'They will take us seriously now' - Japan confident of long haul after nearly upsetting T20 champions India [Exclusive]

It's not the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog.

What Japan pulled off in the highly anticipated meet against India may not be written in history books but will always fit the aforementioned saying. Yes, this team, yet to play any full-member nation until September 22, took the challenge against the Indian team, the reigning T20 World Cup winners and three titles in the cabinet.

Indian fans, for the kind of players the team boasts, would have certainly fancied an unworldly amount of beating at Japan once Shreyas Iyer opted to bat first after winning the toss in a rain-shortened fixture. While the raining fours and sixes were completely missing, it was the samurai-like fight shown by the Japanese men to restrict the Indians to just 32 in the five-overs-a-side contest, including a golden-duck dismissal of Abhishek Sharma – No. 1-ranked batter, who made the fastest T20I century just last week.

Moreover, India went by resting Jasprit Bumrah against a sub-par opposition, a decision they were suddenly regretting with only a handful to defend. While the spinners did the job for the Men in Blue, where they pulled off a narrow two-run win, or rather survived one of the biggest upsets international cricket has ever seen, Japan showed they might be new in the game, but they are in for a long haul.

Japan Cricket Association’s chief operating officer, Alan Curr, overwhelmed by the kind of cricket they played, caught up with CricTracker in an exclusive conversation. He reflected on the challenges Japan faces as an associate member of the International Cricket Council, the game against India, the role of BCCI in making the match happen, and what lies ahead for the side.

Excerpts from the interview:

What growth has Japan Cricket seen over the past few years?

"We've really noticed it, certainly since the post-COVID era, I guess. Japan had qualified for the 2019 World Cup in 2020, and then COVID struck almost straight afterwards. Since then, we've had a bit of an upward trajectory, certainly on the men's side of things. 

"Our women's team is holding steady. They're still improving, but they're not quite competing at the same level as the men are right now. But being able to have more regular exposure to higher-quality opposition is, I think, helping.

"We've been able to beat three teams ranked significantly higher than us in the last nine months or so, starting with Kuwait in the East Asia-Pacific and Asia Regional Final last year, and then continuing that with a win over Bahrain in January this year and February. And then Papua New Guinea in the sub-regional qualifiers in Sano in May. So, the team is developing really nicely. It's still a pretty young team. And yeah, I think that hopefully that trajectory will continue."

Not being a cricket-crazy nation, what steps is JCA, or Japan Government, taking to popularise cricket among masses back home?

"Yeah, of course, we're doing many things. I mean, and that's the work that's been going on in the background that I mentioned at the start. It's been a case of years of going into local schools, trying to make the game more visible. We have our Cricket Blast programme for under-12s. We have social programmes for adults to try and get the game and just sort of try and find a bit more about it, be comfortable with it, and enjoy it.

"We're trying to make all of our sessions fun. We talk a lot about positive impressions and positive experiences. So anyone who comes across the game, whether that's on social media or on TV or wanders down to the ground, we want them to leave thinking that cricket is a good sport and a fun sport and something that they want to start looking into more seriously.

"And likewise, we want people playing to have it; it even feeds into what we did yesterday. We want the spectators who come to the ground to have a great time and to leave with a positive experience of what cricket is in Japan. So, those programmes have been running for a long, long time. That's all part of our five-year strategy, which will come to its final year next year.

"And then in terms of the government, since Olympic inclusion, that's really been the biggest source of change for us. It has released a lot of funding for us, not in terms of like hard cash, but it does give us a lot more opportunities to build our human resources. So our staff is, we've got a strength and conditioning coach full-time now for the first time, which has been funded by the Japan Olympic Committee.

"We've got an analyst; we've just got more coaches on staff. So that's all helping at the high performance level. So trying to combine that grassroots approach with improvements in high performance is making sure we're covering the whole picture."

What has the ICC done to Japan, especially under Chairman Jay Shah’s leadership?

"Not specifically for Japan cricket, I don't think so. But obviously the approach and a bit more visibility for certain countries and looking to take the game to new audiences are very much a theme of theirs at the moment. I guess the one thing that they've done, and I know there's a big push from the top level of the ICC, is around providing ICC World Cups and Asia Cups, so not Asia Cups, World Cups or ICC trophies with local commentary. So we've had one of our Japanese commentators on the ICC's global feed. And that's been really powerful. It helped.

"We really wanted to make top-level cricket available for people to see in Japan, because for a long time the ICC was just streaming pathway events, which was great for diehard fans of the sport to be able to follow and to watch. But if you're new to the sport, you probably want to focus on the professional level rather than the amateur level as a way of being impressed by it. You want to see the top players showing their skills.

"And it was so great having India here yesterday to be able to show that in Japan, demonstrating those skills, a direct hit run out from the farthest part of the 55 metres. We heard from Ishan Kishan; this kind of thing makes people go wow. And those sorts of moments and impressive performances are what really capture people's attention. So, being able to make that more accessible by having Japanese commentary has, I think, been probably the single biggest thing that's happened in the last year or so. And hopefully that continues."

What does a cricket match against India mean to Japan, especially after the kind of match that took centre stage?

"I think credibility is probably quite a big thing. We saw lots of talk on social media in the build-up about how India was going to steamroller us and score 400 and all this sort of stuff. So hopefully now when people see that Japan are playing cricket, they might take us a bit more seriously and understand that actually, a lot of people outside of the associate world don't really follow associate cricket, don't really know what teams are like and what their skills are and how they perform. So the more opportunities that associate teams get to actually display their skills to a bigger audience, the more pleasantly surprised people are at the depth of talent around the world.

"And so I think that for us to be able to play the part in that and change perceptions around what Japan cricket is, hopefully that's something that lasts a long, long time. And in terms of the broader impact of the game and the performance, I guess we won't know that for a little while. But I certainly hope that it does inspire more people in Japan to pick up a bat and ball and play the game. And I hope that it inspires other associate nations to knock on the door of the full members and see if they can get matches because all we did was ask, really."

What is the cricketing infrastructure in Japan like? And are there any improvements needed to host more full-member teams like Australia or England or Pakistan?

"Yeah, I mean, ultimately, we probably just need more facilities in different locations. I mean, the home of cricket in Sano is, of course, where our spiritual home will always be. But there is a new facility in Nagoya, which I hope that we can make use of over the coming years and turn that into a bit of a hub for cricket as well, because being in an urban area, it's just that much easier for people to get to games and to watch them.

"There were a few challenges with the crowd and security and not security, but just sort of spectators outside the grounds climbing onto high points in the general public to try and see into the ground. So, we're still trying to build our capacities to host. We've never had a crowd like that at a game in Japan before.

"So really, a really good learning experience for us. But in terms of bringing other people, not everybody brings the fan base that India does. I think if England or Australia would come here, we'd get a crowd, but I don't think it would be quite the same. And so you may as well start at the top and then you've kind of got a frame of reference going forward. And that's what I mean in terms of a learning experience. So for us, more facilities would help. We know that we need to put more time and energy into our facilities. And that's an ongoing project as well."

Do cricketers have a central contract with the Japan Cricket Association?

"No, they're all either in full-time study or full-time employment, not odd jobs. They are full-time, full-time non-cricketers. I guess that makes sense. They've all got other life commitments to make. So when there are tournaments, there are a lot of sacrifices that people have to make in order to represent their country, whether that's time off work, time out of university, or time out of school. In the case of Charlie Hara-Hinze, they have to, not just time, but often finances time away from loved ones, which isn't the same for any cricketer, I suppose.

"But for associate members, you're not necessarily getting the rewards that other people are. So none of these guys get paid to play cricket in any capacity at all. So, we're just trying to cover their costs to make sure that they're not out of pocket by playing for Japan as best we can. But, yeah, they've all got full-time lives away from cricket. So the challenge of trying to balance that, to keep them training, to monitor what they're doing when we can't see them. A lot of our players, about half our squad, are based outside of Japan.

"The men's team and about four of the players in the women's team are outside of Japan. So, again, our communication and monitoring of them is really important as well."

Were there any challenges in making arrangements or sponsorships for the Suzuki Cup that happened?

"Yeah, loads. Yeah, of course, there were challenges, from the broadcast to the technical space. We were not really set up for the kind of broadcast that perhaps viewers in India are used to. I think we just had nine cameras set up down here for the game, which is, I think, ideally people wanted 24, which just wasn't possible. We don't have the space for the mixing that's required. There were issues with the audio. We had to have Japanese commentary and English commentary.

"We had to find a lot of qualified people who could help, which we don't necessarily have at our fingertips. People flying in, security consultants. We flew in a security consultant from the UK who'd worked in cricket and in the 100 and in World Cups before to bring us that level of creating expertise to help the local security people understand quite what the level would be like. It's kind of hard to explain when you say to people that having the Indian cricket team come is like having the Beatles come. They kind of think you're a bit bonkers, but it's true.

"So, we had to do a lot of that and a lot of logistics. I mean, there's not a lot of parking around here. So I think it's possible to upset some of the locals with people parking, people without tickets coming and parking in spaces where they shouldn't have done so. And, yeah, lots of challenges around that, but that's part of it. You've got to try and overcome those challenges. And I think we did that really well. I mean, the biggest challenge was the weather. We had a typhoon here on the day before the game, which is a typhoon that's actually taken the lives of nine people in Tokyo over the last few days. So these were serious weather conditions that we had to handle.

"And it's only through the hard work and help of a lot of people that we actually managed to get the ground into a playable condition. And obviously the game was hugely delayed, but it's incredible that we got a game on at all, really. We wouldn't have played if it wasn't for the work. 

"And people were like, Everyone went through the night. We had people doing shifts literally around the clock. I and our head groundsman were here from 3 a.m. to do all the work that we could to make sure the ground was ready to play. So, we were pleased when the umpires finally said, 'Yeah, we'll have a toss and we'll get the game on.'"

Japan must have anticipated a decent crowd of attention for this game. Did the expected arrangements made at the venue suffice, or was it the fans’ response that went over the roof?

"Yeah, we surpassed the expectations, certainly. I mean, like I said, I think the official attendance was just over 2,100 in terms of spectators, and that's not including staff, ground staff, teams, etcetera. And then, like I said, there were plenty of people outside on the roads trying to catch a glimpse. So, yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say it exceeded expectations, because we kind of knew our expectations were pretty high. But yeah, we had to put in a lot of extra seating, and it was all taken."

What role did BCCI play in making the game happen?

"No, I mean, they've been fantastic. We've had a couple of brief conversations with Hemang Amin, who's been very supportive from minute one. And I guess the most work we've done has been with the team manager here on tour, who is Maroof Fajandar. Me and him speaking multiple times a day for the last few weeks, really, to get this done.

"But everyone I've spoken to has been very supportive, very friendly, and very keen to make sure the game went ahead. And everyone recognised the players as well, actually, everyone recognised what this game was for. And it was about something bigger than cricket. It was about diplomatic relations and the friendship between two countries. So everyone was really on board with that, which has been really great. And the BCCI, like I said, didn't take much in the conversation for them to agree and say, Yes, we'll do it. 

"Of course, that probably helps when two prime ministers have kind of already said that it should happen. So I don't know how much of an impact that had at their end. That would be a question for them, but they certainly didn't try and fight it. They were on board straight away and said, Yeah, we'll do that. So, yeah, they've been really accommodating and keen to get it done.

"Of course, for us hosting a team of their size, most of the time we have squads of about 18 arriving, but they've had more than 30 here with them. So that's challenging. But, they've been willing to accommodate the facilities here and play within the restrictions that we have. And that's been really good."

One word for fans who made Japan their second favourite cricket team on Tuesday, please!

"So just thank you for the support and thank you for the interest. And I hope that people continue to click on our social media feeds and see where we're going next. One of our goals is to be everyone's second favourite team. So, if we won over a few people yesterday and they want to keep following our progress, then please do that. Our YouTube channel is there. You can see a lot of historical stuff in there.

"And of course, there's always stuff the year round. The season is just coming to an end now. But 2027 will be a big year as well. And when you see Japan playing in the World Cup qualifiers or Asia Cup qualifiers. Give us a watch and give us a cheer."