Japan Cricket Association

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    Superstar Prodigy Makes Cricketing History

    Australian-Japanese prodigy Ayaka Kato-Stafford has created cricket history. The 15-year-old all-rounder made her international debut playing for Japan, a cricketing minnow and still only an Associate Member of the International Cricket Council. But the dual national with a career batting average of 32.67 and bowling average of a miserly 14.25 has been snapped up by Australia, cricket’s most powerful nation, to play for its powerful under-19 team. Her phenomenal achievement has been lauded by the Japan Cricket Association. Few Japan Australia developments have given me the pleasure that Kato-Stafford’s elevation to the top grade under-age competition. Here’s hoping she keeps up the great progress, promoting cricket in Japan and Japanese…

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    Willow Worlds

    Cricket is one of the few things I really miss about life in Australia, and stumbling across the Japan Cricket Association website recently led me down a rabbit hole centered around willow, an integral yet often unremembered part of life in my two countries. Come down the willow wormhole with me! Cricket is booming in Japan. Looking at the website, I was surprised to see how much the game of cricket has developed since I was last in touch with it in around 2007 or so. There are associations in every region of the country, 100 senior teams and about 15,000 players. There are three associations in the Kanto region…