Sports Hero

Cricket Interview
Former Captain of the Hong Kong Cricket Team
MR. TABARAK DAR

As a person who was born and raised in Pakistan like Tabarak Dar, cricket is a part of life. In Pakistan, cricket is such a popular sport that cricket competitions are broadcasted live on TV and schools provide cricket training. This is why Tabarak has been in love with this sport since he was little. Tabarak migrated to Hong Kong with his parents when he was still young and thought that his ties with cricket had been cut forever; however, he later learned that Hong Kong also had a cricket association and competitions, and so he returned to his beloved sport. “Cricket is a unique sport that demands endurance, fitness and strategy from athletes.” Tabarak is fascinated with the characteristics of cricket.

Total devotion to sports and leadership

It turned out that Tabarak had a natural talent for organizing teams, promoting unity among his team, and helping his team members develop all of their talents. When he was still a little boy in his home country, he got his classmates to get together and create a team; after he grew up, he became the captain of his school’s cricket team. In 1998, when Tabarak was 22 years-old, he was selected to become part of Hong Kong’s representative team. He later became the captain of the team and served the Hong Kong team for as long as 15 years. Tabarak became a coach after his retirement and continued to promote the development of cricket in Hong Kong. Tabarak has natural leadership ability and a passion for cricket that enables his to contribute to this sport from any role of involvement.

Tabarak joined the local Little Sai Wan Cricket Club when he was 17 years-old. At that time, the club was undergoing a crisis as it was losing members and had a shortage of players. Tabarak decided to stay and became a core member of the club. He also intended to revitalize this team. “I proposed the organization of youth training programmes to resolve our problems by recruiting more players.” Today, the club has 28 teams, which is s stark contrast to back then when it only had one team. This showed that Tabarak already knew how to match the right solution with the issue when he was young, and had the wisdom and demeanor of a leader.

In 2008, the Hong Kong cricket team managed to win the ACC Trophy Elite competition under Tabarak’s leadership, which happened to be the first time Hong Kong won this event in history. The Hong Kong team has been improving all the time and has been proactively participating in large international competitions, so its regional ranking and position has improved significantly. Tabarak feels very honored and proud to compete with strong overseas opponents on behalf of Hong Kong. This sense of achievement is precisely the thing that has been supporting his passion for cricket over the years.

Heading towards new horizons with a heart full of passion

Tabarak has sought to continually better himself and make further improvements for cricket. He is now a senior referee who provides competition advice, and is also a qualified coach and trainer. Tabarak’s different roles and positions have kept him busy but he is more than happy to take on each challenge in the hope that it will promote cricket development from different levels. Tabarak is currently promoting cricket from the role of an administrative staff at the club. The club’s key commitments are to offer various training programmes to grassroots citizens and schools, and to provide funding and equipment to young players who have economic needs. The club also runs competitions frequently to allow players to compete against each other for improvement, and also keeps in touch with cricket enthusiasts.

Tabarak believes that other than actively finding new young members, the club should also aim to obtain a fully-functional cricket field so it can provide players with more comprehensive training and promote cricket.

If you wish to learn more about cricket, please visit the website of the Hong Kong Cricket Association
(http://www.hkcricket.org)。