I have been mentioning Malaysia as one of the best associates to have done strong junior cricket development elsewhere on this blog. It seems that they have once again bagged a sponsor for nearly $200K, over a period of 3-4 years, to help out with their juniors. Its a good thing that they are trying to go into areas which are not traditionally cricket districts, though, the argument is always there that if you start off with a small region and put all your investment there, you have a better chance of creating a cricketing culture over there than spreading it out.
Malaysia has the worlds highest number of hard ball playing junior cricketers (5,415), and majority of them are malaysian boys themselves, not expats. Their indegenous population has reached at least the U19 level, so it wont be long before the whole team is composed of indegenous Malaysian boys. Though, the last time I read an interview with the Malaysian skipper, he mentioned that the Singapore team had a lot of South Asian expats in the team unlike Malaysia. So perhaps, the players in the Malaysian team, despite having South Asian origin, are malaysian born nationals.
In addition to all of this, one must not forget that the Malaysian Cricket Association has in fact bid for hosting the Cmapions Trophy in the future, which only goes to show that they are expecting their cricketers to fill the stadiums and come and watch the game. This too is indication of a country where true development, or expansion, of cricket is taking place.
Filed under: Cricket Development, Malaysia
That’s good news, well done to them.
There is Malasian kid Supiah playing for somerset county
He received a scholarship to study and play cricket in UK, what value did he bring to the Malaysian Cricket? Cricket is not an indvidual game, it is about 11 players playing as a unit. Without due respect to the rigorous junior development, Malaysian Cricket is still have a long way to go to be at par with countries like Nepal or Papua New Guinea. As a Malaysian who loves cricket, I urge the guardian of cricket in Malaysia to promote cricket aggressively.
The indigenous kids playing in Malaysia are pure Malaysian..Many are of tamil ethnicity, however many are of malay ethnicity as well. Either way..both the tamil and malay populations of Malaysia are completely indigenous. Singapore on the other hand have actually given contracts to former ranji players to come to singapore and wait out 4 years before they can represent the country. They lured former india A player Dharmichand Mulewa who is set to make his debut for singapore at the upcoming ACC Trophy.