Hong Kong U-15 played Baluwatar Cricket Club and Training Center at the BSAM Ground today and when Binod Pandey, a reporter with Nepal Samacharpatra daily, called me to ask if I wanted to go there. Since BCA president Upendra Prasad Bhattarai was giving me the lift, I couldn’t say know.
At the Ground, I was introduced to Hong Kong manager Peter Chapman – I don’t know why the ACC list of Hong Kong team has not listed him. He turned out to be a ‘jolly good’ person to talk with.
He is originally from New Zealand but had moved to Hong Kong 25-years ago and seemed quite interested in sports. He told me he played hockey and could have made to national team had he continued playing. When Sher Lama, the HK coach of Nepali origin, told me, in Nepali, he was a lawyer, I asked him.
THE FATHER-SON COMBINATION: Hong Kong U-15 captain Mark Chapman and Manager Peter Chapman (Photo by Sundar Shrestha)
He told me he is a prosecutor and was involved in a big case as chief prosecutor of which a book has been recently released. (As he suggested I googled him and found many articles like this one).
His son, Mark Chapman, is a 13-year-old captain of the Hong Kong team and bowled really good spin today. He took three wickets, was on a hattrick (was out for duck while batting). Peter was proud to see his son playing well (he couldn’t get seriously into the sports, but got his children playing – he told me his 15-year-old ‘skinny’ daughter is in Hong Kong U-21 hockey team).
Sher for his Nepali origin took away all my attention at the airport but today, it was Peter, whom I enjoyed talking with. Today, the Prosecutor’s team lost by 101 runs, but I hope, as him, that HK will perform well in the ACC U-15 Elite Cup.
And, the TOKENS OF LOVE
During the innings break, there was a presentation ceremony – much of surprise to me and the Hong Kong team. Peter asked me why. I told him since this is presentation of token of love, Baluwatar wanted both team in good mood. He seemed to be convinced with the idea – he called it a Nepali way.
Upendra Prasad Bhattarai, the CAN vice-president and Baluwatar president, presented token of love to every players of the Hong Kong team (and Sher and Peter) while got CAN spokesperson Tarak Mani Dixit to present tokens to member of his own team.
Baluwtar also presented a Token of Love to Hong Kong Cricket Association whereas Peter returned the favor with a HKCA Plaque to Baluwatar and a tie each to Bhattarai and two umpires.
After all that, the friendly game became more friendlier!