The 2022 European Cricket League (abbreviated as ECL22), also known as the 2022 Bet2Ball European Cricket League, was the second edition of the European Cricket League that was held at the Cartama Oval in Málaga, Spain. It was postponed from 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.
Background The European Cricket League was founded in 2019 by German cricketer Daniel Weston intended as a way to develop cricket in emerging nations in Europe as a cricket equivalent to football's UEFA Champions League. In 2020, it was announced the European Cricket League expanded from 8 teams to include the national club champions of 30 European countries. This came after Weston signed agreements with several cricket boards of European nations to ensure their domestic champions would be invited.
Spain was announced as the host for the 2021 and 2022 editions. The Cartama Oval in Málaga was chosen as the host city ahead of La Manga, Murcia, who were due to host in 2021. It was announced the 2022 edition would run from 7 February to 25 March 2022.
Participants The following teams were invited to take part as champions of their national leagues. The draw was made according to International Cricket Council seedings with England's ECB National Club Twenty20 champions Tunbridge Wells entering as top seeds. Jersey's Farmers expressed concern about the scheduling of the tournament due to the Jersey national cricket team's participation in the 2019–2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League and qualifiers for the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, as well as their players needing to use leave from their jobs to play. The reigning European Cricket League champions VOC Rotterdam were also invited back to participate.
It was announced that, due to issues with getting visas, that Petersburg Sporting would not be taking part in their group. They would be replaced by the Calpe Giants of Gibraltar.
Groups Teams participated in the 2022 European Cricket League Tunbridge Wells Svanholm Austrian Tigers Star CC Helsinki Titans Dreux Brigade Griffins Bjørvika Royal Tigers Indo Bulgarian Zagreb Sokol Carlton Brescia Cluj Prague CC Kings Olten Zeytinburnnu Zafir V.O.C Rotterdam MSC Frankfurt Alby Zalmi Ostend Exiles Malta Super Kings Calpe Giants HBS Craeyenhout Farmers Pak I Care Badalona Malo GEK Corfu Punjab Lions Nicosia
Group stage The Group Stage is to be played across the first 5 weeks of the tournament, with each Group lasting a week. Each week starts with a 3-day round-robin tournament, from which the top 3 progress to a Super 3 playoff. The bottom two teams face off in an eliminator, with the winner going on to play the team who finished 4th. The winner of that game then plays the 3rd place team from the Super 3 playoff, while the Top 2 from that playoff play each other in the first Qualifier. The loser of that game and the winner of the third eliminator then play in the second qualifier. The winners of the Qualifiers then play in the group final to decide the overall Group Winner.
During the Group A final between Tunbridge Wells and Dreux, the match went viral after Dreux's Wahid Abdul and Tunbridge Wells' Chris Williams exchanged phone celebrations.
Group A
Fixtures
Super 3
Playoffs
Eliminators
Qualifiers and Final
Group B
Super 3
Eliminators
Qualifiers and Final
Group C
Super 3
Eliminators
Qualifiers and Final
Group D
Super 3
Eliminators
Qualifiers and Final
Group E
Super 3
Eliminators
Qualifiers and Final
Championship Week The Champions Week features a slightly modified version of the Group Stage model. The 5 group winners play in a double round-robin format from the Monday to Thursday. The top 2 teams after this progress to the 1st Qualifier, while 3rd and 4th go to the Eliminator. The loser of the Qualifier and the Winner of the Eliminator then face off for the right to play the Qualifier winner in the Championship Final. The teams moving on to the Finals week are: Team Tunbridge Wells Brigade Brescia Alby Zalmi Pak I Care Badalona Due to adverse weather conditions in Malaga, the first 3 days of competition were suspended. The games were shortened to 5 overs a side, with 10 games on Day 1 (Thursday), and 10 games on Day 2 (Friday), with the Saturday now acting as the Final Day of the tournament
Round robin
Eliminator, Qualifiers and Final
Statistics
Most Runs RunsPlayerTeam477Chris Williams Tunbridge Wells196129.81248.43262454445Alex Williams Tunbridge Wells1958*40.45223.61253437433Muhammad Babar Pak I Care Badalona207525.47220.91241753384Babar Hussain Brescia19102*25.60193.93123427361Graeme McCarter Brigade1856*25.78184.18242828356Ali Raza Islam Brescia165425.42215.75241637310Yasir Dullu Brescia1966*20.66174.15133121282Azam Khalil Alby Zalmi1753*20.14157.54102518262Sudesh Wickramasekara Prague CC Kings676*52.40231.85221428261Zeeshan Kukikhel Royal Tigers105432.62193.33222522Source: European Cricket Network
Most Wickets PlayerTeam23Muhammad Babar Pak I Care Badalona2010.438.003/47.8221Dave Smith Tunbridge Wells189.388.203/66.85Ryan MacBeth Brigade1811.669.073/107.7119Ali Raza Islam Brescia177.577.513/06.0518Iftikhar Hussain Brigade1713.509.343/108.6617Muhammad Kamran Pak I Care Badalona1710.946.883/39.52Shehroz Ahmed Pak I Care Badalona2011.358.904/87.6416Tas Qureshi Alby Zalmi1611.508.002/78.62Matt Barker Tunbridge Wells1814.008.903/89.43Neeraj Tiwari Punjab Lions Nicosia910.509.333/116.75Source: European Cricket Network
References