World Cup a chance to inspire a generation of cricketers in Thailand: Tippoch

By Sornnarin Tippoch

Competing at Australia 2020 will be a massive step for Thailand cricket, and we’re keen to make the most of the opportunity while we are out there. We are the first team in the South East Asian region to qualify for such an event, which is such a special achievement for us all, and we really want to build from that honour.

I hope that our success will elevate the game in the region and improve the standard of cricket in our part of the world. The moment in which we qualified, when beating Papua New Guinea in Scotland, was a special moment and a huge day for all of us. All cricketers dream of playing in the World Cup and our dream has come true.

All of this has come through years of hard work and perseverance and staying true to the craft.  We know the work does not stop here and it has all but just started and we will try to keep on pushing the boundaries of this game that we love so much. There is a buoyant mood in the camp and full of belief and determination to do well at the World Cup – we all can’t wait to face this massive challenge which has got us all so excited.

I am extremely honoured and happy to lead the nation at the World Cup stage. I'm very proud to represent my family and the people of my nation at this global stage. We know how exciting this is for all of us, but the key is to just treat this as any other game of cricket and just hope to do our best on the pitch.

We are playing two champions in England and the West Indies early on but we will treat them as any other game where we try to execute and implement our plans to the best of our abilities.  We will approach all games with confidence and trusting our preparations. We haven’t seen too much of the other teams apart from watching them in videos – but every time we have, it’s always been in our dreams to be able to play them some day.

Whatever happens in this tournament, it is going to be a great experience for us which we can hope to build on in the future. We are playing against players that we have admired watching for many years and we want to be able to enjoy that experience. Over the years, we have shown our unity and adaptability to situations to be one of the biggest strengths in our team, and we want to be able to do that again in Australia.

If we do that, then we believe we can attain our aim of winning one or two games and being able to demonstrate a good brand of cricket for all the fans to see. As well as being able to qualify for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, we have also been able to build the record for the most successive wins in T20I cricket. For us, it is always good to hold a record and excellent for statisticians to have.

But when it comes to Australia 2020, it does not affect our mentality or preparation in games – our aim is to just go out there and show what we can do, and hopefully that will be enough to impress on our historic occasion.

This article was first published on International Cricket Council (ICC) website.