Japan Cricket Association (JCA) have announced the 14-member men’s national squad, which will be taking part in the upcoming ICC World T20 East Asia-Pacific “B” qualifiers in Dec 2018 in Philippines. All matches will be played at Friendship Oval ground in Cavite, Philippines.
Japan will be competing against the host’s, South Korea and Indonesia in the double round-robin format tournament for one qualification spot into the EAP (East Asia-Pacific) regional finals in 2019. Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu qualified from EAP “A” qualifiers held in Fiji few weeks back.
While Philippines and Indonesia national players have been involved heavily in domestic competitions at home, Japan and South Korea had good competitive match-time in the recently concluded 2018 East Asia Cup held in Hong Kong, where they competed with China and Cricket Hong Kong Dragons team’s in the T20 format and Japan eventually winning the tournament.
Professional baseball turned cricketer pro, Shogo Kimura, will not be taking part in the tournament, as he will be engaged in his playing commitment in Australia as part of JCA’s program for overseas placements.
Japan Men’s Squad for 2018 ICC World T20 EAP “B” qualifiers:
Raheel Kano, Marcus Thurgate, Masaomi Kobayashi, Rui Matsumura, Naotsune Miyaji, Wataru Miyauchi, Tomoki Ota, Muneeb Siddique Mian, Tsuyoshi Takada, Kazumasa Takahashi, Makoto Taniyama, Arata Ueda, Kohei Wakita & Jun Yamashita
Japan’s Schedule (all timings local):
01st Dec 2018:Â Japan vs Indonesia @9:30 am
02nd Dec 2018: Japan vs Philippines @1:30pm
03rd Dec 2018:Â South Korea vs Japan @1:30pm
05th Dec 2018:Â Japan vs Indonesia @9:30am
06th Dec 2018:Â Philippines vs Japan @1:30pm
07th Dec 2018: Japan vs South Korea @1:30pm
