Cricket in Germany has a history going back to 1858, when a group of people from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

founded the first German cricket club in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. Several more teams were later founded in Berlin and the rest of Germany, as well as a national federation. Cricket lingered on over the following century, with occasional visits of German players to England and British and other foreign teams touring in Germany, but only when it got a foothold in the German universities in the 1980s did the number of German cricket clubs and players start to grow again. Until recently, much of the cricket was played by British soldiers stationed in Germany. However, in recent years the popularity of the game has increased due to an influx of migrants and refugees from cricket-playing countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan. The national organisation for the game is currently the

German Cricket Federation The German Cricket Federation (german: Deutscher Cricket Bund e.V.) is the national governing body for cricket in Germany. It is commonly known as the DCB. Its current headquarters is in Buxtehude, Germany. The association is responsible for men ...

(''Deutscher Cricket Bund'', DCB), founded in 1988. In 2016 there are about 220 cricket teams in the country, up from 70 in 2012. By 2019, the number of teams had increased to 350.

International team

Germany has a

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

that takes part in the European Championship and has also taken part in the ICC Trophy.

Regional associations

German Cricket is organized in several regions, which all have their own leagues. The winner of those will play for the national championship. Those regional associations are: *'' Bayrischer Cricket Verband (Bavaria)''
SV Lohhof Cricket near Munich

Cricket in and around Munich

Cricket Club of Bayern Munich

Lufthansa Services Cricket Club

Munich Cricket Club

Munich International Cricket Club

Pak Orient Cricket Club

Erlangen Cricket Club.e.V.
**Serendib Sports Club
Nuremberg Cricket Club
Other clubs include: *
Cricket Club Passau e.V.

*'' Berliner Cricket Verband''
Berliner Cricket Committee

*'' Ostdeutscher Cricket Verband (ODCV)'' Bundesliga Ost: **BFC Viktoria 1889*
Rugby Cricket Dresden

Britannia 92

Berlin Cricket Club
**Der Sports and Social Club zu Berlin und Brandenburg (DSSC)* **Reinickendorfer Füchse (RFCC)*
Havelländischer Cricket Club Werder (HCCW)

USG Chemnitz e.V. Abt. Cricket Club (USG CCC)
Verbandsliga Ost: ** Bangladesh CC Berlin* **BFC Viktoria 1889*
Rugby Cricket Dresden

Britannia 92

Berlin Cricket Club
** Reinickendorfer Füchse (RFCC)*
Havelländischer Cricket Club Werder (HCCW)

USG Chemnitz e.V. Abt. Cricket Club (USG CCC)
** Bautzen Cricket Club* ** AC Berlin (ACB)* Britannia, BFC Viktoria 1889, Reinickendorfer Füchse (RFCC), AC Berlin, Dresden, HCCW, Bautzen, USG CCC and Berlin CC field a team in the Verbandsliga too.* field a team in the T20-League Other teams: **ACCB **Stragglers Cricket Club **PCCB (Pakistan Cricket Club Berlin)
*'' Hessischer Cricket Verband'' **Cosmopolitan Cricket Club Hassloch e.V. **Darmstadt Cricket Club (TH & FH Darmstadt)
Frankfurt Cricket Club (FCC) e.V.
**Ruder- und Cricket-Club Hanau e.V. **FSV Hellas 71 e.V., Abteilung Cricket **Olympia Frankfurt e.V., Abteilung Cricket **Rodgau Cricket Club e.V. **SKG Walldorf e.V., Abteilung Cricket **SV Wiesbaden 1899 e.V., Abteilung Cricket

''North German Cricket Federation''

HSV-Cricket

Oldenburg

HICC

THCC Rot-Gelb
**Pak Alemi **Buxtehude **Lüneburg Panthers
Fallingbostel CC
**Jacobs Universität CC Bremen
Hannover
**CC der Universität Göttingen

Kiel Cricket Club

*'' Nordrhein-Westfalen Cricket Union'' **Köln Cricket Club e.V. **Bonn Cricket Society e.V. **Bonn Royals Cricket Club **ASV Köln - CICC **Cologne Cricket Club **Bonn Cricket Club e.V. **Köln Xtremers Cricket Club
Dusseldorf Blackcaps
** Bochum Cricket Club e.V. ** Rheindahlen Crusaders CC (based in Mönchengladbach) **Dortmund Cricket Club e.V. **Mülheim a.d. Ruhr Cricket Club e.V. **Deutsche Welle CC **Bonn Veterans CC **Duisburg Cricket Club e.V.
Cologne Challengers

Golden Stars Cricket Club Bonn

*
Baden Württemberg Cricket Verband
'
Kaiserslautern University CC

Cricket Lions Karlsruhe CC
**Karlsruher CC
Heidelberg Rohrbach Stallions
**TSG-Ketsch **Stallions-TSG Wiesloch CC
Pak Freiburg Cricket Club, Freiburg

Freiburg Nomads CC

Cosmopolitan Cricket Club Mannheim

Stuttgart Cricket Eagles e.V.

TV. St. Ingbert 1881

Stuttgart Cricket Verein e.V.

Club cricket

A feature of club cricket in Germany is that many clubs experience rapid fluctuation in membership, which is composed largely of

expats An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

playing the sport. Clubs which cannot join a league (mostly due to lack of available members) may still take part in independently arranged friendly matches. The club's wicket can vary from a grass pitch (grown on the natural soil) to coconut fibre wickets on concrete, flicx® pitches, and do-it-yourself constructions. The size of the field also varies, from a good club size (English standard) to double hockey pitches which the club hires, and unusual fields such as that at

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

, which is large, but has a bank that rises up to 4 metres above the level of the square. Indoor cricket is played in various tournaments throughout the winter, mostly in German 3 field gyms, or in indoor tennis halls, in

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

format.

Leagues

The majority of cricket clubs are organised into six regional leagues. Each region hosts one or two leagues of 6 or 7 clubs. Matches are over 50 overs. In two of the leagues the first and second placed teams meet in play-offs, and the winner of the play-off is the regional champion. At the end of the regional season, national play-offs are held: the northern league champions (NDCV (North), NRCU (North Rhine Westphalia), BCV (Berlin)) play against each other, and the southern teams (HCV (Hesse), BWCV (Baden Württemberg), BYCV (Bavaria)) do likewise. The overall northern and southern winners then play off for the German Championship. Independent of the regional leagues are 20/20 tournaments which are mostly invitational tournaments initiated by one team.

References

External links