January 4, 2020 - Cricket has been a part of life in Croatia for over 200 years, a tradition set to continue in June with the return of the Mediterranean Cricket League in Losinj.
One of the more unusual things I learned about the islands of Croatia soon after I bought my house on Hvar in 2002 was that the next island boasted some of the oldest history of cricket in Europe outside the UK and Ireland, dating back some 200 years. The story of cricket on Vis back in the early 19th century is a fascinating one, as is how the cricket tradition was continued and lives on today.
And Vis is not alone. Cricket on the Mediterranean is a 'thing', and this June will see the return of the Mediterranean Cricket League for the fifth year, this time hosted on the Croatian island of Losinj from June 4-11. I am grateful to Jeff Grizinic, Mediterranean Cricket League tournament director, for the following overview of cricket on the Med, the Mediterranean Cricket League, and more details on this event. You can follow the latest from the Mediterranean Cricket League on Facebook.
Want to learn more about some of the more unusual things to be found on Croatian islands? Here are 25 things to know.
Cricket has been recorded as having first been played in Europe by Admiral Nelson’s troops and sailors when stationed in Naples, Italy in 1793. The game spread and was played at an amateur level throughout the 19th and 20th century, the most famous of which was the Milan Cricket and Football Club, now known as AC Milan.
The European Cricket Council was founded in 1997 to revive cricket after it had fallen into decline in Europe during the World Wars. After having an initial membership of 14 countries the ECC now stretches to having 37 member countries across the continent, with the Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland having progressed to compete in recent ICC World Cup and Twenty20 World Cup.
Croatian Cricket
Croatia was first introduced to Cricket on the island of Vis some 200 years ago, when the English navy was stationed on the island and played to keep fitness levels and morale high, under the watch of Sir William Hoste. As a tribute to these sporting pioneers, the Sir William Hoste Cricket Club is currently an active Club based on Vis and playing against visiting teams to the island.
During the 1950/60’s a large number of Europeans, including many Croatians, migrated to cricket playing countries like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand and their children took to the game in their new country. Consequently, as these children grew older they would return to their parents’ country of birth bringing with them their new found love of Cricket.
In 1998 a collection of Cricket enthusiasts in Zagreb organised a team to play neighboring Slovenia. From this inauspicious start the Croatian Cricket Federation (CCF) was born, with its headquarters based at the Zagreb Cricket Club at the Mladost Sports and Recreation Centre in Zagreb.
Since 2000 Croatia has been a regular participant in various European Cricket Council tournaments and continues to be active, with regular games played against regional countries Slovenia, Belgium, Austria, Spain, Greece, Ireland, Wales, Hungary, Slovak Republic, Macedonia and Israel amongst others. Although there have been many tournaments over this time period, there is a requirement and a zest for more competition by all European countries since the International Cricket Council (ICC) scaled back its tournament involvement for many European cricket nations a few years ago.
History of Mediterranean Cricket League (MCL)
The Mediterranean Cricket League (MCL) was founded in 2015 and first played in June 2016, in Split, Croatia. The MCL was founded by Croatian national representative Jeff Grzinic and the Croatian Cricket Federation (CCF) as a way to give Croatian cricketers greater exposure to high class cricket played in tournament conditions to help develop its players and the game of cricket in Croatia. The MCL was designed to be a welcoming event for not only teams and players but wives, girlfriends/partners, children, friends and family alike. The MCL is 6 international team T20 tournament played over 4 days with each team playing 4 games over the 4 days. While developing the tournament structure in 2015, former Australian Test and One Day international cricketer of Croatian heritage, Simon Katich, became the Mediterranean Cricket League Ambassador and continues in the role to this day.
The MCL has quickly developed into a fiercely contested tournament that welcomes all teams from Europe and around the world and has a clear goal of developing Croatian and European cricket through attracting Europe’s (and the world’s) best teams and players to Croatia’s stunning shores with their family and friends. In the MCL’s first year Zagreb Cricket Club, Sir Oliver Cricket Club (Split), Porto-Montenegro Cricket Club (Montenegro), inaugural winner Ukraine National Team, Romanian Bears and Ambassadors of Cricket (India) took part and it was clear to see that there was an appetite for a professionally run and competitive tournament in Europe.
In its second edition at the Resnik MCL2017 hosted Zagreb Cricket Club, Sir Oliver Cricket Club, Romanian Bears, Cricket Timis (Romania) and Saaremaa Kriketi Klubi from Estonia, who won what was a fiercely contested and close tournament that was dominated by the batsman.
The third year of the event, MCL2018 saw the newly formed Australian entity Friends of Croatian Cricket(FOCC) enter a team, the ‘Boomerangs’ (made up predominately of Australian/Croatians) to compete against a local Croatia ‘A’ team, reigning champions from Estonia Saaremaa Kriketi Klubi, Salford Hawks (England), Kensington Cricket Club (India) and the ‘CBB’s’ (Thailand). The competition standard of MCL2018 went up another level with the ‘Boomerangs’ team from Australia taking tournament honors in their debut (as a team) at the 2018 edition of the tournament
MCL2016, MCL2017 and MCL2018 were played in the grounds of the truly delightful and welcoming Resnik Hotel, situated right on the stunning Adriatic Sea. The Resnik Hotel is nestled nicely between UNESCO towns of Trogir and the city of Split on Croatia’s Adriatic coastline and was a tranquil and ideal setting to establish Europe’s hottest T20 cricket tournament. The cricket ground within the Resnik Hotel grounds was purpose built to cater for the MCL and an incredible amount of work went on behind the scenes to develop the ground into a beautiful place to play international cricket and bring visitors to Croatia.
With three memorable tournaments successfully completed at the Resnik Hotel and the MCL quickly outgrowing its current location the MCL, Sir Oliver Cricket Club, Croatian Cricket Federation and Friends of Croatian Cricket set about finding a new location in which the MCL tournament could raise the bar even further and develop the tournament. After much work the Tucepi location, an hour south of Split was chosen as the new venue to take the MCL into the future.
MCL2019 was played in Tucepi, an ideal location with accommodation in a splendid 4 star hotel, outstanding playing facilities and infrastructure that raised the standard, professionalism and profile of the tournament and attracted more teams and spectators than previous years. MCL2019 featured Croatia 'A', last years champions Boomerangs, MCL2017 winners Saaremaa, and 2 of the strongest teams to be seen at an MCL, SledgeHammer Cricket Academy (India) and Warriors Cricket Club Qatar. Former Australian international player Brad Hogg joined the MCL as Ambassador for the event and also played for the Boomerangs which was a sure sign to the cricket world that the MCL had stamped its authority on Europe. The strong tournament was eventually won by Warriors Cricket Club Qatar who just held out pre-tournament favorites SledgeHammer Cricket Academy to take home the coveted MCL trophy.
In a very exciting move 2020 will see the Mediterranean Cricket League move to the magnificent island of Losinj, the first time the tournament will be held off the mainland. The MCL continues to grow and showcase new and fabulous locations in Croatia. MCL2020 In Losinj is going to be the most breathtaking yet!
Now with an even higher overall standard the MCL hopes that teams will not only play the tournament once but return to Croatia year after year forming strong friendships and networks, welcoming new teams and players into the European cricket family. So impressed was Brad Hogg with the Mediterranean Cricket League that he has again signed on to play in MCL2020, another positive sign that the MCL continues to raise the bar of expectation.
It is hoped that all teams, sponsors, supporters, family and friends enjoy their time at the MCL and are made to feel a very special part of the Mediterranean Cricket League. The MCL is a family friendly event that welcomes and caters to players’ wives, girlfriends/partners, children, supporters and spectators as well as making the ‘cricket experience’ for players a professional and entertaining one. MCL founder Jeff Grzinic, the Croatian Cricket Federation, Friends of Croatian Cricket, Zagreb Cricket Club and Sir Oliver Cricket Club have invested a great deal of resources to ensure that the Mediterranean Cricket League will remain European cricket’s ‘must play’ tournament for many years to come.
MCL TOURNAMENT BATTING, BOWLING, TEAM and OFFICIALS STATS
ALL TIME MCL LEADING RUNSCORERS Games Inn Runs Average High Score
ALL TIME MCL LEADING WICKET TAKERS Games WKTS Runs Ave Best Bowling
MCL BATTING TOP 10 SCORES High Score
MCL BOWLING TOP 10 PERFORMANCES BEST BOWLING
MCL HAT-TRICKS:
Jeff Grzinic (SO/BG) 3/21 Boomerangs v Croatia ‘A’, MCL2019, Tucepi, 23 May 2019
KEY:
Croatia A- CA Sir Oliver- SO
Zagreb CC- ZG Boomerangs- BG
Ukraine- UK Porto Montenegro- PM
Romanian Bears- RB Ambassadors of Cricket- AC
Cricket Timis- CT Saaremaa- SA
CBB- CB Salford Hawks- SH
Kensington India- KC SledgeHammer- SL
Warriors Qatar WQ
MCL HIGHEST TEAM SCORE:
4/376 (20 Overs) SledgeHammer Cricket Academy v Saaremaa Kriketi Klubi, MCL2019, Tucepi, 23 May 2019
MCL LOWEST TEAM SCORE:
All Out/ 68 (18 Overs) Zagreb Cricket Club v Ambassadors of Cricket, MCL2016, Resnik, 4 June 2016
MCL TOTAL GAMES PLAYED:
16- Jeff Grzinic (SO/CA)
15- Chris Osborne (ZG/CA)
13- Josip Jukic (SO/CA)
12- Mate Marovic (SO/CA), Ayyaz Ahmed (ZG/CA), Armaan Peter (ZG/CA), Tim Heath (SA), Stuart Hook (SA), Marko Vaik (SA), Kalle Vispaluu (SA) & Tim Cross (SA)
MCL GAMES UMPIRED:
MCL2019- Alex Mackay 5, Shrikant Ramadurg- 5, Bob Belcher- 5 Rex W. Evans- 5
MCL2018- Alex Mackay 8, Steve Tripp- 8, Tom Polich- 5, Rex W. Evans- 3
MCL2017- Alex Mackay 7, Steve Tripp- 7, Tom Polich- 6
MCL2016- Alex Mackay- 8, Steve Tripp- 8, Clive Puttock- 5, Posh Tim- 3
MCL TOTAL GAMES UMPIRED
TOTAL MCL GAMES SCORED (Official)
MCL2019 Final Results
Play WON LOSS BONUS PTS
Warriors Qatar 4 4 0 2 18
SledgeHammer 4 3 1 1 13
Boomerangs 4 2 2 0 8
Saaremaa 4 1 3 0 4
Croatia 'A' 4 0 4 0 0
MCL2018 Final Results
Play WON LOSS BONUS PTS
Boomerangs 4 4 0 1 17
Kensington 4 2 2 1 9
Saaremaa 4 3 1 0 12
Salford Hawks 4 1 3 1 5
CBB 4 2 2 0 8
Croatia A 4 0 4 0 0
MCL2017 Final Results
Play WON LOSS BONUS PTS
Saaremaa 4 3 1 0 13
Romania Bears 4 3 1 2 12
Zagreb CC 4 2 2 2 10
Cricket Timis 4 2 2 0 8
Sir Oliver CC 4 0 4 0 0
MCL2016 Final Results
Play WON LOSS BONUS PTS
Ukraine 4 4 0 0 16
Romania Bears 4 3 1 2 14
Sir Oliver Split 4 2 2 2 10
Ambassadors 3 2 1 0 8
Zagreb 4 1 3 0 4
Porto Montenegro 4 0 4 0 0
MCL2016, MCL2017, MCL2018 & MCL2019 AWARD WINNERS
MCL2019 TOURNAMENT CHAMPION Stuart Hook- SA
MCL2019 BEST BATSMAN Stuart Hook- SA
MCL2019 BEST BOWLER Owais Ahmed- WQ
MCL2019 SPIRIT OF CRICKET AWARD (Best ‘team’ at MCL as voted by the Umpires) Warriors Cricket Club Qatar
MCL2019 VUJNOVICH BEST CROATIAN PLAYER AWARD Dan Lazarides (CA)
MCL2019 ALL STAR TEAM
1. Stuart Hook (SA)
2. Dan Lazarides (CA)
3. Azam Khan (SL)
4. Sajjad Tamor WQ)
5. Rahul Yadav (SL)
6. Chris Turkich (BG)
7. Owais Ahmed (WQ)
8. Nived Mishra (SL)
9. Jeff Grzinic (BG)
10. Pradeep Mohanty (SL)
11. Brad Hogg (BG)
12. Daniel Turkich (BG)
MCL2018 TOURNAMENT CHAMPION
Chris Turkich (BG)
MCL2018 BEST BATSMAN
Chris Turkich (BG)
MCL2018 BEST BOWLER
Jeff Grzinic (BG)
MCL2018 ‘SPIRIT OF CRICKET AWARD’ (Best ‘team’ at MCL2018 as voted by umpires)
Saaremaa Kriketi Klubi
MCL2018 VUJNOVICH BEST CROATIAN PLAYER AWARD
Chris Turkich (BG)
MCL2018 ALL-STAR TEAM
MCL2017 TOURNAMENT CHAMPION
Armaan Peter (ZG)
MCL2017 BEST BATSMAN
Armaan Peter (ZG)
MCL2017 BEST BOWLER (tied)
Ramesh Satheesan (RB)
Nikola Davidovic (SO)
MCL2017 ‘SPIRIT OF CRICKET AWARD’ (Best ‘team’ at MCL as voted by the Umpires)
Saaremaa Kriketi Klubi
MCL2017 VUJNOVICH BEST CROATIAN PLAYER AWARD
Armaan Peter (ZG)
MCL2017 ALL-STAR TEAM
MCL2016 TOURNAMENT CHAMPION
Ramesh Satheesan (RB)
MCL2016 BEST BATSMAN
Ayyaz Ahmed (ZG)
MCL2016 BEST BOWLER
Ramesh Satheesan (RB)
MCL2016 ‘SPIRIT OF CRICKET AWARD’ (Best ‘team’ at MCL as voted by the Umpires)
Porto-Montenegro Cricket Club
MCL2016 VUJNOVICH BEST CROATIAN PLAYER AWARD
Ayyaz Ahmed (ZG)
MCL2016 ALL-STAR TEAM
September 16, 2019 - A further strengthening of cultural ties between Croatian communities and Samoa after Klapa Samoana's tour of Croatia - the NZ Cricket tour of Samoa.
When Joseph Yovich talks about his cricket club being a culture club, there’s not a chameleon in sight and definitely no sign of Boy George padding up.
Nor is there any post-millennium coach in the changing rooms proffering odes to “team culture” as vague slang for everything from values to collective memory.
In this dressing room, culture still means the real deal. There’s a Croatian flag draped from corner to corner above the players’ cubby holes. Red and white checks, the instantly recognisable national symbol of Croatian and Croats, adorn the uniforms hanging from the pegs. Players toss around words like “braça” — brothers — and “hvala” — thanks — as easily as they throw a cricket ball and, in the corner, foundation member Daniel Marsic has a portable speaker pumping out Croatian folk music from his iPhone.
With most of this team fourth and fifth generation New Zealanders, not one of these men was born in Croatia, but the ancestral force runs strong. And that’s the point.
“The thing about Croatian families is we never forget our roots,” says Yovich, one of Northern Districts’ most-capped cricketers until hanging up his Knights cap in 2013. “Many of the families here in New Zealand have been here for generations, but we grow up still knowing which villages in Croatia our great-grandparents came from, keeping ties strong and learning to dance the kola.”
New Zealand has had Croatian tennis stars, All Blacks in rugby and Croatian All Whites and Football Ferns while one of the country’s best known football teams, Auckland City — founded by Croatian immigrants and a regular at the FIFA World Club Cup — has won more consecutive league titles than any other football team in the world.
Croatia may be more readily identifiable with football and tennis on the global sports field, but in New Zealand cricket is the biggest summer sport that kids grow up playing. With more than 100,000 New Zealanders of Croatian descent, scorecards are peppered with more than a few Croatian names. Anton Devcich, Ben Lister, Dušan Hakaraia and Yovich — all are current or former first-class reps; and Devcich a Blackcap in recent years.
Many more names pop up at club and district rep level, with a concentration in the northern areas of New Zealand — Auckland and Northern Districts — where most pioneering families from Croatia came to work in the kauri gumfields in the early 1900s.
“A few years back, several New Zealanders went over to Croatia itself to play for the country in an official ICC Europe event, qualifying through ancestry,” says Yovich. “It was around then that it occurred to us that we had enough New Zealand players of Croatian heritage to actually form a club here in New Zealand.”
Launched in 2013, New Zealand Croatia Cricket is a wanderer’s club — a club without clubrooms that instead plays bespoke fixtures against other teams to bring its geographically sprinkled members together for a purpose and “cultural catch-up”.
“It’s a nice way for us to recognise our shared heritage and keep those values and connections strong, while playing a sport we all really enjoy,” says 42-year-old Yovich, whose own family settled in Whangarei.
“The club also has a mandate where it’s about us older fellas giving back to the game and creating opportunities and fixtures for young cricketers to play with and against us, to hopefully pick up a few tricks and just generally test themselves against battle-scarred cricketers.
“That’s something that really helped me when I was a young fella playing cricket for Northland — playing with and against men who had 20-plus years of senior rep cricket under their belt — but with cricketers tending to retire in their late 20s or early 30s now, young players don’t get to experience that very often these days.”
The club plays an annual Kookaburra NZ Croatia XI fixture against Auckland Cricket’s academy players — their future Aces. NZ Croatia brings in heavyweight guests for the fixture, the ilk of former BLACKCAPS Dion Nash, James Marshall and Richard Jones — to up the challenge. It also tours ICC affiliate nations to offer free coaching and a novel opponent, with New Zealand Croatia about to depart for its third international tour — to Samoa this week, following two successful tours to assist another ICC EAP member, Cook Islands Cricket.
The 13-strong touring team will be captained by Yovich who played 265 games for Northern Districtrs as an allrounder, including 121 first-class caps; and sports a former Blackcap in Test wicketkeeper-batsman Reece Young. They are the name players in a squad that ranges from ages 21 to 54 that heads to Apia this Wednesday (18 September) to play six matches against the national men’s, women’s and leading club sides of the ICC-affiliated Samoa International Cricket Association.
“The goal is to continue to help foster cricket development for others, through playing and offering free coaching and promotional activities wherever we can help out, utilising the collective experience from our own careers,” says Yovich.
“The great thing about our tours is that they’re also a genuine cultural exhange.
“We’re very proud of our unique cultural identity — as are our opponents in the islands. It’s a great chance to share our culture with an audience who hasn’t been around much in the way of Croatian traditions before, and for us to learn about Samoan culture and values in an authentic way. By the end of the week, I’m pretty sure we will have found out that we’ve actually got a lot in common, too.”
New Zealand Croatia Cricket
TOUR OF SAMOA
18-24 September 2019
SQUAD
James Banicevich — Dargaville, Karori Cricket Club, Croatian heritage: Korcula
Josh Fisher — Parnell Cricket Club, Auckland
Darron Goodwin — City Cricket Club, Whangarei
Stacy Hyndman — City Cricket Club, Whangarei
Ryan Majstrovic — HSOB, Gisborne, Croatian heritage: Vrgorac
Daniel Marsic — Auckland University Cricket Club, Croatian heritage: Split/Vrgorac
Christy O'Brien — Auckland University Cricket Club, Croatian heritage: Sucuraj
Rory O'Brien — Auckland University Cricket Club, Croatian heritage: Sucuraj
Hayden Robinson — Suburbs New Lynn Cricket Club, Auckland
Danyn Stewart — previous: Hamilton (NZ) now of Sunshine Coast, Australia; Southland rep 2018/19 Hawke Cup, Croatian heritage: Korcula
Reece Young — Suburbs New Lynn Cricket Club, Auckland
Joseph Yovich — City Cricket Club, Whangarei, Croatian heritage: Dubrava/Vrgorac – Captain
John Arnerich — of Auckland, Croatia heritage: Brac/Vrgorac – Manager
SCHEDULE
Venue: Cricket Oval 1, Tuanaimato cricket grounds, Apia, Samoa
9.30 AM Sep 19 2019 T20 v Samoa Women Invitation XI — exhibition match
9.30 AM Sep 20 2019 T20 v Club Invitation XI
T20 v SICA President’s XI
10.00 AM Sep 21 2019 One-Day v Samoa Men — 50 overs
9.30 AM Sep 23 2019 T20 1 v Samoa Men
T20 2 v Samoa Men
FURTHER INFORMATION
Media Contact
Margot Butcher
NZ Croatia Cricket Communications Manager
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Joseph Yovich
NZ Croatia Cricket Captain
+64 21 274 1976