Youth and experience prove winning blend for Hong Kong

It was fitting that experience and youth were out in the middle as Hong Kong celebrated breaking new ground on the international scene by defeating Papua New Guinea to win the ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament yesterday.

Two players who best portrayed the spirit of the team - the wise and cool-headed skipper Najeeb Amar and the impetuous but supremely gifted teenager Mark Chapman - guided Hong Kong to a convincing four-wicket victory over PNG in front of an appreciative audience at the Kowloon Cricket Club.

This Hong Kong class of 2011 has been a potent blend of young and old. While the likes of Najeeb, Hussain Butt, Munir Dar and Roy Lamsam, with all their years of experience, contributed hugely to this winning campaign, it was the vibrancy and effervescence of young guns like Chapman, Aizaz Khan, Nizakat Khan and Waqas Barkat that turned this side into champions.

This was drummed into PNG, who lost for the second time in as many days when they failed to defend a total of 202 as Hong Kong put the icing on the cake of making it through to the Division Two competition in Dubai in April.

When the ICC Trophy was in existence, Hong Kong figured in that competition more than a couple of times. But it's the first time since the world governing body decided to create a divisional structure that Hong Kong have advanced into the second division.

'We are now just one step away from joining the top six associate members and being in the top 10 in the world. This is a fantastic achievement,' Hong Kong Cricket Association chairman Dinesh Tandon said.

Shahzada Saleem, the president, added: 'Now that we have got into Division Two, the objective will be to stay there and remain with the top 10 associates in the world. The boys have done us proud.'

The top four teams from the six-team competition in Dubai - Bermuda, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Namibia, PNG and Hong Kong - will fall into the ICC category of high-performance teams.

'This will mean if Hong Kong make it into the top four in Dubai, we will get extra money and extra coaching from the ICC as well as we will be playing more matches,' HKCA secretary John Cribbin, who is also on an ICC committee, said.

The future looks bright. And aptly, it was youth who led the way as Chapman, with a composed and unbeaten 70, led the run chase superbly. And even more fittingly, the winning runs came off the bat of Najeeb, a towering six that capped a wonderful performance.