Could Sixes be Commonwealth Games friendly?
The editor of Cricket Statistician analyses recent events
Anybody noticing the Hong Kong Sixes for the first time – a six-a-side game played for five overs a side – might be forgiven for thinking this the latest reduction ad absurdum (at least until someone decides we can make do with just the Super Over).
Five bowlers bowl one over apiece, and, just to be fair, batsmen retire at 31, at least in the earlier rounds. But in fact this particular form has been played in Hong Kong since 1992, though until this year there had been a gap since 2012. Hong Kong’s status is slightly odd, in that it is, of course, now part of China but maintains a separate existence for the ICC. It is also unlike the China team in that it does not appear to include many, if any, ethnic Chinese.
This year it was televised live on YouTube (increasingly, this does start to look like the future…). It’s all there if you want to watch it.
England teams have gone in the past, with three English players having been “man of the tournament”: Phil DeFreitas in 1993, Robin Smith in 1994, and Dimitri Mascarenhas in 2008 (so, all right, none of them were English-born). This year there was a team labelled ‘MCC’ and captained by Samit Patel with Darren Stevens and Rikki Clarke alongside as some sort of treat for long service.
The final was certainly remarkable in its way. Pakistan made 123-6 in 4.5 overs, since that meant they had been bowled out, an innings that included nine sixes and 12 fours (from 29 balls, remember). South Africa actually beat that, making 124-3 from five overs thanks to Aubrey Swanepoel who made 38 not out from nine balls with three sixes and five fours.
These were the highest scores of the tournament, though not by much. The highest run-scorer in the tournament was Nizakat Khan, of Hong Kong, who was born in Punjab but playing for Hong Kong U15s by 2007. MCC played Hong Kong in the fifth place play-off, and lost. Clarke had the unusual distinction of bowling two balls and conceding 14 runs (two sixes plus a wide).
The alarming feature of the six-aside game is that it may lend itself quite well to unconventional grounds – football stadia for instance. It might be terribly suitable for the Commonwealth Games.