Those who prefer the thwack of willow on leather need look no further than the 11th annual Cricket Sixes. Cricket Shanghai’s showpiece event has attracted some big names over the years, including Sir Viv Richards, Alan Border and Chris Lewis (although you won’t be seeing him back out here anytime soon – he’s just been banged up for 13 years on cocaine smuggling charges) with last year’s 10th anniversary showpiece attracting Sir Ian Botham, Merv Hughes, Ian Healy and Alan Lamb.

The name doesn’t tell the whole story this year, as a move to a spacious new venue will see an expansion from 16 to 24 teams contesting three separate competitions: the Coca-Cola Shanghai Women’s T20 Cup, the Coca-Cola Shanghai Development Sixes Cup and the Men’s Division. And it remains absolutely free of charge.

The International Women’s competition is a Twenty20 event, meaning 11-a-side teams having one innings of 20 overs each, with invitation teams made up of the top players from Pakistan, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong taking part. The four teams will play each other once, with the top two going into Sunday’s headline final.

 

The Coca-Cola Shanghai Development Sixes Cup will be contested on the Saturday by five university teams and one Shanghai Cricket Club team made up of Chinese players, with the final being Saturday’s headline game.

The Men’s Division will take the same format as previous years, with sixteen teams making up four groups of four, who then enter the Cup, Plate, Bowl or Spoon competitions on the Sunday, depending on how they fare on the Saturday, with the Cup Final played on the Sunday night during the innings break of the Women’s T20 Final.

For those of you who’ve never heard of it, Cricket Sixes sees six-a-side teams having one five-over innings each, with each team member bar the wicket keeper bowling an over each. Players must retire on 30 runs, but are allowed to return to the crease once four of their teammates are out. While it may not be a game for the purists, those who enjoy seeing some serious slogging (yes please!) will not be disappointed.

At the time of going to print, it looks as if Pakistan’s all-time top test run scorer Javed Miandad will flanked by South African fielding legend Jonty Rhodes and former-Australian captain Steve Waugh.They’ll be joined by amateur enthusiasts from 

all over Asia.

Saturday night sees Shanghai Cricket and the Indian Association host a gala dinner and auction at the Sheraton Shanghai, Pudong, with proceeds going to the new SRFC Sport in the Community program (for more info, see page 102). As well as a sumptuous feast and plenty of fine wine, diners can expect an amusing anecdote or two from inside the game from the celebrity players in attendance.

 

This year sees the event moved from Dulwich College to the Shanghai Rugby Football Club’s new grounds in Waigaoqiao, its two cricket pitches affording Shanghai Cricket the luxury of an expanded format.

The SRFC ground is on Zhangyang Bei Lu. Metro Line 6 will take you 30 m from the door (simply get out at Zhouhai Lu station). If you’re coming from Puxi, take the Xiangyin Lu tunnel, turn out at the first ramp on the Pudong side and then turn left onto Zhangyang Bei Lu. From Pudong just head straight up along Zhangyang Lu, it’s 200 m north of Wuzhou Lu.

 

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