Lanning breaks new ground in China

Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars Captain Meg Lanning will this week travel to China as part of a Cricket Australia and International Cricket Council delegation to Australia Week in China.

Lanning will join the Chinese national women's cricket team training camp in Shanghai, take part in a cricket clinic for Shanghai students, and attend the Australia Week in China gala lunch hosted by the Australian Government.

Quick Single: Young Shooting Stars shine in Sri Lanka

Having narrowly missed out on qualifying for the recent ICC Women's World T20, China is considered a rising cricket-playing nation and a realistic chance to qualify for the Women's World T20 in 2018 and 2020.

There are currently 80,000 cricket participants in China, approximately half of whom are female. In Shanghai – where Meg will assist the national Chinese women's team training camp – cricket is played in 18 of the city's 40 universities.

As recent evidence of the progress being made in the region, Chinese national player Wu Juan received a rookie contract with the Melbourne Stars in the inaugural WBBL.

"I'm looking forward to visiting China and seeing the development of cricket there first-hand," Lanning said.

Quick Single: CA's landmark pay deal for women

"We've seen how quickly women's cricket has grown across the world – and in particular Australia – recently so it's exciting to know the game is growing in China.

"Hopefully we'll be facing up to the Chinese women at the 2018 or 2020 ICC World T20, which would be a massive boost for women's cricket."

ICC Head of Global Development Tim Anderson will accompany Lanning on the trip.

"China is one of the ICC's target markets in our vision to become the world's favourite sport," Anderson said. "In particular we see the development of women's cricket and the engagement of government as two important elements to cricket's growth in China.

Quick Single: Fired-up Mitch ready to unleash in IPL

"Meg's visit is an exciting opportunity for the Chinese women's team to learn from one of the world's best cricketers, and the gala function presents us with a great platform to engage with government leaders and show that cricket can play a role in strengthening the relationship between Australia and China."

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recently granted $200,000 to CA and the ICC through its Asian Sports Partnerships to help deliver cricket development activities in China (as well as Afghanistan and Nepal). 

The Asian Sports Partnerships seek to use sport as a vehicle to tackle social issues such as gender equality, as well as strengthen public diplomacy. 

The ASP cricket program in China will upskill Chinese cricket staff to run high-quality school cricket programs and use national women's players as role models and program deliverers.