BEIJING, Sept 20: China's cricket association has been given US$400,000 to accelerate cricket's growth in the country, International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Malcolm Speed said on Wednesday.

Of the sum, $200,000 comes from the Asian Cricket Council and is matched by $200,000 from the ICC.

“The grant is recognition of the potential for development of the game of cricket in China,” Speed said at a news conference.

“They have had a very good first year. Although it is a 10-year project, they have put a meaningful base in place to compete with other good countries playing high level cricket.”

Cricket was brought to China by the British as long ago as 1858 but beyond a few expatriate tournaments, the game is still virtually unheard of in the world's most populous nation.

The China Cricket Association (CCA), founded in late 2004, has, however, attempted to change this. It has enlisted the Asian Cricket Council and Cricket Australia to provide coaching and equipment in schools and universities across the country.

“One year ago, we had no players, coaches or referees. A year later we have 63 coaches and 6,416 students learning across the country,” CCA director Calvin Leung said.

In addition to sending the first national team to an international tournament, Leung said the money would mainly fund infrastructure development, including building China's first cricket ground in Beijing.

“We are targeting 30,000 cricketers, 600 umpires and 600 coaches in China by 2010,” Leung added.

Speed was confident that China could rapidly make up for its lack of cricketing tradition.

—Reuters