This year’s U-15 Challenge Cup will be the fourth ACC tournament to be held in Thailand. When Thailand held its biggest-ever international cricket tournament last year, the 2006 ACC U-15 Challenge Cup, it proved that it can host a top-class multi-nation event.

It is never just the young cricketers who are developing through competition, it is the Associations themselves. It is through international competition they both come in to contact with a higher standard of performance on and off the field, compared to domestic cricket. Expectations are high both internally and externally.

The ACC and the watching world looks on these tournaments as signs of a nation’s international standing and measure performance by how well a country plays and conducts itself. Development doesn’t happen overnight but if a country cannot perform well at the most basic level today then it certainly will struggle in the years ahead.

Every match matters, every tournament is significant. . I wish all the cricketers and all those who are helping them grow every success.

Syed Ashraful Huq
Chief Executive