Cricket in Non-Test Nations

[Langeveldt]

Does anyone here know anything about the extension of ODI-status to The Netherlands and Namibia, possibly among others?

I was reading the outcomes of the recent ICC deliberations, and on the issue of relegating Kenya to associate membership, CricInfo's comment was along the lines of "and with the likes of Holland and Namibia being granted full ODI status, it is clear what the ICC thinks of Kenya's prospects". Thing is, nowhere else could I find anything about the upgrading of some of the associates to full ODI status.

Just wishful thinking then?

I wouldn't like to see Namibia get full ODI status for a while yet.. Mind you, they would of course give Bangladesh and Zimbabwe a big fight, so maybe thats food for thought.. As talented as they are or are not, they are simply not playing enough cricket to progress...

 

[Neil Pickup]

The ICC doesn't do anything to promote the game to other countries. They had a project USA but scrapped it this year. They could have given USA some games to host during the World Cup 07 look what FIFA did in 94 and US werent even that good in soccer back then. And with all this people complain there is no cricket in the Olympics but the matter of fact is among all the games cricket is not a sport played during the Commonwealth games that is sad.

Project USA was scrapped due to gross mismanagement and incompetence.

 

[Kweek]

so kwek... say if given the right exposure and marketed correctly could you see cricket becoming some sort of a major sport in netherlands considering you have local players interested..

Cricket has been played for over 100 years in holland(correct me if im wrong) and brought by a dutchman who went to england and got interested in it. Cricket has been played mostly by locals since then and always regarded as a weird family thing...it was very big about 15 years back. since 10 years more and more subcontinential people started playing it too and subcontinent clubs are formed every season in a high tempo still the youth is steadly growing in holland. what holland imo needs is the cricket rights back to a free channel and more publicity on TV, Radio, etc. ODI status would do good things to it and would get more people interested. recently dutch cricket didnt had good publicity as someone started bashing a umpire with a cricketbat..result; a lot of articels in the papers. another example, a Hoofdklasse team got into a fight with each other and started attackign each other with knifes and stuff...result...big articels in the publicity, because of those excidents gave a wrong view of cricket to a lot of people which is a pitty!
your views Steulen on this matter ?

 

[Don]

i know that the New York Alliance have a promising team and an excellent coach.from what i ave heard they are the team to beat in the us club system.if anyone besides me and liam follows club cricket in Trinindad there is a player whu spent a year with them and he is now 1 of the most successful players in club cricket this season i am refering to william perkins.

also from what i have heard is that there seems to be alot of talent in the us even it is not all from us origins.the coach has been appointed to the us U-19 team and says they are a promising bunch and that us cricket has a promising future.

another reason why cricket maynever take off in the us.

they dont have patience.

too much mikey D's and burger kings

too much 50 cent.

 

[Steulen]

Unfortunately, I believe Dutch cricket is going steadily downhill. In '96, when we played in our first World Cup, all matches were shown in 45 minutes highlights by the big national broadcasting company. In 2003, they were not. I don't think there'll be too much exposure this time round, should we qualify for the World Cup at the ICC Trophy in Ireland this year.

On the other hand, there is some fascination with the sport. At least one large national newspaper, De Volkskrant, reports on the top national league and major international achievements on a regular basis. When a Dutchman makes it in county cricket it does get acknowledged. Within the last year, I've seen full-page interviews with Daan van Bunge en Bas Zuiderent in this paper.

What Dutch cricket needs is more opportunities like the Videocon Cup last year, when India, Pakistan and Australia played a tri-series in Amsterdam. Unfortunately the Pakistan vs. Holland match following this tri-series washed out after Holland got 4 early wickets. It should have been easy to get Bangladesh and Australia to play a warm-up game in Holland instead of England this summer, but I see from the itinerary that it will not happen. What a waste.

Oh, and as for my own cricketing prowess, label it 'non-existent'.

 

[chekmeout]

Unfortunately, I believe Dutch cricket is going steadily downhill. In '96, when we played in our first World Cup, all matches were shown in 45 minutes highlights by the big national broadcasting company. In 2003, they were not. I don't think there'll be too much exposure this time round, should we qualify for the World Cup at the ICC Trophy in Ireland this year.

On the other hand, there is some fascination with the sport. At least one large national newspaper, De Volkskrant, reports on the top national league and major international achievements on a regular basis. When a Dutchman makes it in county cricket it does get acknowledged. Within the last year, I've seen full-page interviews with Daan van Bunge en Bas Zuiderent in this paper.

What Dutch cricket needs is more opportunities like the Videocon Cup last year, when India, Pakistan and Australia played a tri-series in Amsterdam. Unfortunately the Pakistan vs. Holland match following this tri-series washed out after Holland got 4 early wickets. It should have been easy to get Bangladesh and Australia to play a warm-up game in Holland instead of England this summer, but I see from the itinerary that it will not happen. What a waste.

Oh, and as for my own cricketing prowess, label it 'non-existent'.

According to you what is the main reason for this decline??
And also how many schools have cricket?

 

[Steulen]

According to you what is the main reason for this decline??
And also how many schools have cricket?

Reasons: no media attention, dominance of soccer, lack of appealing matches and results, image ("cricket? that boring english game where they drink tea and nothing happens...and how long do those games take? A week, wasn't it?")

Cricket is not taught in school in The Netherlands, apart from perhaps a few where cricket-loving PE teachers work. No Dutch kid knows how to bowl a ball; we learn to throw (softball/baseball is taught in every school).

 

[Neil Pickup]

No Dutch kid knows how to bowl a ball; we learn to throw

I'm so, so tempted to make a really bad Murali joke here, but have just managed to restrain myself.

 

[Son Of Coco]

I wouldn't mind becoming head honcho of Samoan cricket....
or Vanuatu for that matter.
Lazying on a beach in a tropical paradise watching cricket...
That's gotta be the best coaching job in the world.

Yeah, I volunteer to coach the Denmark women's team - as long as I get to handpick it.

 

[chekmeout]

Yeah, I volunteer to coach the Denmark women's team - as long as I get to handpick it.

i'l coach the u-17s

 

[swede]

So do you get to watch international cricket??

What about Denmark in the C&G cup? And out of the 4000 players how many are locals and how many expats??

Its actually not as based on ex-pats as might be believed, though many immigrants from pakistan do play. However, its to some degree a bit of an isolated community with many fathers and sons and brothers.

I guess I should be excited about Denmark in the one-day cup but I am so (unreasonably )opposed to the limited game that I am not. I wouldnt even want people to take an interest as I would be embarrased by how boring it is.
I believe there are plans for countries like Denmark to begin to play 3-day real games, which is much more exciting. I hope that Holland and Denmark could eventually create a regular "test" series of such matches. This is the only kind of cricket which will ever stand a chance in Denmark.

Looking at sports in denmark in the last decade the only real change in people´s interest have happened in tour de france cycling, which is now very popular. This is a 3-week long 100-hour bike race, where the top riders are calmly, boringly, side by side 98% of the time. still its grown phenomally in interest as it has elsewhere. The small details are discussed endlessly as its great sport where the winner is truly the best rider. All other 1-day cycling races or whatever else are of basically no interest as its just not that great.

The parralels to cricket seem obvious. I believe real cricket could be very popular in Denmark because of its tactical complexities which seem to make all games unique and because of the constant potential sustained drama that come from the fact that everyone can bat for 10 hours or be out next ball

The way Michael Atherton saved England single-handedly a decade ago in South Africa by staying put for days could potentially one day be appreciated in Denmark and which other ball game could produce anything similar.
However the "excitement" of a team needing to slog 20 runs in their last 4 overs of an odi with 4 wickets remaining will simply never have a chance in my opinion. That kind of drama exists in all other sports like football or handball which is big in denmark and often decided in the last few seconds (and without having to wait 7 hours for it )

 

[Dydl]

i'l coach the u-17s

Yeah!? I reckon my bro's team of U11's could beat them! They're pretty good! Won the premiership since U8 only losing 2 matches!

 

[chekmeout]

Yeah!? I reckon my bro's team of U11's could beat them! They're pretty good! Won the premiership since U8 only losing 2 matches!

Lol so what Dydl...
I bet your bro's coach wouldnt have half as much fun coaching them as i would have coaching the girls from denmark...

 

[Duncan]

Cricket is getting old... the same teams playing each over and over... Australia always winning. More countries need to play for the sport's revival. You can't keep having Pak vs India and Aus vs England matches.

 

[Swervy]

Cricket is getting old... the same teams playing each over and over... Australia always winning. More countries need to play for the sport's revival. You can't keep having Pak vs India and Aus vs England matches.

the game is as healthy now as it has been for years and years....we can keep having India vs Pakistan and England vs Australia etc, coz thats what we want to see...top teams playing each other.

 

[chekmeout]

The way Michael Atherton saved England single-handedly a decade ago in South Africa by staying put for days could potentially one day be appreciated in Denmark and which other ball game could produce anything similar.
However the "excitement" of a team needing to slog 20 runs in their last 4 overs of an odi with 4 wickets remaining will simply never have a chance in my opinion. That kind of drama exists in all other sports like football or handball which is big in denmark and often decided in the last few seconds (and without having to wait 7 hours for it )

20 runs in the last 4 overs is not a slog!!

 

[chekmeout]

Hey swede.. If your from Denmark, why is your nickname swede??
Also, how were you first drawn to the sport of cricket?

With respect to the C&G cup, does any average person from Denmark know about it? Is it given TV/print media coverage? What are the crowds like ??

Do you play cricket?

 

[sledger]

Project USA was scrapped due to gross mismanagement and incompetence.

lol fancy that, incompetence and mismanagement in the USA, what are the odds of that
i mean how could that possibly be the case in a country that is run by the most competent and intelligent man of all George W himself

 

[chekmeout]

lol fancy that, incompetence and mismanagement in the USA, what are the odds of that
i mean how could that possibly be the case in a country that is run by the most competent and intelligent man of all George W himself

I sincerely hope your sarcastic...

 

[Black Thunder]

I think the ICC has to put more into developing cricket nations.

Just one of the thing's i would like them to do is a bit of "buddy" system i get. Basically, they'd pair up an associate/affiliate country with a state/provincial/county team and get the two to work together to develop the national team. And i really don't think this would cost all that much.

An example of how it would work;

New South Wales is given Kenya as their associate country.
NSW would arrange to fly out 2 or 3 Kenyan international players for the 2005/06 season. They have chosen Collins Obuya, Malhar Patel and Tony Suji.
They would arrange a grade club to play for, employment and accomodation for 6 months.
They would basically develop their game through playing a season of first grade cricket (or the approriate top level below FC cricket, provided they are good enough). They would also participate in training session with the NSW team on a pretty regular basis (three to four times a month).

The 3 would then fly back to Kenya, with hopefully a far more developed game and given hopefully a bit of money in their pocket (from gaining employment in a country with a better exchange rate) to further develop their game back home.


I'm sure this would be fantastic program for the ICC to iniate and ensure that each state/province is given a country with a simliar sought of standing.

So NSW, having won the Australian FC competition would have to be considered in the top three provinces in the world, would get a country considered in the top three countries in the world outside of test cricket (Kenya).

Especially given the amount of money there is in cricket in Australia and England these two countries would have absolutely no problems financing this particular project. Other countries may have a little more trouble financing this, but that would have to be worked out.

Basically the benefits for the players involved;
1 - get to experience tough cricket on a weekly basis (something they'd never have experiened before).
2 - will get to test their skills in different conditions.
3 - will get far greater access than they've ever had to advanced training methods.
4 - they will hopefully save some money in a country with a better exchange rate (in most instances).
5 - they may even be able to further their skills outside of cricket for back in their homeland.

I've been a bit vague on the details here, but i think you get the kind of idea of what i'm hinting at.

Good idea or bad??