Hong Kong Cricket Association today unveiled a bold new brand identity featuring a new logo based on the Bauhinia Orchid and a name change to Cricket Hong Kong.
Fittingly, the unveiling will be heralded as Hong Kong face China in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup qualifiers at the iconic Hong Kong Cricket Club.
The refreshed name, logo and strategic direction marks a coming-of-age in the development of the game in Hong Kong – a sport that has been played here since the 1840s.
At the core of the refreshed image is a new strategic direction that aims to celebrate and unify the diverse communities of Hong Kong through cricket.
In 2016, a major new junior development program was introduced, headlined by the Junior Cricket Sixes that is tailored for Hong Kong Chinese schools. Huge efforts by Cricket Hong Kong and the various clubs have seen junior cricket grow to an all-time record level.
The growth at grass roots level is seen as critical to the ongoing success at international level, with both the men’s and women’s teams rising up the rankings and the men’s team in particular closing in on the Top 10 and having played in the past two ICC World Twety20s.
Also at the heart of the new strategy is to ignite a passion for the sport and Hong Kong. As part of this, developing major cricket events in the Territory will be at the forefront of showcasing the game’s opportunities. Cricket Hong Kong recently announced the return of the iconic Hong Kong Sixes in 2017. This adds a second major international event to the local calendar, following the successful introduction of the T20 Blitz franchise competition, which featured former Australia captain Michael Clarke during this year’s inaugural tournament.
The new identity was designed in partnership with leading brand consultancy StartJG, who completed the work on a pro-bono basis as part of their community development programme in Hong Kong. Pak Sum Leung who led the work commented “Cricket is a major opportunity to promote Hong Kong to the world and we were really excited to get involved.”
Cricket Hong Kong CEO Tim Cutler commented, “Hong Kong is renowned for its absorbing character, colour and energy. The cricket that is played here is no different, and we have tried to reflect this throughout the new design. We are over the moon with the finished product – and very thankful to Start JG for their generous contribution of their world-class services. This project would simply not have been possible if not for this support, which has gone way beyond ‘just’ a brand refresh.
"One of our key strategic goals is to ignite a passion for cricket in Hong Kong and I believe our new identity will go a long way to achieving this. It will be the common thread that ties our community programmes, domestic leagues and fan engagement initiatives together – not to mention our broad social media reach and brand new, soon to be launched website. We look forward to seeing our teams wear the Bauhinia with pride when they represent Hong Kong.”
The Hong Kong men’s team will first wear the Bauhinia and new kit in their home series against Papua New Guinea on November 4, 6 and 8.