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HISTORY OF CRICKET IN SLOVENIA
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The Origins Cricket was born in Slovenia (as far as we know) in August 1974. Borut Čegovnik, then aged 13, had been introduced to our sport in Birchington, Kent, while on an extended visit to his penpal. Liking the game, and having been coached extensively by his host's father, he decided that it was exactly the kind of thing that Mežica na Koroškem needed, and so acquired the necessary equipment to get started. This little mountain village is in the Karavanke mountains on the border with Austria. The local boys took to it enthusiastically, and single-wicket games (they only had one bat) were soon a regular sight. Initially, bruising to the shins was not uncommon, as they played with proper cricket balls but no pads. This deficiency was rectified some time later, we understand. They had a copy of the Laws of Cricket, and these Laws were religiously adhered to; the pitch was correctly marked according to the dimensions specified, and from time to time queries, disputes and confusion were cleared up by consulting their battered handbook mid-game. There were all of the features you might expect - lbws, run outs, catches, bowled, wides, and no-balls. This was proper cricket. 8-ball overs were bowled, in accordance with the then practice in Australia, the boys in Mežica finding that it speeded things up a bit. A total of 17 tournaments were played in the period 1974-1982, with cups awarded and scores kept. One tournament was abandoned, and there was a temporary hiatus in proceedings, when their bat broke, but a new one was soon acquired. In total, 24 people played, most of whom have expressed serious interest in resuming their cricket careers. We are advised that spectacular catches were the order of the day. Cricket was played in Mežica until 1982, when several of the ringleaders moved to Ljubljana.
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The Resurgence 1997 saw cricket restarted in Slovenia with the formation of a Ljubljana team to play against a visiting Dutch team. In its first 2 years Ljubljana CC played 'friendlies' against teams from Austria, Italy, Holland and Switzerland as well as a match against a Sri Lankan Ambassador's XI from Vienna (as the British Ambassador's XI from Slovenia). We managed to win the Botschafter (Ambassador's) Cup in the first two years it was held. In 1998, Ljubljana played its first 'home' games in sports stadia in Ljubljana, but were able to obtain a five-year lease on a site at Valburga pri Smledniku. In 1999, Ljubljana entered the Austrian trophy for the first time and made the semi-final before losing to Prague, and also entered the Lodi Tournament in Italy for the first time, only, however, managing a disappointing fifth place. However, in 2000 we reached the final of the Lodi tournament, losing to Malta in the final and again reach the second round of the Austrian trophy. The major event of 2000 was Ljubljana CC's debut in the Austrian Open League where we played reasonably well, eventually finishing fourth in the table. Had we been able to snatch victory against Lords CC instead of losing by the narrowest margin of 1 run we may have finished even higher. 2000 was also notable for the first ever appearance of Slovenia as an official cricket nation in the five-nation European Representative Tournament, held in Vienna in August. Sadly, Slovenia only finished fourth, suffering because of a narrow 6-run loss to Croatia. We had a strong victory against Finland and were competitive, but not strong enough to win, in our games against hosts Austria and eventual winners Norway. We also competed for the first of what we hope is many Ljubljana-Concordia cup matches, which we can happily report is safe in our possession in Ljubljana. In 2001, Ljubljana finished sixth of eleven in the Austrian league having had a terrible start to the season, and, in the greatest day since the formation of the club, we won the six-team Lodi tournament in June. 2002 was another season in the Austrian league, but, very disappointingly, we lost all of the league fixtures we played. On a more positive note, the club expanded well, with many new members joining. Slovenia travelled to Zagreb, Croatia for a three team European Representative Tournamnet. Slovenia finished runners-up after beating Croatia and losing to Finland. In 2003 our off-the-field activities expanded well, and cricket was introduced to several schools in and around Ljubljana. These youngsters are the future of cricket in Slovenia. Ljubljana Cricket Club also won the inaugural Velden sixes cricket tournament. 2004 and 2005 have seen the continuation and growth of the schools programme and victories in an ever-stronger Velden Sixes Competition. Furthermore, promotion to ICC Affiliate Status has opened new doors for the growth of cricket in the country. 2004 saw Slovenia successfully hosting the European Representative tournament with Croatia, Finland, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Bulgaria playing against each other and against Slovenia. Various social events took place including a presentation ceremony in the Town Hall. The event was a huge success and a feather in the caps of Slovenia. In 2006 Slovenia travelled to Antwerp, Belgium for the newly titled European Championship Division 4. There we beat Luxembourg and narrowly lost to Cyprus and slightly less narrowly to Finland. It also saw the first official European 20/20 match, which saw Finland victorious once more against us. 2006 also saw us build practice nets at Polje.
2007 sees the 10th
anniversary of the first ever game and
hopefully many other highlights.
Many
thanks to David Smith for these photographs. This match took
place between The Hague cc and The President of Slovenia's XI
marking the debut of Ljubljana cricket
club. |
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