Anyone for ... cricket? Enthusiasts go to bat for their sport

Anyone for ... cricket? Enthusiasts go to bat for their sport

Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Most local sports lovers have no problem rattling off the
names of European soccer's leading lights, the towering titans of
U.S. basketball and one or two of tennis' shining stars.

But they would be stumped to describe what cricket is all
about, let alone who are the sport's top men at the wicket.

Without the sporting legacy of former British colonies such as
the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, it's hard to make head or
tail of the strange terminology -- wickets, innings, overs, lbw
-- and the laid-back goings-on played out on the field.

Ricky, a 36-year-old Jakarta sports fan who often burns the
midnight oil to watch Italian and English soccer games, confesses
that cricket is one sport that fails to draw his interest.

"I really don't know much about it, not even how many players
are on a side or the scoring system," said the private company
employee.

He may well be surprised to learn that cricket has its own
dedicated followers in the capital, a small but passionate group
that is trying to bring the game to the wider audience of
Indonesians.

Last weekend, they turned out as the finalists for the JCA
Kabelvision Cricket League were decided, with Senayan CC to take
on Ceylon CC at the Ceylon Cricket Ground in Cibubur, East
Jakarta, on May 8.

There are sketchy records of cricket being played in the
country from the 1880s to 1960s, according to Noel Matthews, a
British student at the University of Indonesia's School of
Cultural Sciences, who wrote his 2004 final coursework paper on
the history and development of the sport here.

He noted anecdotal evidence of cricket matches being played
from after World War II until the mid-1960s in the area where the
National Monument now stands.

However, it is only in the last 25 years that expatriates have
brought their love of the game to various areas of the country,
from Bali to Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, and especially Jakarta
with the establishment of the Jakarta Cricket Association (JCA)
in 1992.

The first Jakarta cricket league began that same year with
eight teams; today, about 10 teams compete on at least half a
dozen grounds in the capital and West Java.

John Stevenson, who is a board member of the JCA and the
Indonesian Cricket Foundation (ICF), said there were about 150
people on 10 teams in Jakarta, and from 50-60 players in Bali. In
Jakarta, most of the participants are Indians and Pakistanis,
with a mix of other expatriates rounding out the group.

While the JCA has concentrated on developing cricket in
Jakarta, the ICF, founded in 2000, is intent on getting
Indonesians, especially kids, hooked on the sport.

"The ICF has focused very much on teaching and coaching
Indonesians, to train them in the game and then they can coach
others in schools," said Stevenson, an Australian expatriate who
is also the captain of the Indonesian squad.

"To that degree, the foundation has chosen a number of young
people and sent them to Australia to train."

Four Indonesian coaches -- three in Bali and one in Jakarta --
visit junior high schools to teach teachers and students about
the game. Stevenson estimates that about 10,000 youngsters have
alearned the basics through the program.

The next goal is to create a more professional structure for
the ICF, Stevenson said, including bringing the government and
sponsors on board.

With Indonesia lacking a historical legacy in the sport and
with the airwaves saturated with soccer, basketball and boxing
broadcasts, Stevenson knows it will be no easy task.

For him, cricket is much more than just a pastime.

"People like me are so passionate about the game. It teaches
you about teamwork, dedication and friendship, the core values to
having a successful life. For somebody like me, who has played
since the age of five, it's part of my blood, like badminton or
sepak takraw for others."

He believes that Indonesia, with a huge, relatively young
population of 215 million, has enough homegrown talent to produce
competitive teams.

"Indonesians' physical structure is more suited (to cricket)
than that of some other Asians. Indonesians tend to be taller and
stronger, and they have good hand-eye coordination. And they also
have time on their hands."

His personal dream is for the emergence of "kampong cricket"
where kids take whatever objects are at hand -- a stick, broom
handle, tennis ball, small rock -- to play the game in their
spare time.

"I passionately believe there is an opportunity to develop
cricket here. The prime objective is not to earn money -- we'll
never be basketball or soccer -- but teach them the love of the
game."