Singapore cricketers target two golds at SEA Games after ‘bad publicity’ in the sport

SINGAPORE – Singapore cricket has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons of late owing to the suspension of its top official and the backlash from players to the punishment. But the national team are now ready to move on from the scandal with a two-gold target for the SEA Games.

In September, Singapore Cricket Association (SCA) chief executive Saad Khan Janjua was handed a one-year suspension from coaching by the Safe Sport Disciplinary Panel after it received complaints from players who detailed verbal abuse directed at them.

He was also “suspended from his role as sport administrator, subject to completion of educational intervention”.

But the punishment drew the ire of several players, who felt it was too lenient and “left players disillusioned about the system meant to protect us”.

Speaking at a media event at the Singapore Indian Association on Nov 4, captain Rezza Gaznavi told The Straits Times: “In terms of our boys, we’re not really fazed as we don’t interact that much on an administrative level with that individual.

“Of course, nobody likes a little bit of bad publicity, but it was accurately captured by our president (Mahmood Gaznavi) that we should not let over zealousness translate into doing the things that were done.”

Singapore will be represented by a 30-strong squad at the Dec 9-20 SEA Games in the men’s and women’s T10 and T20.

Raoul Sharma, who was part of the team who won the T6 gold in the 2023 edition in Cambodia, hopes to be able to win golds in the new T10 and T20 formats.

The 22-year-old said: “Winning the gold was an amazing feeling, a great moment for all of us to remember and cherish.

“This SEA Games is a very new line-up, but nonetheless, everyone is experienced, both playing across the various local leagues as well as different international tournaments over the last two years.

“We’ve been training quite consistently, so the hope is to win the gold, but the expectation is to just play our best cricket, and I believe that we can win the gold.”

For 33-year-old skipper Gaznavi, whose wife gave birth to their daughter on Nov 4, the 2025 edition will be an opportunity for redemption. He told ST that he was initially part of the men’s 6s squad in Phnom Penh, but stepped down after his poor performance in the competition.

“I wanted to be fair to the team, there were players who were playing better than me who deserved to play the 6-a-side format,” added Gaznavi.

“So I stood down… It was the right decision because that’s what the team needed. I got the gold medal a few years ago (Malaysia 2017), so that was enough.”

When asked about medal targets, Gaznavi said: “We have got a young side, our youngest player is 16 years old and our average age is 23 years old.

“So we don’t want to give unnecessary pressure to these young boys, but at the same time, we want to extract from them their youthful exuberance... as long as they play to the best of their ability, they’re not overawed by their situation. To me, they’ll do good.”

Games debutant Aslan Jafri, 18, said: “I hope to gain a lot of exposure and play against different countries, there’ll be a lot of learnings in that. So I just want to improve my game over time and step by step.

“We want to achieve a gold medal in both formats, T10 and T20, and that’s the only thing I have my eye on right now.”

National men’s coach Amjad Mahboob, who captained the side in their 2023 win, added: “First, I was a player and we won one gold and two bronzes, it was a fantastic feeling.

“But now I’m a coach, it’s a totally different thing. This time, we are also looking for a gold in both formats because we have a very good team, young side, and a mix of the seniors.

“And we are very confident and we will not go down from the podium.”

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we said that Saad Khan Janjua was suspended from coaching for one year by SportSG’s Safe Sport Commission instead of the Safe Sport Disciplinary Panel. This has been corrected.