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.
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| Association | France Cricket | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personnel | |||||||
| Coach |  Tim de Leede | ||||||
| International Cricket Council | |||||||
| ICC status | Associate member with T20I status (1998) | ||||||
| ICC region | Europe | ||||||
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| International cricket | |||||||
| First international |  France v. Great Britain  (Paris; 19 August 1900) | ||||||
| One Day Internationals | |||||||
| World Cup Qualifier appearances | 1 (first in 2001) | ||||||
| Best result | First 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
Tournament History
ICC Trophy
European Championship
Players
The French squad from 2014 is as follows:[23]
| Name | Age | Batting style | Bowling style | Domestic team | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coaches | ||||||
| Tim de Leede | 53 | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| Shabir Hussain | 55 | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| ODI & Twenty20 captain; opening batsman | ||||||
| Arun Ayyavooraju | 34 | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | Balbyniens 93 | ||
| Batsmen | ||||||
| Andy Walkden | 25 | Right-handed | Right-arm Military medium | Syria U21 | ||
| Robin Murphy | 29 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Catus | ||
| Praneeth Jangili | 39 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Francilien | ||
| Deva Amirdalingame | 31 | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | Grigny | ||
| Atif Zahir | 45 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Dreux Sport | ||
| Wicket-keeper | ||||||
| Waseem Bhatti | 41 | Right-handed | N/A | Paris Université Club | ||
| Lucien Calkin | 22 | Right-handed | N/A | Midi | ||
| Chamara Rupaningal | 42 | Left-handed | N/A | USCA | ||
| All-rounders | ||||||
| William Singh | 31 | Left-handed | Left-arm off break | Paris Université Club | ||
| Komalan Thavalingam | 35 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Balbyniens 93 | ||
| Usman Khan | 30 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Paris Université Club | ||
| Arslan Khan | 35 | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | FGK Gonesse | ||
| Zafar Iqbal | 37 | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | Creil | ||
| Chetan Chauhan | 37 | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | Balbyniens 93 | ||
| Shahid Malik | 39 | Right-handed | Right-arm slow | Paris Université Club | ||
| Kismatullah Surate | 29 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | Lisses | ||
| Pace bowlers | ||||||
| Donald Mariathas | 29 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | Northern | ||
| Ramiz Ihsan | 32 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | Dreux Sport | ||
| Saravana Kumar Durairaj | 36 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | Balbyniens 93 | ||
| Zain Zahir | 28 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Dreux Sport | ||
| Tom Liddiard | 28 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | Paris Université Club | ||
| James Dawkins | 25 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | Toulouse | ||
| Praveenkumar Durairaju | 32 | Left-handed | Left-arm medium | Aulnay | ||
| Haq Nawaz Chadhar | 30 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | Lisses | ||
| Spin bowler | ||||||
| Zika Ali | 26 | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | Paris 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.
Other players
The following French national team players have played first-class or List A cricket:
- Waseem Bhatti – played first-class cricket for Pakistan International Airlines in 1998 and 1999[25]
- Simon Hewitt – played first-class cricket for Oxford University in 1984[26]
- David Holt – played first-class cricket for Loughborough UCCE in 2005 and 2006[27]
- Paul Wakefield – played List A cricket for Cheshire in 1983[28]
References
- "ICC Rankings". International Cricket Council.
- France at CricketArchive
- "All T20 matches between ICC members to get international status". International Cricket Council. 26 April 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
- "France". Cricket Europe. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
- "A brief history of cricket in France". cricketeurope.net. Archived from the original on 5 November 2007. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
- "From Lads to Lord's: 1300 – 1600". 29 June 2011. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
- Scorecard of France v MCC, 24 September 1989 at Cricket Archive
- London Evening Standard 18 May 1864
- "The ignorant Olympians". cricinfo.com. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
- Scorecard of France v Netherlands, 26 June 1910 at Cricinfo
- France in Austria, 1996 at Cricket Archive
- 1997 European Nations Cup at Cricket Archive
- Scorecard of France v Germany, 23 August 1997 at Cricket Archive
- A hundred matches of the century, 2000 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
- 1998 European Championship at CricketEurope
- 2000 European Championship Archived 5 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine at CricketEurope
- 2001 ICC Trophy at CricketEurope
- Tables and results for the 2002 European Championship at the tournament's official site
- 2004 European Championships Division Two at the European Cricket Council website
- 2006 European Championship Division Two at CricketEurope
- "ICC World Twenty20 Europe Region Qualifier A Table - 2018 - ESPN". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
- 2005 ICC Trophy at Cricket Archive
- (in French) Archived 4 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine at francecricket.com
- "France". Cricinfo. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
- Waseem Bhatti at Cricket Archive
- Simon Hewitt at Cricket Archive
- David Holt at Cricket Archive
- Paul Wakefield at Cricket Archive
External links
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