France: All of the latest developments

This has been a big month for European cricket and France Cricket has organised a splendid programme starting with a series of friendly but hard-fought matches preparatory to the European Championships to be played in Scotland from July 21-27.

The youngest French-born player to represent France in a major championship since 1996, Sulanga Hewawalandanage, has now been included in France's squad after special age dispensation was granted by the ECC.

Sulanga has done well so far in several matches and he joins other home grown French players, Pascal Culverhouse aged 22, thirty-year-old Thierry Pascal and left-hander David Bordes, whose name figures prominently in Wisden's 100 games of the Century.

Bordes, courageous as well as skilful, faced the last ball of the 1997 European Federation Final, tried to hook a bouncer and then staggered for the winning `head-bye.'

Youth, good team-work and wonderful enthusiasm are some of the key aspects of France Cricket and 18-year-old David Holt is one to keep an eye on having already played for the Middlesex 2nd XI; the game is family-based, with his mother the first French lady to hold an ECB Level 1 Coaching Certificate.

It is interesting to follow the progress of the young players in France with Sulanga just one of the 13 youngsters named for the France Cadets, an Under-16 combination, which will take part in the Isle of Wight County Festival to be played in August.

There will be four warm-up matches for that squad, two of them at Chauny against Sussex club side Lewes Nomads on August 15-26 and three days earlier two matches in Luxembourg.

August will be a very busy month because of the `Olympic' match between France and Old England will take place on August 20 which now has also been confirmed as the first European Cricket Day under the auspices of the European Cricket Council.

This match commemorating cricket's only appearance in the Olympic Games in 1900 (Gold for England-Silver for France - no Bronze medal) will also involve at the ground, specialised coaching for France's Under-16 squad prior to the Isle of Wight Festival.

There is no shortage of enthusiasm in France. Early in June our organisers staged the first national Kwik Cricket Championships at Chauny. The top ten players from that event were named to represent France Under-12 at the Kent Kwik Cricket Tournament at the St Lawrence ground Canterbury on July 17. The Midi team which is based in Nice and Aix-en-Provence travelled 1000 km to take part in those national trial matches.

On the senior and administrative front, Bordeaux, who have recently moved to a new and very pretty ground at La Brede, have won the South-West League to qualify for the national playoffs in September.

France Cricket's secretariat has now been transferred permanently to the umbrella organization, Federation Francaise de Baseball, Softball and Cricket (FFBSC) in Paris and bilingual secretary Nicoline Palmier is assigned to all cricketing matters from 12:30-6:00 on Tel: 01 44 68 89 30.

And when France, in their sky-blue shirts, take the field against Germany in Scotland for their opening clash in the European Championships on July 21, it will be the 50th international match for their scorer Michel Babilotte who now uses the sophisticated Bill Frindall scoring technique. My best wishes to him and to all the other dedicated, but often unsung, scorers in those Championships and elsewhere, who do so much for the game of cricket in so many areas.