Hong Kong Cricket Club

Regardless of its international reputation, the Hong Kong Cricket Club did not, and could not, exist on Interports and Friendly matches alone. Competitive league cricket is the backbone of the Club's day-to-day existence.

HKCC currently runs three teams in the domestic Saturday League competition and two teams in the Sunday League. Additionally, the Club provides teams in all junior league competitions (Under 13 to Under 19) and the HKCA Women's League.

The Cricket season runs from late September through to early May and Club team net practices are held under lights every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening starting from 6:30 p.m.. Ladies' team practices are held on Friday evenings.

HKCC also organises junior coaching programmes in association with Hong Kong Cricket Assocation throughout the year. For more details please click on The Gappers.

New Season Message
from Coach, Mark Wright

The 2009-10 season was one of contrasting fortunes for all of the Cricket sides at HKCC.

The Juniors, for the first time ever, managed a clean sweep, by winning the under 11, 13 and 15 league titles. This was an excellent achievement and one that will be highlighted on the Junior Honours Board which can be found behind the Sportsman's Bar at the Club.

The Under-17 league campaign was one that was not well thought through and the fact that teams had to pull out due to the games being played in July is something that I hope is learned from for this coming season.

The way in which the juniors played their cricket last season was a credit to all the players involved and also to all of the parents/assistants and coaches who give up a lot of their time to ensure that the teams are able to play a number of games at various different venues. The Junior section is one that is continuing to grow and I hope that we are able to enter more teams into the various Leagues this season. I look forward to working with the first intake in the HKCC Academy which will commence in Late September 2010. The Academy has been set up to help those lads who we believe are going to be making an impression in the senior teams in the near future. The players selected to attend will work on all aspects of the Mental, Physical, Tactical, Technical and Lifestyle areas of their game with a view to moving on to a higher level of cricket with one of the 6 Club Men's Senior teams and also for the Hong Kong National team.

The HKCC Men's senior teams struggled on the whole last season with none of the Club sides managing to get past the semi-final stage of any of the competitions. Whilst the season was one that didn't flow too well with regard to regular fixtures, we didn't practise and perform anywhere near what is needed in order to compete with other strong teams in the competitions.

The introduction of a 20/20 competition in addition to the 50 over league that is currently in place, will see all three of the Sunday sides playing between 22-28 games this season. This should help create more regular cricket and will present more players with the opportunity to play for the Club. The Saturday league will be 14 games this season and again, it is hoped that, with further grounds becoming available, this number will continue to increase over the next year or so.

The end of the 2009-10 season saw a lot of changes amongst the cricket section with 5 captains having completed their 2 year stint. Thanks to Todd Hoare, Phil Pemberton, Toby Brown, Liam Le Roux and Trevor Tully for all of the hard work and effort they put in for their respective teams. The 5 new captains chosen to replace them are:

Ben Hart (Witherers), Andrew Swan (Nomads), Nick Way (Ramblers) Nick Armstrong (Wanderers) and Billy Henwood (Scorpions). Best of luck to all these guys and I am sure that their teams will benefit from the way in which they will go about their role.

A special mention to the Outgoing Captain of Cricket, James Callow. James has been in charge throughout my 3 years at HKCC and I would like to thank him for all the time and effort he has put into making my time here so rewarding and enjoyable. I am sure that the new COC, Michael Jamieson, will bring some new ideas and visions to the cricket section and I look forward to working alongside him over the next 12 months or so.

In the process of writing this message, the pre-season training has been underway for a week or so and the numbers at practice have been excellent. The Club has spent an enormous amount of money on various pieces of training equipment such as boxing and circuit training apparatus, and it is hoped that that these numbers continue throughout the season.

The Indoor Cricket Centre is due to undergo further repairs and it is hoped that, come the start of the season, the Cricket Centre will be fully functional and all players can make the most of one of the leading cricket facilities in the world. We are extremely fortunate to have the facility and the video/ Hawkeye equipment will certainly make a difference to all players, if they take the time to use it.

The two HKCC Ladies teams are back in training and are hoping to build on what was a successful season last year. The team played extremely well throughout and managed to win both the Sunday league and also the 6-a-side tournament held at Mission Road. The Ladies benefited hugely from having MCC Young Cricketer, Charlie Russell, at the Club for the first 4 months of the season and it is great to see both her and Natasha Miles doing so well for their respective teams back in the UK. Already, there have been several new players turn up for training and I would like to invite anyone who is keen to play, to come down and have a go.

Gappers' sessions are due to re-start on Saturday 18th September and we would like to thank National Australia Bank for their continued support and sponsorship of an excellent programme for young cricketers. The quality on show at the Club on Saturday mornings is like nothing I have seen before in club situations. I have no doubt that this programme will continue to grow and all at HKCC are looking forward to assisting Gappers' Development.

In addition to Gappers, I have set up several "Hardball" and "Softball" Cricket courses that will run midweek. Please look at the posters enclosed with this Pinkun for all the details on these courses concerning day/times and locations.

In finishing I would also like to thank Ricky, Joel and the team for the excellent job in renovating the cricket ground. The luxury of having no tennis court to field on will certainly make a lot of guys very happy ! I am sure though that the excuses of a dodgy bounce will still appear but I know that Ricky will deal with them in his own style!!

Executive Chef, Simon Evans, has done a great job in improving the food that is on offer throughout training and match days. I am sure that we all appreciate his hard work and drive in continuing to raise the standards.

Good Luck to you all for the 2010-11 season

Sri-Lanka Trip (11th to 26th June 2010)
Hawk-Eye System Training
by Samson Lam,
Club Assistant Sports & Events Manager

The Hawk-Eye system is installed in the Club's Cricket Centre for Excellence. To be able to operate this Analysis System at its best, I was given the opportunity to train with the Hawk-Eye Team during the Cricket Asian Cup 2010 which was held in Sri Lanka in June 2010. Thank you to the General Committee, Mr. Rodney Miles, and the Club Management for this opportunity.

It was a very long journey travelling to the match city - Dambulla, Sri Lanka. Arriving 4:00 a.m. at Dambulla, I was up by 8:00 a.m. ready to experience the first day of my training. The Hawk-Eye team consisted of three persons: Team leader - Mr. Tim Barber - focused on dealing with the TV crew and commentators by feeding live TV broadcast with the necessary and useful graphic analysis/statistics and key playback such as wickets and Leg Before Wicket (LBW).

First Operator - Mr. Vivek Ratnam - the tracking of every ball bowled during a match and ensuring balls were tracked properly for feeding to Tim for graphic and statistic use.

I was the second operator, acting as a back-up tracker, in case Vivek encountered problems.

As we were part of the TV broadcasting team for the Asian Cup 2010 event, I also met different people in the TV crew and then headed to the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, the match venue for the event. For the first two days, all the TV crews were busy setting up the Media Centre from scratch, while The Hawk-Eye team was also busy setting up our workstation and computers. We also ran all the necessary cables from the Media Centre to all the camera positions. We found problems (safety issues) with some of the existing camera positions; new camera spots (scaffoldings) were being setup last-minute by the groundsmen. With quite a bit of effort (a lot of climbing up and down the scaffoldings) we managed to secure all the Hawk-Eye cameras for the tournament.

The day before the first match, it was all about system testing, aligning video feeds, calibrations for the analysis system. A number of computer graphic works were created to be shown during live TV broadcast.

Into the first match day, we prepared ourselves at the Stadium at noontime. Before the match commenced at 2:30p.m., there was still a lot to be done. A final check of all the system and cameras. In addition, dimensions of wicket and the stumps were measured and input just before the match to give the most accurate data for the analysis system.

As the host, Sri Lanka, was playing in the first match and the Stadium was packed with spectators and lots of Sri Lankan flags were flying. The match started right on time, and it was also the time for our full focus. We sat in front of our computer, watching every ball bowled in the match. At the same time, we needed to "click" on the mouse for every ball being bowled; the computer then captured a series of photos of that ball, the analysis system then calculated and was able to provide different information, such as ball speed, ball pitches, the flight path of the ball, and most importantly, the expected flight path in case of LBW (whether the ball would break the stumps or not). The information was then put into graphic form to TV feed when necessary. During the process, there were also a number of variations, such as the darkness/contrast of the capture, the amount of black and white pixels, camera speed etc. This had to be adjusted from time to time, in order to provide the best captures for analysis.

Operating the system on the first day was pretty chaotic for me. I had received some experience operating the system back at the Club, but it is a different story operating the system at an actual match! Firstly, I needed to make sure I captured every ball bowled, which I also needed to adjust on the variations (which is something that I would rarely need to adjust at the Club, since our system is indoor where the amount of light is constant; the strong wind around the Stadium causing a lot of wobbling of the cameras was not helping either... ). It was not until the fourth match that I started to get used to the speed of the game, and get used to handling the system in a better way. Thanks to Tim and Vivek - they were really patient with me and gave me different tips and advice which I can apply at the Club.

The Hawk-Eye Team worked every day during the tournament (some of the TV Crew were able to enjoy a day off every third day when no match was played). As the tournament would move to a new wicket after every two matches, we needed to return to the Stadium, adjust the position and recalibrate all the cameras for the next two matches. However, we still managed to have some time off for ourselves when we could sit back and enjoy some casual cricket with the TV Crew, explore the surroundings, and of course, watch the World Cup 2010 matches.

My most memorable match of the tournament would be the group match between India and Pakistan, which India won with a nicely hit "six" on the second last ball; the match was very exciting and tense throughout. I really appreciated the opportunity to receive this training. Not only have I acquired more knowledge and skills in operating the Hawk-Eye System at the Club but it was great to have the chance to visit a country that I had never visited before. Sri Lanka is quite beautiful, the people are very nice and kind. I would certainly travel to Sri Lanka again to explore further.

Captains, whilst the indoor cricket centre is shut I will try and continue with the fitness and fielding drills that I had planned for pre season. I will try and use the Sports Hall for an hour and then also book the outside net for those that wish to net also.

Tuesday 24th August 730-830pm - Outdoor Net Booking ( HKCC SENIOR PRACTICE)
Tuesday 24th August 830-930pm - Sports Hall Booking ( HKCC SENIOR PRACTICE)

Wednesday 25th August 700-900pm - Outdoor Net Booking ( HKCC SENIOR TRIALS)

Thursday 26th August 730-930pm - Sports Hall Booking ( HKCC SENIOR PRACTICE)

Friday 27th August 630-730pm - Sports Hall Booking (HKCC LADIES PRACTICE)
Friday 27th August 730-830pm - Outdoor Net ( HKCC LADIES PRACTICE)

Tuesday 31st August - 730-830pm - Outdoor Net Booking ( HKCC SENIOR PRACTICE)
Tuesday 31st August - 830-930pm - Sports Hall Booking ( HKCC SENIOR PRACTICE)

Thursday 2nd September - 730-930pm - Sports Hall Booking ( HKCC SENIOR PRACTICE)

Friday 3rd September - 630-730pm - Outdoor Net Booking ( HKCC LADIES PRACTICE)
Friday 3rd September - 730-830pm - Sports Hall Booking ( HKCC LADIES PRACTICE)

Saturday 4th September - 100-230pm - Outdoor Net Booking ( HKCC SENIOR TRIALS)
Saturday 4th September - 230-430pm Sports Hall Booking ( HKCC SENIOR PRACTICE)

The times and dates for the HKCC Senior Trials are as follows:

Saturday 7th August - 100-230pm ( HKCC INDOOR CRICKET CENTRE)

Saturday 14th August - 100-230pm (HKCC INDOOR CRICKET CENTRE)

Saturday 21st August - 100-230pm (HKCC INDOOR CRICKET CENTRE)

Wednesday 25th August - 700-900pm ( HKCC OUTDOOR NET)

Apologies for the change of plans for pre season. With the closure of the indoor cricket centre, this has caused some disruptions which I hope we can try and make the best of with other facilities at the club.

I am going to try and arrange some cricket against KCC for Sunday 29th August and will keep you posted if this is possible or not. There will be no cricket on Saturday 28th August!!