Business community rushes to back Hong Kong Sixes

Strong corporate hospitality sales are driving this year’s Hong Kong Cricket Sixes towards being a soaraway success.

Hong Kong’s business community has shown its enthusiasm for the event by snapping up all the corporate boxes that went on sale three months ago.

Now tournament organisers are looking to offer a small number of additional boxes to help cope with demand.

“The response from Hong Kong companies has been fantastic,” confirmed tournament director Mark Burns.

“Sales of corporate boxes and various sponsorship and official partner packages have gone extremely well and we have new stakeholders coming on board all the time.

“All of this means our income streams are healthy enough for us to stage the Sixes whatever the outcome of ongoing talks with potential title sponsors.”

The Sixes will be held at the Kowloon Cricket Club from November 8-9.

The tournament is being organised and promoted by the Hong Kong Cricket Association’s commercial arm, China Cricket International Limited.

West Indies great Shivnarine Chanderpaul and former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming have already been confirmed for the All-Stars team that will headline the tournament.

Chanderpaul, 34, was recently named Wisden Cricketer of the Year and is currently the highest ranked batsman in the world.

The Guyana-born ace has played 112 tests, scoring 19 hundreds and 49 fifties.

Fleming, 35, retired from international cricket earlier this year after a stellar 14-year career in which he played 111 tests.

Another world class performer at the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes will be umpire Aleem Dar.

The Pakistani official is a member of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) elite panel and was recently named Asian Umpire of the Year.

In addition, the biggest TV deal in Hong Kong Cricket Sixes history means an estimated 100 million fans around the world will be able to watch the tournament.

The showpiece will be broadcast live by Dubai-based Taj TV on its Ten Sports outlet, the world’s leading producer of cricket.

Ten Sports will broadcast the event on its own channels in the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, North America, continental Europe, Hong Kong and Indonesia.

The company is also securing commitments from broadcasters to show the event in all other major cricketing markets, including the UK and Australia.

“With the tremendous support of Hong Kong’s business community, some of world cricket’s biggest names and a landmark television deal, we are on course to stage another hugely successful Sixes,” added Burns.

First held in 1992, the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes continues to be fully sanctioned by the ICC and is the sport’s longest-running, best-established and most high-profile sixes tournament.

Players who have taken part over the past 16 years include Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Steve and Mark Waugh, Viv Richards, Andrew Flintoff, Adam Gilchrist and Wasim Akram.

The HKCA’s proceeds from the tournament will be ploughed directly back into cricket development in Hong Kong.

ENDS