Norway to debut at European minnows tournament (21 Dec 1999)

19 December 1999

Norway to debut at European minnows tournament

The Norwegian national team is likely to make its international debut at a six-country tournament to be held in Vienna in August.

The European Cricket Council has sent invitations to 10 countries for the tournament, which is intended to provide a competition for those European nations below Associate status, which do not compete in the ECC Trophy.

The final six participants will be selected from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and of course, Norway.

Preference in choosing the six nations will be in order of: (1) Present Affiliate Members of the International Cricket Council (Cyprus, Luxembourg, Spain) (2) Intending Members of the ICC (Czech Republic and Norway) (3) The rest

That does not necessarily mean the countries listed in (1) and (2) will necessarily participate. Spain prefers spending the required funds on junior development amongst the Spanish population rather than sending expatriate teams to tournaments, while Luxembourg may not be able to field a team if ICC qualification rules apply.

Surprisingly Finland is not among the listed countries. In the last communication I received from enthusiasts there, several clubs were about to form a national league, and a national association was about to be constituted.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia are all one-club countries.

This further exemplifies cricket's spread across Europe. In what is loosely known as 'Western Europe' cricket is played in every country except the micro-states of Liechtenstein and San Marino.

There is rumoured to be some sort of activity in Iceland (although I have yet to confirm that), Andorra and a club in Monaco, of which former Australian opening batsman, Bob Cowper, is believed to be involved. The Monte Carlo-based club apparently is happy to limit it to social matches.

In Eastern Europe, the only countries, which are not known to have a cricket presence, are Lithuania, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Albania, Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan.