English warm to icy conditions

The last time an English team played in a World Cup Final was 1992 and we have bemoaned the performance of our one-day side ever since, but all that changed last Friday when Brighton and Hove CC went one better than Graham Gooch's team in Australia all those years ago. Well, sort of.

The Ice Cricket World Cup may not yet be inked in to everyone's sporting calendar, but after the events in Riga, Latvia this weekend, it is certainly on the rise, and what's more it was two English teams in the final while the Australians and Indians failed to make it out of their group.

Ten teams travelled from all over the world to play in the six-a-side tournament, now in its fourth year, and with representatives from the BBC, NDTV and Reuters all covering the event, its popularity is on the rise.

The man behind the idea, Julian Tall of Baltic Adventures, has seen the number of teams taking part grow from around 20 people in 2005 to nearly 80.

"It's just such good fun that people who hear about it instantly want to get involved," he said. "The whole magic is in the spontaneous chaos that erupts every time someone steps up to bowl. It's incredible how many wickets fall because someone has fallen over or slid too far past the stumps to get back for a second run - it's great comedy.

"It's a very social form of cricket. The ice is a great leveller, as is the fact that the tour mentality has kicked in so most teams have had a night out before the competition starts, although it's amazing how fast people wake up in temperatures below freezing!

"We do have to keep it safe however, so everybody wears one pad and we play with an indoor ball as a leather one would freeze and become too dangerous."

Brighton and Hove CC left with the trophy, beating the pre-tournament favourites Drovers CC in a tight final that went down to the last ball, thanks to their Australian captain Scott Francis.

"We're the social guys from our club who just love doing something different," Francis told Cricinfo. "We didn't really come here expecting to win it, but then we didn't really know what to expect. The Drovers were a great team to play against; they have been the entertainers of the day with their strange wigs and outfits, not to mention their singing on the sidelines!"

Craig Short, Drovers' captain, was understandably disappointed to have lost out in the final, but admitted that he is more likely to remember the experience than the result.

"If this is how I feel now after losing that game I can only imagine how the England rugby team felt in Paris after losing a real World Cup Final!" he said. "Playing on the ice simply doesn't compare to the normal format, we brought a squad of 13 with us so had to enter two teams and everyone really bought into the spirit of the day which is fantastic."

The tournament, which has also been hosted in Estonia and Lithuania and last year featured former England spinner Ian Salisbury, was due to take place in a frozen lake but due to unseasonably warm temperatures(minus two degrees), had to be moved to the ice rink. "We played a game on an ice rink at the Natural History Museum so we knew the LIDO would make a good plan B," Tall said. "The warm weather meant the lake just wasn't a safe option, I can only compare it to Gloucestershire being under water in July - freakish really."

The move did cause a few scheduling problems which meant that several games had to be played on the fields behind the Lido complex, which was not ideal, but everybody understood that a tight deadline had to be stuck to.

Tall admits that while his company are doing their best to promote the sport, and are planning tournaments in Finland and the arctic circle, he cannot really take credit for the idea of playing cricket on ice.

There is the tournament in St Moritz every year and the Royal Navy are believed to have played during World War One, while Tall has also came across a painting of people playing in Canada as early as 1822.

Most major cricket nations have been represented at some stage or another, with the notable exception of the West Indies who unsurprisingly have not warmed to the idea of playing in freezing temperatures.

Until that happens, or the Australians put together a side capable of dominating for a generation on ice as well as grass, let's bask in the glory of an English team lifting a World Cup even if they were captained by an Australian.