Cricket in Serbia has been existant for more than a decade now, but the growth story has only begun in the past 5 years. The Cricket Board, Kriket federacija Srbije, got recognised as an Affiliate member country in 2015 and are currently an Associate member country since 2017 under International Cricket Council (ICC).
The Men’s national squad played their maiden T20I game in 2019 dueing the Hellenic Premier League tournament in Greece, and the last T20I game came during the 2021 tour of Bulgaria for a 4-nation event. The team are scheduled to play Bulgaria in June 2022, before they head out to Finland for the T20 World Cup Europe sub-regional qualifier, a tournament Head Coach Richard Black thinks will be a good one for the team, who are at most looking at performing at their level best against the opponents in their group that includes the likes of Romania and Isle of Man. Richard Black feels that them winning against any of their opponents in their group might go down as an upset, but for the players, who are all native Serbian, playing in an ICC event with global coverage via ICC.TV, it will be more about showing the Globe what Serbian Cricket looks and feels like.
Black, who is based in the UK, will join up with the squad shortly, as the back-up coaching staff is going through the preparations back home with the players chosen for the qualifier tournament. In fact, the Cricket Board have signed up with Ludimos, a Technology provider, and are getting the support in terms of video analysis for the domestic/practice games being played for coaching records and internal purposes.
The Cricket Board is currently hosting a Men’s team representing Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which is part of MCC’s 2022 Overseas tour itinerary in the European region, Select clubs and the National squad scheduled to play matches during this tour, which is a crucial step for the Board to have the players get more game-time in competitive environments (home or abroad).
Much like the vast Majority of Associate Cricket Boards, the availability of funds remains a key issue that halts progress towards the development of infrastructure for both outdoor training and indoor training. The availability of proper training facilities is an urgent matter for Black to focus on, but it again depends upon the funding that may come through for the Board in the near future.
Unlike many other countries in the European region, Serbian players are not able to play indoor matches during the harsh winter season. Lack of funding has also been one of the main reasons why Serbian team hasn’t been able to participate in European Cricket Network (ECN) events like European Cricket Championships or European Cricket League, something that Black feels is a missed opportunity for now for further development of the squad, playing against higher-ranked members in the region.
But this has not hindered the vision for the Board, as Black reveals that a program is being set-up to take the sport to the grassroots level in the country, and are currently looking at introducing a School program that will involve 4-5 schools getting the opportunity to attend sessions. Black also has the target to have a proper domestic structure to facilitate player pathway from grassroots level to junior and then to the senior ranks.
So, come what maybe Serbia’s performance in the upcoming sub-regional qualifier, Cricket in the country is charting it’s own growth path and will surely achieve success in the longer run.
