Martin Bursík - British Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic

lifestyle
Czech cricket
On summer weekends the sound of bat on ball can be heard at the Vypich cricket ground in Prague 6. It’s
the home of the Prague Cricket Club, a motley band of cricketers united by their passion for the sport.
Though to most Czechs cricket remains incomprehensible and exotic, the world’s second-most-popular
sport has begun to catch on even here. It is estimated that there are now over 500 cricketers in the country.
But as recently as three years ago, Czech cricket was on a
sticky wicket. The Prague Cricket Club was the only club in
the country. As there were no other local teams to compete against
they were forced to wait for visiting clubs from the UK.
Under the stewardship of the Czech Cricket Union (CCU),
however, the country now has six official clubs, four based in
Prague and two others in Brno and Ostrava, which play against
each other throughout the summer. Tournaments are
also held with visiting teams from England. A Czech national
team has also been formed to compete at international tournaments.
Coached by Australian Scott Page, the team is slated to
make its international debut in Division Four of the European
Championship in 2009. There is also a junior national team.
The surge in interest in cricket can be primarily attributed to
the enthusiasm of local British, Indian and other cricketers and
the promotion of the sport by the Czech Cricket Union. The
President of the Union is Simon Rawlence (the new Executive
Director of the British Chamber) and the Union receives funding
from the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai.
This funding from the ICC is contingent on the continued expansion
of the sport in the Czech Republic and Central Europe.
Therefore, in addition to running the six-team league, organising
tournaments, acting as a governing body and maintaining
the national team, the Union strives to promote the sport to local
children in schools. “We supply the coaches and we hold regional
tournaments,” says Rawlence. “We started with Hungary,
Slovakia and Austria, and what’s really surprising is that all the
Czech schools are getting involved too. The connection is probably
that they’ve got an English or Australian teacher in the
school.”
While the majority of players are still foreign born, in addition
to its growing presence in Prague’s international schools, more
and more adult Czechs are becoming involved in the sport. “It’s
getting more popular in universities,” says Rawlence. “You’ve
got three universities in the Czech Republic that do their medical
school in English. So these are either Indians or they can be
British Asians coming here and they want to play. And they’re
also getting Czech students involved.”
A large tournament was held on February in Brno, which included
teams from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary
and about half a dozen teams from the UK. An upcoming
event designed to teach people how to coach cricket is the ICC
Introduction to Cricket Course that will be held in Prague from
May 3 – 4. And of course the summer playing season is just
around the corner.
Though cricket is not likely to join football and hockey as a popular
spectator sport in the Czech Republic, increasing numbers
of local people are opting to spend their summer weekends
batting and bowling. For an outdoor-loving and beer-drinking
nation like the Czech Republic it’s easy to imagine the appeal of
cricket, with its lack of snobbism, emphasis on local participation
and camaraderie and stress on fair play.
26 FOCUS 1/2008
Text: Andre Swoboda
For more information about cricket in the Czech
Republic or if you want to get involved, these two
websites are good places to start:
www.czechcricket.cz www.cricket.cz