Cricket in Serbia

Amateur cricket began in Serbia in 2007, when 2 clubs: Stari Grad and Mirijevo were founded in Belgrade. Haris Dajč, Vladimir Ninković, Darko Ivić and Nenad Dugić started organizing cricket trainings with the help of ex-Maharashtra player Mr. Amberish Sarang in October 2007. Soon new members and enthusiasts were added. With the help and support from Ms. Katherine Lawrence from the embassy of United Kingdom, as well as gentlemen Nandikesh Nayar and Vimal Kumar Yadav from the embassy of Republic of India, the full equipment was obtained as well as new instructors and players.

In 2009, the Serbia national cricket team, playing under the identity of the Belgrade Cricket Association, played their first international match against Slovenian club Mezica CC, winning one match, and losing one. The Serbian Cricket Federation was founded in 2009, and since then have been working hard flat out on development all over the country ^[1]

Current state and development

Currently, Serbia have 120 registered cricketers, with plans to expand that to hopefully around 500 in the next few years. Although Serbia are not an ICC member yet, cricket has got the support of the Serbian government, who donate money to Serbian cricket. As a result of that, and their success of finding a number of sponsorship deals, Serbian cricket is completely self-supportive financially.

One very good thing about cricket in Serbia is it's focus on local development and getting the game to the mainstream, which is very unusual among Europe. As a result, the vast majority of the Serbian players are local, from the mainstream population.

Serbia Cricket have pulled of a major victory for development by securing recognition for cricket as a mainstream sport by the government and the media. This provides Serbia cricket with a fund source, as well as creating interest in new markets for the game. Another byproduct of this is that the domestic and national team matches are covered by the major Serbian newspapers.^[2]

Serbia was accepted as the 58th Affiliate Member of the International Cricket Council in June 2015.^[3]

Future Plans

Serbia's plans for 2015 included: Further promotion of the game of cricket in Serbia, expanding player basis and improving training conditions, providing basic playing facilities, organization of the first domestic competitions: cup and championship and organization of the first international match of Serbia National Team and putting Serbia on the world cricket map.^[4]

References