The Hong Kong men's national cricket team is the team that represents Hong Kong in international competitions. It played its first match in 1866[6] and has been an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) since 1969.[7]
In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between Hong Kong and other ICC members after 1 January 2019 have the full T20I status.[15]
History
Early years
The sport was introduced to Hong Kong by the British, with the first recorded game taking place in 1841, and the Hong Kong Cricket Club being founded ten years later. The Cricket Club (playing as Hong Kong) played a number of Interport matches against sides on the Chinese mainland, the first taking place against Shanghai in 1866, and in 1890 played Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for the first time.[6]
1892 saw disaster when the SS Bokhara, which was carrying the team back from Shanghai, sank in a typhoon with the loss of 125 lives. There were only 23 survivors, which included only 2 of the 13 team members. The other 11 members of the team were lost, including Surrey cricketer John Dunn.[16]
1948 saw the last game against Shanghai.[6]Jack Chegwyn led the first international team to Hong Kong in 1952, and the first tour by an MCC team was in 1966.[6] The MCC, captained by Mike Smith played one match against the national side, winning by 74 runs.[17] In 1969 the Hong Kong Cricket Association became an associate member of the International Cricket Council, cricket's global ruling body.[7]
ICC membership
The year after gaining ICC membership, the Hong Kong national side played against an MCC side captained by Tony Lewis, drawing the game,[18] but it was not until the 1982 ICC Trophy when the Hong Kong team next played.[6] At that tournament the Hong Kong team, which featured future EnglandTest cricketerDermot Reeve, failed to progress beyond the first round.[19]
Hong Kong took part in the following three ICC Trophy tournaments, again failing to progress beyond the first round in 1986,[20] reaching the plate competition in 1990[21] and the second round in 1994.[22] They then played in the inaugural ACC Trophy tournament in 1996,[6] failing to progress beyond the group stage after losing to Bangladesh and Fiji.[23]
In 2000, Hong Kong reached the final of the ACC Trophy, where they lost to the United Arab Emirates.[26] Nonetheless, this earned them qualification for the 2002 Asia Cup (which was subsequently moved to 2004), and thus their first taste of One Day International cricket.[6]
Hong Kong fared poorly in the 2001 ICC Trophy, going out in the group stage having achieved only one win, against Papua New Guinea.[27] In 2002, they reached the semi-finals of the ACC Trophy, again losing to the United Arab Emirates.[28]
At the 2004 Asia Cup, held in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong were drawn alongside Test nations Bangladesh and Pakistan. They lost both matches heavily, despite restricting Bangladesh to 221/9 in the first match.[29][30]
Also in 2004, Hong Kong failed to progress beyond the first round of the ACC Trophy after losing in the group stages to Oman and Bahrain, missing out on qualification for the 2005 ICC Trophy in Ireland.[31] They also reached the final of the ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament, losing to the United Arab Emirates.[6] Hong Kong played in the Intercontinental Cup for the first time in 2005. They lost to the UAE and drew with Nepal, failing to reach the semi-finals.[14] They finished last in the fast-track nations tournament the same year.[32]
In October/November 2007, Hong Kong took part in the inaugural ACC Twenty20 Cup held in Kuwait, where they played in Group B against the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Hong Kong finished 4th in their group and failed to make to the semi-finals stage.
In June 2008, Hong Kong took part in the Asia Cup in Pakistan. They failed to progress beyond the group stage to the Super Four stage, as they lost both of their group A matches against India and Pakistan convincingly.[37]
In 2013 the UAE hosted the ICC T20 Qualifier where Hong Kong came 6th by beating Papua New Guinea and just enough to qualify for ICC T20 World Cup 2014 held in Bangladesh.
In 2014, New Zealand hosted the ICC 50 over world cup qualifier where Hong Kong came third place despite not qualifying for 2015 ICC cricket world cup, they still achieved an ODI status with Papua New Guinea.
In March 2014 Hong Kong beat the host Bangladesh in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 by two wickets with two balls remaining but could not make it to the next stage of super 10 having lost the two earlier matches to Afghanistan and Nepal[42]
This lists all the players who have played for Hong Kong in the past 12 months or has been part of the latest One-day or T20I squad. Updated as of 14 April 2024.
Jamie Atkinson was the first player (either male or female) born in the 1990s to play in ODI cricket.[66][67]
Ryan Campbell who formerly played for Australia in ODIs, became the oldest player in T20I cricket to make his T20I debut at the age of 44 and 30 days.[68]
Holds the record for the highest ODI partnership for any wicket by an associate nation (174 for the first wicket between Nizakat Khan and Anshuman Rath v India)[69]
Hong Kong set the record for taking the longest time duration to lose their first wicket in an ODI match (34.1 overs against India at the 2018 Asia Cup)[70]
