Hai friends you would have been suprised to hear that people play cricket in Turkey, but the fact is true, and they have a cricket team and their ICC membership status is Affliated Member and they got in June(July) 2008 .Since early 20th century ,Cricket was played in Turkey. To everyone's suprise Turkey's biggest football clubs, Fenerbahce, to even establish its own cricket branch in 1911. The main reason why cricket was dying out in Istanbul is the First World War resulted and now, almost a century later, that cricket has once again taken root.
There were lots of unofficial local games were been played for a number of years in the Turkish capital Ankara and in 2004 a few enthusiasts joined together and they tried to set up a proper structure for the game. They also got support from the sports centre of Bilkent University.By June 2005 Turkey's first domestic cricket competition, was held and it was sponsored by the local company Kimlik, with just four clubs taking part..All the matches were played on a Flicx pitch, with the help of ICC Europe
The development of cricket in Turkey was in its next step as it was waiting for the backing of the Turkish Government.On 21 December 2006 "The General Directorate of Sports" ,decided to form a Federation of Developing Sports and after approaches from the Turkish cricket community "kriket" was included officially as a "developing sport" in Turkey
Finally The Turkish Cricket Board (TCB) was then formed with its offices provided by Prof. Abdullah Atalar, vice rector of Bilkent University, who has been a great supporter of developing the game from the beginning.In September 2007, the TCB applied for membership of the ICC and with state recognition, an official board established and regular competitions. At the ICC Annual Conference in July 2008, Turkey was granted ICC affiliate membership and is now qualified to play international cricket.
International competition
On 7th September 2009,Turkey's first ever international matches took place in Corfu, Greece during the ICC- European Division Championship and against Estonia and their first ever win in international cricket against Bulgaria during this tournament, but inspite of this win they finished last in the competition
Domestic competition
There are seven regular teams that take part in domestic men's cricket in Turkey. Six of the teams are based in Ankara and one in Istanbul.
In 2009 the seven teams were split into two leagues with all games being played at Bilkent University in the capital.
League A(teams from..)
- Bilkent
- Middle East Technical University
- Desi of Istanbul
and they played 30 over matches
League B
- Red Lions
- Friends United
- Ankara Stars
- Ankara Tigers
They played a 20/20 version of the game.
The winner of each league will then play each other for the Republic Cup in October 2009.
Development program
Strting from the 2008, Turkey faced a difficult task,in introducing cricket to Turkish youngsters most of whom have never even heard of the game and so as to make the interest among youngsters, Turkey's first-ever junior cricket program got under way in April 2009 at Ankara's Bilkent University Preparatory School (BUPS), with boys and girls in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades getting the chance to lay bat on ball.This process was under the supervision of BUPS Physical Education teacher David Ogilvie, where the boys and girls learnt the basics of batting, bowling and fielding. This was a eight-week course, and it was supported by the Turkish Cricket Board and ICC Europe, ended with a "Super Eight" competition.
In September 2009, A second cricket coaching course at BUPS takes place , and this time ,students in Years Six, Seven and Eight took part and Plans are afoot to expand the program to other private schools in the Turkish capital.Apart from this the Turkish Cricket Board has also started to recruit students at Bilkent University who have never played the game before.
The present Turkist National Team consists of
- Jonathan Clarkson (Captain)
- Huseyin Sener Sen
- Mubashir Khan
- Athar Imran Opal
- Mohammad Razak
- Abdul Hamid Chohan
- Muhammad Aasim
- Colin Sutcliffe
- Imran Sharif
- Syed Ateeq Ahmad
- Christopher Wade
- Sajjad Haider
- Stephen Bryant
- Hunnain Durrani
The Turkish National Team records includes
Highest team total: 129 all out v Czech Republic, 8 September 2009 at Corfu, Greece
Lowest team total: 41 all out v Greece, 11 September 2009 at Corfu, Greece
Highest individual innings: 39, Muhammad Aasim v Czech Republic, 8 September 2009 at Corfu, Greece
Best innings bowling: 5/8, Mohammad Razak v Bulgaria, 12 September 2009 at Corfu, Greece
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