Back in the 1960s the so-called 'Domino Theory' held that if Hanoi got its way, all of South East Asia would become 'red'.

Twenty-five years on after the march into the then Saigon, instead of repelling Western forces, Hanoi now wants 'foreign intervention' as it again seeks to export its preferred way of life.

The export this time is cricket and not ideology and the foot soldiers are the expatriates who make up the membership of the Hanoi Cricket Club.

While the club will next month stage its most important internal event, the annual Coca Cola Trophy, between teams representing 'Australia', 'India' and 'the Rest of the World', it is the sports fields of Indochina which the club hopes to cultivate.

"We would certainly like to be associated in that manner," Hanoi CC official, R.Ravikumar said this week.

The club itself, which was formed in 1993, enjoys a weekly diet of cricket from September to December, the highlight of which is the three-team 30-over-per-side Trophy competition in which each team plays the other two twice, with the top two teams meeting in a final. The tournament continues throughout November and December.

Cricket is also played fortnightly by the club's 40 strong membership from March to May until the heat and humidity makes play unbearable. Such is the climate that cricket is played during the Vietnamese winter.

The Rest of the World team is usually drawn from New Zealanders, Sri Lankans, Britons and Pakistanis in the capital.

A similarity Vietnamese cricket 'enjoys' with the rest of the non-Test world, are the pitch conditions on which matches are played.

"Until now, the matches are played on straw matting more usually found in living rooms. Vietnam being a country where cricket is an alien sport, we have to play on pitches that are trampled on by soccer players," Mr. Ravikumar said.

The club would like to receive visiting team and are expecting an expatriate side from China in January.

The Hanoi CC sees assistance from the International Cricket Council as crucial to it fulfilling its desire to expand into both the mainstream Vietnamese sporting market and other Indochinese centres.

Mr. Ravikumar said the then ICC East Asia-Pacific Development Officer, Andrew Eade had planned to visit just as he was promoted to the London-based ICC Global Development Manager's role. Although unavoidable, this had slowed plans to coordinate development in Indochina and Thailand, with a tournament a then long term possibility. "We need to reactivate correspondence."

Hanoi officials, with their meagre resources, also see outside support as pivotal to enticing Vietnamese to the game.

"We keep attempting to lure Vietnamese people working with the expats here and also people working in Indian/Australian/British Embassies," Mr. Ravikumar said. "It is very hard to make a crack but our untiring efforts are still on.

"We have put up advertisements in the local English Daily. During the tournaments, the matches are well covered in the Daily. Besides these, since the members are expats, many circulations in the Embassies, restaurants and other prominent places of public visit are made."

Mr. Ravikumar said there were three elements crucial to attracting Vietnamese: