Spain’s National Sports Council recognises cricket as an official sport

Cricket has become an officially recognised sport in Spain for the first time after being approved by the country’s National Sports Council (CSD). 

The CSD Board of Directors approved statutes for the newly named La Federación Española de Cricket (FEC) in June and the body has now been added to the State Registry of Sports Entities.

 

The move to legally recognise the sport, which began in 2013, will unlock public funding for the FEC as well as access to school programs to encourage grassroots development, as well as giving the FEC membership of the Spanish Olympic Commitee and Spanish Sports Association.

“I would say for the next generation things look great now,” said Corey Rutgers, Head Coach of the Spainsh men’s team. 

“A lot of our time and money has been put to this especially in the last 3-4 years. Being recognized now, means the Olympic program and sponsors now can invest as it’s an official sport.”

The men’s national team are currently 26th in the T20I world rankings while the women’s team sit in 33rd after their recent quadrilateral series in Switzerland, where they lost to Brazil by 86 runs in the final.

Next up for the men is the ICC T20 World Cup Europe Sub-Regional Qualfier in Finland starting 14 August as they begin their qualification journey towards the 2028 T20 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

La Roja are in a group with Bulgaria, Isle of Man, Luxembourg and hosts Finland, while Germany or Portugal are expected to await them in the knockouts. Only the tournament winner will progress to the European Regional Finals.

The team spent two days training together in Barcelona ahead of travelling to Kerava, just north of Helsinki.

“Everyone has been playing club seasons in the UK, Netherlands and Spain so they have had volume individually” said coach Rutgers before the team headed out.

“I’m pretty relaxed, the guys are looking forward to spending more time together.

It’s T20 on a mat in Europe, so anything can happen on the day.”

Spain will kick off their tournament against Finland on the 14th with games streaming on ICC.tv.

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