Cricket makes a comeback in Viña del Mar, Chile

Cricket in Viña del Mar was reintroduced by two teams of players from the local natural gas company, GasValpo. GasValpo is a very old Chilean business which was bought by the Australian Gas and Light Company AGL a few years ago. The idea of forming a cricket club came from the Australian influence (Martin Turner is to be thanked for that) but as GasValpo has a very active sporting club and the members were keen to learn a "new" sport cricket.

So in early 2003 the interested players began practising after watching the most recent world cup highlights on video to enable them to understand the basics of the game. Practice sessions were initially held at a local school but more recently in the GasValpo grounds on Camino Internacional in Reñaca Alto. Numbers of players have grown gradually from 7 to about 18 since the sessions commenced.

The first actual game was held on Saturday 23rd August 2003 at the Carinbineros (uniformed police) complex in Reñaca Alto. It is hoped that in addition to this venture some games can also be held at the Valparaiso Cricket Club where cricket was last played approximately 40 years ago.

Interest has been generated already in Chile's second largest city. A half page spread in the local newspaper and an interview on an important radio station is helping the public to become aware that cricket is once again being played in Viña del Mar, the spiritual home of cricket in Chile.

The first official game is scheduled for the beginning of October this year and will be against a team of players from San Bernardo, a suburb in the southern outskits of Santiago. The Viña team is confident of winning this match! The San Bernardo Cricket Club was recently formed this year and they too have been training hard for their first match against Viña del Mar. Both clubs are creating history as they are 100% Chilean. The teams comprise both men and women and it is hoped to eventually have a mens and a womens team.

This season San Bernardo and Viña will play not only each other but also a team comprised of Chilean born players from Santiago and the Chilean U/15 team. It is hoped that both clubs will progress to the main Chilean club competition which is centred around the four clubs in Santiago in a few years time.