Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

is a minor sport in Japan. It was introduced to the country by the British, with the first match played in 1863 and the first club formed in 1868, both in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

. Until the 1980s, it was played almost exclusively by expatriates. The sport's governing body is the

Japan Cricket Association Japan Cricket Association, a Japanese non-profit organization, is the governing body for cricket in Japan. It was originally formed in 1984 and registered as NPO in 2001. The Association operates the Japan national cricket team and the Japan ...

(JCA), which was formed in 1984 and has been a member of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are 108 national associations, with 12 Full Members and 96 Associate Members. Founded in 1909 as the ' ...

(ICC) since 1989, initially as an affiliate member and then as an associate member from 2005.

History

The first cricket match in Japan was played on 25 June 1863. British merchants at the foreign settlement in

treaty port Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...

) challenged sailors on a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

ship to a game. The invitation was a ploy to ensure that the merchant community would be protected in the case of an ambush from local

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

, as they had been warned of a planned attack on that date. The participants in the match carried revolvers and rifles to ensure their safety, although no attack eventuated. The first cricket club in Japan was the Yokohama Cricket Club, which was formed in 1868 by a Scotsman, James Mollison. Throughout most of the 20th century, the only cricket played in Japan was between the expatriate communities in Yokohama and Kobe.Justin McCurry
"After 150 years, Japan is finally falling in love with cricket"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 29 July 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016. However, in the 1980s, cricket was introduced into several universities, by Japanese students who had learnt the game in other countries. The

(JCA) was formed in 1984, and became an affiliate member of the

(ICC) in 1989, and an affiliate member of the

International Women's Cricket Council The International Women's Cricket Council was formed in February 1958 by the women's cricket associations of Australia, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa to organise international matches between the countries. In 2005 it was ...

(IWCC) in 1995. The first major international tournament for the national men's team was the

1996 ACC Trophy The 1996 ACC Trophy was a cricket tournament in Malaysia, which took place from 6 to 16 September 1996. It gave Associate and Affiliate members of the Asian Cricket Council experience of international one-day cricket and also helped form an essen ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, while the national women's team made its debut at the

2003 IWCC Trophy The 2003 IWCC Trophy was an international women's cricket tournament held in the Netherlands between 21 and 26 July 2003. Organised by the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC), it was the inaugural edition of what is now the World Cup Qual ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

.Associate Members: Japan
, International Cricket Council. Retrieved 8 August 2016. Club cricket in Japan was originally played over two days, with limited-overs league only being established in 1999. The qualification for the U-19 Cricket World Cup was a major milestone for the country and their first big tournament.

Venues

The headquarters of the Japan Cricket Association (JCA) are in Sano, a city in

Tochigi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,943,886 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,408 km2 (2,474 sq mi). Tochigi Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the ...

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island se ...

. The

Sano International Cricket Ground Sano Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in Sano, Japan. The ground is one of the few facilities in Japan that is used for cricket. The pitch is made of plastic carpet and is in pretty good condition. The ground is also used for baseball. The s ...

is the primary venue for cricket in Japan, and hosts regular men's and women's international tournaments. In March 2016, plans were announced to bring the ground up to the standards required to host One Day International (ODI) matches, with the installation of floodlights, the construction of a new

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

Outside of Sano, the Fujigawa Green Park Cricket Ground in

Fuji Fuji may refer to: Places China * Fuji, Xiangcheng City (付集镇), town in Xiangcheng City, Henan Japan * Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan * Fuji River * Fuji, Saga, town in Saga Prefecture * Fuji, Shizuoka, city in Shizuoka Prefec ...

, Shizuoka Prefecture, hosted the 2004 East Asia-Pacific Cricket Challenge (part of the 2007 World Cup qualifying process), which featured the national teams of Japan, Fiji,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

Demographics

In July 2016, it was estimated that cricket was played in Japan by 3,000 people across 200 teams. Until the 1980s, almost all cricket in Japan was played by foreigners.

Notable players

Fourteen women have represented Japan in One Day International (ODI) cricket, all at the

. The national men's team has not come close to reaching the same level of play. At least four male first-class cricketers are known to have been born in Japan, all of whom were of British descent: * Tom Colverd (born 1996), born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for Cambridge MCC University * Frank Gillingham (1875–1953), born in Tokyo, played

for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

* Greg Kennis (born 1974), born in

, played

for Surrey and

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. * William Maundrell (1876–1958), born in

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

, played

for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

William Maundrell
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 7 August 2016.

References

{{Cricket by country

History

Venues

Demographics

Notable players

See also

References