Cricket booming in Germany thanks to asylum seekers

The influx of asylum seekers from Pakistan and Afghanistan has led to a boom in cricket in Germany.

Over 40,000 refugees from Afghanistan and Pakistan arrived in Germany in 2015 alone. Ever since, the German Cricket Federation (DCB) has been flooded with enquiries about where it is possible to play the game.

Brian Mantle became chief executive of the DCB in 2012 and back then, there were 1,500 cricketers playing in 70 teams in Germany. Now, there are over 4,000, in 205 teams.

In my opinion, this is good news for the game of cricket. I have always been saying that the competition in cricket is too limited. For a major sport, there are too few countries which are able to participate in a meaningful way. It's time that the participation based be widened which would generate greater interest worldwide and a greater level of competitiveness. I hope the cricket boom in Germany will create a competitive team which would probably add in a meaningful way to the pool of participating nations.

[quote author=explorerx7 link=topic=104108.msg692676#msg692676 date=1462759700]
In my opinion, this is good news for the game of cricket. I have always been saying that the competition in cricket is too limited. For a major sport, there are too few countries which are able to participate in a meaningful way. It's time that the participation based be widened which would generate greater interest worldwide and a greater level of competitiveness. I hope the cricket boom in Germany will create a competitive team which would probably add in a meaningful way to the pool of participating nations.
[/quote]

I agree with this. Unfortunately, the ICC sees otherwise, as evidence by the fact that they want to eliminate the Associate teams being a part of future World Cups and also restricting the likes of Afghanistan and Ireland from gaining Test status.

The introduction of the much talked about two-tier Test system would enable the likes of Afghanistan and Ireland to be eased into Test cricket where they would face Zimbabwe, West Indies, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

As you say, we want more teams playing cricket, not fewer.