Me (Left), Sri Lankan Team Captain (Middle), Kanwar (Right)
My name is Arslan and I'm 15 years old. I've been playing cricket for around six years, including in primary and secondary school leagues. I'd really like to thank my school, Delia Broadway, for giving me such a wonderful opportunity to have my first awesome tour to Malaysia, and the HK Government for providing me with the travel allowance subsidy.
It was my first tour debut and even for most of my team members. At first we were worried that we would not be able to adapt to a different environment and to the rules, conditions and the cricket field. We knew each other very well as we had played together in club and school leagues.
Our first match was with the Malaysian Tigers, who we eventually beat. It was an easy win for us as we won by 110 runs. The second match was a tough one for us as we lost to the eventual champions of MSSNS U17 International Invitation Cricket Challenge 2012. We still had a chance to go to the semifinals because the next match for us was a do or die match for us and the match was against Zaheer Abbas Cricket Academy and we gave 110% and we won it. The semifinal game a disappointing match for us since we lost. It wasn't a favourable day for us as we dropped many catches. I think coming in third wasn't an easy job and it was a wonderful thing for us and for the school as in HK we don’t have many cricket fields and have few cricket facilities.
My experience with going to Malaysia is an unforgettable one. As our parents were not with us, it was a tough challenge for us to adapt while being away from our parents.
I hope we can get another chance to go there again and get more opportunities like this so that we can learn as a team outside HK. We hope to introduce cricket to more local schools so that Hong Kong can be a top-ranking cricket team in Asia.
I really miss Malaysia.
Here is the webpage of the tournament: http://iicc2012.usjpns.net/.
