Czech Cricket have announced that they will be hosting the 2021 Men’s Central Europe Cup tournament at the Vinor cricket ground in Prague from May 21st – 23rd.
The Central Europe Cup has been taking place annually in Prague since 2014, and while the tournament was been played in the 50-overs format until 2018, the 2019 edition was played in T20 format with T20I team ranking points on offer. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic globally. The 2021 event will be played without any spectators on the ground, with strict COVID-19 protocols in place for players, officials, support staff and ground staffs to adhere to.
2021 Central Europe Cup Schedule
21st May 2021: Czech Republic vs Luxembourg @10am (Scorecard) and Austria vs Luxembourg @14:30pm (Scorecard)
22nd May 2021: Czech Republic vs Austria @10am (Scorecard) and Czech Republic vs Luxembourg @14:30pm (Scorecard)
23rd May 2021: Luxembourg vs Austria @10am (Scorecard) and Czech Republic vs Austria @14:30pm (Scorecard)
The 7th edition of the Central Europe Cup will see the host’s compete against teams from Austria and Luxembourg in a double round-robin group stage format. All matches will be played at Vinoř cricket ground, on both the Scott Page field and the Banks field. Each team will play each other twice over the three days, with Czech Cricket also making arrangements for all the 12 games to be streamed live. Malta were also scheduled to take part in the tournament, making it a 4-nation series, but unfortunately had to withdraw from the competition.
The tournament will provide much needed competitive match exposure for the countries, as they prepare themselves for the ICC European sub-regional qualifiers for 2022 T20 World Cup. Czech Republic have toured Malta in 2019 and Luxembourg in 2020 to take part in multi-nation T20I events. This will be Luxembourg’s fourth appearance in the tournament, while Austria will be making their maiden appearance.
Czech Republic Squad
Sudesh Wickramasekara (Captain), Kushalkumar Mendon, Hilal Ahmad, Naveed Ahmed, Arun Ashokan, Sabawoon Davizi, Sagar Madhireddy, Sahil Grover, Edward Knowles, Smit Patel, Paul Taylor, Satyajit Sengupta, Ali Waqar and Sameera Waththage
Luxembourg Squad
Joost Mees (Captain), Tony Whiteman, James Barker, Timothy Barker, Girish Venkateswaran, Vikram Vijh, William Cope, Aanand Pandey, Mohit Dixit, Atif Kamal Khan, Pankaj Malav, Shameek Vats, Ankush Nanda and Roshan Paul Vishwakarma
Previous Two Meetings – Czech Republic vs Luxembourg
Luxembourg 164/7 in 20 overs (Joost Mees 40, James Barker 39, Vikram Vijh 22, Tony Whiteman 20 n.o, Arun Ashokan 1/12, Naveed Ahmed 1/32, Sudesh Wickramasekara 1/37) beat Czech Republic 89/9 in 16.5 overs (Sabawoon Davizi 16, Arun Ashokan 11, Ankush Nanda 3/22, Pankaj Malav 2/10, Vikram Vijh 1/12) by 75 runs
Luxembourg 112 all out in 18.5 overs (James Barker 27, Tony Whiteman 16, William Cope 10, Naveed Ahmed 3/10, KushalKumar Mendon 3/20, Sudesh Wickramasekara 2/24, Arun Ashokan 1/13) lost to Czech Republic 115/5 in 18.5 overs (Sabawoon Davizi 27, Ed Knowles 17, Arun Ashokan 13, Vikram Vijh 2/24, Pankaj Malav 1/23) by 5 wickets
Austria are currently ranked higher in the ICC Men’s T20I team rankings (#39), compared to Czech Republic (#61) and Luxembourg (#62). National team captain Razmal Shigiwai and head coach Marcel Biersteker will be looking to collect maximum points from the tournament and go up the ladder in the rankings, which will be crucial in the future. The national players were part of the recently concluded European Cricket Series (ECS) T10 event held in Vienna, and will look to continue their form into the Central Europe Cup, and hope to lift the trophy in their maiden appearance.
Austria Squad
Razmal Shigiwai (Captain), Aman Habibullah, Aqib Iqbal, Bilal Zalmai, Jaweed Sadran, Kunal Joshi, Lakmal Kasturiarachchige, Mark Simpson-Parker, Mirza Ahsan, Navin Wijesekera, Rayhaan Ahmed, Zabiullah Ibrahimkhel, Zadran Sahel and Zeshan Arif
