Japan Defeat Korea in Opening Match

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Etsuko Kobayashi inspired Japan to victory in the first match of the East Asia Cup at the Hong Kong Cricket Club today, after just two hours sleep!

Due to work commitments Kobayashi only landed in Hong Kong at 4am and with the game starting at 9:30am there was little time for rest.

Batting first an excellent opening partnership of 49 between Mai Yanagida (21)and Miho Kanno (22) laid a great platform before wickets began to fall. Kobayashi helped keep things together with 18 and a score of 110/8 felt competitive at halfway.

Japan started well with the ball too, taking four wickets for just 14 runs in the first 5.3 overs, two each for Shizuka Miyaji and Kobayashi. A 50 run partnership between Park (27) and Kim (21) gave Korea hope before Kobayashi returned to dismiss both of them and finish with figures of 4/24.

15 runs were needed off the last over but the experience of Miyaji helped Japan to a nine-run win by bowling with great control and also completing a run out.

Japan will play China tomorrow morning and the best way to follow the matches are through our Twitter page (https://twitter.com/CricketJapan) which will be updated every five overs. This is also the only match that will be live streamed, the link will be on our Twitter feed.

Japan Cup Regional Roundup: Students and Samurai Taste Victory

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The Japan Cup T20 regional finals have been completed in Kanto, the successful teams qualifying for the national finals a mix of the old and the new.

In West Kanto the University XI edged past favorites Wyverns in the final in what turned out to be a low scoring thriller. An all round performance from Mahiro Ono (32 & 2/6) made the difference in tough batting conditions at Akishima. Nozomi Tomizawa’s opening spell of 3/16 also proved crucial.

In North Kanto, after a couple of years of persistence, Samurai finally broke through for their first title. Newcomers Ceylon XI and Pakistan Stars did well to reach the semis and final respectively but were no match for the firepower of Samurai.

Over in Sanmu, Chiba, the Men In Blue made it back to back wins in East Kanto. They may have been a surprise winner last year but the Men in Blue led from start to finish this year and easily beat the Falcons in the final, an unbeaten 87 run partnership between Prashanth Manvi and Bala Vinayakar seeing them home by nine wickets.

Finally at the YC&AC in Yokohama the Alpha Quashers retained their South Kanto title thanks to a typically disciplined bowling performance against perennial bridesmaids Indian Engineers in the final. Gurman Singh and Anees Thyranthakath ripped a hole in the Engineers’ top order with three wickets apiece before Nilesh Kanungo made short work of the chase with 46 off 26 balls.

Japan Cup regional competitions are also underway in Kinki and Tokai. The revamped Kinki Japan Cup features teams from Osaka, Kyoto and Shiga while the inaugural Tokai competition sees Fuji take on Nagoya.

Regional representative teams from around Japan will join regional champions from Kanto at the Japan Cup Finals in Sano, October 7-9. Stay tuned for more news.

MCC & CWOB Placements 2017

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At the Japan Cricket Association we are fortunate to regularly have guests from abroad working alongside us to help improve cricket in Japan. Over the years we have had people from a range of backgrounds, but especially Australia, England and New Zealand.

In this section of the website you will be able to read about why each person is visiting and what it is they are actually do here. We hope you find it interesting and if you ever have any questions about these placements please feel free to contact us.

This September the Japan Cricket Association are delighted to welcome the latest overseas placements from two of our partners The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and Cricket Without Borders (CWOB).

Maddi Tobias arrived on Sunday 10th September as the fourth CWOB player to come to Japan following in the footsteps of Alana King, Charlotte Killeen and Chelsea Moscript.

Maddi will divide her time between our Cities of Cricket in Sano and Akishima, staying with local families and delivering cricket in schools and at local clubs

Maddi, 20, is from the countryside and has played cricket since she was eight years old. She has travelled to Fiji and Samoa with CWOB and has coached the Victoria State Under 16 girls team for the last two years.

She said: “I’m thrilled to have been offered an internship this year with Cricket Japan. Travelling to Japan will be a whole new experience for me, but something that I am very much looking forward to.”

Arriving a week later will be Ben Brookes from the MCC Young Cricketers, coming as part of a new partnership with Sano City Council which previously brought Joe Barratt to Japan in 2016.

Also aged 20, Ben is part of a cricket playing family and hopes to forge a successful career in the sport. He said: “It has been fantastic to hear about the challenges about working in a different country and language, and how the experience helped Joe to learn a lot about himself. I have also been told about how welcoming all the Japanese people are and how hard everyone works to make cricket successful. This excites me and makes me want to be a part of something special!”

Like Maddi, Ben will predominantly be working in schools and clubs while also helping with some National Team activities and competition Finals. We hope both have a great time and reiterate our thanks to the respective organisations for finding such outstanding candidates to come and work with the JCA.

Wyverns and Sano to Face Off in Final

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There will be new Champions in both Divisions of the JCL this year after four excellent Semi Finals were played on a perfect weekend for cricket.

In Division One Sano CC reached their first final since being Runners Up in 2014. They will be targeting a fourth crown and are up against the story of 2017, Wyverns CC, who make their first final since 2013 and are aiming to claim a first title after being Runners Up four times previously.

Wyverns and Sano finished top and second respectively in the league and had too much for their opponents; Tigers and MAX who were both finalists last year.

Naotsune “Bebe” Miyaji, four wickets and a great catch.

The Tigers are often a threat at this time of year but Wyverns, unbeaten since Round Five, had too much for them in an all round team performance that contrasted with their opponents. A total of 181/9 was built on 44 from Ken Okoshi and a rampaging 24 from 15 at the end by Yoshitaka Uehara, including two straight sixes, which boosted his team’s confidence as they went into the field.

Sabaorish Ravichandran held the key for Tigers, and his 70 from 65 looked threatening, especially after a drop by Rinsei Sawada carried over the boundary for his 5th maximum in the innings. However, a diving catch by Naotsune Miyaji dismissed him next ball off the bowling of Raheel Kano, before Miyaji himself picked up four wickets for 25 to dismiss TIgers for 127 and earn Wyverns the win by 54 runs.

Defending Champions MAX were undone by Sano CC in a repeat of the final round. Batting first Sano were able to apply pressure throughout and dismiss MAX for just 96, before knocking over the total with the loss of just four batsmen and only 22 overs gone. Top for much of the season, Sano will fancy their chances against a Wyverns side who they defeated earlier in the season.

Sano 2nd XI make their first ever Final

In Division Two there was more pain for the Tigers, Champions the past two years but undone this year by a talented young Sano CC side who make the final for the first time ever and keep alive dreams of a League Double. Captained this season by Japan Women’s player Mai Yanagida, they have been another great success story with a strong youth policy.

Kazumasa Takahashi, the talented 13-year-old, top scored with 30 as Sano posted 151 all out off 39.5 overs before Yuki Ohtorii starred with the ball, taking 4/36 to roll the Tigers for 116 and win by 35 runs.

They will be up against Alpha Quashers, who topped the league season, after they overcame another young side in the Chiba Sharks. 15-year-old Neel Date had Quashers in trouble at 50/4 after taking out their top order, before runs from Nirmal Prasaath (51) and Dhinakaran Thennarasu (47) led the recovery to 208/6.

At 42/6 the Sharks looked in real danger before Date (23) combined with Gaurabh Bartaula (35) to make a recovery of sorts. Ultimately the quality of Quashers spin bowling was too much, Rohit Kumar (3/24) running through the tail to earn his side a victory by 78 runs.

The Division One Final will be played on Saturday 30th September while the Division Two Final takes place the following day. Fans are encouraged to come and watch as there will be a wealth of talent on display, from Japan and overseas, in both matches.

JCL Final Round: Tigers Claim Fourth

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An emphatic victory for the Tigers, built on another splendid hundred by Sabaorish Ravichandran, propelled them into this weekends Semi Finals of the Japan Cricket League Top Division.

Ravichandran, a man who likes the big occasion, struck his second century of the season, to go with two fifties, to move to the top of the run scoring charts and he will be key to Tigers hopes if they are to go one better than the runners up spot they claimed last year.

A mighty total of 304/6 against a hapless Paddy Foleys was always going to be a winning score. Neeraj Karautiya chipped in with 83, and the leagues bottom team mustered just 57 in reply to give Tigers a resounding 245-run win, the biggest margin this season – and possibly ever.

Tigers were able to play with full freedom after Alpha Quashers fell over the previous day against Tokyo Wombats to hand Tigers fourth place. Needing just 123 to win and put pressure on the team above them, Yusry Mohideen claimed 5/22 to dismiss the Quashers for just 105 and ensure that the Wombats ended the season on a positive note, finished 6th to the Quashers 5th.

That was more than could be said of Chiba Sharks, who were overtaken by Wombats to finish 7th in the league after falling to yet another narrow defeat, this time to top of the table Wyverns. Takahiro Aoki was the hero for Wyverns with career best figures of 5/27 to roll the Sharks for 127, but it still needed a last wicket stand of 22 from the half fit Tomoki Ota, batting at 11, and Yoshi Uehara to get the Wyverns home and seal 1st place.

In the final match of the round MAX capitulated against Sano, bowled out for just 88 and, despite taking five wickets in the chase, Sano eased home based on an unbeaten 40 by Thapa Bijaya. One positive for MAX was welcoming back Takuro Hagihara, who grabbed three wickets. The two teams meet again this Saturday in the Semi Finals as the win secured 2nd place in the table for Sano.

So the semi final line up is:

Wyverns vs Tigers

Sano vs MAX

Both matches will be played on Saturday 9th September. Good luck to all and well played after a tightly contested league campaign.

JCL Round Ten: Quashers & Tigers Battling for Semi-Finals

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The typhoon that swept through Japan last week was not kind enough to leave the Japan Cricket League unscathed. Only one match was able to be completed, and we shall come to that shortly, but the final outcome is that Round 11 is set up to be a cracker.

New boys Alpha Quashers and 2016 Runners Up Tigers CC were both unable to complete their matches (against MAX and Wyverns respectively), meaning Tigers remain in pole position to grab the last semi, leading the Quashers by a single point.

However, if Quashers can register a bonus point win against Tokyo Wombats then Tigers will need to do the same in their fixture against Paddy Foleys, which takes place the following day, to guarantee their berth. Whatever happens it will make for interesting viewing.

In the one match of the round that was completed, Sano CC overcame a stubborn Chiba Sharks who were again without a host of key players. A makeshift top order battled hard to put the Sharks in a decent position, Pavethy Velusamy registering a half century (51) in an opening stand of 80 alongside youngster Kavin Jinasena (22).

Unfortunately the Sharks had entered the game with just nine men and and collapsed from 118/2 to 139 all out with Prabath Sankalpa snaring 3/17 along with a run out.

Despite Velusamy rounding off a good day personally with 3/38, Sano smashed ten sixes on their way to a six-wicket win with Rashid Rana hitting 67 and Uddika Pradeep 34*.

Sano will still have hopes of finishing top of the table, but will need to overcome MAX in the final round and hope Wyverns come unstuck against the Sharks. If they fail to do so, or if Wyverns complete their league campaign with another win, then the two teams will immediately face off again in the Semi-Finals.

*Footnote: Some play was possible in the Alpha Quashers vs Wyverns match but a scorecard is at this stage unavailable. Sources tell us Wyverns had posted a score of more than 200 thanks to a sterling century from Oshantha Nanayakkara. If any more can be discovered about the game we will endeavour to report on it next week.

Shape the future of Cricket in Japan – Questionnaire 2

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As we approach the end of the current JCA Strategy 2013-2017, we are putting together a new one for 2018 and beyond.

In order to obtain input from a wide range of people from the cricket community, we are conducting a couple of surveys. Please see the second one at the below link. It will be open until the 31st of August, so please send in your views by then.

https://goo.gl/forms/uVrk8myYsJBREt1E3

All members of the cricket community are invited to share their views, so please spread the word as widely as possible. We look forward to hearing from as many people as possible.

Women’s East Asia Cup: Coach, Captain, Manager and Team Selected

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The second edition of the Women’s East Asia Cup will take place in Hong Kong from September 21st – 24th. Due to the withdrawal of the Chinese team, Japan will play against Hong Kong and Korea with a Hong Kong Development Team taking the place of China.

The Coach for the tournament will be Natalie Schilov from Cricket Victoria. As a junior player Natalie played for Victoria for six years, and as an adult has been named in the Premier Team of the Year three times. She is a Level Three coach and currently works with Duncan Harrison in the Victoria Women’s Academy with the Under 15 girls and the Victoria Country team.

Working with her will be Yukiko Thurgate, in the role of Team Manager, continuing the job she has done in the last two overseas tournaments. We would like to thank both ladies for their time and hard work.

The captain for this tournament will be Mai Yanagida who has done the job previously in 2015 and 2016.

With both Hikari Ishiguro and Aki Umetani also unable to travel three new players are called into the national training squad and also the travelling group of 14. Their names are marked with a * and congratulations to them.

Touring Team:

  1. Miho Asama (Wyverns Cricket Club)
  2. Rio Endo (Wyverns Cricket Club)
  3. Kanae Ishimoto (Fuji Far East Cricket Club)
  4. Kisaki Iwahashi* (Wyverns Cricket Club)
  5. Miho Kanno (Adore Cricket Club)
  6. Akari Kitayama (Wyverns Cricket Club)
  7. Etsuko Kobayashi (Wyverns Cricket Club)
  8. Erika Oda* (Adore Cricket Club)
  9. Shizuka Miyaji (Fuji Far East Cricket Club)
  10. Madoka Shiraishi (Wyverns Cricket Club)
  11. Mayu Suzuki* (Doshisha University Cricket Club)
  12. Sonia Wylde (Doshisha University Cricket Club)
  13. Eri Yamaguchi (Fuji Far East Cricket Club)
  14. Mai Yanagida (Wyverns Cricket Club)

Two years ago our team finished third and we hope the Japan Cricket Community will join us in wishing them every success in this competition.

 

 

Youm-E-Azadi Cup Hosted in Sano

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On 6th August the Japan Cricket Association were delighted to host the Youm-E-Azadi Cup (Independence Cup) in Sano.

Before the start of the match Mr Masahide Okabe, the Mayor of Sano, welcomed all in attendance and talked about how cricket has helped develop the city of Sano as an international community.

At the conclusion of the match we were very pleased to welcome the Ambassador for Pakistan, Mr Asad M Khan, who had come directly from the airport after flying in from an event in Hiroshima. The Ambassador spoke of how impressed he is at the development of cricket in Japan, as 25 years ago on his previous posting here, he saw very little cricket.

Japan, who won the match a year ago, were unlucky to lose this time around, by a narrow margin of just 19 runs. The Ambassador’s XI scored 161/7 from their 20 overs, with lots of big hitting, and although Japan looked to be cruising to victory, a collapse at the end meant we were all out for 142. Naotsune Miyaji was top scorer in the match with 33.

The JCA would like to thank the Pakistani Community, especially Mr Mumtaz Alam, for all their hard work in organizing the match and we look forward to playing again in the future.

“Week of Cricket” Successfully Concludes

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This August the Japan Cricket Association hosted our first “Week of Cricket” which began with a training camp and match for our men’s national team and ended with a two-day training camp for our women’s national team, and in between there were camps for three different groups of people.

Monday and Tuesday had the best players in Japan in the under 15 age group training for two days, while Wednesday and Thursday had the best under 19 players mixed in with the most enthusiastic student cricketers. On Thursday afternoon and Friday a group of women had the chance to develop their skills and learn more about the game.

The camps were all run by Duncan Harrison, who was on his first visit to Japan, and came as part of our ongoing relationship with Cricket Victoria. Despite the taxing weather conditions, all nine days were completed without interruption and Duncan was impressed with what he saw.

“I was very surprised at the ability of some players who have not played the game for very long” he said. “I was prepared for the high work ethic, but was also impressed by the willingness to listen and try new things from all of the groups, and the speed that they learned.”

The JCA would like to formally thank all those who attended, and hope that everyone had an enjoyable time while also learning something about their game.

We would also like to thank Duncan for all his hard work and hope that he returns in the future.