Zurich Crickets 2nd XI chalk up a tie   (26th June)

In their 40-over league match, ZCCC’s 2nd XI chased 226 to finish the match with a last ball tie. 

The team showed great character, energy and support for one another, and a thrilling finish was a deserving end to the 2nd XI’s first 40-over outing in the National League. 

Click on the link for the report

ZCCC win the 2021 Zuoz U13 tournament (12^th/13th June)

Congratulations to the Under 13 team on a further success in 2021.

For the full report, click on this link

For the scorecards, click on this link

ZCCC and the 2021 Zuoz U15 tournament (12^th/13th June)

While the team had been dominant in Geneva, the Zuoz tournament demanded that the Under 15s show some grit. The team managed to come back from some tough situations to win the trophy. 

The festival, hosted by the Lyceum Alpinum and organised by Zurich Crickets CC, has been running for 16 years and this year featured U9, U11, U13 and U15 tournaments, plus a girls match, all running in parallel.

Junior teams from across the country participiated with over 150 youths & girls involved.                              see the full report                   see Zuoz scorecards

ZCCC wins Premier League match and Dayn gets a 'fifer' (13th June)

Zurich Crickets fought hard to comfortably win their Premier League match against Berne CC at the Schonau ground. Opting to bat first, the wicket proved difficult to bat on, the bowling was tight, and three wickets by over 5 for 13 runs was a rude awakening. The calm and patient Ninad, though, steadied the reeling ship and with Nic began to rebuild. But in over 13, 4 for 28 runs! Despite this, the middle order of Dayn (10), Lavan (19) and Eden (20*) all helped grind out the runs with the experienced Ninad (29). Character shone through and the score clambered, at times painstakingly slowly, to 129 all out in the 38th over. Batting all the 40 overs is key. An added bonus were the 10 runs awarded to Zurich Crickets for the slow over rate. The target was 140. Defendable?

The beginning of an answer was not long in coming. Two sharp slip catches were held gloriously by Westy off Keeran (4-12-1) and Lavan (4-14-1) in the 2nd and 3rd overs. They were then perfectly supported by the economical Abdullah (5-16-1) and Doug (8-20-2) who struck in the 15th and 16th overs to remove two key batsmen. 52 for 4! A few overs of respite follow, and the score inches to 60. However, Dayn’s second over produces a catch straight to Ninad at mid-on and then he bowls the next man first ball. Berne is on the ropes and as soon as Dayn is given the ball for a third time, he produces an LBW. His 4th over and again the stumps are rocked hard and now it is 78 for 8 and 61 runs are needed. And all the while Noorkhan had been piling on pressure from the other end with 3 fine overs. But bowling in tandem now with Dayn is Doug and he immediately produces a result – bowled. Three overs later and Dayn has his 5th and the figures are impressive (6.4-15-5). Zurich Crickets win by 50 runs. Convincing but by no means straightforward, and all 11 players have played their part.                                                                  Match scorecard

First senior league match of the 2021 Swiss cricket season (5th June)

The Pickwick T20 between ZCCC’s 1^st and 2^nd XIs was the first league match of the 2021 Swiss cricket season, and with the 1^st XI winning by 69 runs (203 for 6) the result was clear, but how the 2^nd XI (133 for 9) has progressed from 2020.

Winning the toss, 1^st XI openers Noorkhan and Baljit were immediately relentless in their run-making. Noorkhan’s blistering 56 off 24 balls and Baljit’s slightly more measured 54 off 35 meant that the 100 came up in the eighth over! Saru, Kavi, Attaullah battled hard, but it was Suleman’s economy and pace that produced the first wicket, caught and bowled. And the second and third were not long in coming when Shankar bowled newcomer Prafull and then forced a catch off Baljit to Saru in the deep. Resuming on 125 for 3 in the 12^th over, long-standing (12 years?) batting partners Ruan (25) and Nic (22) put together an excellent 50 in five overs before Kavi forced Nic to edge one to keeper Max. A perfect 20 blitzed off 12 balls by the in-form Lavan took the score to over 200, but not before Attaullah had Ruan caught by rookie Khalid and Kavi had produced another catch, this time by Doug cutting to Vadim at point.

The chase began watchfully but openers Max, Khawar and also Latif fell early and cheaply. In the 3^rd and 4^th overs Lavan and Keeran struck, two catches to keeper Nic and another to Baljit.  At 17 for 3 after 4 overs the 2^nd XI was reeling and Gokul and Shankar had their work cut out. They played catch-up well, though, and their flurry of runs took them to 65 by the end of the 8^th over when, unfortunately, Gokul’s brisk 28 off 14 balls came to an end when he was adjudged LBW to Abdullah. However, they were back in touch, but sadly his partner Shankar (16) succumbed all too soon afterwards to Doug. A collapse ensued and for 20 runs Kavi, Saru, Suleman and Attaullah were dismissed. The pressure of some fine bowling and tight fielding brought results. Abdullah added two more wickets with catches to the safe hands of Keeran and Noorkhan, Noorkhan himself forced another catch for Keeran, while Prafull lured Attaullah out of his crease enabling Nic to whip off the bails. Undaunted, Vadim (15) and Khalid (29) had plans of their own and set about scoring freely and in the space of 20 balls, 8 of them dot balls, they put together 47 impressive runs to finish on 133 for 9.                                                                           Match scorecard  

Emerging Player of the Year Trophies (5th June)

Two trophies will be awarded annually to the best emerging Swiss players of the year. There will be one for Emerging Batsman of the Year and one for Emerging Bowler of the Year. Players can be a maximum of 22 years (cut-off date is 23^rd birthday) and points will be awarded to the players based on their batting, bowling, and also fielding performances in the Swiss senior leagues.

The trophies will be awarded for the first time during the presentation of the Cricket Switzerland National League finals on Sunday 10th October 2021 by the Henderson family who have donated the trophies.

See Cricket Switzerland article   

New Zurich Crickets pitch at Embrach   (May 2021)

The Embrach Project: scenic, state-of-the-art Embrach pitch becomes the 6th artificial strip in Switzerland. It has been a long process, with ups and downs, and in the end a race against the clock to finish in time. The brainchild of Nomads Cricket Club, Zurich Crickets Cricket Club then joined hands with Nomads CC in 2020. Together, plans were developed and pushed to get this project underway, over the finishing line and ready for the 2021 season.

Click on the link for the full report  

ZCCC Under 13s finish runners-up at GRYCC Summer Cup (April 24th/25th) 

After a hiatus in competitive cricket due to COVID-19, GRYCC hosted teams at

Bout-du-Monde again for a spring version of the Romande Cup. Teams from Basel Dragons, Gingins, a combined GRYCC and Cossonay and Zurich Crickets competed. The format was 18 overs with a round-robin followed by a final between the top two teams.

Click on the link for the full report

Rules and restrictions for sports from 19th April

For Under-20s: There are no restrictions for this age group. Spectators are not allowed.

For Over-20s: Only amateur competitions and matches involving up to 15 people can be played in non-contact sports like cricket. Groups involving up to 15 people can train. Outdoors a mask must be worn or the required distance of 1.5 metres respected.

Indoors it will be necessary both to wear a mask and respect distancing rules. 

Junior cricket will continue to enjoy fixtures both at home and away. However, the start of the senior leagues has been delayed until further notice. In addition, Cicket Switzerland's planned series of iT20s in Warsaw, Poland, on 5th & 6th June 2021, has been cancelled. 

Zurich Crickets Cricket Club 2021 Annual General Meeting

 On Tuesday 16th March the ZCCC Annual General Meeting will take place via video conference, 19:00 - 20:45. The Agenda for the meeting has been sent to all the members. 

Cricket Switzerland's proposed new 40-over league in 2021  (December 13th)

Zurich Crickets CC are seeded 5th and will be in the premier division.

The growth of the domestic game and the desire to progress the senior men's game ahead of admission to the ICC are the main driving forces behind the decision to have a two tier 40-over league format in 2021.

The top tier will be called the Cricket Switzerland Premier League (CSPL) and will consist of eight teams, while the second tier will be named the Cricket Switzerland National League (CSNL).

The league committee compiled data for all the teams over the seasons 2017 - 2019 (3 years) and the top eight teams have been chosen based on the number of average points gained per match in the CSPL games played over the last 3 seasons.

Click on the link for the complete article