Thailand proud of its female cricketers

Casually. For fun. For something to do.

Their talent was then given direction by the newly-formed Cricket Association of Thailand (CAT) and with the ICC giving more emphasis to women’s cricket from 2006, Thailand saw that “with women’s cricket CAT had a clean sheet to work with. CAT set about putting together a list of priorities, with a full ethnic side being at the top of the list, as this was an important issue with regards to the Sports Authority of Thailand,” writes CAT Chief Executive Mohideen Kader.

Men’s cricket in Thailand is currently a 70/30 expatriate game, after long being only played by expatriates. Women’s cricket in Thailand is 100% Thai. And they are winning more than 70% of their games. In the 2009 ACC Women’s Twenty20 they came within a whisker of upsetting favourites Hong Kong in the Final.

Thai cricket, on the women’s side is on the up.

It’s all happened very quickly. “There are fewer sides in women’s cricket compared to the men, fewer countries, fewer age-groups so it is possible to make an impact more easily,” says ACC Development Manager Bandula Warnapura. Nepal have done well in recent years and along with Thailand are the teams who are most likely to vie with Hong Kong for top honours against the Test-playing countries of Asia.

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