On June 29 the number of members of the ICC passed 100. Cameroon, Peru and Swaziland were granted affiliate member status. So were the Falkland Islands, although unlike the rest, the vote for them was not unanimous – Argentina abstained.
The Falklands have been busy trying to raise their game. As part of that and in celebration of 25 years since the end of the Falklands conflict – and because they cannot really tour Argentina – they are in the middle of a whirlwind tour to England, with seven games in eight days.
They are not intending to make their debut at the World Cup any time soon and played Outwood CC, near Gatwick, yesterday. It meant that Outwood, a small village in Surrey, have scored a unique double, having played (and been soundly thrashed by) Argentina when they were touring England in 1979.
The Gloucestershire Gipsies XI await at Lord Vesty’s ground at Stowell Park tomorrow, before a game for the history books against Falkland CC in Newbury, Berkshire. The name of the Falkland Islands derives from the British expedition in 1690 funded by the Fifth Viscount Falkland, an Admiralty commissioner.
As one would imagine of a territory that lays claim to having the southernmost cricket grounds in the world, the Falklands is not the easiest place to play a match, with a population of about 3,000 spread between two main islands – East Falkland and West Falkland – and 776 smaller, mainly uninhabited islands. Cricket was only informally introduced in the 1920s and 1930s, with games of tip-and-run on Goose Green and Victory Green in Stanley, the capital.
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“Stanley Cricket Club was quite active in the 1960s and 1970s,” Roger Diggle, the Falkland Islands Cricket Association chairman and Falklands chief medical officer for 16 years, said. “They played against the Falkland Islands Dependency Survey and the marine garrison, and I am told played several matches in Buenos Aires, but I have not been able to confirm it.”
The game disappeared for a decade until 1989. Then, the Governor’s XI took on the visiting Commander of the British Forces XI in what has become an annual three-match series at Christmas for the “South Atlantic Ashes”. For a long time there was no suitable ground and the only proper pitch in Stanley is at the military base, Mount Pleasant, where they play on an artificial surface.
It is only in the past five years that cricket has flourished again with the development of four main clubs, whose exploits are recorded on the front page of the Falklands’ weekly newspaper, the Penguin News. The pool of players, who must be resident in the Falklands to qualify, now numbers in the dozens.
The bulk of the 13-strong tour squad travelled to RAF Brize Norton on one of the two 747s that fly from Stanley each week. “We are not playing at the highest standard and it probably won’t surprise people that our best player is an Australian, Isaac Forster, who is a conservationist in the Falklands,” Diggle said.
“Players come out in all weather, we uphold all the standards of the game and with the ICC recognising us we hope to play a higher standard more regularly. Touring teams are welcome.”