Everybody would love to see Cricket’s version of Euro Cup being played. But is it a feasible option for ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board)?
World Cricket’s landscape has changed in the last 10-12 years with the emergence of new countries taking part in global ICC events in both the formats (50-overs and T20). And the European region is definitely not left behind, in-fact making some of the most noises for consistent inclusion of Associate members in all editions of ICC events. ICC’s decision of awarding Test status to Ireland in June 2017 meant that there are two (2) Full members with Test membership from the European region, England & Ireland. Then came the decision of awarding the 13th place in their newly proposed ICC ODI League to the winners of the ICC World Cricket League (50-overs format competition for top 8 Associate countries), and it was taken by Netherlands by virtue of winning the WCL Championships.
What was significant at that point of time is that another European country, Scotland, was also in the running for the Championship title. As it happened at the conclusion of the event, Netherlands won the title and have played against the top Full members in ODI matches, both overseas and at home. The decision of scrapping the Super League pathway for the next edition of World Cup (2027) was not well received either by the Associate boards or it’s players, as both Netherlands and Scotland have been deprived of the opportunity to have a go again for the Super League spot. European region does not have a tournament like Asia Cup for the top countries in the region. If one looks beyond the above mentioned 4 countries, there are others like Jersey, Guernsey, Germany, Italy, Denmark, to name a few, who have shown significant progress in their cricket programs in the last 5-6 years, including the pandemic years. Jersey, Denmark and Italy were part of ICC’s list-A competition pathway towards qualification for 2023 World Cup Qualifiers, and that makes a good number of teams beyond England and Ireland in the region to be playing 50-overs competitions.
ECB’s reluctance to play more regularly against the likes of Ireland, Scotland and Netherlands has been staggering to say the least, what with the fact that ECB can field multiple teams for different formats at the same time, much like India nowadays. Ireland and Netherlands got to play England in three (3) ODIs each during the Super League, and the next 4 years of FTP program does not have have them playing England again in an ODI series like this. England just recently played Ireland only for the 2nd time in Men’s T20Is since it’s inception during the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, and while England have lost to all three nations either in the 50-overs format or the T20 format, the ECB don’t event have a dedicated Lions team program with any of them.
Players and people running the administration of countries in Ireland, Scotland and Netherlands will benefit in a big way, if an Euro Cup of sorts will ever get formulated and executed, but right now, all depends on how ECB look at it and will they take that call to have it seen played in the future. England participation will always get the commercial value in terms of broadcast and marketing, and with the success the other members have had against England in the last 10-12 years, the viewership engagement will be much better than expected. Scotland haven’t even had the opportunity to play against England since their famous ODI win at home in 2018, that sparked the debate of having the Euro Cup that time as well.
