Daniel Weston: Founder, European Cricket League
Cricket is seen as a sport of the old British Empire.
Despite the odd Dutchman or Dane in the English county championship, it has established little hold in mainland Europe.
Yes, Holland did start breaking the mould by qualifying for the World Cup in 1996 and then famously beat England in the T20 version at Lords in 2009. But the 'newer' Test-playing nations have only emerged in neighbouring countries to traditional hotbeds.
Yet, very much below the radar, Germany has started taking up the game. There are now 370 clubs in the country and German Cricket TV has 1.2m followers on Facebook. It is the fastest-growing sport in Germany and Germany is the fastest-growing country for cricket
Daniel Weston is a Germany international with a distinctly Aussie accent. But, having had considerable success growing the sport at home, his love for the sport has inspired him to start the Europe Cricket League. The inaugural event will see the best clubs in France, Romania, Russia, Denmark, Italy and Holland do battle at the La Manga resort in Spain this summer.
The focus will be to serve fans with a predominately digital and social media product, not only because it is cost-effective and modern but the ignorance of the sport by traditional media has forced fans to follow it that way.
Time to explore a new venture whose audience has been entirely overlooked until now.
TOPICS
The start of the idea - 15 Go-Pros, streaming Cricket on Ice and getting 110,000 live viewers, getting senior members of TEAM marketing on board, 23m cricket fans in mainland Europe
How cricket became the fast-growing sport in Germany and Germany became the fastest growing country for cricket
The broadcast strategy of the first tournament
The standard of the play and nationalities playing the sport
The 25-year process for a Germany team that was born in Germany
Taking lessons from Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket in the 1970s
Why the are now 370 cricket teams in Germany
Taking on a T10 format
Competing with football
The business model for the European Cricket League
Getting over the perception of the pristine cricketing environment
Where do Scotland, Wales and Ireland fit in?
The life of a Germany cricket international
What are the future plans for the European Cricket League
What is the definition of success in Year One
LINKS
Daniel Weston: LinkedIn