Mongolia

Erdene Odbayar was one of three names singled out after Mongolia's tour of Japan in May 2024. That is close to the only individual credit the side has earned since it stepped onto a cricket ground at all — a young structure still working out who its players are in public.

The Mongolia Cricket Association was set up in 2007 in Ulaanbaatar by Battulga Gombo, a former judoka, and it took eleven years before the body became the sport's recognised administrator in the country, in 2018. International recognition followed later still: the International Cricket Council admitted Mongolia as an affiliate member in July 2021, the 22nd body from the Asia region. The national team did not play its first international match until September 27, 2023, against Nepal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Results since have been thin. In Twenty20 internationals the team has taken part in 15 matches for 14 losses and a single no result, and its lowest points have come in the same category as its record: 10 runs against Singapore on September 5, 2024, a total that shares the bottom of the men's T20I list. The ranking has moved a little, from a best of 82nd in June 2024 down to 95th now. The women's side has its own starting point, an Asian Games debut against Indonesia in which it made 15 runs.

Home matches are played at the Mongolian Friendship Cricket Ground in the National Park of Ulaanbaatar, opened in 2017, where the pavilion goes by the name 'Ger-vilion'. There is no rival fixture yet, though Cricket Today has floated Maldives as a side Mongolia's team could grow to measure itself against. For now the task in front of the team is plainer: turn a T20I record with no wins into one with at least one.