Howzat! Germany a cricket-loving nation

GERMANY’S immigration explosion has captured more than its fair share of negative headlines over the past 18 months but, from a cricket perspective at least, the news gets more positive by the day.

The country is now the fastest-growing in the cricket world and, other than the Netherlands, it now has more regular players than the rest of continental Europe combined.

This year, Germany won the European Division One tournament for the first time in its history, and last week the country marked its return to Division Five of the World Cricket League after a nineyear hiatus with a one-wicket victory over Ghana.

Their involvement in the competition, held in South Africa, didn’t last beyond the group stage but, if recent trends are anything to go by, they’ll soon be back.

Germany’s burgeoning Afghan population has ensured that cricket participation rates in the country have soared – an unlikely by-product of an immigration influx that has polarised German society.

But while some in the country undoubtedly see these new arrivals through the prism of a half-empty glass, Brian Mantle, the chief executive of the Deutscher Cricket Bund, is raising his to a new generation of talent that could carry Germany to a T20 World Cup.

In football- obsessed Germany, it seems the true spirit of cricket is alive and kicking. – The Independent