ECN launches European Cricket Championship

The European Cricket Network (ECN) has announced plans to hold an international T10 competition.

Entitled the European Cricket Championship (ECC), the T10 tournament is will take place in Spain between September 13th and October 8th 2021.

The European Cricket Championship is the brainchild of ECN founder Daniel Weston. Whilst T10 is played increasingly at a domestic level, the ECC is set to be the first T10 event between representative international sides.

In an ECN press release, Weston said:

‘We increase participation with the European Cricket Series and high performance with the Champions League framework of the European Cricket League. ECC rounds off our platform to grow the game, highlighting the national pride of cricketers in Europe and giving them a stage to represent their countries in the T10 format.’

The tournament will feature 15 national teams. The involved nations hail from across Europe, including Denmark, Germany, and Italy. Scotland and England will take part, though they will not send full strength teams. Scotland will send their ‘A’ side, whilst an ‘England Amateur XI’ will constitute England’s representation. Notable absentees include Netherland and Ireland, who are not sending teams. Jersey and Guernsey are also absent, with the ECC expected to clash with Jersey’s participation in CWC Challenge League Group B.

The 15-team tournament will take place over four weeks, with a similar format to the revamped European Cricket League. The 15 teams will be drawn into three groups of 5, with each group meeting over a separate week. Each group will feature 24 T10 games, a double round-robin and playoff. The group winners will advance to the finals week, along with the best two runners-up. The finals will feature the same format as the group stages.

Though under a new format and management, this is not the first tournament to use the name ‘European Cricket Championship.’ The original European Cricket Championship was a 50-over tournament that ran between 1996 and 2007. Initially a standalone event featuring Europe’s top teams, later versions featured multiple divisions. From 2007, the ECC became part of the World Cricket League structure. The 2007 tournament featured Austria, Belgium, France, Norway, Sweden, and eventual champions Germany. The German side will proverbially be defending their ECC crown, although in a different format.

Further details, including a draw, are expected later in the year. The participating teams are:

Italy, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Hungary, Czech Republic, Portugal, Finland, Scotland ‘A’, England Amateur XI.

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