Cricket on the Continent is the first book on the topic in 50 years, covering its history, the fast-growing popularity of cricket across Europe – and the prospect of a successful future.

From sun-kissed olive groves to frosty pine glades, cricket is played in every corner of continental Europe. But the game is fragile at its frontiers, struggling for profile and participants on a football-obsessed continent.

Tim Brooks has been writing about the global development of cricket for over a decade, specialising in associate and affiliate nations and analysis of ICC development strategy and implementation. In addition to writing and commentating he has also played a direct role in developing cricket in Europe, working with ICC Europe, Germany, Norway and Greece on development strategies and communication plans.

Cricket on the Continent reflects on how the sport was exported, introduced and developed in mainland Europe; the challenges it faced, and those it faces today.

• A unique assessment of cricket on a sporting frontier where the game has expanded dramatically in recent years due to demographic changes;
• The crucial, heart-warming role cricket has played in knitting together a new multi-cultural Europe following the recent influx of Asian immigrants and refugees;
• Famous victories that have grabbed international headlines, eg Holland vs. Australia in 1964 and England in 2009;
• The struggle with spiralling numbers of players and clubs when ICC funding has been slashed;
• Insights into the region’s cricketing pioneers, and the considerable challenge of growing the game in a football-obsessed region.
• Stirring accounts of how cricket was a form of resistance in the war, with inspirational tales of courage in defying Hitler’s outlawing of the game;
• Policies and strategies to help cricket become a mainstream sport in the region within 20 years;
• An exploration of the potential impact European teams could have on the global stage;
• An expose of how archaic governance and the greed of established cricketing nations are holding back global development of the game;
• Heroic examples of sacrifices made by European cricketers to ensure the survival of their sport.
   

Click here for more information, or to read a sample from Cricket on the Continent