Also playing in Japan, a little bit of cricket

There’s now the Japan Cricket Association, registered with the ICC (of which it’s been an associate member since 1989), at least three annual tournaments and, perhaps most importantly, the will and desire to grow. And you know what happens when the Japanese get into that mood.

Though the first cricket club in Japan was established in 1898—when British sailors set up the Yokohama Country and Athletic club—it wasn’t until the ’70s, when UK-returned university professors began spreading the word, that the game began to take root.

Today, it’s in the hands of a group of dedicated people—in the JCA and in the 30-odd teams, half of whom are from the subcontinent—who combine their gruelling day job with the task of spreading the game.

Which is tougher than it sounds in a country where baseball is the number one sport and football is waiting to take off. ‘‘We have so many problems just trying to explain to people what cricket is,’’ says Kei Imamura, JCA’s executive director. ‘‘There’s nothing on TV; at most, two-minute clips in a section on bizarre sports.’’

At the basic level, there’s the problem of where to play. ‘‘All grounds are for baseball which requires two-hour slots,’’ says Biju Paul, captain of the Indian Engineers CC, one of the four-odd Indian teams. ‘‘So when we apply for a ground, they tell us, ‘two hours’. Eventually they give us three consecutive slots for us to play our 40-over matches.’’

And there are safety and other regulations to be met. So if the notorious Japanese red-tape can’t be cut through they simply troop off down to a dry riverbed. There’s only one ground dedicated to cricket, says Paul; a concrete pitch with matting cover. But you can only bowl from one end because the other has a steepish slope.

‘‘A Pakistani expat bought it after winning and dining local officials for several months.’’

At least they’ve got over their biggest hurdle: the sheer lack of players. ‘‘Earlier, we were always three or four players short. Now, I have to decide whom to leave out,’’ says Paul.

The players from the Indian community are mainly software engineers who gave the club their name. Pak clubs draw men from the labour, though now the JCA has said only those with valid papers can play official matches. Paul says there has never been any tension between two teams.

Today, there are three official annual tournaments: the Kanto league for teams in Tokyo and surrounding areas, the Gunma Cup—two-day matches— and a challenge cup for beginners, sponsored by the British Embassy.

There’s also a tournament for women, to satisfy the ICC requirements. They play in whites though Imamura, an umpire, doesn’t have a white coat but may yet pinch one from the local hospital.

They follow the MCC rules—translated into Japanese in 1994. What hurts is the lack of equipment; ordered in from Australia or Singapore.

The game isn’t restricted to Honshu. They play cricket in Sapporo too; in fact, they have an annual match with a team from Sakhalin, the Russian island to the north.

So how do the Japanese play? ‘‘Oh, we don’t have anyone who can really spin the ball. We just tweak it around a bit,’’ says Naoya Miyaji, the college student who’s a driving force behind the JCA (and a big hitter to boot).

Biju Paul is more appreciative. ‘‘They are very serious players. If they say practice at 10 a.m., they’ll be there at 9. They aren’t aggressive or flamboyant. But they are learning all the time.’’ That’s not enough. What the JCA needs is money, sponsorship, teams coming in. It has started sending teams abroad and this year won an ICC tournament in Australia.

The match has just begun, but the Japanese have been known to turn almost everything they touch to gold. The men in white will be looking for that streak to continue.