Football giants chase runs, wickets
PARIS: While the vast majority of cricket eyes are focussed on events in the Gulf where the T20 World Cup is underway, a small minority are locked on events in Spain. The Desert Springs Cricket Ground in Almeria, a verdant cricketing outpost in a parched corner of south-east Spain, is currently hosting the European qualifiers for the next edition of the T20 World Cup, to be held in Australia next year.
Denmark, Germany, Italy and Jersey are the four teams bidding to finish in the top two and progress to the global qualifiers.
Hardly big names but each side has its share of players claiming first-class experience. Italy’s Jade Dernbach, 35, spent 15 years with Surrey and represented England in 35 T20s and 24 ODIs, playing in the 2012 World T20. The South Africanborn pacer qualifies for Italy through his mother and came on board after being tapped up by captain and head coach Gareth Berg, who plies his trade as an all-rounder for Northamptonshire. “He (Berg) picked up the phone and he outlined what he was looking to achieve with Italian cricket and where he thought I could fit in on that journey,” Dernbach told The Cricketer. Dernbach duly made his second international debut 2,757 days after his last international appearance in 2014 when he took 1/17 in four overs in the sixwicket win over Denmark.
On the other side of the deck that day was another former England player. Denmark’s Amjad Khan, 41, won a single Test cap against the West Indies in 2009 and played one T20I but injuries cut short his chances, not just with England but in county cricket as well where he turned out for Kent and Sussex.
Already the only Danish to play Test cricket, the Copenhagen-born Amjad, who is not quite as fast a bowler these days as he was, set another record in that game against the Italians. His second T20I came 4,597 days after his only other one for England in March 2009—a gap between appearances.
Dernbach and Amjad may be the most eye-catching names but avid followers will also recognise Kent’s Grant Stewart in the Italy line-up along with Leinster’s Jamie Grassi. It should come as no surprise to see Italy thriving on the field. The country’s first brush with the game dates back to 1793 while Milan is particularly associated with the game. AC Milan was originally the Milan Cricket and Football Club.
Germany, meanwhile, can claim Dieter Klein, who played domestic cricket in South Africa before joining Leicestershire, and Durham’s 2013 county championship-winning squad member Michael Richardson, son of former Proteas wicketkeeper Dave Richardson.
Jersey’s Jonty Jenner made a single appearance for Sussex against the touring South Africans in 2017 but can claim to have fielded in a Test for England as a substitute for Chris Broad. It is the Channel Islanders, however, who qualified first with a four-wicket victory over Germany on Tuesday, although that is not entirely surprising.