Captain: Jason Barry
Ranking: *
Website: Estonia Cricket Association
Early beginnings - rapid progress
Remarkable progress has been made in the short history of cricket in Estonia from the game’s introduction in 1998.
The roots of cricket in Estonia are traced to an Estonian “Little K” who fell in love with the game after he went backpacking around Australia. He helped to establish the game in Estonia with an Indian restaurant owner who settled in the country called Anil.
Matches were played in the middle of a horse-racing track - the Tallinn Hippodrome - in the country’s capital. An artificial wicket was added to enable a truer bounce while batting. The outfield was also improved and it is still Estonia's main ground today.
Current Estonia captain and president, Jason Barry, who has played cricket in no less than 128 different countries and terrortories, arrived in the country in 1999 and helped found the Estonian Cricket Association.
Estonia Cricket Association - development
Since their formation the Estonia national team have hosted a number of touring teams including the MCC, Lord’s Taverners and Sir Tim Rice and his team the Heartaches.
They have also played international matches against Finland and neighbours Latvia and had even been scheduled to face the Netherlands in friendly international but the match was cancelled at the last moment.
Carmel & District CC visited Tallinn to face Estonia in July 2007. An Estonia Development XI claimed victory over Carmel by one run in a Twenty20 match and the Estonia national team easily defeated Carmel in a 40-over match.
Sandwiched in between the defeats Carmel were able to restore some pride when they defeated Estonia in the final of the Helsinki International Sixes. It was the first time in the competition’s nine-year history that the final had been contested by two teams from outside Finland.
Estonia’s B side also reached the final of the Helsinki Sixes plate competition where they narrowly lost a dramatic last-ball victory to a Carmel’s B team.
Estonia Cricket League - a step in the right direction
The Estonian Cricket League was formed in 2007 and is contested by Kalev Cricket Club, Reval Cricket Club, Tallinn Cricket Club and Old Boys Cricket Club.
Although the ECL is currently comprised of four teams in one division, with fixtures played on a round robin basis, there are plans to expand the league up to eight teams in the next four years.
Kalev Cricket Club under captain Andres Burget were the competition’s innuagural winners last summer.
The ECL provides the pool of players from which the Estonia national cricket team are picked and players must be attached to a club team before they are eligible for selection to the national side.
The future - ICC Affiliate Member status
The formation of the ECL was an essential requirement for acceptance to International Cricket Council Affiliate Member status which will allow Estonia to compete in official ICC events.
The Estonia Cricket Association hope to move into the ICC Europe Cricket Division Four championship, which would put them on the first rung of the ICC ladder, in the near future.
While Estonia’s national cricket team contains a number of players who qualify to play for the country under the ICC four-year residency rule efforts to introduce the game to indigeneous population has started to produce a number of home-grown players.
Estonians who have made the grade at international level include Andres Burget, Gleb Bihanov, Andrus Kämbre, Kristjan Kogerman, and Risto Koovit.
As well as helping develop the game in schools the Estonia Cricket Association have also prepared a second ground. The ground which is inside the boundaries of a beautiful country manor in Palmse which is located about an hour from Tallinn.
Founding fathers - Real Ice Cricket
While the development of the game in Estonia in the summer is a making sound progress the country are at the forefront of another unique variant of the game - real ice cricket.
The rules of the game remain the same except the pitch is replaced by a smoothed ice and the outfield is ice with fresh snow.
The Ice Cricket World Championships are held annually on a frozen lake on the outskirts of Tallinn.
Matches also take place in a former Soviet missle factory in Tallinn. For more details - or even take part - visit the Real Ice Cricket website.
*Unofficial world ranking