Cricketing country profile: Denmark
Denmark - Danish Cricket Association
History of cricket
In 1840 some Danish high school teachers were on a study visit to England and brought back the basics of this fantastic game 'cricket' to Denmark. Later in the 1860’s the English railway workers who constructed the railway tracks through Denmark founded cricket clubs in the cities Randers and Odense.
As a curiosity the world famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen mentions in his diary from 1857 that he was playing cricket while visiting Charles Dickens in England and he got an injured finger hitting the ball.
Cricket was organized in the Football Association, Dansk Boldspil Union (DBU). The big clubs in Copenhagen were KB (Københavns Boldklub), AB (Akademisk Boldklub) and Boldklubben Frem. In Jytland the leading clubs were Hjørring C.C. and Nykøbing Mors C.C.
It was not until after the Second World War it was felt necessary to amalgamate the game nationally and into one association. So in 1953 the Danish Cricket Association (Dansk Cricket-Forbund, DCF) was formed and cricket broke out of the football organization. In 1954 Denmark played their first international match against Oxford University. Since then Denmark’s international game developed with the joining the ICC as a Associate member in 1966. Denmark has taken part in the ICC tournaments and has been a founder member of the ECC hosting the first European Championships in 1996. In 2006 DCF become part of the ICC European Development Program’s High Performance Program.
International competition
Denmark has played in the various ICC competitions since the 1970s and from 1996 the European Championships. The Danish National team took the bronze medals in 1996 and the silver medals in 1998 in the European Division 1 Championship.
Denmark has produced five professional cricketers over the years - all pace bowlers. Ole Mortensen (Derbyshire), Søren Henriksen (Lancashire), Søren Vestergaard (Warwick-shire), Thomas Hansen (Hampshire) and Amjad Khan (Kent). The present captain of the Danish National Team Frederik Klokker was on the MCC Ground Staff for 4 years and played for Warwickshire in the County Championship in 2006.
Domestic competitions
The Danish ‘Elitedivision’ consists of the 8 best teams / clubs in the country and in the 1st Division a further 8 teams compete as well. In the year 2006 Svanholm C.C. won the Championship. Further a 40 overs cup competition is played, and in 2007 we have played our first Twenty/20 tournament called MAAZA Twenty/20 Cup which was vital new initiative for the players and spectators.
Development program
In Denmark we employ a part time Development Officer (Mickey Lund), who visits clubs and schools around the country trying to get youngsters to play cricket. The Development Officer has set-up a team of helpers and assistants, who work for the program all over Denmark. Further development comes from the various initiatives run by the ICC Development Program including playing in the European U13, U15, U17 andU19 tournaments every year against Holland, Scotland and Ireland.
DCF arranges coaching and umpiring courses every year - and we work closely together with the ICC Europe office regarding this.
Today we have 2,400 active cricketers spread at 40 clubs in Denmark.
Women’s cricket integration
Denmark had a quite stable league of women’s cricket in the 1980s and 1990s where we played about 40 international matches with the National Team. However, the number of women cricketers dwindled and the DCF is currently trying to set up women’s cricket in Denmark again. This initiative lies within the development program / officer.
Other information
The development of cricket in Denmark has a large potential within the Pakistani origin citizens of Denmark. This is a huge challenge for the DCF because the young cricketers are around and the task is to get these talented youngsters to join an existing club or found their own club. Cricket is a very useful ‘tool’ when it comes to integration in the Danish society.