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Dubai: Japanese men as well as women have fallen in love with cricket though it is still a tough battle for the Japanese Cricket Association to spread the game.
"Cricket was discovered by the Japanese University students during the mid eighties. They researched and found out that Cricket and Croquet are the two sports that were not being played in Japan. So some students studied the laws of the game and played it. So, like in other countries, cricket was never introduced there, but it was discovered," remarked Naoki Alex Miyaji, the Chief Executive Officer of Japan Cricket Association (JCA) to Gulf News.
Today there are nearly 50 clubs in Japan and JCA stages one-day and two-day leagues and university league matches regularly. To sow the seeds of the game in a country with no cricket tradition was tough.
"Most of the cricketers are based in Tokyo and it is impossible to find any space other than for football, baseball and rugby. So cricket players have to travel for about 100kms outside of Tokyo to play the game and due to traffic it take nearly three hours to reach the grounds. After playing a whole day they return in the evening when the traffic is even worse," added Miyaji, who fell in love with the game at the age of ten while visiting his relatives in London but began playing regularly when he joined the university.
Since the game is a University based sport boys as well as girls play it.
"We are not physically big or fast and strong. Our biggest strength is discipline, hard work and team spirit. We Japanese are known for hard work and we will soon make a mark in international cricket.
We are working hard under two coaches. Australian Richard Leigler who coaches the men's team while the women's team is coached by New Zealand's Katrina Keegan.
There are over 100 women who loves cricket and Keegan, who opened the bowling for New Zealand in Women's World Cup final, has been working closely with them," remarked Miyaji.
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