If you are looking for an inspiring story, the team Thailand would come in handy any day. To be found literally nowhere when the T20 game was first started, Thailand has come a long way. The players who represent the country now are part of the squad since existence. They are softball players and in order to promote the game, was asked to try cricket. Most of them fell in love with the game, and the rest is inspiring history.
2007 it was. The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) first organized a multi-team women’s tournament. Eight teams participated and Thailand was one among them. The team had forgettable or rather embarrassing performance, as they ended up at the bottom of the table.
2008 was an important year. The Government recognized cricket and the support for the game gradually increased. Also, the team showed some improved, with great wins over Qatar and Oman, Most importantly, Hong Kong, and they finished third in the ACC U19 Women’s championship.
The government then unveiled the Terdthai Cricket Ground (TCG), built on turf. The girls today practice six days a week plays competitive games more frequently.
Their groundbreaking year came in 2013, where they won the ACC Women’s championship and progressed to the T20 qualifier, and they made the sponsors’ heads turn, and there was more funding. The tournament witnessed the captain Tippoch scoring the first-ever hundred in T20s.
They didn’t keep up to the expectations as they lost all the games in both 2015 and 2018 T20 World Cup qualifier. Of course, there was a lot expected from them, blame the talents of the team. Blame the way they went on to show a glimpse of brilliance when they defeated Sri Lanka in the T20 Asia Cup.
A lot of credits must go to Janak Gamage, the former Sri Lankan player who was the first foreign coach of the team, was appointed in 2016.
2018, June 9, it was and Wongpaka Liengprasert decided to bring her A-game to the series. She took 5/12, then came to score an unbeaten 13 off 9 deliveries to take Thailand home against Sri Lanka. This match gave the necessary boost and the trust to the team. Since then, there is no looking back.
Things certainly started to rise since the appointment of Harshal Pathak, the former personal coach of Harmanpreet Kaur. Pathak did the fine-tuning that was needed, he implemented task-oriented practice where the players will be given a task, say, scoring 50 at a good rate, something similar to that, and he made the players rarely practice at the net.
This method worked out well for the team, and the results are overwhelming. The team first won record 17 T20 games in a row, topped their World T20 qualifier group, qualified for the World Cup for the first time.
This is the first time that Thailand has come this far, be it, men or women, be it junior or senior level.
The best part of the team is that almost every single player was there when the team had nothing, and they are still around, making noises.
In 2009, when the men’s team made history by winning a match against the Maldives, Tippoch’s cricket was just 2-year-old, and nobody knew her. Today, things have changed as more than 3000 women have the exposure of cricket in Thailand and Tippoch is undoubtedly the most successful player in the country.
Tippoch and Thailand might go far in the World T20 as well, they might fall too, but undoubtedly, this journey is something they will never forget, something their parents would be proud of, something you would tell it to the kids to motivate them.
“I was very excited, overwhelmed and wanted to rush into the ground as quick as I can so that I could hug my friends. It was very emotional and the celebrations went on for a few hours,” said Tippoch after booking the Australia ticket.
