Andrew Murgatroyd

Season five in El Salvador is expected to be the best yet with the trend of growth in the sport continuing. The country’s cricket board is conducting negotiations in the hope of realising two very interesting possibilities; a second field with a local Polo Club and a residential village only a few miles from the sea.

International competition is slated for December and March and, most importantly, the intake of local players has more than doubled since this time last year.

To meet this demand, a fourth club 1821 Jaguars now joins the Cuscatlan Chiefs, Atalcatl Knights and Ceiba (formerly known as Team Dell) in the El Salvador Cricket League. It is good also to see the clubs being run along the franchise model rather than centrally for the first time.

Club uniforms have been created, including logos, the club kit is being purchased, our website is being updated, and for marketing, recruitment & communication purposes we have created a Facebook site which has over 900 local members. It may not be ´sweeping the nation´, but there is a definite buzz around El Salvadorean cricket at the moment.

Continue reading "Awaiting El Salvador's fifth season"

Andrew Murgatroyd

Last weekend four Central American nations met on the fields of Academia Britannica Cuscatleca (aka British School ) in El Salvador to compete for the second Easter Cup.

Named after the time of year when the first edition was played, it involved hosts El Salvador, defending champions Costa Rica, Easter Cup newcomers Mexico and favourites Belize, the Twenty20 event was a first time the small Central American nation had hosted an international.

The sun shone brightly, and with a wind keeping the fielders cool and the bails wobbling, the tournament was set.

Continue reading "Belize take Easter Cup in El Salvador"

The ESC League finished their first round in mid-October and round two began in November.

Round 1 summary

Cuscatlan Chiefs 115 for 4 beat Atlacatl Knights 40 by 75 runs

Some sharp early bowling by Cullen and Carpio saw Chiefs in trouble. They quickly recovered though with useful innings by Reyes, McHugh and Murgatroyd to reach a healthy total of 115. The Knights never looked like they would seriously challenge as A. Portillo claimed two victims in the first over.

Tony Munro

The amount of 'international' cricket played in Central America is set to increase with a tentative agreement between El Salvador, Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica to compete for the Easter Cup annually. El Salvador will be the hosts for the tournament's second edition, in December.

The Easter Cup was originally intended to be a one-off tournament, prompted by the success of the second Central American Championships in November, 2007. Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua played for the Easter Cup in March, 2008, with Costa Rica emerging as the winners.

Meanwhile, Costa Rica will be the venue for the third Central American Championships in March, with Panama being the other country to receive an invitation. 

Belize, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama are Affiliate Members of the ICC, while in El Salvador and Nicaragua is still in the embryonic stage. El Salvador though, has a four-team league.

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"

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.

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	The Costa Rica and El Salvador teams line up © Richard Illingworth

El Salvador have just returned from their first ever foray into international cricket when they took part in the second Central American Championship, hosted by Mexico. Belize, the reigning champions, pulled out at the last minute to hand El Salvador an opportunity.

“We left for this tournament brimming with excitement and determination but a little short of experience in the conditions we would play in,” Andrew Murgatroyd, the founder of El Salvadorian cricket told Cricinfo.

“The end result was a fantastic tournament with great performances and a steep learning curve. We played markedly better in our second game against a team [Mexico] who proved to be the eventual winners. By the second game most of us had doubled our total cricket-playing experience at this level.”

Results
Costa Rica 256 for 6 beat El Salvador 81 by 176 runs

Mexico 252 for 9 beat El Salvador 101 by 152 runs

Mexico 159 beat Costa Rica 95 by 65 runs

Murgatroyd said that although his side had high hopes, they also had “little knowledge of what we were going into”. Consequently they set themselves a number of tournament objectives which included: scoring at least 80 runs against Costa Rica (achieved); taking at least eight wickets against Costa Rica (failed); taking at least five wickets against Mexico (achieved), not to mention wearing the national colours “with price, competitiveness and dignity” (achieved).

“We have enthusiasm and some kind donations with which nets and an artificial pitch can be purchased,” Murgatroyd said. “With better training facilities and more experience we hope to improve and get to the standard where we are in a position to win some games.”