On The Ball: Fast Bowler!

Heading into Year 13 at DBIS, Hong Kong, China national team cricketer Daniel Mapp is ready to deliver. Elizabeth Kerr reports PHOTOGRAPHY BY Andrew Spires & courtesy of Jonathan Mapp I don’t really speak too much. I think my PE teacher, Mr Lugg, recommended I do this interview,” opens Discovery Bay International School student Daniel Mapp on Google Chat. “No offence. I just don’t like being the centre of attention. On tour I don’t like doing interviews; it’s not my type of thing. But I’m open to it, I guess.” For the record, on this mid-week afternoon, 17-year-old Daniel comes across as reserved rather than disinterested – that is until the conversation turns to sport, cricket in particular, when his reticence vanishes entirely. On the cusp of starting his final year at DBIS and at 6’5”, Daniel would fit right in as a shooting guard on any American college basketball team or as a wide receiver in gridiron. But the Cape Town native has eyes only for the world’s most enigmatic game. For the uninitiated, cricket can resemble baseball for its batsmen, fielders and wicket keepers – “kind of like catchers,” Daniel explains patiently. Bowlers are like pitchers, anyone can play up to three positions, and unlike baseball there are multiple formats: T20, T10, limited overs, five-day Test matches… Does cricket have tries? “No, that’s rugby,” Daniel corrects gently before breaking down the myth of those week-long games. “Test matches are played by the best teams in the world. I’ve only ever played 50 overs (an innings), which is usually nine hours.” Cricket is far from a mystery across Asia-Pacific – including Hong Kong and dominant India – the UK and the Caribbean. Its popularity in South Africa made it part of Daniel’s childhood. His dad played when he was young and Daniel started flirting with the game when the family lived in Dubai before relocating to Hong Kong 12 years ago. “I would go down to my older brother’s training, aged 4. I wasn’t old enough to play with them yet, so I was just on the sidelines watching, messing about. One day the coach handed me a bat and a ball and I’ve been playing ever since. Growing up in DB, I played rugby, football and cricket but eventually it got to a point where I had to focus on one. I just liked cricket the most. I think there’s a lot of versatility to it; you can’t really get bored because there are so many aspects of the game.” The chances of getting bored are also narrowed if you’re playing at Daniel’s level: he’s an integral part of the Hong Kong Cricket Club junior and senior squads, which play in multi-team local leagues. And he plays for the Hong Kong, China national team Men’s U19 and Men’s A – he recently took six wickets against Tanzania for the latter. “Now I play club cricket at the Hong Kong Cricket Club over on Hong Kong Island, but before that I played for the local cricket club here, DB Smashers. They were a big part in my development as a junior cricketer.” These days, Daniel feels equally supported by DBIS: he references a recent class visit to the Hong Kong Sports Institute – a real eye-opener for students, particularly those considering a career in sports. Bigger picture: DBIS has been flexible enough to allow Daniel the freedom, sometimes two weeks, to compete in regional tournaments. “I’m expected to finish all my work on time, even though I’m playing nine-hour days,” he says with a grin. “But I’ve had a lot of support from my school and the online classroom with additional catch-up time provided and distance learning.” Daniel’s returning the favour too. As a sports ambassador at DBIS, he’s a role model for younger students and a leader on lower school sports days. No surprise, he plays cricket for DBIS, and he’s also on the school’s U20 football and basketball teams. “We did pretty well; our football and basketball teams placed third this year. We haven’t won silverware in a while so it was pretty good.” The tours and tournaments that take Daniel off campus have seen him play in Oman, the UAE, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and, most recently, Nepal… “Nepal was probably one of the best places I’ve toured. Not a lot of people know cricket is so huge there. Even their junior teams get treated like kings. When we played their U19 national team, there were 300 or 400 people watching.” Though Hong Kong, China fell to Nepal and Afghanistan in Kathmandu, the team beat Oman by 10 wickets – and Daniel was awarded man of the match in two of the three matches. That boded well for a busy summer. In July, Daniel headed to the UK to case universities and train with Kent County Cricket Club in Canterbury. The training opportunity was organised by former Hong Kong, China Men’s A coaches Simon Willis and Simon Cook. This month, before term starts, he’s back training with the Hong Kong, China Men’s U19 to tour Malaysia under coach Mark Farmer. The UK trip was made with an eye to the future. “England has a good cricket culture, so I want to go play for a university or a county,” Daniel says, before admitting, “If I had it my way, I wouldn’t go to university; I’d just play cricket there. But that’s not an option for me. My mum would prefer I go through uni.” Daniel’s first choice is Loughborough University, which is renowned for its sports programme and a favourite among cricketing students eager to go pro. At this point the physicality of the sport comes up. Daniel has played or watched American football, rugby, you name it. But he makes a case for cricket as just as white-knuckled as any sport. “It’s quite dangerous. At the top level the speed the ball is coming at you from the bowler gives you a split second to react,” he says, sparking to the subject. “You have to trust that you’ve trained enough so that when you’re batting, you see the ball and you react like you have a motor programme for it. It’s definitely quick. We get broken fingers, broken arms. That’s why we have all the padding. I mean, baseball doesn’t have as much padding.” But baseball is slow and wimpy. You don’t need padding, right? Daniel dodges a comment on the veracity of that claim. “Contrary to your opinion, I think it’s quite interesting,” he says with a grin. “It’s just it’s kind of one thing. There are more variables to cricket, but I do have a bias.” Daniel’s grateful he had a few classes lined up over the summer designed to give him a head start on what he expects will be a challenging academic year. Heading into Year 13, his final A-level exams in Economics, Psychology and Physical Education are looming, and there’s that all-important Hong Kong, China national team tour of Malaysia coming up. But the question has to be asked: what does Daniel do when he has a free weekend? “I just do what every teenager does. Sleep and play video games, hang out with my mates, play other spor ts, golf mostly,” he says. His video game of choice? “NBA 2K.” (Not Cricket 24.)