Denmark has announced an 18-man preliminary squad for the World Cup Qualifers in South Africa in April. The team intends to spend 10 days in South Africa in March ahead of the Qualifiers there in April.

Derbyshire wicketkeeper-batsman, Freddie Klokker, retains the captaincy of a squad which is largely unchanged from the one which finished third in the European Division One tournament in Ireland last July.

Meanwhile, middle-order batsman Max Overgaard is in Australia, where he has been spending the summer at Melbourne district club, Prahran.

Squad: Frederik Klokker (capt and wk), Rizwan Mahmood, Mickey Lund, Carsten Pedersen, Søren Vestergaard, Bashir Shah, Omar Hayat, Lars Hedegaard, Morten Hedegaard, David Borchersen, Michael Pedersen, Rohit Kanayia, Henrik Hansen, Thomas Hansen, Max Overgaard, Troels Thøgersen, Jacob Larsen, Bobby Chawla; Peter Palle Klokker (coach), Neil Foster (assistant coach).

Freddie Klokker hit an unbeaten 119 as Denmark eased past Norway by eight wickets with 12 overs to spare. Norway put in a respectable batting effort to reach 207, but it proved an easy task for Denmark.

Ireland made it two wins out of two with a five-wicket success against Denmark at Rathmines. Captain William Porterfield hit a calm half-century, combining in a opening stand of 77 with Gary Wilson (32). There was a mini-wobble as three wickets went for 16, but Andrew White and Reinhardt Strydom ensured there was no major panic. Freddie Klokker had played a lone hand with 85 off 126 balls, and only one other Danish batsman reached double figures. Kevin O'Brien and Kyle McCallan did most of the damage as Ireland continue to look a tidy outfit.

Qasim Sheikh hit an unbeaten 80 to guide Scotland to a comfortable six-wicket victory over Denmark at Malahide. Scotland's target was adjusted under the D/L method as rain interrupted the chase after 28 overs, but they were well on course at 151 for 3. Ryan Watson (34) provided good support in a second-wicket stand of 70 and Neil McCallum helped complete the victory with a run-a-ball 22. Denmark wasted a solid position after Carsten Pedersen (72) and Soren Vestergaard (50) added 99 for the third wicket. Three run-outs didn't help their cause, while Scotland's death bowling also held firm.

Next week's ICC annual get-together promises to have more than its fair share of politicking, posturing and controversy. But, unless there is a major about-turn, it should also be a watershed for the Associates and Affiliates.

In 2009, income from the ICC's six-year media deal with ESPN-Star, worth over US$1 billion, kicks in, and while the game's big boys will still keep the lion's share, the rest will see substantial increases in their incomes.

Continue reading "Future bright beyond the Test world"

Netherlands won Friday’s back-to-back Twenty20 internationals against Denmark. The games, which replaced a planned ODI, were agreed to assist the Dutch in their preparations for August’s Associates Twenty20 competition in Ireland.

In the first game, Denmark made a reasonable 153 but Netherlands eased home by six wickets.

Netherlands batted first in the second match and exploited a weak Danish attack to plunder 239, Peter Borren leading the charge with 88, with stout support from Tim de Groot (60). Michael Pedersen held Denmark’s reply together with an unbeaten 94 but they managed only 182 for 2, losing by 57 runs.

Denmark beat Netherlands by eight runs in a one-day international in Brøndby.

Denmark’s opening pair - Freddie Klokker and Michael Pedersen – put on 212 for the first wicket as they made 264. Klokker finished with 119 and Pederson 81, but once they had been separated the innings fell apart, Tim de Grooth ripping through the middle order with 5 for 43.

Netherlands maintained a steady pace in their chase, but Lars Hedegaard put the skids under the lower order with 5 for 40. Even so, they needed a very gettable 12 off the final over.

Svanholm beat defending champions Herning by eight wickets in the first Danish Cup final to be played on a grass wicket. Herning made 134 and Svanholm cruised to victory, led by 47 from Chris Hewey, their new Australian player/coach.

Kenya’s proposed tour to Denmark has been cancelled after the Danes advised that their players would not be able to get enough time off to fulfill the scheduled matches. The news is a blow to both sides as they start their preparations for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers next April.

Kenya will now have to start their European tour in England where they hope to arrange some matches against quality opposition. They will be based at Cranleigh School where David Waters, the former head of selection, now works.

However, Kenya were rebuffed in attempts to get a match against the MCC which claimed that it would not be able to get a strong-enough side out to take them on.

ICC Europe has announced the schedule and venues for the ICC European Division 1 Championship to be held in Ireland from the July 25 to 31, 2008.

The 50-over round-robin tournament will see Europe's top six Associate and Affiliate countries - Denmark, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Scotland - fight it out for Europe's top spot. Six cricket grounds will be used to host a total of 15 matches that will see each country come face to face over five days.

Click here for the full story

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

Click here for the full story.

As revealed by Cricinfo last month, the 2011 World Cup will be shortened and the main victims of the change will be the Associate countries who will have their numbers cut from six to four.

"It is a move we both feared and expected and it's not great news for the Associates," Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of the Irish Cricket Union, told Cricinfo. "Neither is it a great vote of confidence in the ICC's own High Performance Programme.

Click here to tell us what you think of this? Is it the start of the gradual elimination of smaller countries from the World Cup or a necessary and welcome move?

Denmark have won the 2008 European Indoor Championship in Finland, beating old foes Portugal in a thrilling encounter. Denmark scrambled a two-wicket win off the penultimate delivery, overhauling Portugal's total of 132.

Hamid Shah was their hero in the decider with an unbeaten 28, sharing a match-winning partnership with Taha Ahmed (25*), after they were precariously placed at 65 for 3. For Paulo Buccimazza, the captain of Portugal, there was the consolation of being awarded Player of the Tournament after finishing as the leading run scorer in the competition, and once again in the final showed his quality making an unbeaten 38.

Continue reading "Denmark take 2008 Indoor Championship title"

The tenth ICC European Indoor Championship take place this weekend in Kuortane, Finland. This will be the first tournament to take place in Finland and Kuortane will become the most northerly venue ever to be used for an official international cricket championship.

Originally held every year, the European Indoor Championship has now become a biennial event. The 2006 tournament was held at Lord's and was won by Denmark, who were victors in three of the last four championships. The only other winner in that period was Hellas (Greece), who defeated Denmark by 3 runs in the 2005 final in Herning, Denmark.

Read the full report at Cricinfo.

UAE underlined their ambition to take part in the 2011 World Cup by winning the World Cricket League Division Two tournament in Namibia, defeating Oman in the final. Denmark and Namibia also booked their place in the 2009 Qualifer, but Uganda and Argentina finished in the bottom two and were relegated back to Division Three.

Click here for Cricinfo’s full coverage of the tournament.

Denmark 114 for 5 (Klokker 43, Leverock 2-19) beat Bermuda 113 (Hansen 7-13) by five wickets

Bermuda's problems continued to grow as they started their European tour with a five-wicket loss to Denmark at Brondby's Svanholm Park.

Although Bermuda were missing several players because of business commitments while others in the World Cup squad had retired, a side ranked as one of the leading Associates should still have been too good for the Danes.

Bermuda won the toss and batted, but they had no answer to the medium pace of Thomas Hansen who was almost unplayable. The first four overs were maidens and the batsmen appeared unable to cope with the swinging ball.

As had been so apparent at the World Cup, few had the technique or the patience and Bermuda slid to 39 for 7, with Hansen returning remarkable figures of 7 for 13 from his ten overs. Lionel Cann engineered a recovery of sorts with 35, which included three sixes, but by then the innings was in tatters and they did well to post 113.

Denmark lost two early wickets but Freddie Klokker and Max Overgaard steered them to 79 for 2 with a third-wicket stand of 42. Although Dwayne Leverock removed Klokker for 43 and Overgaard followed soon after, the middle order held their nerve and fittingly it was Hansen who hit the winning runs.

James Whittaker

Bermuda's national coach Gus Logie has a threadbare squad of just 12 players at his disposal as Bermuda prepares to begin the post World Cup era against Denmark.

Practically everyone that travelled to Europe this week is guaranteed a game over the next few weeks with Bermuda's thin resources stretched to the limit. Just four of the World Cup squad - skipper Irving Romaine, new vice-captain Stephen Outerbridge, big hitter Lionel Cann and spinner Dwayne Leverock - boarded the plane on Monday night with a host of new faces being asked to fill the enormous void left by the likes of Janeiro Tucker, Clay Smith, OJ Pitcher and Kevin Hurdle.

Continue reading "Danish test for Bermuda's new boys"

The European Cricket Council has announced a deal with ICC Europe, ECB and Premium TV to make ECBtv available on subscription throughout Europe.

In many areas of Europe there is no access to TV highlights of matches, and this move looks to make coverage accessible to everyone.

"ECB is pleased and excited to be able to offer Europe’s cricket fans access to ECBtv and it is hoped that it will take the game to previously uncharted areas, inspiring people to get involved in this great sport,” Richard Holdsworth, the ICC’s regional development manager, said. "Delivering live video coverage via broadband to European territories has brought people closer to the game than ever before.”

ECBtv shows Test and one-day international matches live to certain territories, as well as match highlights, exclusive interviews, press conferences, coaching master classes and many other features to a global audience. Live streams start at £2.99. Click here for full details.

Cricket Europe reports that Saturday's (May 19) match between Svanholm and KB was supposed to be the première of playing on grass in the Danish Elitedivision. However, the day before the game, the club's groundsman was preparing the pitch using the motor roller when he heaved the gear lever so hard that it came off. The end result was that the roller was stuck fast on the pitch and there it will remain until parts are found to repair it.

The inaugural ICC European Twenty20 Challenge competition has been cancelled because three of the countries due to take part have announced they are playing ODIs in Belfast at the same time.

Europe's four ICC Associate Member High-Performance countries - Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands and Denmark - were set to compete in the championship, which was a new addition to the European tournament program for 2007. But Scotland, Ireland and Netherlands have taken on other commitments and that made the tournament impractical.

Richard Holdsworth, the ICC's regional development manager for Europe, said: "The recent announcement of an ODI series between India and South Africa in Belfast is fantastic news for the further promotion of the game in Ireland. It will provide additional world class cricket for the many followers in Ireland, but most importantly both of these ICC Full Members have agreed to play against Ireland.

Continue reading "Inaugural European Twenty20 tournament cancelled"

It won't get many column inches in the mainstream cricket press, but the World Cricket League, which started in Nairobi yesterday and continues into next week, features the best of the rest, the six sides just under the ten Test-playing countries. For the two finalists, the rewards are bountiful - a place among the big boys in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa this September, along with $250,000. For countries used to surviving on annual handouts from the ICC of less than $200,000, that's big money.

Continue reading "A long way from home"

The announcement that the ICC is to expand the World Cricket League (WCL) to five divisions is great news for European Cricket.

The expansion will see a total of seven Associates and Affiliates from the Europe Region compete in the WCL. New additions Norway and Jersey are set to join the European top five teams who already compete in the competition.

Continue reading "High hopes for European Cricket"

According to CricketEurope, the ICC will expand the World Cricket League to five divisions:

The leading five European nations have already won places in the first three divisions: World Cup qualifiers Ireland, The Netherlands and Scotland in Division 1 (which will take place in Kenya in January-February next year), Denmark in Division 2 (planned for Namibia in November 2007), and Italy in Division 3 (planned to take place in the USA in summer 2007).

But with an eight-team Division 5 tournament now planned for the first half of 2008, five places in which are assigned to the next ranked country in each region, Norway are guaranteed a slot, along with Afghanistan, Argentina, Botswana and the Cook Islands.

The three remaining places will be allocated by the ICC Development Committee when it meets in December, and those allocations will be based on the rankings of the next group of countries. This means that Jersey, runners-up to Norway in this year’s European Second Division tournament, and possibly even Germany, who finished third, will be competing with The Bahamas, Panama, Nepal, Singapore, Mozambique, Zambia and Japan for those last three positions.

Read the full story at cricketeurope.net

The European Cricket Council's European Cricket Championships, which are being held in Scotland, are the first to be organised under the auspices of the International Cricket Council’s World Cricket League.

The tournament will feature 13 countries in two divisions playing 30 matches in seven days at 12 west of Scotland grounds, starting on Thursday (August 3).

The Division 1 sides - Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Italy - will play a round-robin tournament, from which there is no relegation. The three matches involving the first three named teams are deemed by the International Cricket Council as official One-Day Internationals, and will be played at Ayr Cricket Club, where ground facilities have been upgraded with support from South Ayrshire Council.

Scotland’s other two matches will be played at New Anniesland (against Denmark) and Hamilton Crescent (against Italy).

Division 2 consists of eight teams - France, Germany, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Hellas (Greece), Israel, Jersey and Norway - who will play in two initial pools of four, followed by crossover semi-finals and four ranking finals - and one team will be promoted to the first division in two years’ time. The facilities at all grounds have been equipped with additional weather protection and other enhancements, thanks to a range of local authority grants and commercial support.

A huge bonus is available for the Division 2 teams, with the winners not only promoted to the European Division 1 in 2008, but also a place in the new ICC World Cricket League Division 5 in 2007-08. This team will receive $20,000 towards preparation of that event, the venue of which is still to be decided.