Singapore National Cricket Team: Overview, History and Analysis

The national cricket team of Singapore represents Singapore abroad. Singapore is a founding member of the Asian Cricket Council and has been an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) since 1974. The Singapore Cricket Club was established in 1837, at the height of colonialism. Singapore began competing against other British colonies in Asia on a regular basis in the late 19th century, most notably in the interport games. Later, it supplied players for the Malayan and Straits Settlements teams. As an ICC member starting in 1979, Singapore took part in six of the first seven iterations of the ICC Trophy. Its largest rivalry since achieving independence in the yearly Stan Nagaiah Trophy is with neighbouring Malaysia. Singapore made it all the way to Division 3 of the World Cricket League.

After becoming associate members of the ICC in 2019, the squad participated in its first Twenty20 International. additionally, they participated for the first time in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier that year.

Cricket was First Played in Singapore

The first mention of cricket in Singapore dates back to 1837, when “Mr Z” wrote to the Singapore Free Press to express his displeasure about the sport being played close to a church on a Sunday, which was against the Christian Sabbath. As a result, Sundays were off-limits for cricket, and this regulation held up until the 1930s.

Cricket was a well-liked game that frequently involved matches against visiting ship commanders. The first game between the Singapore Cricket Club and other members was played in 1852, the same year it was created. As a result, a team total of more than 100 wasn’t considered impressive during these formative years of cricket.

Later, teams from other British Malayan provinces, such as Penang, Perak, and Kuala Lumpur, began to compete against the Singapore Cricket Club. The long-running series of “Interport matches” eventually resulted from this, with Hong Kong eventually inviting a team to play there.

Modern Era

2000 – 2017

Singapore’s first two major tournaments of the new millennium got off to a horrible start as they lost every game they played in the initial rounds of both the 2000 ACC Trophy in the United Arab Emirates and the 2001 ICC Trophy in Ontario, which served as their final appearances in ICC competitions. They defeated Thailand and the Maldives while hosting the ACC Trophy in 2002 (By 325 runs), But once more, they were unable to go past the first round. In 2004, they managed to duplicate this accomplishment. in 2004 and 2005, finished fourth in the ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament.

Singapore’s performance started to advance in 2006. They finished third in the ACC Premier League that year, and by finishing fifth in Division Five of the World Cricket League, they advanced past the first round of the ACC Trophy. In the 2007 ACC Twenty20 Cup, they only managed to defeat Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, failing to proceed past the opening round. The greatest score in the competition was earned by captain Chaminda Ruwan. Despite losing to Afghanistan in the first round, who eventually won the competition, following a play-off victory over Botswana, Singapore finished fifth in the World Cricket League Division Five competition in Jersey.

Singapore hosted the World Cricket League’s Division Six in August 2009, won the event, went undefeated, and was relegated to Division Five. Singapore travelled to the United Arab Emirates in November 2009 to play in the ACC Twenty20 Cup. The competition saw Singapore finish third in Group A, just missing out on a chance to advance to the semi-finals and a spot in the 2010 Asian Games. After falling to Nepal by nine wickets in the fifth-place playoff, Singapore concluded the tournament in sixth place. 

They maintained their fourth place standing in Division Five of the 2010 ICC World Cricket League. They won the contest they hosted in 2012, moving them up to Division Four and retaining their prospects of making the World Cup. Mohammad Yusof Bin Aslam, the squad’s captain, has chosen to sit out due to a conflict of interest, but Singapore has decided to concentrate its resources on its SEA GAMES team.

Singapore took home two medals in cricket at the August 2017 Southeast Asian Games. They won the gold medal in the category for teams 20 over and the silver in the tournament for teams 50 over. According to a news conference held by the ICC on April 26, all men’s T20 matches would be given T20I status starting on January 1st.

2018 – Present

In April 2018, the ICC granted full status to all Twenty20 International (T20I) members. All Twenty20 matches between Singapore and other ICC members starting on January 1, 2019, will consequently be complete T20is. Singapore’s first Twenty20 match against Qatar was on July 22, 2019. Following their victory over Nepal in the regional finals of the 2018–19 tournament in Asia, Singapore became the first nation to qualify for the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier on July 28, 2019.

22 July 2019 10:00

 

Singapore  186/7 (20 overs)	v	Qatar 153/9 (20 overs)
Surendran Chandramohan 47 (39) Iqbal Hussain 4/33 (4 overs)		Tamoor Sajjad 34 (29) Janak Prakash 3/15 (4 overs)

• Singapore won by 33 runs.
• Arena for the Asian Games in Singapore
• The umpires were Viswanadan Kalidas (Mas) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep)
• The game’s winner was Janak Prakash (Sin)

Singapore will participate in the 2019–21 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League, which will begin in April 2019. In September 2019, Singapore defeated Zimbabwe by four runs in the third Twenty20 International game of the 2019–20 Singapore Tri-Nation Series. Singapore had never previously won a cricket match against a Full Member team.

29 September 2019 19:30 (D/N)

 

Singapore  181/9 (18 overs)	v	Zimbabwe 177/7 (18 overs)
Manpreet Singh 41 (23) Ryan Burl 3/24 (3 overs)		Sean Williams 66 (35) Amjad Mahboob 2/20 (4 overs)

• Singapore won by a margin of 4 runs.
• India Association Field in Singapore Balraj Manikandan and Akbar Ali, umpires (UAE) (Sin)
• Game MVP was awarded to Sean Williams (Zim)