that saw Tso battered, bloodied, but unbowed after ending Mukai’s resistance in the eighth round.

The following day, the Blitz, an innovative new competition organised by Cricket Hong Kong, was no less explosive and entertaining, though rather less painful for participants.

At a sold-out Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground, Kowloon Cantons won the trophy; a host of big names from world cricket were in action in the competition, but one of Hong Kong’s own, Babar Hayat, starred in the final, blasting 76 from 40 balls.

Kowloon Cantons captain Babar Hayat (centre) and team members celebrate after winning the T20 Blitz. Photo: Nora Tam / SCMP

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