Japan hopes India T20I at Sano will boost cricket’s profile
Japan Cricket Association chief operating officer Alan Curr said India will play Japan in their first-ever T20I at the Sano International Cricket Ground on Tuesday and he hopes the fixture can broaden cricket’s appeal in Japan. ICC Men's T20 world champions India will face Japan and the match will be broadcast live on FanCode.
Curr spoke to PTI on Sunday about using India’s visit to attract other international teams to Japan and to raise the sport’s visibility. The Sano ground normally has permanent seating for around 500 spectators, but the JCA has added temporary stands, VIP areas and ticket gates and strengthened security for the match. The association brought in a security consultant from England who has worked at World Cups, The Hundred and events involving India.
"The boys are excited. An opportunity like this doesn't come around very often for us," Curr was quoted as saying by PTI on Sunday. "We're trying to take all of this as part of the steps we're taking to try and do that," Curr said.
Curr said the match has already drawn Japanese media attention and stressed that mainstream interest is only beginning. "In terms of the mainstream in Japan, it's certainly piquing interest. It's easy to say that the reigning world champions are coming to Japan to play against our team. But we've still got a long way to go," he said.
On event preparations Curr said: "We are taking all of this very seriously, and I think it's really important for us to show that we have the capacity to handle something like this." He also warned that weather posed a risk: "Right now, success will be getting a game on. I'm not going to lie, there is a gigantic typhoon just to the south of Japan right now, so that's the concern," Curr said.
Curr said some objectives have already been met simply by securing India's visit. "I think a lot of the success has almost already happened. The fact that India has agreed to come, the fact that I'm sitting here talking to you guys, the fact that there's already a lot of Japanese media coming tomorrow to find out more about this game and about the sport - I think success is already here," he said. The JCA relaid the ground's turf square in March using the same clay used for the Asian Games facility in Nagoya, and Curr said the plan was to create a venue that could host international teams and also serve as a training base. "We were quite keen to try and host the Asian Games here, but unfortunately that wasn't possible. So, finding reasons to attract full members to come here became important," he said. "Once we had the pitch laid in March this year, we started preparing a proposal to send out to all the full members." That proposal eventually reached the BCCI, with Curr saying discussions moved quickly after the board received it.
Curr outlined participation growth and domestic competition expansion: Japan's registered player base increased from around 3,000 when he joined the JCA in 2014 to about 8,800 now, the Japan Cup has grown to more than 80 teams, and the Japan Cricket League has four divisions and more than 30 teams. Despite that progress he said cricket remains marginal in national sport culture: "Cricket doesn't really feature in the national sports scene right now. It's a curiosity more than something that's avidly followed and watched by the bulk of Japanese sports fans. We are trying to change that." On schools he added: "At the moment, cricket isn't really on the menu. We've got a handful of schools that offer cricket, and so until we can get cricket into that system, it's going to be difficult," he said.
Curr pointed to the Asian Games as a way to give cricket greater legitimacy and visibility in Japan: "The Asian Games are so entrenched in the Japanese sporting psyche. People understand exactly what the Asian Games are, in the same way they understand the Olympics. So cricket being part of these sporting events gives the sport a legitimacy that it didn't have before. That makes it more visible," he said. He said the JCA wants Tuesday's match to introduce more people to the sport and to show what Japanese cricket has been building: "We want to show that cricket is a sport that is played hard, but is also accessible and friendly to be involved with. We want cricket to be fun," Curr said. "It would be a great success to not have to see those kinds of comments about how shocked people are that Japan even plays cricket, because we've been playing cricket for a very long time. There's been an awful lot going on in the background of Japan cricket for many, many years, and it's great now that we are above sea level, I guess, and we're actually visible to a few more people. We hope that continues."
Japan will host India in their first-ever T20I at the Sano International Cricket Ground on Tuesday, with the JCA treating the fixture as a test of its ability to stage top-level international cricket.
