Forfarshire Cricket Club will fly the Scottish flag in this year’s European Cricket League after the ECL and Cricket Scotland agreed to a partnership ensuring that Scotland’s champion club will now be invited to the European Cricket League, it was announced today.
Following the recent additions of Sweden, Norway, Belgium and Finland in recent weeks, Scotland now also join the founding eight federations namely: The Netherlands, France, Germany, Russia, Romania, Denmark, Italy and Spain.
Forfarshire CC, which features Scotland players Craig Wallace and Michael Leask, won the 2019 Cricket Scotland Grand Final and Eastern Premiership, also then winning the T20 National competition, which sealed their spot.
“I strongly believe that by inviting the Champion club from Scotland to compete in the ECL, it will continue to elevate the sport at domestic level and encourage more clubs, teams, administrators, fans and children to the sport to further grow the country’s cricketing community,” said Daniel Weston, Founder of the European Cricket League.
“From now on, every club in Scotland has a pathway to compete to become the “Kings of European cricket,” he concluded.
Gus Mackay, CEO of Cricket Scotland, said: “We are delighted to announce this partnership which gives our clubs the opportunity to compete with other clubs in Europe.
“The European Cricket League has developed a great reputation and we are pleased to give our clubs in Scotland the opportunity to showcase their skills and demonstrate the growth of cricket in Scotland.”
ECL20 will double its number of teams to 16 – V.O.C. Rotterdam, who won the first edition of the European Cricket League at La Manga Club in Spain, will be joined by fellow Dutch club HBS Cricket Club between May 31 and June 7, 2020. All other countries will have a single representative team.