{"id":301507,"date":"2025-11-22T13:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T13:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/301507\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T13:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T13:15:08","slug":"japan-city-pins-hope-on-international-cricket-ground-to-revitalise-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/301507\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan city pins hope on international cricket ground to revitalise region"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A cricket ground that meets international standards and is located north of Tokyo is attracting visitors from Japan and abroad, raising hopes that it will serve as a hub for regional revitalisation and promote a sport that has remained relatively low profile in the country.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Naoki Alex Miyaji, 47, a former Japan team player and current CEO of the Japan Cricket Association, connected the sport with Sano, Tochigi Prefecture, by establishing the organisation\u2019s local office there in 2007. The association is now headquartered in the city.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The city opened the Sano International Cricket Ground at the former site of a prefectural high school in 2018, spending around 400 million yen (US$2.6 million), including aid from the national government.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In late October, the ground hosted the Embassy Cup, a match between the Japanese national team and a group of experienced foreign players. Nine foreign embassies in Japan supported the event, and visitors enjoyed trial cricket sessions and international cuisine.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cIt\u2019s fun because it requires a high level of defensive strategy, given batters are allowed to hit in any direction,\u201d Naoaki Shimomura, the association\u2019s media officer, said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Umpires and coaches check the wicket before the start of a game between Hong Kong and Japan in Sano. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/d4260586-51ea-4edd-8ae9-a0bdb9f9ed15_1d13d0d2.jpg\" title=\"Umpires and coaches check the wicket before the start of a game between Hong Kong and Japan in Sano. Photo: AFP\"\/>Umpires and coaches check the wicket before the start of a game between Hong Kong and Japan in Sano. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">With around 300 million players worldwide, cricket is set to be included in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. However, there are only about 5,800 players in Japan, and its men\u2019s and women\u2019s national teams are ranked around 40th, according to the association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cricket ground that meets international standards and is located north of Tokyo is attracting visitors from Japan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,13044,740,172283,172282,941,172280,172278,481,172286,172284,172281,172279,172285,172277,85,172287,11804],"class_list":["post-301507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-britain","tag-cricket","tag-embassy-cup","tag-higashiosaka","tag-japan","tag-japan-cricket-association","tag-japanese-national-team","tag-los-angeles","tag-makoto-taniyama","tag-naoaki-shimomura","tag-naoki-alex-miyaji","tag-osaka-prefecture","tag-sano","tag-sano-international-cricket-ground","tag-sports","tag-tochigi-prefecture","tag-tokyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}