Photo Credit: Singapore Cricket
The Cricket Federation of Cambodia (CFC) achieved a historic milestone with the inclusion of cricket in the 2023 Southeast Asian Games. This was announced at the Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) Council meeting held from 11–13th July at the Sokha Hotel in Phnom Penh.
The host country’s Olympic committee decided, in consultation with other members of the SEAGF Council and supported by Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.
“A historic day for us. Eleven years of hard work by Cricket Federation of Cambodia paid off,” Manish Sharma, CEO of CFC, said in an interview yesterday. “A big thank you to all who helped us achieve this goal. I was extremely happy about it. It will provide an opportunity for Cambodia to excel and show its competitiveness to achieve a medal,” CFC President Vath Chamroeun said. “The facilities we have here will certainly help develop the game in Cambodia for many years to come.”
The CFC strongly lobbied for the inclusion of Cricket in the next SEA Games, with the backing of Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and International Cricket Council (ICC).
ACC Development Chairman/Executive Board Member Mahinda Vallipuram assessed the existing Cricket facilities and lobbied for Cricket’s inclusion in the biggest sports event in the region. “This would give the cricketing countries in Southeast Asia an opportunity to compete in multi-sport games and provide much needed exposure and competition,” Vallipuram said, as the Cricket federations in SEA played an important role in its inclusion.
Aminul Islam, ICC Development Manager (Asia); Singapore Cricket Association (SCA) CEO Saad Khan Janjua; and SCA President Mahmood Gaznavi also visited Cambodia recently for the same reasons.
“The plan is to include Cricket in the next three SEA Games in Thailand (2025), Malaysia (2027) and Singapore (2029),” said Dato Seri Chaiyapak Siriwat, VP of Olympic Committee of Asia (OCA) and National Olympic Committee of Thailand (NOCT).
This will be Cricket’s second inclusion at the SEAG, since 2017, where Singapore topped the T20 (men’s), Malaysia won the 50 over (men’s) and Thailand bagged the T20 (women’s) crown in KL.
The SEAG 2023 will feature the T10 and T20 disciplines (men’s and women’s) at the Morodok Techo National Stadium.
