Finland is now ranked 57th in the T20 rankings of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Federation, one of
the ICC’s most rapidly developing global cricket formats. The ranking improved thanks to the recent Finland-Sweden T20i series, which ended 2–2. Next, the Finnish Cricket Bears will play in the European Ten10 Cricket Championships (ECC) in Spain starting next week.” Progressing in the international rankings has not been easy, as there has been little access to international matches due to the coronavirus. Finland played excellently against Sweden in the tournament at the Kerava National Ground, and the team management are expecting a great experience from the ECC tournament ahead, which includes the top 15 national teams in European cricket,” says Cricket Finland’s Andrew Armitage.
The ECC tournament, which covers over 100 matches, will be held from 13 September to 8 October 2021. The European Cricket Network, ECN, streams matches through its own platform. ECC games are played in the T10 game format that lasts about an hour and a half. Under head coach Matt Jenkinson, Finnish Cricket Bears go to Spain with largely the same team which faced Sweden. With Pusthay, Rehman and Padhaal missing out, the team will be complemented by Parveen Kumar (Greater Helsinki Cricket Club) and Imran “Mani” Muhammad (Empire Cricket Club), who both will be making their international debuts. “Cricket Bears squad consists of players who also play domestic series in different formats. The Bears are therefore in excellent shape in terms of both recent playing form and match fitness with regards to the ECC tournament,” says Armitage.
Finnish Cricket Bears ECC Team:
Nathan Collins (capt.)
Hariharan Dandapani
Peter Gallagher
Raaz Mohammad
Aravind Kumar Mohan
Muhammad Imran
Areeb Abdul Quadir
Parveen Kumar
Jonathan Scamans
Naveed Shahid
Amjad Sher
Mahesh Tambe
Matthew Jenkinson
Further information:
ICC Men’s National Teams T20 ranking list: https://www.icc-cricket.com/rankings/mens/team-rankings/t20i
Andrew Armitage, National Development Director, Cricket Finland, +358 50 323 7099
Photos of the Finnish team: https://bit.ly/3hjSZJ3 The release was circulated by Maija Hyötyläinen, Communications, Cricket Finland
