Hong Kong's hopes of qualifying for the Super 10 stage of the ICC World Twenty20 are over, but Ryan Campbell says it's still exciting times for the emerging cricket region.

Afghanistan were too strong in Hong Kong's second group match, reaching its target of 117 in 18 overs with six wickets in hand, Campbell (2-28) himself claimed his first international wickets.

But it was the younger members of the squad that give Campbell hope the future remains bright despite the result.

"When you have a young squad, you’re going to have one day when they are absolutely outstanding, and the next day, they are going to be not so good," Campbell said.

"I guess that’s our job, to try and help those young fellas, as professional players, to get their worst day and their best day, and find a happy medium."

"If you could see the next generation coming, and throw them in with players like Mark Chapman, Jamie Atkinson, Anshuman Rath – it’s exciting time.”

Campbell said that qualifying to global events such as the ICC World Twenty20 as well as increasing international fixtures were the key way in which Hong Kong will improve.

“I think that if you are going to be a professional team, you have got to play against professional teams," Campbell said.

The facts are that we’ve only just got ODI status. The difference between us when we started in the Intercontinental Cup last year and now is huge."

"We are so much better because of being exposed to playing against better cricketers."

"That’s the thing about Associate cricket – mate, let’s play. Let’s get as many games as we can, and the more we do that, the more we can be a professional team and we can be working on our game 24 hours a day."

"We’d love to play more, we’d love to tour more, and we’d love to bring more teams to Hong Kong – because it is a great place.”

Hong Kong will now look to emulate its 2014 campaign with a win in its final match of the Group Stage, which will be against Scotland on Saturday.

Result:

Afghanistan won by six wickets
Hong Kong 116 for 6, 20 overs (Anshuman Rath 28*, Ryan Campbell 27, Jamie Atkinson 16; Mohammad Nabi 4-20)

" id="docs-internal-guid-31ec4b16-6432-7d22-461a-a91ee05e31e6">阿富汗以六個「三柱門」之差擊敗香港。港隊遭遇兩連敗，晉級「20回合制世界板球賽」10強賽的希望破滅。但甘禮仁對香港板球的未來充滿希望。

阿富汗只需18回合便取得119分，超越港隊取得的117分獲勝，只有六人出局，當中開局擊球手Mohammad Shahzad的41分及Noor Ali Zadran的35分最為出色。港隊老將甘禮仁（Ryan Campbell）則在投球上殺了兩名擊球手出局。

較早前港隊擊球時，作為開局擊球手的甘禮仁為球隊帶來好開始，得到27分，當中包括五個四分打，艾堅遜（Jamie Atkinson）取得16分，阿舒曼‧華夫（Anshuman Rath）則取得全隊最高28分。不過隨著擊球手相繼出局，得分效率亦下降，港隊最後只取得相對較低的116分，六人出局，最後未能阻止阿富汗超越這個分數。

甘禮仁賽後表示，球隊會從這次不穩定的表現中學習：

「我們是一隊很年輕的球隊，因此球隊需要我這位老將。當球隊如此年輕時，自然就會大上大落的狀態。我其中一部份的責任，就是要幫助各位年輕隊友成為真正專業的球員，並找出一個穩定的表現。巴巴凱逸（Babar Hayat）就是一個好例子，他在較早前亞洲盃得分全隊最高，但到了世界賽他的表現有所下滑。」

「我們的梯隊還有很多高質素的年輕球手，令人十分興奮。」

甘禮仁亦表示，港隊進步的要訣，是要繼續晉身各大世界賽，例如今次「20回合制世界賽」：「我認為作為一隊專業的球隊，我們必需與其他專業球隊對賽。事實上我們才取得一日制國際賽資格不久，與上年的級數已經有很大差別。我們的表現提升了很多，全因為我們的對手都是高質素的球隊。」

「令我們球員提升表現的唯一方法，就是要面對頂尖的對手。我們作為「次級會員」球隊，一定要盡量爭取任何比賽機會。越多比賽機會，我們就越能夠將精力集中於改善我們的球技。我們希望打更多比賽，更多出外比賽，更多於香港迎戰外隊。」

44歲的甘禮仁認為，香港雖然缺乏板球資源，但港隊仍然有美好的將來：「我們有四個板球場，其中一個是真草。我們有五百名球員，有六至七百名小童正在學習板球，數字繼續上升。我們雖然只有四個球場，產生很多問題，但整個社群都很雀躍，為這個年輕的板球人口感到興奮。下一代港隊球員開始成形，尤其有查普曼（Mark Chapman）、艾堅遜及阿舒曼‧華夫，實在令人期待。」

今個星期六，港隊將於最後一場賽事面對蘇格蘭，希望可以取勝以重現上屆2014年的戰績。