A number of Hong Kong based raiders have found it hard to make it to the international arena. However, good news will be at their feet as the Hong Kong Jockey Club claimed that it was given mandate by the International Association of Jockey to initiate their 17 domestic races which was mainly meant for Hong Kong based horses to the international level. This compliment will be functional from the 2016/2017 season. This will be a massive step for the raiders based in Hong Kong as well as the entire Hong Kong Jockey fraternity as they will now have a total of 31 international raiders.

As it stands, there are a total of 14 races based in Hong Kong that have the eligibility of venturing in the international competition. Among these, 11 of them are at Group 1 level. The new rules have clearly indicated that all Group races are eligible to international racing. It doesn’t matter where a horse is born, trained or is owned by who. There were also some restrictions of rating bands that was initiated by the 14 newly opened races but were abolished following the new update.

The Executive Director of Racing Business and Operations Tony Kelly claimed that it was a huge step taken by the Hong Kong Jockey Club for the globalization as well as development of the Hong Kong racing. This portrayed the willingness of the Club to take the racing in another dimension of international level. This made the Asian Pattern Committee very pleased when they met earlier in the week at the Asian Racing Conference in Mumbai, India.

He continued to say that this is a unique logical move for Hong Kong which will concur with the new advancement in direction and consistency that the Club has incorporated over time. There has been a long existence in the LONGINESS World’s Best Racehorse Rankings and this has seen an outstanding growth in the World’s Top 100 Group 1 Races to the Hong Kong raiders.

However, this international exposure will not be awarded to the four year olds as BMW Hong Kong Derby, Hong Kong Classic Cup and Hong Kong Classic Mile will involve participants based in Hong Kong.

For a company to have its popularity hitting every corner of the earth, its products and services must be on top of the game. Furthermore having various offices in different corners of the globe is crucial in the development aspects. This is one case that has been portrayed by SportQuake.

SportQuake was founded exactly 10 years ago by the former Tottenham Hotspurs Commercial Director Matt House. Celebrating its 10^th anniversary, the agency has decided to mark this with the expansion of its territories to further east. Apparently, SportQuake has initiated two main offices to be based in Beijing and Hong Kong. These two offices in China will be crucial to serve the interest of many Asian countries.

Since it was initiated in 2006, the agency has incorporated over £150 million in partnership deals involving brands as well as sports rights owners. The agency has recently struck deals with various football clubs such as Tottenham Hotspurs, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal. It has also overseen 13 deals for front shirts of 13 Premier League (EPL) and La Liga.

The incorporation of the two offices in china will be crucial as the agency tries to exploits the growing commercialization of sports in the area. This will involve incorporating the western brands to the Chinese Super League and at the same time shifting the Eastern brands to various European Leagues including Bundesliga, La Liga and EPL.

Matt House who is the CEO and Founder of SportQuake claimed that the ideal agenda of being close to their clients has been fundamental for the opening of the two offices in China. Nonetheless, they will continue to play a major role in the UK market which has been their root source of income since the initiation of the agency. The expansion to oversee market has been one agenda which comes after the UK headquarters incorporated various internal restructuring that has made the firm be divided into four manageable pillars. These are; Research and Insight – Data and insight for all planning processes, Activation – Full range of ROI generating marketing services, New Business – Value identification, negotiation and new rights creation and Product Development – Market leading propositions for both brands and rights owners.

Irfan Ahmed a Hong Kong cricketer has been faced by corruption charges after it was alleged by the International Cricket Council that he violated the Article 2.4.2 of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code. Ahmed faces the same offence that was once conducted by New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent for fixing matches in England.

He will face a tribunal on charges of failure to report match fixing scandal after he was approached by a match fixer. If he is found guilty, he will be banned to around two to five years. This would be a big blow for the Indian Cricketer who was scheduled to lead his team in the upcoming Twenty20 Championship in March. It will be also a big blow for the Hong Kong cricket. Currently Ahmed is ranked 11^th in the World T20 rankings.

The ICC Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) claimed that it would continue investigating various bookies that have a tendency of targeting associate nation players for match fixing and other irregularities.

Another Hong Kong based player Kevin Egan of Australia claimed that Ahmed may not be faced by serious charges after it was noted that the only mistake he did was failing to report the match fixing irregularity that was conducted by a former Pakistan cricketer.

The named Pakistan cricketer is believed to be Nasem Gulzar. He is believed to be Ahmed mentor since the latter moved to Hong Kong. Gulzar has been faced by several match-fixing scandals and was once mentioned during a try of Chris Cairns who formerly represented New Zealand in international levels.

Generally, ICC has no mandate to make a comment in regards to the ACU matters. However, the head of investigative branch of ICC Ronnie Flanagan claimed that players should be on the lookout for these match fixers who are now targeting players earning low income and bribe them with substantial amounts to lose a specific game. He continued to claim that the cricket has been on the target and this may be a spread risk towards the success of domestic cricket games as well as low lever international matches.