Having Once Suffered From A Cut In ICC Funding, Japan Is Aiming For A Cricket Rise

There has been much concern over India’s likely gobbling of the International Cricket Council’s proposed new revenue sharing model and its potential impacts on the lower rungs of the sport.

According to a report in ESPNcricinf0, cashed-up India will receive $230 million a year or 38.5 per cent of the net surplus from the ICC’s $3 billion media rights deal which is set to dominate discussions at the ICC meetings next month in Durban.

With India’s takeover branded a ‘Big One’ – a reference to the reviled ‘Big Three’ of India, Australia and England’s attempted heist in 2014 – it’s instructive to go back nine years to see the trickle down effects.

Japan Cricket Association head of operations Alan Curr was at the time attempting to get into the sports industry having worked in travel for a decade. Originally from the U.K, he had once organized a match at Mt Everest to enter the record books for the highest-altitude game of cricket.

A cricket enthusiast, Curr jumped at the chance to apply for a position running an International Cricket Council pilot programme in Japan, a country rabid for baseball but with little traditions for the bat and ball sport of cricket.

“The plan was to set up an entry level programme for under 12s. The ICC had similar programmes in the U.S. and Canada,” Curr told me during an interview in Tokyo last month.

“The ICC saw Japan as a growth country for cricket considering its population and GDP. It is seen as a country that could potentially host a World Cup down the track.”

Curr got the job, but soon after arrival he started having second thoughts. “I was here all of two weeks when the ‘Big Three’ story broke,” he said.

The programme was supposed to receive $250,000 over four years – $100,000 for the first year then reduced by $25,000 annually for the remainder. But the power grab by powerhouses India, England and Australia – which was ultimately reversed a few years later – meant some cost cutting at the bottom.

“We got the first two years then it was done, the funding didn’t get renewed,” Curr said. “It’s enormous the impact a loss of funding at this level can have, even a little bit makes a difference. It’s cutthroat.”

While it remains to be seen whether cricket’s hierarchy takes heed from the lessons of the ‘Big Three’ debacle, Japan have ploughed ahead with Curr staying on in operations. The junior programme was salvaged and evolved to include pathways for under 15 and 19s.

“When we went to the Under 19 World Cup (in 2020), 11 of 15 players had played in the cricket programme in 2015,” Curr said.

Having experienced the vagaries of ICC politicking, Japanese cricket is hoping to stand on its own two feet.

“One of our goals is to be less reliant on ICC funding and to generate our own” Curr said. “We want to only be reliant on ICC funding for about 50 per cent of our income in the next five years.”

Attracting sponsors has been inevitably challenging, but there is genuine hope that with more resources Japan can make a mark in cricket given the raw talent of children honed on a diet of baseball.

“When I first came to Japan, it was clear that there was talent here – more than I expected,” Curr said. “It’s a conclusion people jump to that Japanese kids will be good at cricket because of baseball, but you do see it particularly in the fielding and throwing. They have good hand-eye coordination.

“The school system in Japan is to specialise in one sport and when you’re 12 you pick a sport and stick with it. It’s about getting the message back to parents that it’s worth taking the time and money to putting their kids into cricket.”

With the grassroots being developed, it’s inevitable that Japan is seen as an alluring destination for the blossoming T20 franchise cricket circuit. It’s thus probably unsurprising that Curr fields a handful of requests annually from supposed businessmen.

“We haven’t found one that is legit,” he said.

The focus, right now, is to ensure cricket is in the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya and hopes are high with cricket making a return to the multi-sports event held in Hangzhou later this year.

“It’s very important to get cricket into the 2026 Asian Games and put the game in front of people,” Curr said with the final decision from the Japanese Olympic Committee expected next year.

“You’re not taken seriously in Japan unless you’re an Olympic sport. For non-playing countries, cricket is seen as a minor sport.”

On field, Japan are gearing up for next month’s East Asia-Pacific Qualifier in Papua New Guinea, where one spot is up for grabs for next year’s T20 World Cup in the U.S. and Caribbean.

Japan has a strict selection policy to ensure its players aren’t merely expats from cricket playing countries with the men’s players needing to be a passport-holder or born in Japan.

“They have a strong connection to Japan,” coach Dhugal Bedingfield said. “We’re not the favorites in PNG, but we think we have a good squad.

“We focus on T20 cricket like basically everyone else ranked under 25, but we actually think we would be better suited to a longer format like 50-over cricket.

“We just have to be the best T20 team we can be.”

While debate ensues over the revenue share model among the powerbrokers at the ICC meetings in Durban, many miles away Japan will be attempting to defy the odds as they continue a cricket rise despite the speedbumps along the way.

“For us to create role models is a big thing and we want to be the number one team in the East-Asia region,” Curr said. “We want to get players in the big leagues in the world and get them professional.

“The future is bright for cricket in Japan.”