Following on from the initial good news that cricket would return to the Czech Republic on June 20, the country’s cricket board has now partnered with the European Cricket Network, bringing that date forward by a week, to announce the ECN Czech Super Series which will be played in the T10 format.
The new ECN Czech Super Series is a 16 team event, kicking off on June 13, with 40 matches spread over five weekends, culminating with “Finals Day” in the Czech capital Prague on July 12.
Dates – ECN Czech Super Series 2020
● June 13/14, 20/21, 27/28
● July 4/5, 11/12 (Finals Weekend)
Every game will live streamed worldwide on the European Cricket Network and on FanCode – the aggregator platform as part of the Dream 11 group.
“Terry O’Connor and his team have amazing goals towards developing grassroots cricket in the country,” said Daniel Weston, Founder of the European Cricket Network. “We are excited about partnering with such driven and passionate people who want to grow the game quickly and for all.
The COVID-19 lockdown has seen the cricket programme decimated worldwide. However, the Czech Cricket Union and the ECN have been able to take advantage of a markedly improved Coronavirus situation as a result of the country’s strict restrictions that were put in place earlier in the year.
“We stress though that we are only going ahead with this event by recommending and arranging a long list of precautionary measures to ensure the safest possible staging of the event for everyone concerned,” added Weston.
“While the ECN Czech Super Series and this partnership will provide cricket lovers all over the world with competitive action to fill the void of live sport, it will also have many long-term benefits for cricket in this country – not least for our hundreds of juniors, who play in after school clubs,” said Terry O’Connor, COO of Czech Cricket.
“These clubs are run by our development partner Kriketová Akademie ČR (KAČR), and these aspiring young cricketers will hopefully be inspired by seeing their local clubs in action via such high-quality coverage.”
The ECN Czech Super Series will feature cricket stars of the Men’s National Team like Sudesh Wickramasekara of Prague CC Kings, who holds the record for the fastest ever T20I hundred – off 35 balls – along with South Africa’s David Miller and Rohit Sharma of India.
The new ECN Czech Super Series will not replace the Czech T20 league previously announced, which will also be broadcast on www.ecn.cricket.
“Based on this new format of the game we can boost the amount of league cricket for our member clubs this season,” added O’Connor.
“The tournament format allows all Czech Cricket teams to participate, and for us to utilise all the grounds in the country. The entire Czech Cricket community is behind this and itching to be a part of and to show the world how truly global cricket is.”
Jonty Altmann, Senior Project Manager of the ECN, said: “We all cannot wait to get live cricket going again. It will be a genuine privilege to show Czech cricket to the world.”
Matches will be streamed live via the European Cricket Network – www.ecn.cricket.
