After giving India a massive scare in the Asia Cup in Dubai on Tuesday, Hong Kong captain Anshuman Rath has urged the International Cricket Council to take Associate cricket more seriously.
Chasing 286, Hong Kong seemed on course for a famous win after openers Rath (73, 97b) and Nizakat Khan (92, 115b) raised 174 runs in 34 overs. The fall of Rath though changed the momentum as the inexperienced middle order batsmen faltered, giving India a 26-run victory.
Rath said his players showed the cricketing world what they were capable of.
“Today was bittersweet. We proved to the world what we can do, but in saying that, we had India by the horns and should have really finished it off. If we’re being hard on ourselves, which we should be, we should have finished that game off,” he was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
With Hong Kong stripped of their ODI status after the game, uncertainty hovers over the team’s future. But Rath hopes Tuesday’s performance persuades ICC to give them more exposure. ICC meets in Madrid next month to chart a future path for Associate nations.
“We don’t know what the ICC have planned for us. Hopefully this performance helps. The next three-four years will be quiet for us, going into a rebuilding phase, but hopefully the ICC recognise that Associate cricket has got a lot better and we proved that today,” he said.
Rath emphasised the need to follow the Afghanistan model. He pointed out how Afghanistan were like Hong Kong four-five years ago. They used to cause the odd upset but would be bowled out for 140-150 on good tracks. Hong Kong were skittled out for 116 against Pakistan in their opening match in the Asia Cup.
By playing regularly against top sides, Afghanistan got better and their 91-run demolition of Sri Lanka shows they can defeat any side.
“With the right backing, they (Afghanistan) started getting better and better, started training a lot harder, and became fully contracted with professionalism coming in. Now they’re pretty much about to top group B. That’s something that lacks in Associates - the exposure to high level of cricket and today we proved we’re capable of it, and a lot of teams are. Look at Scotland at the World Cup qualifiers, they narrowly missed out. We just need that recognition.”
First Published: Sep 19, 2018 19:34 IST