Welcome to Emerging Cricket!

Welcome to the new website of Emerging Cricket; news, numbers, insight and interviews from Associate cricket and beyond, brought to you by those passionate about the growth of the game outside its traditional centres!

All too often when there are media reports about cricket’s new world; be they about Associates in global events or the emergence of stars like Sandeep Lamichhane, there is generally a lack of any great knowledge about the game outside the full members, beyond the headlines. It is not a matter of pinning blame on anybody here – there have been some great stories to tell over the years from Ireland 2007 World Cup run to “that” catch taken by Dwayne Leverock v India at the same event. While these “good news” stories are heavily reported at the time, instead of a series of stories developing on the emerging cricket world, as soon as something else as newsworthy pops up and the caravan moves on, and the articles become reference points that don’t necessarily reflect the entire picture. There are of course exceptions. In recent years, some journalists and industry figures have made moves to change this, whether through campaigning for increasing team numbers at global events or challenging global funding imbalances. There have also been some amazing long-form pieces on the emerging game, these two from Jarrod Kimber on Afghanistan/USA and Hong Kong are great examples.

Many professionals have dedicated time to covering the Associate game from within some of the major agencies and also as freelancers. We do not see them are not our adversaries – similar to the way those outside the full members frequently work together in organising events and sharing knowledge (despite how much is at stake on-field) we hope to augment the good work being done as opposed to replacing it. We will give greater credence to the game at its frontiers by focusing predominantly on non-traditional cricket markets.

From learning more about those growing the sport in countries outside ICC’s current membership, through to the Associates, or issues affecting women’s cricket in smaller Test nations, we will endeavour to share stories and insights from all corners of cricket’s new world.

This is where we hope to present a superior alternative to what’s currently on offer. A one-stop, trusted voice on all things Emerging Cricket. Do they play cricket in Japan? Does PNG really have 200,000 people playing? Are franchise T20 events creating better futures for Associates? Now you know where to go…And, our name? Why not “Associate” cricket? Well for starter we’re not really ones for “status”…whether it’s Full Member/Associate, or List A T20s/Other T20s or guaranteed spots in events due to status for that matter, (which now seems to be gone, thankfully) we are broader than just Associates.

Read more about us here – and get in touch with us if you want to be part of EC.

This original post from 14 April was lost in moving hosting servers and was re-posted (and backdated) on 11 Jul 2020 with an updated first paragraph.

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