NEW ADDITIONS
The Cricket Finland national selection team of Head Coach Matt Jenkinson, bowling coach Gerard Brady and skipper Nathan Collins have been busy reviewing performances at the back end of the summer ‘23 cricket season!
As a result, three new players have been invited to join the Bears squad late in the summer:
Hariharan Dandapani (Empire), Junaid Khan (SKK) & Nicholas Salonen.
Hari & Junaid will be familiar to league opposition players this summer and this selection is just reward for their great performances, while Nic is a Finnish citizen who has played most of his cricket in SA plus most recently in Switzerland and who has made a very positive impression on the selectors and squad players at training and intra-squad matches.
More players’ strong performances have been noticed and you should expect to see some more invites to be announced for the upcoming winter season, which will be critical preparation time for the ICC T20 WC Regional Qualifiers in 2024.
TEN10 SELECTIONS
Two exciting ECN T10 events are fast approaching! Selectors name in total 19 different players for two events, from those squad players available to travel.
The first will pitch the Finnish Bears in Ten10 international matches against the host Italy and Austria in Rome on the weekend of 23rd and 24th September. Given these so called “ECI” matches are not ICC official fixtures, so the selectors are permitted to choose from our squad’s Pathway Players, not yet formally eligible to represent Finland officially. This represents a super opportunity for three such future potential Finnish national players – Junaid Khan, Avashesh Kumar and Farrukh Zeb – to now get a taste for international cricket along with the rest of the Bears squad players selected. Additionally, Amjad Sher has been chosen to lead as new T10 captain for Rome.
This event will be rapidly followed by the ICC-sanctioned T10 European Cricket Championships, which will see the Bears fight off for the top spot in Group D against Ireland XI, Hungary, Austria and Turkey from 5th to 7th October in Malaga. Finals week for the group winners will be played 16th to 20th October. Warm congratulations to all selected players and for the great support from all other squad members in preparation for these events!
You will be able to follow all the matches live on the ECN website here: link
Yours in cricket,
Cricket Finland Team
