ICC U19 Cricket World Cup Europe Qualifier (formerly ICC Europe Under-19 Championships) are a series of regular

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

tournaments organised by the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC) as the European qualifier for the

Under-19 Cricket World Cup The ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup is an international cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) contested by national under-19 teams. First contested in 1988, as the Youth World Cup, it was not staged again u ...

. The tournament was originally organised by the

European Cricket Council The European Cricket Council (ECC) is an international body which oversaw cricket in European countries other than the Test-playing cricketing nation of England, the only European Full Member of the ICC for the duration of the ECC's existence. ...

(ECC). Traditionally there have always been two divisions though the nature of these divisions has varied strongly over the years.

History

The first edition of the tournament was played in 1999 in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. The teams were split across two divisions, the more developed cricketing nations of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, Netherlands and Denmark joining

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 ...

in the A Championship and three other associates, Gibraltar, Italy and Germany forming the B Championship. England won the tournament easily and would not participate again. Following this inaugural competition, the higher, eventually referred to as Division One, was played every year between Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands and Denmark. Every other year, the Division Two tournament was also played alongside. In 2003, France debuted in the second division, later joined by Belgium and Israel in 2005 and by Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man in 2007. In 2003, a different approach was taken with all the teams across both divisions participating in a preliminary qualification round. However, this did not affect the make-up of the divisions whatsoever as the four more developed nations easily overpowered the others and cemented their position in Division One. After this the system was abandoned and the old format was reintroduced the following year. A fresh initiative for the 2006 edition was a new two-day format for Division One. The aim of this was to provide the players with some practice for the style of multi-day play encountered in the Intercontinental Cup. The one-day format returned the following year. 2007 saw the two divisions being played separately for the first time when Division One was located in Ireland, but the nine-team Division Two was played in

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

. This was Jersey's first ever European cricket competition. Another change was made to the division format in 2009 when Jersey and Guernsey were relocated into Division One. This evened out the number of teams across the divisions and a win from Jersey over Denmark demonstrated their ability to play in the top flight. As a result, the two teams remained for the 2010 tournament where both teams performed even better than the previous year. Plans have been unveiled that in 2011, for the first time, there will be a chance of promotion from Division Two. The total number of participants will also be increased from thirteen to fifteen.ICC Europe Tournaments
icc-europe.org 18 February 2011

Tournament results

Division One

Division Two

Participating teams (Division One)

;Legend * – Champions * – Runners-up * – Third place * – Hosts *X – Qualified but withdrew

References