For a lot of us, cricket isn’t just a sport, it is an emotion. And for a lot of aspiring cricketers, lack of resources has been a major obstacle in their growth. As cricket strives to be a global sport, a very emotional journey of a women’s national cricket team at the Asian Games 2022 has rocked the world.
In the ongoing Asian Games 2022 tournament at Hangzhou, China, the Mongolia women’s team were steamrolled past by Hong Kong women in their opening encounter. Notably, this was the team’s first-ever international tournament.
Hong Kong women amassed a score of 202 runs in the 1st innings and the gulf between the two sides was clearly visible during that innings. A total of 36 extras were bowled by Mongolia and the Hong Kong batters were simply a class act.
In the 2nd innings, heartbreak struck Mongolia as they were skittled out for a paltry score of 22 runs. They were given a reality check by the far-superior side in the form of Mongolia.
But, the Head Coach of Mongolia, David Talalla, is ‘proud’ of his team and highlighted the secrets of the team and their preparations that would make everyone emotional.
Talalla mentioned how his team uses second-hand kits from Australia and they could only bring 12 members in their squad. The Head Coach also mentioned that the average age of his team is 19 and that this was also the first time that they left the shores of Mongolia.
“We’ve only got a squad of 12 — that’s all we could afford to bring. The whole idea is the longer picture — cricket in Mongolia, who would have thought it? Even myself, I’ve only been in the job here for five weeks as a high-performance coach, but six months ago, I didn’t even know they played cricket in Mongolia,” said David.
The girls from Mongolia were also playing on grass pitches for the first time as back at home, there were artificial pitches.
While the performance wasn’t remotely close to what they would have expected, the Mongolia women’s cricket team should be proud of the progress they have made.
This is indeed a huge positive for the globalisation of sports and the attempts made by the who’s who of the sport to extend it beyond the Commonwealth.
The Asian Games 2022 will be playing a pivotal role in giving these emerging teams, an opportunity to showcase their skills and talent in front of the entire world.
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