Austrian National Team

About the National Team | National Team Picture Gallery

The Austrian National Team that beat Malta by 10 wickets (August 2003): Back row (l to r): Sukhvir Hira, Amir Naeem, Marco Celeghin, Andrew Simpson-Parker (c), Tim Simpson, Erwin Grasinger, Heinz-Peter Prušnik-Dragosits, Lukas Haider; Front row: Wasif Mohammed, Lakhmal Kasturiarachchige, Vipin Kumar, Benji Loader (Photo: Michael Bailey).

The Austrian National Team is composed of players who belong to Austrian cricket clubs and play their cricket either wholly or predominantly in the Austrian cricket leagues. The National Team is selected in line with ICC regulations on player eligibility, with the team composed of a mixture of Austrian citizens, residents and acquired passport holders, and with a maximum of 2 deemed nationals who have been resident for a minimum of 4 years.

The Team first played competitive matches in the late eighties, however it was in the early nineties, especially with the inception of pan-European competitions organised by the European Cricket Federation, the forerunner of the European Cricket Council, that the Austrian National Team was formed on a regular basis. On the whole, honours are even as we have beaten our opponents as many times as they have beaten us. Austria has so far only played competitive matches versus fellow European countries, ranging from Portugal to Greece and Malta to Norway geographically.

The national team colours are racing red-white-racing red. The team's home venues are at Seebarn near Vienna, Markommannenstrasse, Vienna, and Latschach in the southern Austrian province of Carinthia. All venues have artificial turf pitches and the size of the outfields conforms to international standards. Austria plays mainly limited overs matches according to current ICC regulations for 50 overs matches, and tournament regulations as set out by ECC. Austria is an ICC Affiliate Member and runs two senior National Teams, one outdoors and the other for indoor cricket competitions.

The National Team squads are selected by the Cricket Development Officer, Siva Nadarajah, the current Captain of the Austrian Team, Andrew Simpson-Parker and senior national team player, Marco Celeghin. Every year a squad of around 20 eligible players are brought together for coaching and practise sessions on a weekly basis in Vienna during the summer and for 3 or 4 weekend sessions in a Vienna sports hall during January.

Austria's most considerable success to date has been qualification for the 2002 European Championships, following finishing runners-up in the 2001 ECC Trophy (held in Seebarn and Latschach), having played in the previous ECC Trophies in Corfu (1999) and Switzerland (1997). Prior to this the national team reached the semi-finals of the European Cricket Federation Championships in 1992 at Worksop / England and 1995 at Oxford / England; As was as hosting the ECC Trophy in 2001, the Austrian Cricket Association has also hosted the ECC Representative Festival in 2000, and the European Indoor Championships in 1995.

Austria's Indoor VI were semi-finalists in the 2003 European Indoor Championships in Herning, Denmark and the 2002 European Indoor Championships in Mechelen, Belgium, having missed out by 0.01 of a run (net run rate) on a semi-final berth the previous year in Mafra. They were crowned Indoor Champions at Lord's in 1996, and were also finalists in Vienna in the inaugural competition in 1995, and at Halmstad / Sweden in 1997.

Due to lack of sponsorship Austria has only ever been able to afford to compete in European competitions; players have so far had to pay their own way for each trip abroad. International friendly matches where the teams travel abroad to play against opposition of a comparable standard have hitherto proved almost impossible to organise. Some of our neighbours (Italy and France) have however been able to visit Seebarn near Vienna to play matches against us. Austria is playing a pioneering role in helping cricket to develop in its neighbouring Eastern countries such as Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and welcomes clubs from these countries on a regular basis, although with the exception of Slovenia and Croatia, none of our immediate neighbours have played a full international match against the Austrian National Team.

The considerable success of our National Teams despite slender financial and manpower resources has shown the strength in depth of Austrian cricket over recent times. We hope that our continuing emphasis on introducing young indigenous players into the National Squads will bear fruit in the future and encourage more people to play cricket to an ever higher level in Austria.

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