This holiday weekend, 22-23 August, sees a major event and a bold step towards ensuring a more secure financial future for Hungarian cricket. Filmed and streamed live by the ambitious digital platform, the European Cricket Network, four teams do battle at the GB Oval in Sződliget just north of Budapest. Looking ahead, next year's winners will go on to face their fellow national champions in the European Cricket League, the recently established Champions League of cricket. The inaugural tournament in 2019 was beamed live in 120 countries.
Cricket in Hungary has come a long way since a Sri-Lankan diplomat arranged the first matches in 1996. Ten years later, the Hungarian Cricket Association (HCA) was formed and became affiliated with the sport’s global governing body, the International Cricket Council. Until now, the game has been a niche sport played by enthusiastic expats and a scattering of Hungarians, with ad-hoc friendlies arranged against occasional foreign XIs.
Over in Germany, Australian-born, German international cricketer Daniel Weston set up the European Cricket League (ECL) in 2018 after successfully launching German Cricket TV two years earlier.
In 2019, in La Manga, Spain, eight teams from Girona to Saint Petersburg played games of ten overs each over three days, the key being live streaming and broadcasting on the European Cricket Network platform. Cricket enthusiasts across four continents could follow the action in this fast-paced, short-over format.
“What we’re hoping to do is create a platform for the game to develop across Europe from grass-roots level up,” says ECL spokesman Mark Lovell. “We’re trying to make it accessible to everyone, youngsters, women, expats looking for their cricket fix while they’re based abroad…”
La Manga will again be the host in 2021, with domestic champions from England, Scotland and Ireland among the 16 teams taking part. Hungary’s winners in 2021 will join Europe's cricket elite for the grand finale in 2022.
“This should give us far greater exposure,” says an enthusiastic Paul Ainsworth of the Hungarian Cricket Association. “As well as this weekend’s event being streamed and broadcast live, we’re aiming to get the major Hungarian TV channels interested. We would love more Hungarians to be involved in the sport.”
The two-day event here is part of the European Cricket Series of 400 ten-over matches across the continent. Revenue should help fund the renovation of the pavilion at the GB Oval in Sződliget, 25km north of Budapest, improve facilities and attract more touring teams.
European Cricket Series Hungary, 22-23 August, from 9am
GB Oval, Új utca 15, 2133 Sződliget. See full schedule here. Admission free!
Trains leave Budapest Nyugati every 30 minutes for Sződ-Sződliget, also accessible by car on the M2. Journey time is 30 minutes. The ground is on Új utca, a short walk from Sződ-Sződliget station.
