Malaysia Aware Of Thai Threat In Women's Cricket During SEA Games

PETALING JAYA (Selangor, Malaysia), March 22 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Cricket Association (MCA) are in a nail-biting situation to clean sweep all three gold medals offered in the upcoming 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games. MCA are confident of winning two gold medals - men's 50 overs and T20 events - but may face an uphill task to overcome Thailand in the women's T20 event. The concern over the women's squad increased after losing to host Thailand in the Women T20 International Tournament, a tri-series event in Chiang Mai held early this month, and settling for second place ahead of Bhutan. However, with another 149 days left, MCA president Mahinda Vallipuram is optimistic of preparing the women's team as a gold medal prospect when cricket is hosted for the first time ever in the biennial games since its inception in 1959. "I am confident that we can win the two gold medals in men's 50 overs and T20 events, but for the women's T20 we will face greater challenge from Thailand, who are in good form after their world cup qualifiers, so there is some work to do. "We will do all that we could to secure the third gold especially by having the home ground advantage. I will be disappointed if we cannot win the three gold medals," Mahinda told Bernama, Wednesday. He added that the squad was currently competing in the ongoing 4th MCA T20 Corporate Championship from Feb 11 to July 30, where they are batting against the men's teams. Apart from that, the squad would also play matches against the Bukit Jalil Sports School boys, quadrangular against Thailand, Tanzania and Indonesia in May as well as friendly matches against Sri Lanka Army women's team in May to brush up their skills. Meanwhile, the men's squad, ranked 23rd in world, is scheduled to take part in the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Emerging Asia Cup in Bangladesh from March 27 to April 3 and International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cricket League division three in Uganda from May 21-31. "We are also trying to send our players to play in the leagues of South Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh because they play high level cricket compared to the South East Asian countries," he said. The SEA Games cricket event is scheduled to be held from Aug 20-30 at the Kinrara Oval, where a total of five teams, namely Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Myanmar would vie for the historic gold. Earlier, he signed an agreement with LeBlanc Communications (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd group managing director, Md.Kuna Muno for a three-year sponsorship deal worth RM510,000 (US$115,267) for the development of the sport in the country. -- BERNAMA