ICC World Cricket League Division 5 by looking at the history of cricket in Germany
History of Cricket in Germany
Cricket was known about in Germany from the late eighteenth century, but the first club, Berlin CC, was founded by English and American residents the 1850s. Cricket was played elsewhere in the country, but Berlin was the real centre in the nineteenth century. A close link existed between cricket and football, also an English import, as seen when the German Cricket and Football Federation (DFCB) was formed in Berlin in 1891. In 1912 came the first separate cricket body, the Deutsche Cricket Bund, representing teams from Berlin, Nuremberg, Furth, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Mannheim and Hamburg. Unfortunately, the original federation did not last and it was 76 years later that the modern DCB was formed.
Touring teams came to Germany as early as the 1860s, the first was from Paris. In 1890 a Danish team visited Berlin and in 1900 a team from Edinburgh also played there. The first Dutch team came in 1905. Leicester CC visited Berlin in 1911 and was the first English team to tour there. Cricket continued in the inter-war period and, indeed, the first visit by a German team to England occurred in 1930 when a United Berlin XI toured in South East England. Dartford CC reciprocated with a visit to Berlin in 1931. The Gentlemen of Worcester toured to Berlin 1937 and the last tour before the war was by Somerset Wanderers in 1938.
After 1945, it was mainly cricket played and organised by the British forces in Germany which kept the game alive. Although four civilian teams still existed in Berlin, namely BSV 92, Germania 88, Preussen and Victoria 89 and played each other, a combined team played in the British military league. There is some mention of cricket being played in Aachen, Bremen, Cologne and Magdeburg, but details are scant. Touring teams still came to play on military bases: Cryptics, MCC, Butterflies, Indian Gymkana, Free Foresters, Stragglers of Asia, New Zealand Cricket Council, the Emus and a number more.
It was largely Commonwealth immigration into Germany from the 1960s which led to a renewed wider interest in cricket. By the 1980s ex-pat cricket was established in and around a number of major cities and this, added to a fledgling interest in cricket in some schools and universities, paved the way for the ‘second’ DCB, in 1988. Representatives of eight teams signed the document which created the modern DCB. In 1991 the DCB became an ICC Affiliate member and progressed to become an Associate member in 1999.
International Competition
Shortly after its formation, the DCB began to participate in international cricket. There was a tour to Denmark in 1990; and, following the inception of the European Cricket Federation, in 1989, the DCB played fixtures against Austria, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Belgium. In 1991 the DCB became an ICC Affiliate member.
Germany hosted the first ECF Nations Cup in Berlin in 1993, losing a closely fought final to France. The Nations Cup was played for four times (1993 Berlin, 1995 Oxford, 1996 Osnabrück and 1997 Zuos, Switzerland) and Germany was runner-up on three of the four occasions. The runners-up position in Zuos allowed Germany, as an ICC Affiliate, to play in the ‘B’ group of the new ICC European Championships, inaugurated in the Netherlands in 1998. There, Germany recorded victories over Associates, France (twice), Gibraltar and Israel, but a single loss, to Italy, meant it finished runner-up in its group.
In 1999 Germany became an ICC Associate. A year later it took part in the second European Championships held in Glasgow, now as an Associate member, and again finished second in the ‘B’ group. This pattern was repeated in 2002 in the third European Championship held in Belfast. In 2004, in Antwerp, Belgium, Germany came third, equal on points with France in second place, but having lost the group game to the French. The 2006 tournament, held in Glasgow, Scotland, saw Germany again placed third, after winning its group to reach the semi-finals. This third place qualified it for Division five of the ICC’s World Cricket League.
In between this, the highpoint of Germany’s international cricket career was reached by participation in the ICC Trophy in Toronto in 2001. At the end of the tournament Germany came out with an Associate ranking of 17/18, shared with Malaysia.
As well as senior international cricket, Germany has also participated regularly in European Cricket Council (ECC formed in 1997) youth tournaments since their inception in 2000, at U13, U15, U17 and U19 level, winning the U19 Colts tournament in Edinburgh in 2000, the inaugural U15 2nd division championship in Berlin 2001 and the U17 2nd division in Gibraltar, in 2002.
Domestic Competition
The structure of German cricket is based on its cricketing regions. There are six of these: Bavaria, Berlin, Hessen, North, North East and North Rhine-Westphalia. All except the North East (league formation 2008) has a senior league and the winners of the leagues play off annually for the German championship. A championship has taken place since 1990. There is also an inter-regional championship. Today, with its 46 members and 6 regional associations the DCB shows a remarkable growth since 8 clubs formed the DCB in 1988.
Development Program
The DCB has from the start furthered development by encouraging clubs to have youth sections and by giving cricket exhibitions in schools and helping them to start cricket activities in their schools. After a slow gestation period this is now bearing fruit in all the cricket regions and ever-more schools request the involvement of the DCB, latterly to provide teacher in-service courses on cricket.
The ICC European Development Program’s Annual Support Program has provided invaluable help in this area by its subsidising of Kwik Cricket sets and Flicx pitches and other equipment. In senior cricket, clubs have been helped with improving their facilities, coaching courses are regularly on offer as are umpiring courses.
Women’s Cricket IntegrationIn 2005 the DCB reorganised its committee to include a women’s officer with the responsibility of developing women’s cricket. The success was almost instantaneous. Several clubs formed a women’s section and in schools equal emphasis was placed on coaching girls as well as boys. An inaugural women’s championship was played in 2006.
Germany won the ICC/ECC European development award in 2006 for its women’s development program. In 2007 an U17 indoor women’s tournament was organised with great success in Oldenburg with four German teams (Munich, Oldenburg, Schwerin and Berlin, two school teams from England and the Dutch U17 national team. A second indoor international tournament is planned for Potsdam in 2008.
German cricket will not, however, be complacent about this growth and will continue to strive to realise the great potential which exists for cricket in this very sporting country. The particular wish is to attract more German youth into the game.