Get beneath the surface – The IJT Blog

Two years ago, we blogged about the budding cricket league in Japan with the ‘gentleman’s game’ being promoted by a faithful few. With the success of England in the current test series against the mighty India, there have been a few talking points, but Trent Bridge provided one of the biggest.

The ‘spirit of the game’ has been mentioned on more than one occasion referring to the Mahendra Dhoni’s (India’s captain) decision to allow England’s Ian Bell to bat again after he had been controversially (some might say correctly) ruled run out. With this graceful act of sportsmanship, the spirit of cricket shone through in an exciting test in Nottingham. Meanwhile, committed cricket lovers are spreading the true spirit of the game in the tsunami hit rural region of Tohoku in Japan.

Alex Miyaji heads the not for profit Japan Cricket Association (JCA) promoting cricket across a country better known for its Sumo. After the tsunami devastated areas in the north east of the country rendering thousands of families homeless and children orphans, their lives are still in disarray as the rebuild continues. In response to the crisis, the ‘Cricket for Smiles’ programme was set up to take the spirit of the game to the children of Tohoku with the aim of bringing people together and providing enjoyment through the game of cricket.

The ‘Cricket for Smiles’ programme aims to run until the end of 2012 donating cricket equipment so that children in the region can continue enjoying the game of cricket and help the great game to spread across Japan. After a recent visit to Miyagi, these photos are testament to the true spirit of cricket proving that it can bring people together and help children smile.

Although Cricket is a long way behind sports such as Baseball in the popularity stakes, the JCA have done great work promoting the game and have made a lot of ground since the last blog piece two years ago. There are new cricket grounds in the city of Sanno in Tochigi prefecture which is a boost to the growing domestic league. Not to be outdone by the Women’s national football team, the Women’s national cricket team won the ICC East Asia Pacific Tournament in 2010 as well as winning the Bronze medal in the Asian games losing out to the massive cricketing nations of Pakistan (Gold) and Bangladesh (Silver) – not bad at all. This November the Women’s team travel to Bangladesh to play an ICC World Cup qualifier which will be massive.

All in all it looks as though the JCA have done a lot of good work promoting cricket in Japan and the spirit of the game looks to be in good health with the children of Tohoku.

Filed under: Culture Tagged: | 'Circket in Japan', 'Japanese children', 'Japanese sports', cricket, tsunami

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