India set their sights on China

The BCCI are to send coaches from their national academy in Bangalore to China in a bid to boost awareness of the sport.

For decades, cricket was banned in China by the communists owing to its links to the west, but the sport is gradually taking a hold among schoolchildren. Last year the ICC's chief executive, Malcolm Speed, spoke of his dream that in his lifetime he "will be able to see India and China playing against each other in Test cricket". With a country whose population has swelled in excess of 1.3bn people, the incentive to bring cricket to China is obvious.

"China has already taken to cricket at the schools level in a big way," a BCCI spokesman told The Times. "It's time to support a blossoming love of the game."

For all the talk of "blossoming love", it is palpably clear that money is the driving force behind the initiative.

"There is little doubt that people look at China and see dollar signs," said Shariah Khan of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), "although we'd prefer to see it as a chance to prove cricket's basic appeal as a game."

The Chinese Cricket Association joined the ICC as an Affiliate member in 2005, and they are aiming to have 15,000 players, umpires and coaches on their books by next year. Their national team is coached by Rashid Khan, the former Pakistan allrounder. The first recorded match was held in Shanghai in 1858.