France national cricket team

The France national cricket team is the team that represents the country of France in international cricket. They became an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1998, having previously been an affiliate member since 1987.[2] The country is best known for winning the silver medal in the cricket event at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, the only time cricket has been held at the Olympics. France now plays most of its matches in European Cricket Council (ECC) tournaments, although the team also appeared at the 2001 ICC Trophy.

France
AssociationFrance Cricket
Personnel
CoachTim de Leede
International Cricket Council
ICC statusAssociate member with T20I status (1998)
ICC regionEurope
ICC Rankings Current[1] Best-ever
T20I 48th 43rd (2-May-2019)
International cricket
First international France v. Great Britain
(Paris; 19 August 1900)
One Day Internationals
World Cup Qualifier appearances1 (first in 2001)
Best resultFirst round, 2001
As of 22 February 2020

In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between France and other ICC members after 1 January 2019 will be a full T20I.[3]

History

Early years

One of the many theories about the origin of cricket is that France could be a possible birthplace of the game. A mention of a bat and ball game called "criquet" in a village of the Pas-de-Calais occurs in a French manuscript of 1478,[4] and the word "criquet" is an old French word meaning "post" or "wicket".[5] However, it is equally possible that this could be an early variant of croquet. It must be remembered that most of France during the 14th and 15th centuries was under English occupation in the Hundred Years War and so any cricket references in France at this time are probably due to the game having been introduced to France by the English occupiers.[6]

Horace Walpole, son of former British Prime Minister Robert Walpole mentioned seeing cricket in Paris in 1766.[5]

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) were due to make the first ever international cricket tour of France, in 1789, however this was cancelled due to the French Revolution. This match was finally played in 1989, as part of the bicentennial celebrations of the revolution, with France beating the MCC by 7 wickets.[7]

The first documented match took place in the Bois de Boulogne between Paris Cricket Club and Nottingham Amateurs in 1864.[8] Paris Cricket Club published a book explaining the game the following year.[5]

Olympic Games

The one and only appearance for cricket at the Olympic Games took place in 1900, with the French team losing the only match played, and thus remaining the reigning silver medal holders to this day. The French team however, consisted solely of British residents in Paris, members of the Standard Athletic Club.[9] The Standard Athletic Club restaged the 1900 Olympic Cricket match in 1987, and France played the MCC in Meudon in 1989.

In 1910, France took part in an exhibition tournament in Brussels, also involving the MCC, the Netherlands and Belgium. They played one game, against the Netherlands, winning by 63 runs.[10]

The modern era

Many cricket clubs folded after the Second World War, but an influx of English and Asian immigrants led to a resurgence of the game in the early 1980s.[5] The current French Cricket Association was formed in 1987, and they gained Affiliate membership of the ICC the same year.[2]

After the win in the 1989 match mentioned above, there were a handful of tours from English county teams, and France toured Austria in 1996, losing both matches against the national team.[11] In 1997, they played in the European Nations Cup in Zuoz, Switzerland,[12] winning after beating Germany by one run in the final.[13] This match was included in the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack list of 100 best matches of the 20th century as David Bordes ran the winning leg bye with a fractured skull.[14]

They played in the European Championship in the Netherlands in 1998, finishing eighth after losing to Germany in a play-off.[15] They became an associate member of the ICC the same year.[2] They finished third in Division Two of the 2000 European Championship.[16]

France played their only ICC Trophy in the 2001 tournament in Canada, though they did not progress beyond the first round.[17] The following year, they finished fifth in Division Two of the European Championships,[18] and finished as runners up in the 2004 tournament.[19] They finished sixth in the 2006 tournament after losing a play-off to Guernsey.[20]

In 2008, France finished fourth in Division 2 of the European Championship. In 2010, France finished third in the same competition, narrowly missing out on qualification for the 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division Eight. In 2011, they finished sixth in the ICC Europe Division 1 T20 Championship after losing the fifth place play-off match to Norway. In 2012, they finished second in the ICC European World Cricket League 8 Qualifier, held in La Manga, Spain; again missing out on qualification for Division 8 of the World Cricket League.

In 2018, France competed at the ICC World Twenty20 Europe Region Qualifier in Netherlands.[21]

Grounds

Cricket Ground, Parc du Grand Blottereau
Locations of all stadiums which have hosted international cricket matches within France

Tournament History

ICC Trophy

European Championship

  • 1991: 8th place[15]
  • 1993: 1st place (Division Two)[16]
  • 1998: 3rd place (Division Two)[18]
  • 2002: 2nd place (Division Two)[19]
  • 2006: 6th place (Division Two)[20]
  • 2008: 4th place (Division Two)
  • 2010: 3rd place (Division Two)
  • 2011: 6th place (Division One, T20)
  • 2013: 5th place (Division One, T20)

Players

The French squad from 2014 is as follows:[23]

Name Age Batting style Bowling style Domestic team
Coaches
Tim de Leede53N/AN/AN/A
Shabir Hussain55N/AN/AN/A
ODI & Twenty20 captain; opening batsman
Arun Ayyavooraju34Right-handedRight-arm off breakBalbyniens 93
Batsmen
Andy Walkden25Right-handedRight-arm Military mediumSyria U21
Robin Murphy29Right-handedRight-arm mediumCatus
Praneeth Jangili39Right-handedRight-arm mediumFrancilien
Deva Amirdalingame31Right-handedRight-arm leg breakGrigny
Atif Zahir45Right-handedRight-arm mediumDreux Sport
Wicket-keeper
Waseem Bhatti41Right-handedN/AParis Université Club
Lucien Calkin22Right-handedN/AMidi
Chamara Rupaningal42Left-handedN/AUSCA
All-rounders
William Singh31Left-handedLeft-arm off breakParis Université Club
Komalan Thavalingam35Right-handedRight-arm mediumBalbyniens 93
Usman Khan30Right-handedRight-arm mediumParis Université Club
Arslan Khan35Right-handedRight-arm leg breakFGK Gonesse
Zafar Iqbal37Right-handedRight-arm leg breakCreil
Chetan Chauhan37Left-handedRight-arm off breakBalbyniens 93
Shahid Malik39Right-handedRight-arm slowParis Université Club
Kismatullah Surate29Right-handedRight-arm medium-fastLisses
Pace bowlers
Donald Mariathas29Right-handedRight-arm fast-mediumNorthern
Ramiz Ihsan32Right-handedRight-arm medium-fastDreux Sport
Saravana Kumar Durairaj36Right-handedRight-arm medium-fastBalbyniens 93
Zain Zahir28Right-handedRight-arm mediumDreux Sport
Tom Liddiard28Right-handedRight-arm fast-mediumParis Université Club
James Dawkins25Right-handedRight-arm medium-fastToulouse
Praveenkumar Durairaju32Left-handedLeft-arm mediumAulnay
Haq Nawaz Chadhar30Right-handedRight-arm medium-fastLisses
Spin bowler
Zika Ali26Right-handedRight-arm leg breakParis Université Club

The French squad that competed at the 2018 ICC World Twenty20 Europe Region Qualifier was as follows:

Kannanraj Sivaram, Devankumar Amirdalingame, Ammar Zahir (Wicketkeeper), Dayanidhi Benoit, Jubaid Ahamed, Jean-Luc Lambourdiere, Mobashar Ashraf (Captain), Noman Amjad, Noman Naeem, Subash Parvady (Wicketkeeper), Paul Alam, Ravichandran Pavadaikannan, Riyas Bairhak, Shahzeb Mohammad

Noman Amjad was just fourteen years of age when he represented France in the competition. However, since the tournament was played before 1st January 2019, the matches do not have full T20I status.

[24]

Other players

The following French national team players have played first-class or List A cricket:

References

  1. "ICC Rankings". International Cricket Council.
  2. France at CricketArchive
  3. "All T20 matches between ICC members to get international status". International Cricket Council. 26 April 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  4. "France". Cricket Europe. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  5. "A brief history of cricket in France". cricketeurope.net. Archived from the original on 5 November 2007. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  6. "From Lads to Lord's: 1300 – 1600". 29 June 2011. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  7. Scorecard of France v MCC, 24 September 1989 at Cricket Archive
  8. London Evening Standard 18 May 1864
  9. "The ignorant Olympians". cricinfo.com. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  10. Scorecard of France v Netherlands, 26 June 1910 at Cricinfo
  11. France in Austria, 1996 at Cricket Archive
  12. 1997 European Nations Cup at Cricket Archive
  13. Scorecard of France v Germany, 23 August 1997 at Cricket Archive
  14. A hundred matches of the century, 2000 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
  15. 1998 European Championship at CricketEurope
  16. 2000 European Championship Archived 5 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine at CricketEurope
  17. 2001 ICC Trophy at CricketEurope
  18. Tables and results for the 2002 European Championship at the tournament's official site
  19. 2004 European Championships Division Two at the European Cricket Council website
  20. 2006 European Championship Division Two at CricketEurope
  21. "ICC World Twenty20 Europe Region Qualifier A Table - 2018 - ESPN". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  22. 2005 ICC Trophy at Cricket Archive
  23. (in French) Archived 4 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine at francecricket.com
  24. "France". Cricinfo. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  25. Waseem Bhatti at Cricket Archive
  26. Simon Hewitt at Cricket Archive
  27. David Holt at Cricket Archive
  28. Paul Wakefield at Cricket Archive
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