Swedish Cricket
History of cricket in Sweden
Hi friends in this article let us discuss about the history and development of cricket in Sweden.A cricket club called as Stockholm Cricket Club is the first cricket club in Sweden,and it was established in the year 1948.The image below shows a A Flicx wicket in use on a frozen river in Sweden
This club was started mostly players from the West Indies.Another cricket club called the Pakistan Cricket Club was founded in 1978 and as a matter of fact this is at present the oldest surviving cricket club in Sweden.
Cricket Clubs in Sweden
Usually the 2 cricket clubs mentioned above used to play against each other and they also travelled to countries like Denmark, Finland and England to play competitive cricket.After one year many competitive teams was established in Gothemburg and Mariestad.
The Swedish Cricket Cup is one of the oldest tournament in Sweden, and it was actually initiated by the Pakistan Cricket Club in the year 1982 and it is still played in Sweden but the format was changed from 50 over match to Twenty20 format.
During the beginning of this cup, other teams are used to come from the British Navy and also from the employees of PIA (i.e.,Pakistan International Airlines) in England, Norway, Netherlands and Finland and they used to compete in the Swedish Cricket Cup.
Development of Cricket
Development of cricket was started and officially in 1990, The Swedish Cricket Federation (SCF) was formed.The most importing thing is that the main reason for the formation of SCF was Guttsta Cricket Club.Another great success for the Swedish Cricket Federation got ICC membership in 1991.
Normally the cricket in Sweden is mainly played expatriates,and usually they become Swedish nationals.But in 1990s a regulation was passed regarding the numbers of natives usually a national side must field, and because of this the Swedish national team found it difficult to participate in ICC tournaments and naturally this resulted in loss of interest in the game.The image below shows the Guttsta Cricket park
But they didn't give up and the SCF is working hard to revive the Swedish national side and trying its level best so that participate in the European tournaments once again.
They also worked very hard and as a result of this the Swedish development cricket team visited Norway in June 2007 and they also played two twenty20 matches against Norway's national team.For its participation in the division Matches in 2009, SCF Prepared their team very well.
ICC European Development Program which was set up by the ICC Europe helps the SCF in resolving the important problems like the lack of umpires in Sweden.As a result of this in March 2007, A level 1 umpiring course was conducted and they used to train more umpires at the international standards.
Apart from this the SCF is also trying to support the local clubs in acquiring training equipment for the juniors, who are the future of the Sweden cricket.As a result of this in 2007, a cricket school was established in Kavlinge in 2007 and it aims to train very children of nine years of age, both men and women.In this school both girls and boys were trained and they also learn the basics of cricket.
SCF also plans to establish another school is Stockholm.Another important step was taken SCF for the exposur eof the game is that is they also arrange more visits to neighbouring countries, like Denmark, Finland and Norway and also they are also in the process of getting a ground which is fully equipped with International standards.
At present there are 18 clubs which are playing cricket in Sweden and they have different goals, ambitions and also various degrees of activity.But there is some gradual growth in the number of teams in the country and as a result of this SCF administers organised different tournaments and some of the major tournaments includes
i)Sweden's premier cricket league
ii)The National Cricket League
Apart from this SCF also organises several other cricket tournaments and different levels of competitions and they organise every year.The reasons for these type of competitions are due to the efforts taken by one or two clubs
In Sweden the oldest cricket tournaments are
i)Swedish Cricket Cup
ii)The Academic Cup
#)This is usually played between Stockholm institutions for higher education and
iii)The Jinnah Cricket Cup.
They first ever played an International match on 13 September 1999 v Portugal at Corfu, Greece
The present coach of the team is Rajan Sharma and the team is captained by Adnan Raza
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