The first recorded cricket match in Shanghai was played somewhere in Hongkou, between a team of officers from H.M.S. "Highflyer" and a Shanghai eleven on April 22, 1858.

In 1863, Shanghai gained its first true cricket ground, when the Shanghai Recreation Fund then bought the land in the centre of a racecourse, which belonged to the Race Club of the time, and turned it into a cricket ground surrounded by ‘willow trees and flowers’. It is hard to believe now, but this racecourse and cricket ground was actually situated on the corner of the present Nanjing Lu and Jiangxi Lu.

The first inter-port match with Hong Kong Cricket Club took place in 1866 and this began of series of home and away fixtures which continued up until 1948, just prior to the 1949 Communist takeover of China (for an in-depth account of these fixtures, and of the tragic 1892 shipwreck of the SS Bokhara with the HKCC side upon it, visit the history section of the HKCC website.

contributed by Richard Graham,
founding Chairman

The first game that we know of was played at my instigation with a child's bat and a tennis ball in the then relatively flat grassland in the midst of Green Valley Villas. It was the day of my wife's birthday, 17th September 1994, and she wasn't very amused about catering for a party of about 20 on the lawns outside our house, no. 231.

By then I had identified cricketers from 7 nations, including a West Indian engineer in the Hilton, the Indian Consul General and a Pakistani in charge of the cleaners at the Portman. Demand was strong and the next stage was with an adult bat, but still with a tennis ball, in the grounds of the former Sassoon villa at the Longbai Hotel, Hongqiao. We had a picnic for about 60 on a weekend in October and were thereafter banned by the hotel for contravening Communist Party regulations about gatherings of people without a permit.

I then discussed with the late Michael Cakebread more recognised sporting venues, and he put me in touch with the Shanghai Sports Institute. At the same time I had been talking with the Craigengower guys (all of whom I knew from the Hong Kong Cricket Club) about the possibility of a tour in November. HKCC supplied us with an elderly sisal mat, the MCC some equipment and we had the Reuters rep write a report that made it into the Times. On the day itself, Terry Smith, the then HKCC President, bowled the first ball which took out the off stump of our opener. Cakebread's catering arrangements failed so I bought lots of jiaozi, which was followed by a boozy dinner in an Indian restaurant with endless speeches and a sound system which went awol. It was a hoot.
By then we had already ‘formally’ established Shanghai CC. The Indian Consul General Subra Subramaniam was our President; I was Chairman, Peter the British Council Rep. our Secretary, and we had committee members from India, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand.

The following year we competed in the Kowloon Cricket Club 6-a-side tournament, and in 1996 the Peking International 6's. Stuart Taylor came to Shanghai in early 1995 and helped establish regular nets outside the old Swire Taipan's residence by his house in Hongshan Road. He brought some more vigorous standards of practice to bear and coached the team to our success in Peking (I think we got to the final). We played countless informal England vs. Australia and Down Under v Rest of the World games and there were several near misses of intra-cultural fisticuffs. In the winter we borrowed a gym, I think from the same Sports Institute, and this was where the first female Shanghainese made her tentative debut in high heels. The Rolls Royce rep was the first male mainland Chinese to play with us regularly in Shanghai.

A major step forward was taken with the hosting of the inaugural Shanghai International Sixes in May 1997, won by the Hong Kong Dragons, and I persuaded Sky TV to include this in a programme on Shanghai. I have memories of a tremendous evening afterwards sitting next to a Hong Kong High Court judge watching semi-nude dancers somewhere in the French quartier. I wore an original SCC blazer sent to me by a former SCC player then living in Japan, and it fitted like a glove.

The Shanghai International Sixes was repeated in 1999 and has since become an annual fixture, with an array of international star players as well as teams from Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Australia all having attended.

1999 was also the year that Shanghai first attracted the attention of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Early in the year they sent a representative to visit the city and development links were forged which led the ICC to start taking a keen interest in development of the sport at a local level. This interest culminated with the visit to Shanghai in May 2000 of Allan Border, for whom the SCC hosted a dinner at which Border regaled listeners with stories of his test career. Since then other international players to have visited to promote the game have included Kim Hughes and Tom Hogan (both Australia), Amal Silva and Rumesh Ratnayake (both Sri Lanka), Courtney Browne (West Indies) and Gladstone Small (England).

In 2001 cricket moved to a new ground in Jinqiao, Pudong, where a permanent astroturf wicket was laid. This new facility, a hugely successful International Sixes and perhaps most importantly the take-off of indoor cricket for beginners, including local Chinese men and women, raised the profile of cricket in Shanghai enormously.

2002 and 2003 saw further growth for the club. With the number of expatriates rising in Shanghai more and more outdoor cricket has been played, including the Shanghai Virgin Ashes, won by England in 2001 and 2002, and Australia in 2003. Improving performances in overseas tournaments have also increased the club’s recognition around Asia. Indoor cricket has continued to thrive, with dedicated beginner's coaching courses offered for the first time.

Moving into 2004 Shanghai Cricket Club is faced with a host of opportunities and responsibilities. Whilst cricket for expatriates is expanding with a four-team league, the club is aware of the importance of promoting the game amongst the local community. To this end over the past two years discussions have been held with the ACC which are expected to culminate in China’s membership some time in 2004.

The challenge of developing the game in the world’s most populous country is an exciting one, and any help from cricket supporters over the next year will be greatly appreciated!