The
Singapore national cricket team is the team that
represents the country of Singapore
in international cricket
matches. They have been an associate member of the
International Cricket Council
(ICC) since 1974 and have played in every edition of the
ICC World Cup Qualifier (formerly
the ICC Trophy) to date with the exception of the
1986 and
2005
tournaments. They have also ruled themselves out of qualification
for the
2009 ICC World Cup
Qualifier after finishing fifth in
Division Five of
the
World Cricket League in
2008.
They also have played in each edition of the
ACC Trophy and its predecessor the South East
Asian Tournament. They play annually against
Malaysia in the
Saudara Cup three-day match and the
Stan Nagaiah Trophy one-day series and
between 1991 and 2004 played Malaysia,
Hong Kong and
Thailand in the
Tuanku Ja'afar Cup.
History
Beginnings of cricket in Singapore
The first recorded mention of cricket in Singapore was in 1837 when
a "Mr Z" complained, in a letter to the Singapore Free Press, of
cricket being played near a
church
on a Sunday in violation of the
Christian Sabbath. This resulted in
cricket being banned on Sundays, a prohibition that remained in
place until the 1930s.
Cricket was an important recreational activity, with matches often
played against the officers of visiting ships. The Singapore
Cricket Club was formed in 1852 and played its first match amongst
themselves the same year. The quality of cricket in these early
years was quite poor, and it wasn't until 1865 before a team total
of more than 100 was scored. Louis Glass became the first person in
Singapore to record a
century two
years later.
The
Singapore Cricket Club eventually began to play against teams from
other parts of British Malaya such as
Penang
, Perak
and Kuala Lumpur
and this eventually led to an invitation from Hong
Kong to send a team there, which saw the beginning of the long
running series of "Interport
matches".
Straits Settlements cricket team
The 1890 invitation from Hong Kong led to the formation of the
Straits Settlements cricket team, and they played Hong Kong in two
two-day matches, both of which were lost. The series was the
beginning of the "Interport Matches", which continued until 1987.
Hong Kong and
Ceylon came to
Singapore the following year, and the Straits Settlements won both
matches, also drawing against a combined Ceylon/Hong Kong
team.
The
Straits Settlements team beat Ceylon in Colombo
in 1893, and
played a match in Jakarta
in
1895. Matches against the
Federated Malay States
began in 1896, and against
Shanghai in 1897.
They played
Burma in
1906, and their involvement in the Interport Matches ceased in
1909, when they were replaced by an
All Malaya team.
The Straits
Settlements visited Bangkok
in 1910,
though from them their only matches came annually against the
Federated Malay States until 1940. These fixtures continue
in the modern era as the Saudara Cup matches between Singapore and
Malaysia.
Singapore team
First matches
The Singapore team did play twice during the Straits Settlements
team era, playing twice against
WAS
Oldfield's XI in 1927, losing both matches by an innings. They
next played in 1957, drawing at home to Ceylon. Various teams
visited Singapore in the 1960s, including
Worcestershire.
The Interport Matches resumed in 1968 with Singapore drawing
against Hong Kong. These matches were played occasionally until
1987. In 1970, the Saudara Cup match against Malaysia was played
for the first time, this continues annually to the present day.
Also that year, Singapore played an
MCC side captain by
Tony Lewis and featuring
Geoff Boycott. The match was won by the
MCC.
ICC membership
Singapore became an associate member of the ICC in 1974 and three
years later won the Saudara Cup for the first time. In 1978,
Singapore played
India
at home, the match ending in a draw.
Singapore took part in
the first ICC Trophy in England
in 1979 but
could only finish fourth in their first round group after only
beating Argentina. They
finished fourth out of eight teams in their first round group in
the
1982 tournament and withdrew
from the
1986 tournament when
several of their players couldn't get leave from work.
Singapore played in the South East Asian Tournament for the first
time in 1984, playing in the event again in 1988 and 1992 (when
they hosted), though they never reached the final as
Bangladesh and Hong Kong
finished first and second on each occasion. The final Interport
Match took place in Singapore in 1987, with Hong Kong beating the
home side.
They returned to the ICC Trophy for the
1990 tournament in the Netherlands
, beating Malaysia and Israel during the event, and
failing to progress past the first round.
Singapore began playing in the Tuanku Ja'afar Cup in 1991, an
annual tournament against Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand. They
won the event just once, in 1994, a year in which they finished
19th out of 20 teams in the ICC Trophy. The Stan Nagaiah Trophy, an
annual three match series of
one-day
matches against Malaysia, began the following year. Singapore
played in the first ACC Trophy in 1996, beating the
Maldives and Thailand but
failing to go past the first round. They finished 14th in the
1997 ICC Trophy and could only beat
Papua New
Guinea in the 1998 ACC Trophy, again failing to go past the
first round.
21st century
The first
two major tournaments of the 21st century for Singapore got them
off to a bad start as they lost all their first round matches in
both the 2000 ACC Trophy in the UAE
and the 2001 ICC
Trophy in Ontario
, their final
ICC Trophy to date. They hosted the ACC Trophy in 2002,
beating the Maldives and Thailand (by 325 runs) but again failing
to progress beyond the first round, a performance they repeated in
2004. The finished fourth in the
ACC
Fast Track Nations Tournament in 2004 and 2005.
Singapore began to show an improvement in their form in 2006. That
year they finished third in the
ACC
Premier League and finally passed the first round stage in the
ACC Trophy, finishing fifth to qualify for Division Five of the
World Cricket League in 2008. They didn't progress beyond the first
round of the 2007
ACC Twenty20 Cup,
beating only Hong Kong and
Saudi Arabia, but
captain Chaminda Ruwan did make the highest score of
the tournament.
In the World Cricket League
Division Five tournament in Jersey
, Singapore
finished fifth after beating Botswana in a play-off,
though they did beat Afghanistan during the
first round, who went on to win the tournament.
In August 2009, Singapore hosted and won
Division Six of
the World Cricket League, going through the tournament undefeated
and winning promotion back to
Division Five..
In
November 2009, Singapore travelled to the UAE for the 2009 ACC
Twenty20 Cup. During the tournament Singapore finished
third in Group A, therefore failing to progress to the semi-finals
and a chance to qualify for the
2010
Asian Games. In the fifth place playoff Singapore lost to
Nepal by 9 wickets to
finish to tournament in sixth place.
Tournament history
World Cricket League
ICC World Cup Qualifier
ACC Premier League
- 2004: 4th place
- 2005: 4th place
- 2006: 3rd place
ACC Trophy
- 1996: First round
- 1998: First round
- 2000: First round
- 2002: First round
- 2004: First round
- 2006: 5th place
ACC Twenty20 Cup
- 2007: First round
- 2009: 6th place
The Future
In
January 2010, Singapore will play in Division Five of
the World Cricket League in Nepal
, following
their promotion from Division Six. In April 2010,
Singapore will head to Kuwait
for the 2010
ACC Trophy Elite..
Records
ICC Trophy
Overall
Players
Current squad
- The following list contains the 14 players in Singapore's
squad for the 2009 ACC Twenty20
Cup:
Other players
In addition to those linked above, the following Singapore players
have played
first-class or
List A cricket:
Old players
- Rasheed Thai Yar Mohamed[278713] (Captain 1994)
See also
External links
References
- Singapore at CricketArchive
- List of Singapore ICC Trophy matches at
CricketArchive
- Scorecard of Botswana v Singapore,
31 May 2008 at CricketArchive
- World Cricket League Structure 2006-2009
- Encyclopedia of World Cricket by Roy Morgan, SportsBooks
Publishing, 2007
- Timeline of Singapore Cricket at
CricketEurope
- Scorecard of Ceylon v Straits Settlements,
19 October
1893 at CricketArchive
- Scorecard of Singapore v WAS Oldfield's XI,
27 May 1927 at CricketArchive
- Scorecard of Singapore v WAS Oldfield's XI,
30 May 1927 at CricketArchive
- Scorecard of Singapore v Ceylon, 18 August 1957 at CricketArchive
- 1979 ICC Trophy at Cricinfo
- 1990 ICC Trophy at Cricinfo
- 1996 ACC Trophy at CricketEurope
- 1998 ACC Trophy at CricketArchive
- Scorecard of Afghanistan v Singapore,
27 May 2008 at CricketArchive
- Scorecard of Jersey v Afghanistan, 31 May 2008 at CricketArchive
- Cricinfo, Accessed 25 September 2009
- Asian Cricket Council, Assessed 25 September 2009
- Scorecard of Singapore v Bahrain, 5 September 2009 at CricketArchive
- 2005 ICC Trophy Official Website
- Cricinfo, Accessed 25 September 2009
- Asian Cricket Council, Assessed 25 September
2009
- Singapore totals of 200 and more in an innings in
the ICC Trophy at CricketArchive
- Individual scored of 75 and more in an innings for
Singapore in the ICC Trophy at CricketArchive
- Five or more wickets in an innings for Singapore in
the ICC Trophy at CricketArchive
- Scorecard of Singapore v Thailand,
16 July 2002 at CricketArchive
- Scorecard of Malaysia v Singapore,
14 September
1979 at CricketArchive
- Robert Braddell at CricketArchive
- Basil Brooke at CricketArchive
- Charles Congdon at CricketArchive
- Michael Scrutton at CricketArchive
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