Finland will host the 10th European Indoor Championship, in Kuortane next February, ICC Europe announced today.

This is the first time that the Scandinavians will host the European Indoor Championship, which made its debut in Versailles, France back in 1998. That year it was won by Portugal who went on to win the competition three times before hosting it in Lisbon in 2001.

Like Portugal, Denmark have also been crowned champions three times (2003, 2004, 2006), and the only other teams to win the competition are Greece (2005, 2002) and the Netherlands (2000).

17 ICC European member countries have competed in the competition since its inception and the 2008 Championship will include eight teams: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain.

This year’s host, Finland, has only competed in the competition once before at the previous tournament in 2006 held at Lord’s, where Denmark took the title and where Finland's final position was a very creditable sixth.

“This is a great time for cricket in Finland which is growing extremely fast,” Richard Holdsworth, the ICC European Development manager said. “ Their development programmes have reached out to many girls and boys over the last few years, and awarding them their first ICC event will help this expand even more.”