Elk Stopped Play

The cricket season on St Helena (population: 5,500) runs from January to July. Eight teams play one-day matches of two innings a side on a matting pitch at Francis Plain, where in 1886 a fielder is alleged to have died chasing a ball over a cliff; a repetition is still theoretically possible. After many years of ascendancy by Jamestown B, Western B won the 1994 championship ahead of Levelwood A, who won the knockout. Jamestown B, however, provided two individual highlights: left-arm spinner Eric George, the chairman of the cricket association who is in his sixties, took eight for 39 before announcing his retirement at the end of the season; his son Gavin averaged 71 with the bat. Play traditionally continues in the rain, but two matches had to be postponed in 1994 because the Royal Mail ship, the only link with the outside world, was in port for its bi-monthly visit. Fraser M. Simm, Wisden 1995

Cricket in Seychelles is in a somewhat parlous state. The Seychelles Cricket Association is laughingly referred to as the Sri Lankan Cricket Association as without their expatriates there would be no cricket here. For eight years I have been taking the young players to practice, but the locals kick a football around and across the wicket, disrupting the cricket so much that many are scared to attend. Still, five teams are playing. We are obliged to play with a mat on a football field, which is positively lethal; everybody now wears a helmet when batting. Our reciprocal matches with Mauritius have been rather one-sided in their favour. We have support from our National Sports Council, but they are obliged to give priority to sports which are enjoyed by the Seychellois, which is unlikely ever to include cricket. Anthony Coster, Wisden 1998

One of the least-known and prettiest parts of Europe has begun playing cricket. Slovenia – the peaceful and prosperous end of what was once Yugoslavia – acquired a team when the Royal Hague Cricket Club of Holland were looking for fixtures. Even though cricket had never been played there, a motley crew of expatriates and one brave Slovene rose to the challenge. We cheekily asked the president of Slovenia, Milan Kucan, if we could use his name. He not only agreed but attended the match, and I explained to him the origin of various cricketing phrases. “Oh,” he replied, “so you might say the American attitude to our application to join NATO is not quite cricket.” The game was the lead sports item on national TV and led to a fixture in Austria. The next challenge is to find our own ground near Ljubljana. Francis King, Wisden 1999

To say that cricket had never been played in Slovenia before 1998 isn’t quite true. Cricket was actually introduced to the former Yugoslav republic long before independence, as far back as the 1970s in fact. Indeed, the roots of Slovene cricket lie in the unlikely surroundings of Birchington-on-Sea on the north-eastern coast of Kent. Previously best-known for seeing off the artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who died there in 1882 having arrived planning to improve his health, it’s possible the town may grow to become a cricket shrine for Slovenians. For it was in a back garden in Birchington-on-Sea that the Slovene game was born.

It was 1974 when a 13-year-old named Borut Čegovnik left Yugoslavia for the first time to study English. Staying in Birchington-on-Sea with the family of his English pen-pal – whose father, Charles Nash, played for the local club – Borut was introduced to the game through a combination of watching his host play and long coaching sessions in the back garden with his epistolary chum. The young visitor fell in love with the game, and returned to Slovenia with his luggage increased to the tune of a bat, ball and set of stumps. Back home in the old mining town of Mežica, close to the border with Austria, Borut introduced the game to his friends, they formed the Mežica Cricket Club which still flourishes today and, when he later moved to the capital Ljubljana, Borut took the game with him.

Today Dr Borut Čegovnik is a leading cardiologist and the president of the Slovenian Cricket Association. Slovenia is an Affiliate Member of the ICC, boasts nine cricket clubs, and has a national team that’s more than holding its own in European competitions. All thanks to a summer language exchange and a bit of healthy exercise. Despite the unexpectedly cricket-heavy theme of his 1974 trip to north Kent, it’s not believed Dr Čegovnik’s English studies suffered unduly.

Cricket revived in Korea in the late 1980s through the expatriate Indian community. It is played by six teams of nine-a-side (representing Australia, India, New Zealand, British Embassy, International All Stars and the Rest of the World) over 15 overs on a small irregular-shaped soccer field controlled by the US Military in the UN Compound. We bowl only from one end, on a wicket that consists of bare ground, covered by one layer of rubberised matting overlaid by felt carpet; despite the small ground, bowlers tend to have the upper hand – shooters and fliers are par for the course. The scoring rules are modified but complex, taking into account the back wall (four if hit on the full), the willow tree (six) and the embankment with the blackberries. The regular competition is played twice a year, spring and autumn. India were the winners in spring 1994. In the autumn, the New Zealanders arranged for the former Test player, Rod Latham, to turn up as a casual late inclusion. The game was washed out, even though the Kiwis were still keen to play in half an inch of mud. Anyone wandering through Korea is welcome to view this grand spectacle on Sunday afternoons. John A. Kaminsky, Wisden 1995

Spanish cricket continues to be dogged by lack of funds, with the Asociacion Espanola de Cricket supported by a few good men and true. This situation mainly affects the senior clubs, whose funds do not stretch to the luxury of travelling between six and ten hours to compete in league games at a cost of anything up to £2,000 per game. Sporting Alfas CC beat Javea CC in this year’s cup final. Training sessions in both Kwik Cricket and the hard-ball game are now held several times a week in the Costa Blanca area, with youngsters from the ages of six upward, while a number of Spanish teachers in and around Javea are introducing the game into their curricula. Cricket still remains a mystery for most Spaniards, however: a colleague arrived home looking dishevelled and muddy. And when his Spanish neighbour asked if he had had an accident, he replied: “No, I’ve only been playing cricket. I’m fine.” “And your horse? Is your horse all right?” Ken Sainsbury, Wisden 2000

As cricket’s remote outposts go, Sudan’s is one of the remotest. Although the country has several of the prerequisites for a thriving cricket culture – year-round sunshine and historical ties with Britain – the sport has never really caught on with the locals, leaving it largely in the hands of the expats. Friendlies are played between the British Embassy, students at the Khartoum International Community School and their parents, and the DAL Group, a local conglomerate, allowing a variety of Anglo-Saxons, Australasians, Canadians and others to play for the 20 or so overs that seem sensible in the unforgiving heat. Several groups from the subcontinent also play improvised matches on the uneven ground of outer Omdurman, while the presence of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi battalions in the United Nations Mission here has taken social matches to such unlikely places as Juba and Kadugli. But the result of the referendum in January 2011, when the overwhelming majority of Southern Sudan voted for independence, could yet prove significant. If the newly independent south follows in the footsteps of Rwanda by applying for membership of the Commonwealth and the East African Community, what better way to show its bona fides than by establishing the roots of a cricketing culture? Since the region’s most famous sportsman, basketball player Luol Deng, typifies the height and build of his people, it is tempting to conclude that any fast-bowling attack could prove quite a lively proposition. Tony Brennan, Wisden 2011

Cricket, or something resembling it, was first played in Surinam in 1880 when it was Dutch Guiana. In all probability, these first cricketers were indentured Indians. The game became organised with the establishment of Royal Scott’s CC in 1885, and a national association, which today is an associate member of the West Indies board, was founded in 1931. As games were played more regularly against sides from neighbouring Guyana (British Guiana) and other West Indian countries, cricket youth teams of the 1980s went on to play for the Dutch national side. Today there are some 25 senior clubs, and the Surinamese Cricket Association have applied for membership of the Cricket Council of the Americas and for Affiliate Membership of the ICC. Ram Hiralal, Wisden 2002