The Pink Report

A Knight In Hong Kong

News that Scott Styris is to lead the New Zealand team at the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes this weekend reminded me that this boutique little tournament on the international calendar is still going strong. If you’re still adjusting your set to the speed and ballistics of Twenty20 cricket, you definitely don’t want to blink during a six-a-side game. The high octane games can be wrapped up inside 30 minutes, with each bowler getting just one over, and the tactics amount to slogging the ball as hard and far as you can.
 
The atmosphere at the Kowloon Cricket Club is extraordinary and I’m glad to see organisers moved the tournament back here after a stint in the 1990s across town at the cavernous Hong Kong Stadium, which is great for rugby sevens but kills the atmosphere in festival-style cricket. Just a short walk from the retail and tourist hubbub of Nathan Road, shiny high-rise towers surround the serene, century-old relic of British rule and its real estate value makes it the most expensive circle of turf in the world, manicured to perfection as befits the cost of being a member here.
 
From Sachin Tendulkar down, most of the world’s top stars have played at this quirky fixture at some point and if you don’t turn up to play, you’re going to get smashed. Yet despite sending some powerhouse players (Craig McMillan was the tournament’s top runscorer a couple of years ago), New Zealand has never won the Hong Kong Sixes. More than once we’ve won the “Plate Final” - which is the trophy for the also-rans, the teams who don’t make the top half of the competition.
 
To be fair, it’s been treated as a bit of a lark in the past - a quick, fun trip to get in some hitting practice at the start of the season, induct some promising youngsters and have a shot at the not inconsequential prizemoney. But with the increasing relevance of Twenty20 cricket, it’s worth taking the Sixes seriously and treating it as an opportunity to unleash and develop the stand-and-deliver skills.
 
Styris has never been to the Hong Kong hit-and-giggle before, but he’s the aggressive kind of talent that should thrive in the Kowloon hothouse (literally, even in autumn, the air’s like velvet) and he’s got a useful team in fellow BLACKCAPS Daryl Tuffey and Nathan McCullum, New Zealand Under-19 talents Harry Boam and Logan van Beek and Kieran Noema-Barnett and Carl Frauenstein. It won’t be easy because the side’s been drawn in the same pool as India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, but here’s hoping he can be the first to bring home more than the Clayton’s plate.