Football professionals join hands for the European Cricket League

It is a rarity that one associates European countries with cricket. England and Ireland are the most famous countries in the continent that take up this sport seriously. When you come across the names like Denmark, Russia, Spain, Romania, Italy, France, Germany and The Netherlands, one commonality you’d find is football. Football is a sport that brings the entire Europe together.

Just like cricket has attained the status of a proverbial religion in India and the subcontinent, football is the sport that gels Europe. Cricket is nearly non-existent in Europe and is not played professionally. However, a group of football bosses had this crazy idea of inducing the ‘cricket fever’ into the countries in Europe. And the result — the European Cricket League (ECL) 2019.

The European Cricket League will be a three-day cricket carnival. It will feature a total of eight teams and they’ll fight out to be crowned the ‘Kings of Europe’. The league will commence on 29th July 2019 and will be played till 31st July 2019.

Read: Everything that you need to know about ECL 2019

Daniel Weston, the German national cricket team wicketkeeper, walking the talk

Daniel Weston is the wicket-keeper of the German national cricket team. He is the one who joined forces with some of the top football professionals to realise this dream of making cricket one of the most popular sports in Europe in the next 20 years. Weston knows how the game works and was previously a commodity and tech investor, trader and Hedge Fund Manager. Thus, he brings a lot of wisdom to the table and knows how to penetrate deep into the market.

Roger Feiner, Head of Broadcasting at FIFA previously, is the CEO of the league. He is also the MD of Teleclub Sports and VP of MySports. Thus, Feiner has got immense knowledge about sports management and thus is going to play a vital role in the future as well. Apart from him, Frank Leenders was roped in as the President.

Leenders was previously MD of TEAM Marketing for the UEFA Champions League since 1992. He is also involved in marketing for Eurovision Song Contest and is Director General of FIBA Media and Marketing for the FIBA Basketball World Cup. Thus, he has got immense experience working in the marketing vertical and will ensure that the league gains popularity.

Thomas Klooz, who has got a similar profile as Leenders, is a board member and will look after the marketing. Jonty Altmann & James Kantor, previously involved in German Cricket TV content creation and live streaming of cricket in Germany, will take care of the operations of the European Cricket League.