RI cricketers aim for good showing in Perth tourney

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although Indonesia is not a traditional cricket-playing country, local cricketers are hoping to finish second at the 2002 East Asia Cricket Eights Festival to be held from Feb. 25 to Mar. 1 in Perth, Australia.

There are four countries taking part in the eight-a-side, limited-overs tournament including Japan and South Korea. Host Australia will be represented by their indigenous team, which comprise solely of Australian Aborigines.

"We hope to win second place if we can beat South Korea and Japan. Even finishing second is a good result for Indonesia," secretary of the Indonesian Cricket Foundation (ICF) told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

"Australia's indigenous team is a strong team, considering they have played cricket for quite a long time," he added.

The 10-player Indonesian team consists of seven Indonesian nationals and three expatriate residents. The regulations ruled that each contingent can only have three expatriates.

The national team members are Sonie Hawoe, who will skipper the team, Anwar Hali, Agus Anom Abadi, Zachariah Awang, Benna Ely, Yeri Rosongna and Frenky Shony. The three expatriates are Australians Cameron Knox, David Herbert and Indian Srikanth.

The team is coached by Ray Elliott, while Raymund Shakespeare will act as team manager.

Currently, the team is training in Denpasar before leaving for Perth on Feb. 23.

Indonesia will face the Australians on Feb. 25 in the morning and South Korea in the afternoon. On the following day, Indonesia will face Japan and Australia.

Indonesia will then meet South Korea and Japan again on Feb. 28 after a day's rest.

"We have planned our strategy carefully to enable us to reach the final," said Arthur, while admitting that the team knew nothing of the strength of the Japanese and South Korean teams.

"We will play all our expatriates players against the Australian indigenous team because it is a strong team. On the other hand, only one expatriate player will be fielded against South Korea and Japan."

ICF was established in June 2000 by the Bali International Cricket Foundation (BICF) and the Jakarta Cricket Association (JCA).

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has acknowledged Indonesia as an affiliate member of the East Asia Pacific region.

Arthur, who was hoping to see more Indonesians play cricket, said that the ICF had planned several development projects to spread the sport.

"Cricket may be a strange sport for most Indonesians, but it should not prevent them from playing it. We have conducted several pilot projects with school students and they showed good potential," he said.

"The students have good fielding skills, hitting and running skills because many have experience of playing kasti (a baseball- like sport introduced during the Dutch colonial era).

"But they must work more on the batting and bowling skills, which are different to kasti," he continued.

Currently, the ICF is holding school development projects in Bogor, Denpasar and Jakarta.