Cricket in Chiang Mai

In the past couple of months there has been a couple of major cricket tournaments in Chiang Mai, organised by the Asian Cricket Council. It is quite a coup for the area as the council has the whole of Asia from which to choose a venue. The men's limited over tournament was a bit boring so I only watched a couple of games and both were very one sided. The winners were Oman, who hammered all the teams they met. The other tournament was the under 19's girls ( see photos) and teams included Kuwait, Iran, Hong Kong, Malaya, Bhutan, Singapore and Thailand. There were some great games and the girls were very enthusiastic, full of fun and energy and looked like they were having a great time. They all approached the tournament in a professional manner, proper practice's, warm ups and warm downs. The final was between Malaya and Nepal which Nepal won easily. Nepal has obvious cricket credentials being so close to India. One of the Malayan girls was run out and she walked back to the pavilion in tears - poor girl. Check out the photo of the ground staff marking out the wicket, this is the Prem Centre where I'm hoping to start a football academy. See in the distance the beautiful mountains. So, unwittingly I've arrived in a hot bed of cricket. My hope is that some of these nations eventually end up on the test playing arena. we could do with some new blood to liven things up. Top photo - some of the Bhutan team enjoying a joke on the boundary; next the winning Nepal team prepare to collect their winners medals. Third photo down - the successful Nepal team start celebrating; Ground staff at Prem; Kuwait do their warm up routines at the Gymkhana Club; Bhutan taking the field at Gymkhana; Malaya going through their fielding drills; Thailand batting against Bhutan at Gymkhana (Thailand won this game)