When the European Cricket Network (ECN) was launched back in 2019 by Daniel Weston and his investors, The goal was to simply be a digital home to cricket and it’s growth in the Associate member boards in the ICC European region. ECN had a dedicated team using technological advancements in the digital world to create a platform for entertainment, promotion and digital fan engagement around the International/domestic cricket being played by countries and respective local clubs in those countries, catering to a global audience via media partners across the globe.
And a massively successfully venture it has been in the past 4 years, bringing a big period of 8-9 months of non-stop cricketing action across various countries in the region, with tournaments being played in the T10 format, that includes European Cricket League (ECL), European Cricket Series (ECS) and European Cricket Championships (ECC). Also added to the portfolio now are European Cricket International (ECI) and T20 series (with ranking points) organized between the Cricket boards in the region having partnerships with them.
While the Asian region and Africa region have their own regional cricket councils in the form of Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and Africa Cricket Association (ACA), and ACC being a major entity present since the last three (3) decades in the region having major marquee events like the Men’s Asia Cup. ACA have had a stop-start-stop-start phase in their overall years since inception, but are getting a lot done now recently in terms of creating tournaments specifically for Associate member boards in the African region. The European region are one of the heaviest regions under the International Cricket Council (ICC) in terms of number of associated cricket boards, but apart from the regional office of ICC Europe, the region never had a similar entity like ACC and ACA to do something for the Associates in the region. And it is where ECN is filling up the gap since the past 4 years now and are set for steady growth in terms of boards signing agreements with them to help in the growth of the sport in the respective countries for both International and domestic teams.
And Daniel Weston has put in a lot of efforts to put up a stupendous show with the production and delivery team to bring all the action live. And definitely when comparing, they do a far better job than what is currently catered for ICC tournaments featuring Associate member countries, which is produced and delivered in their agreement of IMG. The events put together by them have been providing great exposure for club cricket in all the countries involved with them, and the marquee events even provide financial assistance to the boards and the clubs, which is crucial for the players to pursue the sport and be financially secured by their clubs, because with very limited (non-existent when compared to required) funding from ICC pool of revenues bought by selling of Media Rights only for their marquee events not coming through much because of the irrational demand and non-uniformity in the distribution among the Full member countries in the next 8-year cycle as well, ECN ‘s work is what will matter the most in their professional lives (both the clubs and players).
