Another country in South East Asia has fallen in love with the beautiful game of cricket. It is a country that borders Thailand which is a country where expatriates first played cricket over a hundred years ago and ethic Thai players (men and particularly women) have been improving strongly over the last twenty years.

But the story of the establishment and development of cricket in the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic is very different. It is believed there were some knockabout games in Vientiane 25 years ago when Michael Simcock first came to Laos and he says that the Vientiane Cricket Association was only formed five years ago with regular matches played on a ground at the Lao Tobacco Company factory.

The ground was small and the outfield bumpy and cricket was played with an indoor ball to protect the more inexperienced players without the necessary equipment and facing a multitude of bad bounces when fielding.

But the motley crew of expatriates who were mostly Australian with a few Brits who had come over the border from Thailand enjoyed their cricket and they also enjoyed the Beer Lao that flowed prodigiously during the games and afterwards. Sri Lankans, Indians and Pakistanis also joined in until the regular Sunday fare at the LTB ground saw 30 over matches between Corinthian Cricket Club and Mekong Cricket Club.

Michael Simcock and Eshan Sebastian were the driving force behind the Vientiane Cricket Association and, sensing they could embark on international cricket tours, they both attended the 2023 edition of the Chiang Mai Sixes which had returned after a four-year break thanks to Covid-19.

Both enjoyed their first time at the Chiang Mai Sixes both on and off the field and they were adopted by the Floggers & Robbers, a team also based upon the tobacco industry. That first visit only lasted a few days but the seed if an idea had been planted in their minds as to what they could create in their own adopted country.

They soon returned to play cricket in Chiang Mai as Lao Elephants brought a squad to play in the Gymkhana Sixes which was a weekend event in November 2023 and again the whole team enjoyed themselves as they showed they could play decent hardball cricket. The Elephants also entered the 2024 Chiang Mai Sixes and they stayed the whole week in April 2024, competing well in the Players Section as well as playing a few rounds of golf on various courses in Chiang Mai.

Within a year, players from Vientiane had taken part in three international tournaments in Chiang Mai with Lao Elephants taking a full part in November 2023 and April 2024. Dan Watt, owner of Mekong Garage Bar and several other businesses, had been to the 2024 Chiang Mai Sixes and he, Simmo and Eshan were already talking about holding an international tournament in Vientiane within three months. Surely this was just prodigious amounts of beer and Lao gin doing the talking at the end of an entertaining week’s cricket?

Incredibly international cricket arrived in Lao exactly on schedule as the first edition of the Vientiane Eights was staged at the Lao Tobacco Company ground on the 13th and 14th of July. The ground had been transformed thanks to a series of weekly mowing sessions by Michael Simcock after the ground had been flattened. A bumpy outfield with variable patches of grass and lots of mushrooms had been transformed into a billiard table surface with wide square boundaries and the short straight boundary had a ring of giant trees to prevent many balls being hit too far.

The facilities had also been transformed with boundary banners circling the ground and a multitude of advertisers and sponsors were supporting the event. Food and drink were provided and the teams each had their own tents and there was even computer scoring. Support had come from the officials at the Chiang Mai Sixes and they were all looked after extremely well and Dan Watt looked after the electronic scoreboard he had just constructed for the entire weekend.

But it was the teams that made the Vientiane Eights an international tournament and three sides came over from Thailand literally on trains, planes and automobiles (well buses). The British Club came from Bangkok on the train with the route just having been extended to Vientiane, Pattaya CC came on various flights to Udonthani before crossing the border.

The most exciting team to play in the tournament was Lamphun who were a team of Thai nationals who all had to be at least 18 years old to go across the border on 3-day passes using their id cards. They came on overnight buses and gathered at the border as two players had come from Koh Chang and star player Chanchai had been working in Bangkok. The documentation was done and they crossed the Mekong on a crowded bus for 30 Baht apiece.

The team line-up was completed by two teams from Vientiane with the senior team the Lao Elephants and the lesser team the Lao Calves and all five teams gathered at the Welcome Party which held at Sticky Fingers which happens to be run by the brother of Ryan Campbell so there are plenty of cricket connections in Vientiane after all. The tone for the weekend was set with finger food and towers and towers of Beer Lao provided.

The format for the tournament was to see the five teams play four matches each on the Saturday with seven bowlers bowling an over each and batters retiring on 35. With Chanchai leading the way, Lamphun won all four matches to finish ahead of Lao Elephants on three wins, British Club on two, Pattaya CC on one and Lao Calves with no wins but still proving a competitive side.

It had been a long day with ten seven-over aside matches played but everybody was very happy as they reflected on what had been achieved and we all returned on Sunday to play a series of six finals to keep all teams involved. British Club beat Lao Elephants and Pattaya CC beat Lao Calves to progress but top of the table Lamphun beat British Club to qualify for the final.

Laos Elephants then beat Pattaya CC to stay alive but lost to British Club in the Preliminary Final as back to back matches took their toll. British Club had similar problems as they immediately faced Lamphun in the Grand Final and three retirements for Lamphun from Chanchai, Johnny and Frame took the score above 100 and the match out of reach for British Club.

Lamphun were worthy champions of the inaugural Vientiane Eights having won six matches out of six and Chanchai was named player of the tournament for six retirements and a string of catches. British Club were runners-up and Lao Elephants finished third. All three teams were presented with giant trophies and Pattaya CC won two individual trophies as Simon Philbrook won fielder of the tournament and Jainish won bowler of the tournament.

We all agreed at the farewell party held at Mekong Garage Bar that the event had been a fabulous success and that international cricket had arrived in Laos.

The next step: plans are afoot to develop Lao local cricket as three Lao nationals played in the tournament, the experienced Soutchai, Johnny from the bar and Eric son of Michael Simcock who had also quickly taken to computer scoring.

There was talk of regular matches against the Thai boys and dreams of a side representing Lao playing in the SEA Games now that cricket had been adopted in that international event. But certainly there will be another Vientiane Eights next year.

The Thai boys travel expenses in Thailand were covered by the TJCDF and Dan Watt and the VCA were also extremely generous.