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"

This year's ICC European Under-13 Championship, starting on Tuesday, is taking place on the small island of Mors on the northern part of Jutland, Denmark in the picturesque town of Nykobing.

Nykobing has a long tradition in Danish cricket where the sport has been a large part of the town's sporting picture for many years. However, Denmark, and also the Netherlands, will on paper always struggle in comparison to Ireland and Scotland simply because they don’t play that much cricket in this age group. Tradition says it will be a struggle between Ireland and Scotland for the title although Netherlands surprised last year with a win over Scotland which left all three countries with the same points.

The Under-13 Championship has been won by Ireland since 2000 so that brings a weight of expectation, but captain Ben Wylie is the sole survivor from last year in Copenhagen. However, Scotland seem to be taking the tournament very seriously with the team playing warm-up matches against Cleveland and Durham.

Last year Netherlands’ youth development was under the control of Roland Lefebvre and his work has begun to show results as Netherlands managed a win over Scotland as well as last-place Denmark.

Denmark will be fielding a side with three faces seen last year in Copenhagen. This year the team will be coached by Mickey Lund who works as the Danish Development Officer.

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"

Seven bowlers each from Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal and the UAE will be sent to the MRF Pace Foundation, run by Dennis Lillee, ahead of the 2007 and 2008 World Cricket League.

"It is the ACC's intention that these teams do well in the World Cricket League and the MRF camp in Chennai is to prepare the five qualifiers for World Cup qualification. An invitation was extended to the Malaysian Under-19 squad to train at MRF as they have pre-qualified for the 2008 U-19 World Cup next February and can benefit from the opportunity to train from this year," says ACC Development Manager Sultan Rana.

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"

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