Hong Kong T20 Blitz is a professional T20 cricket tournament started by Cricket Hong Kong (CHK) in 2016. This tournament was started to develop T20 Cricket in Hong Kong as well as other nearby nations. In 2017, the franchises had also picked 5 chinese players to improve cricket in China as well.
The tournament initially consisted of 4 teams and later in the next year (2017) a new 5th team was added. Hong Kong’s national team captain Tanwir Afzal, was the first pick in the inaugural draft of the tournament. The franchisee owners also signed international star players in their teams.
The Hong-Kong blitz tournament is telecasted on Hong-Kong’s Cricket Association official youtube channel. The telecasting reach of this tournament is in various parts of the world like- UK, Australia, Asian countries, West Indies and African countries.
So far 3 editions of Hong Kong T20 Blitz have been conducted successfully. All the matches are played in the Mission Ground Stadium whose seating capacity is 3,500. There is no home advantage for any of the teams.
After the 3rd season in 2018, the tournament was cancelled in 2019 due to financial crisis. Along with T20 Blitz, the CHK also organizes the 18 seasons old Hong Kong sixers competition comprising 8 international teams.The CHK board wasn’t able to manage two tournaments in one year. After the cancellation of the Hong Kong T20 Blitz, the franchise owners were very disappointed with CHK board.
“The Owners had invested some serious money (estimated to be around USD175,000 per team per event) into this and had brought the Blitz to Internationally acceptable standards with almost 25 international players in (each of) the last two editions. Broadcast and viewership also saw wonderful growth. If the news of cancellation is true Cricket Hong Kong officials have had no courtesy in discussing the same with the owners and they have taken this decision unilaterally. Very very disappointed” – said Mr Sushil Kumar, Owner of City Kaitak team.
There is no update on the upcoming T20 Blitz tournament. For now the Blitz tournament has been cancelled indefinitely but there are chances of restarting the league with a new branding and name.
Format –
The matches are played in round-robin format where each team plays the other once. Total 11 matches including the final are played over a duration of 12 days.
Each team gets 2 points for victory and 1 point for no result. The teams are ranked based on the points achieved.
The top-2 teams placed in the points table qualifies for the final. The winner of the final eventually wins the title.
Teams Participating in T20 Blitz –
1.Kowloon Cantons –
Captain – Babar Hayat
Titles – 2 (2016,2017)
Star Players – Samit Patel, Dwane Smith, Wahab Riaz, Michael Clarke Clarke, Sandeep Lamichhane, Babar Hayat
Previous Season – Finished 3rd in the group stage
2.Hung Hom JD Jaguars
Captain – Kinchit Shah
Titles – 1 [2018]
Star Players – Kinchit Shah, Darren Sammy, Johan Botha, Ben Laughlin
Previous Season – Winners
3. Galaxy Gladiators Lantau
Captain – Kumar Sangakkara
Titles – 0
Star Players – Kumar Sangakkara, Cameron Delport, Anton Devcich, James Franklin, Jofra Archer
Previous Season – Finalist
4. HK Island United
Captain – Tanwir Afzal
Titles – 1 [2016]
Star Players – Christoper Carter, Kamran Akmal, Muhammad Irfan, Luke Ronchi, Tanwir Afzal, Ryan Ten Doeschate
Previous Season – finished 5th in the group stage
5. City KaiTak –
Captain – Rayad Emrit
Titles – 0
Star Players – Anshuman Rath, Ravi Bopara, Samuel Badree, Tilakaratne Dilshan, Chris Jordan,Sohail Tanvir, Rayad Emrit
Previous season – Finished 4th in group stage
Team Records –
Kowloon Cantons are the most successful team of Hong Kong T20 Blitz. Hong Kong Island Warriors and Kowloon Cantons are the joint winners of the inaugural edition of Hong Kong T20 Blitz. The final of 1st edition was washed out due to rain, that’s why the trophy was shared between the two finalists.
Hung Hom JD Jaguars are the current title holders of Hong Kong T20 Blitz. In 2018, they defeated the Galaxy Gladiators Lantau by a close margin of 6 runs.
| EDITION | WINNERS | RUNNERS-UP | YEAR |
| 1 | Hong Kong Island Warriors and Kowloon Cantons [Joint Winners] | 2016 | |
| 2 | Kowloon Cantons | City KaiTak | 2019 |
| 3 | Hung Hom JD Jaguars | Galaxy Gladiators Lantau | 2018 |
| CANCELLED DUE TO FINANCIAL LOSS | 2019 | ||
| DID NOT HAPPEN | 2020 | ||
| MAY / MAY NOT HAPPEN | 2021 |
Player Records –
Kumar Sangakkara has scored the most runs in the T20 blitz of Hong Kong. He has scored 431 runs averaging 61.57 at a massive strike rate of 15.76. He was also awarded the man of series in the 3rd edition.
Hong Kong’s Nizakat Khan is not far behind in the runs scoring as he has scored 423 runs averaging a modest 42 runs per innings. His brilliant unbeaten 120 off 62 balls gave the Hung Hom JD Jaguar a stiff target of 194 runs. Despite the century, the team batting second (City Kaitak) chased the target.
Top-10 Run getters –
| PLAYER | RUNS |
| Kumar Sangakkara [Galaxy Gladiators] | 431 |
| Nizakat Khan [Hung Hom Jaguars] | 423 |
| Kyle Coetzer [City Kaitak] | 390 |
| Babar Hayat [Kowloon Cantons] | 385 |
| Dwane Smith [Kowloon Cantons] | 315 |
| Johan Botha [Hung Hom Jaguars] | 293 |
| Anshuman Rath [City Kaitak] | 234 |
| Misbah-ul-Haq | 199 |
| James Franklin [Galaxy Gladiators] | 194 |
| Marlon Samuels [Kowloon Cantons] | 179 |
Pakistani legendary spinner, Saeed Ajmal has taken the most numbers of wickets in the tournament. He has taken 11 wickets averaging just under 10, with a good economy rate of 6.70.
4 out of 10 bowlers from the top-10 wicket taker list are from Kowloon Cantons which justifies the fact they are the most successful team of T20 Blitz. The stats also indicate that the Cantons aren’t dependent on one or two players, rather they believe in collective effort.
Top-10 Wicket Takers –
| PLAYER | WICKETS |
| Saeed Ajmal [Hong Kong Island United] | 11 |
| Yasir Arafat [Kowloon Cantons] | 9 |
| Chris Jordan [City Kairak] | 9 |
| Ashar Zaidi [Kowloon Cantons] | 8 |
| Rayad Emrit [City Kaitak] | 7 |
| Tanveer Ahmed [Kowloon Cantons] | 7 |
| Marlos Samuels [Kowloon Cantons] | 6 |
| Ashley Caddy [Hung Hom Jaguars] | 6 |
| Nadeem Ahmed [City Kaitak] | 6 |
| Tanwir Afzal [Hong Kong Island United] | 5 |
Hong Kong T20 Blitz was a platform, where talent met opportunities especially for those players who are unknown to the world. This Blitz T20 had shaped the career of Nepali leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane. In the 1st edition of Blitz T20 (2016), 15-year-old Sandeep Lamichhane and world cup winner Michael Clarke played for the same franchisee called Kowloon Cantons.
The first season had a lot of washed out games, so not much play was happening in the 12-day tournament. While training in the nets, Michael Clarke had identified the talent in Sandeep and offered him to play Grade cricket in Sydney.
Sandeep had accepted that offer and played brilliantly in the grade games of Sydney. He returned back home and earned a place in Nepal under-19 team for Asia cup, World Cup Qualifiers. After brilliant performances in the junior season he was fastracted to Nepal’s national team.
The world slowly started to see the rise of a player from a team which wasn’t considered a top side. He eventually got IPL, BBL, CPL contracts making a seasoned T20 campaigner.