Domestic Cricket in Associate Nations

Aislabie

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With the ICC's new TAPP providing the funds, we are starting to see the Associate nations put together their own domestic structures.

Scotland have established their Pro Series, which will feature two teams: the Western Reivers and the Eastern Highlanders. Details for this competition can be found here.

Ireland have also established an Inter-Provincial series featuring the Northern Knights, North West Warriors and Leinster Lightning. Connacht and Munster were not included in the setup due to lack of depth, but their players will be available for all three Provincial sides. Details can be found here under 'Interpros'.

Both of these structures will consist of three-day, one-day and Twenty20 cricket.

Kenya and Uganda also continue to collaborate in the East Africa competitions, details of which are here. The league features four Kenyan and two Ugandan teams, but appears to be of a markedly lower standard compared to what we can expect from the Irish and Scottish competitions.

Other nations look like they too will receive TAPP funding to establish a clear progression from club to country, which is good given the ICC's insistence on a premier domestic competition. I would suggest, though, that it might be a good idea for Ireland and Scotland to join forces at least for their T20 competition to create a five-team Celtic league.
 

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This is all fantastic! I had heard about the Irish domestic teams, but not the Scottish. I had sort of lost track of what was going on in Kenya in recent months/years, so their domestic league comes as a welcome surprise. I do have questions:

1) How does one pronounce "Reivers"? My friend (Google) just told me what they were, and it's a nice compliment to the rival 'Highlanders', but is it meant to sound like 'rivers', 'reeve-ers', 'ravers', or none of the above?

2) Why are both the Irish and Scottish leagues only playing three-day games for their first-class format? Surely four days would have been the go, just like everywhere else in the world. Is this an Associate/Affiliate thing of which I'm not aware?

3) Do the East Africans play a three- or four-day competition? From the provided link, I haven't yet found any evidence to suggest so.

4) Technically, one could argue that Kenya doesn't have its own domestic structure. Would they be in danger of losing their ODI status, seeing that they 'technically' haven't met that criterion?
 

Aislabie

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Okay, I'll answer as best I can, but I'm not certain on all of it...

1) I THINK it'd be "reevers"

2) Probably because they don't have the budget to fund a full-on four-day tournament. They're not paying salaries, but are paying match fees which would be an extra third on top for player costs, not to mention officials, groundstaff, etc.

3) No, they don't it's just the one-dayers and T20s

4) A top-level domestic structure is only a prerequisite for Full Member status. Canada also tried to establish a domestic comp which flopped worse than the 2003 World Cup, the Netherlands as far as I know don't have anything, and Afghanistan have an inter-province knockout but like all things from Afghanistan, details are hazy.
 
D

Dutch

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There is both a mens and womens Dutch Domestic competition and a pretty decent youth setup. Have a look at this link. Nice link to different set ups in other Euro lands as well.

CricketEurope Netherlands
 

Aislabie

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Yeah, I knew you guys had a club setup, but didn't realise you'd slimmed it down so much. I'd still say that an eight-team top division could be something of a big jump down from full internationals though? Hopefully that should bring through plenty of talent, although if it fails you could probably pick up about half of South Africa given their heritage.

----------

A wee project
Let's try to follow these domestic competitions, and to keep a good index for them in this thread. You know, similar to what you'd find in the cricket leagues section with an index for each competition. Try to keep up with small match reports and other news pieces. It wouldn't have to be massive, but it would be quite good for people who wanted to find out about these things. I'd look after the Irish and possibly the Scots if necessary.
 
D

Dutch

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Nice idea about the reports. I could quite happily cover the Dutch league and the European mainland comps?

Although of course the Dutch setup is quite some way off of forming a basis for competitive international cricket it is still encouraging to know it is there at all and supporting both the womens and mens games as well as bringing young girls and boys into the game. It is after all the only thing you can do and hope that the ICC recognises that they must keep investing in grass roots cricket of the lesser countries to ensure a widespread growth and commercial foundation.
 

Aislabie

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Michael Rippon got picked in the Dutch squad today. Something of a T20 specialist far as I can tell, and a chinaman, which could make for an interesting combo with Seelaar
 
D

Dutch

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Michael Rippon got picked in the Dutch squad today. Something of a T20 specialist far as I can tell, and a chinaman, which could make for an interesting combo with Seelaar

Indeed. Seems like England is not the only one keen on finding South African heritage! I was amazed to discover that the Dutch domestic competition started in 1891 and the womens competition in 1931. Pretty cool that!
 

Aislabie

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Shame it hasn't developed the way Sri Lanka's has, but I suppose that it's unlikely to in football country.

Your side for the Namibia games looks quite strong:

Stephan Myburgh
Michael Swart
Tom Cooper
Tom de Grooth
Peter Borren :c:
Wesley Barresi :wk:
Mudassar Bukhari
Tim Gruijters
Pieter Seelaar
Michael Rippon
Ahsan Malik Jamil

Daan van Bunge, Timm van der Gugten, Paul van Meekeren

I certainly can't see a place for van Bunge, but vdG could possibly come in ahead of Rippon if they think the wicket is more seamer-friendly. I'd also back them to pick Gruijters because he'd be an impact player, and is a handy bowler. You could also have used Kervezee and Tendo, but they're busy with their counties.

But a Namibian side without Snyman you should beat easily.
 
D

Dutch

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On paper it is a pretty decent squad especially at that level. But it is the same with everything. You need to have regular matches against good opposition to both develop the team and attract new fans. I am hoping to get along to some of the CB40 games this year. The KNCB has a decent golden ticket....you pay 100 euros and that gives you access to all national team games.....ends up at around 10 euros a game which isnt too bad...
 

Aislabie

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Sounds like a good deal. Would have thought Shahbaz Bashir would be unlucky to miss out though after the impact he made earlier in the competition

Do you reckon you'd be able to fill two 18-man squads with FC/List A standard Dutch players, say for a European competition or Pro-series?
 
D

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Sounds like a good deal. Would have thought Shahbaz Bashir would be unlucky to miss out though after the impact he made earlier in the competition

Do you reckon you'd be able to fill two 18-man squads with FC/List A standard Dutch players, say for a European competition or Pro-series?

It would be possible, with perhaps a few slightly out of their depth but it would be a great opportunity to gain valuable expereince. The sad thing is that it is oly going to be competitions like the IPL etcetera that are going to "promote" cricket to the non-knowing public.....on the other hand that can be also positive because people still see cricket as a stuffy old Englishmans game like archery or bowls or such like.....
 

Aislabie

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I play bowls too :lol

But say the two Pro-Series teams, the three Irish Provinces, you could add two Dutch teams and a combined team from the rest of Europe. I reckon it's a concept that could work, and you'd only need to really pick about seven days across the season where there's no county cricket, and you could have your Kervezees, your Porterfields, your Coetzers playing too.

There's definitely enough Europeans to fill 18 men - Klokker (DEN), Petricola (ITA), Driver (JER) and Frith (GUE) to name but four.
 

Aislabie

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Yeah, that's the one. An enormous flop, hardly any of the best players were there
 

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