Cricket needs strong Asiad debut, says Warnapura
Following cricket's Asian Games debut, the former Sri Lanka captain Bandula Warnapura, now Regional Development Manager with the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and International Cricket Council (ICC), feels it is important for the game to do well here so that it can get an entry into the Olympics soon. "If cricket does well at the Asian Games, it could be an Olympic event soon, so this debut is extremely important," Warnapura was quoted as saying in the China Daily.
However, apart from the ACC, which is in charge of conducting cricket during the 2010 Asian Games, most people including the local authorities here hardly have a clue on how to organise this passionate game of the sub-continent. So they have roped in Bangladesh groundsman Jashim Uddin to prepare the pitches for the event that has seen an upward surge in the sale of tickets.
Jashim said that it was a tough grind for him as the organisers did not know much about the game but he acknowledged that for a first-time effort the facilities were excellent. "It's been a tough road because the Chinese organizers didn't know what to do," he said.
The deputy competition director Wang Chenqu, who was also unaware of anything to do with the sport before taking up his job, said, "Even if we've never hosted cricket matches, we still have to plan things to the finest details. There are so many things we don't know but we are learning as we progress."