European programme for 2010 announced

The ICC European Development Programme has announced its 2010 tournament schedule which will see a number of European countries participate in an exciting and challenging programme of tournaments during July and August next year.

Following the programmes’s bi-annual rotational process, it is the turn of Divisions 1 and 2 to take to the stage at senior level.

Jersey have taken the opportunity to host Division 1 for the first time in early July. The six participating teams will play a round-robin format and participation is based on ICC global rankings.

Division 2 will be hosted by Guernsey in mid July and again participation is based on World Cricket League (WCL) rankings and will also include Israel, who having won 2009’s Division 3 Championship then went on to triumph at the play-off in October with Division 2’s sixth-placed side Croatia and were consequently promoted to Division 2.

Division 2 will be a particularly vital tournament for France, Germany and Israel as these countries are currently not imbedded in the WCL structure and a good performance in this tournament could see them win a place in the WCL Division 8 tournament to take place in late November/December 2010. Progress into the ICC World Cricket League enables countries to vie for qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup so an important event for these three European countries.

The European women’s cricket programme is represented in 2010 by the senior European Women’s CWC Qualifier Championship to be held in mid August and hosted for the first time by Scotland. A four-team round robin fixture list will see the welcome addition of the ECB Women’s Academy side to the event.

A busy youth programme gets underway in July with the 8-team Under 17 Division 2 Championship and followed in late July by the European U19 CWC Qualifier hosted by Ireland and will give the opportunity for the same group of players to prepare for the global qualifier in 2011 and ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup in 2012. In August the Under 15 Division 1 Championship will be held in Netherlands.

A new initiative for 2010 is the Under 17 Challenge Series which replaces the Under 17 Division 1 Championship. This pilot programme will consist of the six Division 1 countries participating in two three-match series of home and away fixtures during the summer season. The opposition for these matches will be the other Division 1 countries and also possibly English county sides and it is hoped these fixtures will have the result of adding value to the countries’ youth development programmes with more consistent and testing opposition.

1-7 July
ICC European WCL Division 1 Championship: Jersey
Participants: Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Jersey, Netherlands, Scotland

13-19 July
ICC European WCL Division 2 Championship: Guernsey
Participants: France, Germany, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Israel, Norway

18-23 July
ICC European Under 17 Division 2 Championship - venue TBC
Participants: TBC

24-30 July
ICC European Under 19 WCQ Championship: Ireland
Participants: Denmark, Guernsey, Ireland, Jersey, Netherlands, Scotland

9-13 August
ICC European Women’s WCQ Championship: Scotland
Participants: Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, ECB Academy

9-14 August
ICC European Under 15 Division 1 Championship: Netherlands
Participants: Denmark, Guernsey, Ireland, Jersey, Netherlands, Scotland

Various Dates
ICC European Under 17 Challenge Series: various venues
Participants: Denmark, Guernsey, Ireland, Jersey, Netherlands, Scotland