The Bowled Over Cricket Blog

China’s estimated 85,000 cricket fans play on football (soccer) pitches or basketball courts and use plastic poles for stumps. The national side has made headlines around the globe for its abysmal performances, including the women’s side being bowled out for a humiliating 14 runs against the UAE last year. There is only one grass pitch serving the entire country, almost no domestic media coverage and most young people in China are deterred from playing non-Olympic sports, or are encouraged to focus primarily on their studies. But despite all the drawbacks, there is hope for cricket in China. Growing the game in the world’s second biggest economy has long been a priority for the ICC, and it is perhaps surprising that cricket has struggled so much to take off in China given its borders with the cricket-obsessed Subcontinent. Many of cricket’s headline sponsors around the globe, such as Oppo, Paytm, Alibaba and Vivo are Chinese companies, showing China’s interest in the financial po