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.

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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 ICC Europe Cricket Committee (ECC) have confirmed Ireland as the host for next year's European Division One Championship.

They lasted hosted the tournament in 2002 when 12 teams participated. In the past five years, however, six more countries have joined including Europe's four High Performance Program countries: Denmark, Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. Norway - who won Division Two in 2006 - also join Italy.

The previous championship, hosted by Scotland in 2006, crowned Ireland as the European Champions and 2008's event will also feature three official one-dayers.

Meanwhile it was also confirmed that Guernsey will host the Division Two Championship in August, a six-team tournament which includes France, Germany, Gibraltar and Jersey. The sixth place will be decided later this year when Croatia meet Israel on November 18.

Jersey will host the ICC World Cricket League Division 5 (WCL Div. 5) tournament in 2008.

The ICC’s decision follows a recent visit to the island by a development team to inspect the country’s suitability for promotion to Associate membership, which will be voted on at the ICC Annual Conference at Lord's in June.

Continue reading "Jersey to host WCL Division Five tournament"

Jersey will host the ICC World Cricket League Division 5 (WCL Div. 5) tournament in 2008, the ICC confirmed on Tuesday.

The decision follows a recent visit to the island by an ICC Development team to inspect the country's suitability for promotion to Associate membership, which will be voted on at the ICC Annual Conference at Lord's in June.

Afghanistan and Norway might be in the lower echelons of the World Cricket League (WCL), but that isn't stopping either country aiming big. They want to play in the 2011 World Cup.

Is this a pipe dream or a genuine belief that, in four years' time, they will be able to compete with Full Member nations? Before they can even think about the World Cup, promotion from Division Five is a must. Read the full story at Cricinfo.

What are your thoughts? Does cricket need any more fledgling nations? Should the ICC increase funding to these minor nations? Leave your feedback in the comments below.

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.