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Cricket, May 2002 With no knowledge of cricket, I left for the northernmost Japanese
Island of Hokkaido from May 10 -12 to report about a cricket game the Sakhalin Cricket
Club had to play against its Japanese counterpart in Sapporo.
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![](cricket/simon_teamS.jpg) |
Simon Jackson of the Hokkaido International Business
Association had arranged a reception for the Sakhalin visitors upon
arrival with lots of important people and great Japanese food. |
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The ladies were also invited. They were approached by
travel agencies who gave them bags full of material on the resorts on
Hokkaido. |
![](cricket/ladies_warm.jpg) |
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![](cricket/teamSandH.jpg) |
What did we come for again? Well, cricket it was... Both
teams managed to show up, some with a hangover after an evening out in
Sapporo. Down in the middle (red, white& blue coat) the mayor of the
port city Ishikari (20km from Sapporo) who put the playing ground at the
disposal of the teams (normally 1000$). He hoped to promote its port
with Sakhalin expats with these actions. |
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The mayor tossed the coin to decide what team could choose
to 'bat' of 'field' first. The Sakhalin team won the toss and chose for
batting. |
![](cricket/coin.jpg) |
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![](cricket/cricket_test.jpg) |
Batting went well for the Sakhalin team, but was it good
enough? We wouldn't find out until the other team had fielded. |
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But first lunch. Extremely nice Indian food with is
absolutely non-available on Sakhalin. Restaurant Taj Mahal that catered
it has already five restaurants in Sapporo. The good thing is: they are
thinking of opening one on Sakhalin! The first customers will be the
Sakhalin Cricket Club (SCC). |
![](cricket/food.jpg) |
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![](cricket/geoff_pj.jpg) |
PJ (left), who organized things on the Sakhalin side, is
going to leave Sakhalin for Delhi. He had to promise captain Geoff
(right) to try and arrange for the SCC to play a match in India and,
more important: do some sightseeing.
Who won the match? Uhhhh, the Japanese team. The score? Sorry, I was
paid a lot of money not to tell. |
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In Russia we would take a Russian banya after a day of
cricket, in Japan you go to a hot spring. Dinner was served in the same
bath house, where we consumed a nice alternative for vodka: sake. |
![](cricket/dinner.jpg) |
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