Cosmopolitan cricketing carnival in Vienna

This week promises to be one of the most cosmopolitan and busy in Austrian cricketing history, with guests from Australia, India, Germany and Slovakia due to make appearances, representing the full spectrum of the cricketing family - from clubs from Test Nations to a team from a New Territory.

Crusaders CC will be coming for their third trip to Vienna, and will be playing two 50 overs games against Vienna CC and an Austrian Cricket Association side, the latter being mainly composed of likely squad members for the forthcoming ECC Notts Sport® Trophy. Doubtless they'll have some up and coming stars in their midst - in 2001 they brought Liam Buchanan and Simon Burriss - two bright hopes for the future, and doubtless Robert "Swan" Richards will have a couple of aces up his sleeves as they return.

The Indian ambassador to Austria and Slovenia will be in Seebarn as part of the United Nations CC match against Kerala State Association, who are currently on a European tour, and who boast a host of former international players and Ranji Trophy players, with former Indian wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani being amongst those in attendance.

Dave Gelling will be on another RCPI visit, and will be at Markommannenstrasse working with a host of players and coaches, with training sessions for coaches and young players, with a coaching session for the Slovak Cricket Club, who last month made their first trip to Austria for cricket, and who will hopefully become more frequent visitors as part of Austrian Cricket's extended family.

Also in attendance this weekend will be Tegernsee CC, with whom Concordia CC have been having reciprocal visits for the last three years, with winter and summer visits for the clubs' young cricketers. They will be present at the official opening of Concordia CC's Markommannenstrasse ground, in Vienna's 22nd district, where there will be a mixture of events to celebrate the opening of a ground which was still in the planning stage 2 years ago.

Added to this there are a couple of league fixtures too, and the enormity of the weekend in cricketing terms will be one that will be hard to beat - until of course 10th August when the ECC Notts Sport® Trophy will be in full swing, and six international matches will take place on three grounds in one day!