‘The Chinese mean business’

Former India women’s cricket team captain Mamtha Maben has begun her new innings as coach of the Chinese women’s national squad for the 2010 Asian Games at the spring training camp in Chengdu, China.

Back in Bangalore after a two-month camp that started in March, the 38-year-old believes the Chinese have the potential to become a competitive unit in five to 10 years.

“The team has taken me by surprise. The Chinese are no nonsense people and they mean business,” she said. “It is only a matter of five to 10 years before they bridge the gap with teams like Australia and England.”

Unlike India, where cricket is a religion, the sport is alien to most Chinese and is being developed from scratch in that country.

Maben says the women’s team has proved that it is not necessary to watch a sport on television to understand it. “The girls didn’t know anything about it. Cricket is not popular in China and they don’t watch it on TV. But by just watching me demonstrate a few skills, they have been able to learn and are slowly improvising on the strokes.

“The first few days were difficult because they couldn’t even understand the cricketing terminologies, not even bat and ball. We used sign language to communicate,” she said.

The Chinese have asked Maben for videos of women’s matches so they can pick up some skills through that route. “With better infrastructure and exposure, the team has the potential to win a medal in the Asian Games,” Maben added.