The 3rd edition of the Hong Kong T20 Blitz will be played from Feb 06th – 11th, 2018 at Kowloon Cricket Club and the buzz is already on the rise for the fastest growing emerging nation T20 leagues across the globe.
The fact that an Emerging nation’s T20 League is thriving among the bigger names in the business such as IPL, Big Bash, CPL, PSL and so on, proves the point that much can be done with limited resources as well.
The first edition brought more questions than answers for the Blitz Organisers after rain spoiled the majority of the match days. It wasn’t repeated again as Cricket Hong Kong took strategic steps to conduct domestic players draft well in advance for the franchises to get time on their hands to sign the best possible overseas professionals to come to Hong Kong to play the league.
The 2nd edition saw a monumental rise in the number of overseas professionals, who took part in the event and made it a grand success. Cricket Hong Kong’s initiative to have the tournament streamed live on their YouTube channel and Facebook pages received accolades from the cricket fraternity and news media publications. The viewership numbers for HKT20 Blitz increased by a big margin and Cricket Hong Kong knew that much more could be accomplished in the 3rd edition.
And here we are..Sunset + Vine were roped in as the Production company for the T20 Blitz for 2018. TV broadcasting deals are in place for the event which will mean that Hong Kong’s domestic players will get the chance to be seen Live on TV worldwide. It will be Cricket Hong Kong’s biggest achievement till date along with their Digital/Online expertise, and the prospect only keeps getting better. A world renowned commentary team comprising of Alan Wilkins, Dean Jones, Chris Rogers & Gautam Bhimani will cover the tournament in 2018 and the fact cannot be discarded that the popularity and awareness of T20 Leagues does get a boost when notable personalities talk and commentate about it Live on air.
But coming back to the main topic..will HKT20 Blitz be seen mainly as an advertisements for the big names and players only?? The main objective of the event is to promote the sport in Hong Kong and ensure that local talent gets recognized on the global stage. But do the local players get much enough to do in matches when the big overseas professionals take the center-stage more often than not??
Let’s look at some of the numbers from the first 2 editions of the Blitz. The 2016 edition saw washed out games and a rain-truncated tournament and without any big overseas presence other than the enigmatic ex-Australia & World Cup winning captain, Michael Clarke, who played for Kowloon Cantons. Netherlands current Head Coach Ryan Campbell was the highest run-scorer with 88 runs from 2 matches followed by Nizakat Khan, who scored 81 runs from 2 matches as well..not much to ponder about when you don’t have much game time in the event. But the signs were positive. Australian Michael Hill made 66 runs and Munir Dar getting 58 runs to his name in the same amount of matches. Mohamad Awais rounded off the top 5 making 43 runs from 2 outings. Much was expected from the 2nd edition to see who steps up among the bigger names who came down to HK to play the Blitz.
The big names showed up and owned the batting part of the equation which saw only 3 Hong Kong players getting into the top 15 run-scorers in the entire tournament. Babar Hayat (188 runs from 5 matches) was the 4th highest run-scorer while Anshuman Rath (171 runs from 4 matches) and Nizakat Khan (158 from 4 matches) occupied the 6th & 7th spots respectively. Pretty good picture?? Nope, hang on and read on…
The next 5 best batsmen from Hong Kong were Munir Dar (69 runs from 4 matches), Courtney Kruger (57 runs from 4 matches), Mohammad Awais (55 runs from 4 matches), Aizaz Khan (55 runs from 5 matches) and Kinchit Shah (41 runs from 3 matches). So, the onus comes back again on the domestic talent to show what they are capable of in the 3rd edition. Spreading the awareness and getting more growth drivers for international appeal always is a good prospect for any T20 League, but if Cricket Hong Kong is looking to grow the sport back home more in the grass-roots level, the local players need to step up and walk side-by-side along with their International counterparts.
The franchise team management and coaching staff too need to assess that the domestic batters should get more opportunities at the top of the order to get more time to play themselves in and make bigger contributions towards their team success and not bank on the overseas professionals for the majority part of the tournament.
The bowlers had a fairer return when compared to the batters..the numbers do speak for that..there were 4 Hong Kong bowlers in the top 10 list in the 2017 edition of the Blitz. Tanveer Ahmed led the charts for Hong Kong players with 7 wickets from 5 matches, occupying #6 spot in the list with Ashley Caddy (6 wickets from 4 matches), Nadeem Ahmed (6 wickets from 5 matches) & Tanwir Afzal (5 wickets from 4 matches) occupying #8 – #10 spots in the table. The top 20 was again majorly dominated by overseas players.
The 3rd edition has again seen Franchises set to bring bigger names along with few returnees from the 2017 edition and with 5 players allowed per playing XI in the matches, the equation will again be tough for Hong Kong’s local talent and one hopes that they get better exposure with both bat and ball in the matches that play and feel the fact that they also belong along with their international counterparts.
Cricket Hong Kong & T20 Blitz organisers are doing their every possible bit to gather more exposure on the global stage. Hong Kong’s national and domestic level players need to ensure that it just doesn’t become another playground for overseas players to showcase their skills. The more they perform, the more interest the youth and age-level players will take in the sport to possibly, pursue as a career option and not just pass-the-time venture.
