The Sawasdee Cup with school teams from across Chiang Mai and Lamphun provinces competing against each other has been an integral part of the San Miguel Chiang Mai International Sixes for the last 14 years as well as an important starting point in the development of young cricketers in the North of Thailand.
Sawasdee Cricket is played with plastic bats and a soft ball with eight players in each team, each pair of batsmen facing two overs and everybody bowling an over, and this is played by the youngest children who have generally been involved in cricket for less than a year.
2014 has also seen the introduction of an intermediate competition where older children play with a hard ball and wooden bats, they wear pads, gloves and helmets, but matches are played to the same Sawasdee rules so that every player has a chance to bat and bowl.
Eight school teams, coaches, officials and supporters made their way to Prem Oval in Mae Rim on Saturday 8th March in a fleet of red taxis. It was a rare treat for the children to play on one of the best grounds in South East Asia with the Intermediate Cup being held on a pitch on the edge of the main square and the Sawasdee Cup contested on a pitch cut on the far side of the outfield as two separate competitions were held at the same time.
Four teams competed in the Sawasdee Cup, all primary schools with a long history of softball cricket, Ban Jam, Huay Geow, Buak Croc Noi and Sahagon Song, and the competition came to an exciting conclusion with Huay Geow and Buak Croc Noi meeting in the last match of the league stages having both won their first two games.
The teams played out a very closely contested match with Huay Geow winning by one run, but the pace of play in Sawasdee cricket is so fast that there was still time for a final to be played so Buak Croc Noi had another chance to take on their rivals but the result was more conclusive as Huay Geow won by 21 runs to claim the 15th Sixes Sawasdee Cup as worthy champions.
Meanwhile on a pitch on the edge of the main square four teams contested the Intermediate Cup which was staged for the first time this year to try to bridge the considerable gap between soft ball and hard ball cricket. Four teams took part, Buak Croc Noi, Muang Gwak, Mae On and a team made up from the other schools, and it was Buak Croc Noi who were the strongest team as their players had been regularly coming to nets at Gymkhana Club and had more experience of hard ball cricket than the other teams.
The pace of play in the hard ball cricket was slower with children needing to get padded up but every team played two matches and there was some excellent bowling and some proper cricket shots played with good technique. Buak Croc Noi won both their matches and Muang Gwak beat Mae On after being strengthened by the introduction of former pupils who have been playing in the Lamphun under-19 team.
The competition ended with Buak Croc Noi taking on the best of the rest and it was the combined Lamphun and Mae On team that won this match by eight runs. More than half of the players on show in the day’s finale were heading to Sri Saket to play for Lamphun in the National Youth Games and so this new intermediate competition had served its purpose already in setting youngsters on the road to hard ball cricket.
The children had all enjoyed their day with lots of cricket to play and they were also well fed thanks to the generosity of the lunch box fund with a meal provided as well as fruit and snacks, and all players received their souvenir shirts and medals at the end of the day. The captains of the two winning teams were presented with their trophies by David Buck, curator at Prem Oval, who had done so much to help make the day a great success.
Sawasdee cricket is still an excellent starting point for the youngest children to learn the basics of the game but it is the intermediate competition that will help them develop as hard ball cricketers, and some of the children who took part will soon be playing in the main Sixes competition.
Next day the minibus from Lamphun again pulled into Prem so that the under-19 provincial teams could gain some last minute practice for the National Youth Games in Sri Saket that is being played between 13th and 22nd March 2014. The boys’ team as well as five of the girls were able to play two 15-over matches as Chiang Mai Warriors were also looking for practice ahead of the Sixes.
Both matches were highly competitive as the Warriors and girls took on the boys but even an unbeaten 40 from Bunchuai wasn’t enough to see the boys over the line in the first match as Lamphun’s captain was required to retire and Wani managed to bowl a maiden over in which 3 wickets fell when only 2 runs were required for victory.
The boys dealt with their disappointment admirably and bowled out the men (and girls) for just 74 in the second match with Cher and Boom taking three wickets apiece. The Warriors don’t like losing (they are warriors after all) and the girls didn’t get a look in with the ball as the boys were restricted to 60 for 6 by some tough bowling from Wani’s team.
The boys learnt some cricketing lessons which will set them in good stead in the upcoming tournament and the girls have also got a useful side so Lamphun may well be soon winning some more silverware in the near future.