The cricketers of the Falkland Islands may become regular visitors to Scotland if plans for further stagings of the 'Festival of the Three Falklands' cricket festival are realised.

Last month, teams representing the Falkland Islands, Falkland in Newberry, Berkshire, England and Falkland in Fife, Scotland played a series of matches.

"Tentative plans are in hand to make this triangular tournament a regular feature every 3 to 4 years which would be an excellent idea providing we can manage the logistics of fielding teams for ICC competitions and also for friendly overseas tours," Roger Diggle, Falkland Islands Cricket Association official and player, told Cricinfo.

Although it was in some respects a tournament, it's success wasn't measured by the customary wins and losses. "The Festival of the Three Falklands was a very sociable affair. It started with a traditional Scottish ceilidh (a fancy term for a good meal, lots of drink and Scottish dancing). Speeches were given by representatives of all three clubs and also the provost of Fife, Councillor Frances Melville," Diggle explained.

Among the Islanders' squad were the current and former Attorneys General of the territory and its Chief Medical Officer.

In the first match, Falkland Islands won the toss and sent Falkland (Newbury) in to bat. The English Falklanders amassed 220 from their allotted 40 overs before bowling out the Islanders for 103.

Any reduction in overs always has the potential to even things out and perhaps this was the case in the second match. Originally it was to be a 40-over contest, but torrential rain on the first day saw it reduced to a 10-overs 6-a-side affair, which was won by the Islanders by three wickets with two balls to spare. The win ensured the Falkland Islands returned home with the Drysdale Cup, donated by Falkland (Fife) resident, Karen Drysdale, whose great-great grandfather and grandfather were both captains of Falkland (Fife) CC. The tournament wrapped up with a win for Scotland as Falkland (Fife) beat Falkland (Berkshire).

It's been an unusually busy year for the Falkland Islands who played in their first ICC tournament in June when they took part in the Americas Division Four event in Mexico.

Meanwhile, back home in the South Atlantic, there are plans to install the Islands' second cricket pitch in Stanley (in addition to the existing one at Mount Pleasant). This will allow a weekday Twenty20 league and under-15 and under-17 competitions to start in the 2010-11 season.

Linked with the appointment of a development officer shortly, the Falkland Islands Cricket Association aims to have 100% of school-age children play cricket in the school sports curriculum for a minimum of 6 weeks a year. "We think we might be the first country in the world to achieve 100% participation at school age," Diggle said.

Tony Munro

Cuba, the Falkland Islands and the hosts, Mexico, are among the four countries set to make their official debuts at the World Cricket League Americas Division Four next year.

The other participant will be fellow debutante, Costa Rica in the event tentatively scheduled between May and September.

Cuba were to make an international debut of sorts in the 2008 Stanford 20/20 tournament before an embargo by the US Government blocked their involvement.

For the Falkland Islands, it will be one of two tournaments they will play next year. The other is a triangular involving three locations named after Viscount Falkland, the commander of part of the Royalist forces at the Battle of Newbury in 1643 in the English Civil War between King Charles I and Oliver Cromwell. The triangular, to be played at Falkland in Fife from July 19-24 will feature Falkland (Fife), Falkland (Newbury, Berkshire) and the Falkland Islands. The tournament is part of Falkland Fife CC's 150th anniversary celebrations. Incidentally, the islands were named for Viscount Falkland as his son was the Secretary of State for the Admiralty when Captain John Davies sighted the Falkland Islands in 1682.

Meanwhile, in the coming 2009-10 season separate Twenty20 tournaments are to be played at the Islands' capital, Stanley, and military base at Mount Pleasant, with the winners of both meeting in a final. The traditional highlight of the season, the South Atlantic Ashes, between the Governor's XI (representing the civilans) and the Commander of the British Forces XI (representing the military) will be played as a three-match series in January, February and March.

The Commander of the British Forces XI has drawn first blood in the three-game South Atlantic Ashes in the Falkland Islands, winning the opening match against the Governor's XI by 105 runs. The CBFs, representing the military, notched up 203 in their 50 overs, before the Governor's XI, drawn from the island's civilians, were dismissed for 98.

It was the first serious game of what is going to be a busy 18 months for cricket in the islands.

In July, 2010, the Islands will be the third team in a unique triangular tournament in Scotland featuring teams from geographical locations all sharing the name Falkland. They will join Falkland CC from Perthshire, which will be celebrating their centenary and Falkland CC from Berkshire in England.

The story of how the three locations came to be known as Falkland is interesting.

"The Viscount Falkland was King Charles I deputy commander at the first battle of Newbury in the English Civil War in approximately 1634. His son was Charles II, Secretary for the Admiralty, in 1682 when the Falkland Islands were discovered and were named after him. His stately home was Falkland Palace in Perthshire," explained Falkland Islands Cricket Association official, Roger Diggle.

The first battle of the Falkland cricket XIs, however, will actually take place next month when the Berkshire club visit the islands for the Falkland Cricket Festival in the first week of March. They will take on a Stanley XI civilian team, a Mount Pleasant side, drawn from the military, and a Combined Falkland Islands XI. The club will then head off to Chile.

During the Falkland Cricket Festival two junior matches will also be played to select a representative Under-18 team to tour Chile.

Meanwhile, the second Ashes match will be played on February 14 and the decider on March 7. The teams will play for a trophy, which features a bird hatching from an egg representing the birth of the mythical Phoenix.

There's also a four team Twenty20 league involving Kelpers and Stanley, drawn from civilians, as well as military teams, Mount Pleasant and Royal Navy.

The Falkland Islands Cricket Association is also in the process of raising funds to lay a cricket pitch in Stanley. At the moment matches are played at the military base at Mount Pleasant, which requires a two-and-a-half-hour round trip from the town. "It will allow midweek matches and the 20/20 league to develop," Diggle said.

The amount of cricket played in the Falkland Islands has increased significantly. The South Atlantic Ashes was a social match played once a year which has expanded into the three-game series while the Twenty20 league is now in its fourth season.

Next week's ICC annual get-together promises to have more than its fair share of politicking, posturing and controversy. But, unless there is a major about-turn, it should also be a watershed for the Associates and Affiliates.

In 2009, income from the ICC's six-year media deal with ESPN-Star, worth over US$1 billion, kicks in, and while the game's big boys will still keep the lion's share, the rest will see substantial increases in their incomes.

Although the ICC draws considerable flak on many fronts, it is quietly committed to promoting the game in as many countries as possible, and it does that by means of a myriad of competitions and initiatives. Most do not warrant much media attention, but they are there and they work.

Until now, the gripe of the smaller countries, and especially those bubbling just underneath the top flight, has been about the inequality of the way in which the game is financed. That was never more apparent than when it came to earnings from last year's World Cup.

Ireland got a flat fee of US$125,000 a year for four years for taking part, and on top of that they received another $50,000 for reaching the Super Eights. However, because of the extra costs involved in their progression, not least because their players are not professional cricketers and their absences from their full-time jobs had to be underwritten, Ireland's success actually left the board out of pocket.

Zimbabwe, on the other hand, turned up, tied with Ireland and never threatened to progress after being thumped by Pakistan and West Indies. For those three matches, Zimbabwe Cricket received US$11 million, their share of the pot as a Full Member.

The top six Associates receive no more than US$500,000 a year - some substantially less - to fund their entire operations. Out of that they have to pay all their cricketing and administration costs. Only those with a low cost of living, such as Kenya, can hope to maintain a professional squad on that kind of money.

The gulf between the haves and have-nots is further widened by the limited sums Associates can earn from sponsorship and media contracts. Zimbabwe can exploit home series against, say, India to carve out lucrative TV deals worth millions, and on the back of that, attract shirt- and other corporate sponsorship. As highlighted by Scotland's failure to secure any TV deal for their forthcoming ODI against England, the Associates struggle to get such income streams.

The new deals will provide a substantial increase for Associates, especially for the countries who are pressing for space at the top table. Until now the share has been roughly equal, rewarding Netherlands and Kenya on par with Thailand and Fiji. The new system will see more demarcation between the top Associates and the rest.

The leading ten could earn as much as US$1.5 million a year from 2009. There will then be an onus on them to professionalise their administrations, but several of them are already well down that route. They will also be more accountable - the ICC does not want a repeat of the mess that came following a spike in Kenya's funding earlier in the decade.

The second-string Associates will also get more - around US$160,000 as a base figure - but then again the demands on them are less. Even Affiliates will receive US$15,000, with the opportunity for more should they make a good enough case. There will also be more cash in the pot for participating and hosting competitions.

There have never been more opportunities for development outside the Full Member countries, but there remain some nagging worries.

The main one is how to bridge the gap between semi and full-blown professionalism. Almost all the Associates rely on dedicated amateurs, both on and off the field. As the number of ICC competitions has increased - and they have to be welcomed - the pressure has begun to tell. Scotland and Ireland particularly have already found players cannot meet all their commitments, and even the increased income will not allow them to employ a full-time squad.

"So much of putting players on full-time retainers depends on how many fixtures we can command," Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland's chief executive, said. "At the moment, all we can promise the squad in 2009 is a World Cup qualifying campaign, eight FP Trophy matches, an England game, and probably some Intercontinental Cup matches. Of course, we hope to have more, but can't be sure at the moment.

"Our top players are already plying their trade in county cricket, while others have full-time jobs which they may not wish to give up. The actual number of players that the coach will want to put on a full-time contract, or else the number that even want to have one, may not be that many."

The other quandary is how to get them fixtures. Kenya, widely regarded as the leading Associate, have found it almost impossible to get Full Member countries to visit or host them. As a result they invariably play other Associates. Good for the win-loss ratio, not so clever in providing the kind of experience that no amount of money can buy.

These issues will need to be addressed, but for now the future has never looked so promising beyond the Test world.

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

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Falklands' season kicked off at Mount Pleasant Airfield (MPA) this month with two Twenty20 knock-out matches played back to back. In the first match, MPA took on a weakened Stanley side, coasting to an easy seven-wicket victory. In the second game, Kelpers met HMS Nottingham.

The Kelpers finished on a modest but defendable 96 for 4 after the end of their allotted 20 overs. HMS Nottingham were immediately in trouble at the start of their innings and were all out for 54.

The final of the Twenty20 Knock-Out competition between MPA and the Kelpers is scheduled for March, when the matches in the Falklands Cup (the Twenty20 league) will also be played. The first match in the South Atlantic Ashes series between the Governor’s X1 and the CBFs X1 was scheduled for Saturday, January 26th, starting at 12 noon at the MPA Oval.

Junior Cricket
Junior cricket continues to expand with the start of an indoor junior league with 5 teams as a joint venture of the Community School, the Leisure Centre & FICA. The outdoor junior training sessions have seen good numbers turning up and there is to be a 4-match outdoor series leading up to our proposed Under-17 tour of Chile in April.

Falkland CC near Perth, Scotland has extended an invitation to FICA to join in the celebrations of their 150th anniversary in 2010. They hope to have a triangular tournament including Falkland CC, the Falkland Islands and Falkland CC from Newbury, England whom FICA played last July during their UK tour.

From ICC Americas' regional newsletter

The main event of the Falkland Islands season is the three-match series for the South Atlantic Ashes played between the Governors XI and the Commander British Forces XI. This commences on January 26 and the final match is on February 23. There will also be a new competition – a Twenty20 knockout series which will be held on January 20 and March 8, with a Twenty20 league running throughout March.

Following representation from the Falklands Cricket Association, the Education Department agreed to include cricket in the sports curriculum from the beginning of the school year.

One of the major problems that junior cricket faces in the Falklands is that children go to the UK for further education from age 16 so they lose some of their best players. "It is very encouraging to hear that most of the students are continuing to play cricket whilst at college in the UK which promises to strengthen the depth of adult cricket in the future," said a spokesman.

Charlie Randall

The Falkland Islands are playing their first matches as members of the ICC in southern England next week, and one of the seven tour fixtures is against Outwood, the Surrey village who played Argentina in 1979, three years before the south Atlantic war broke out.

Outwood are looking forward to the match on July 12, proud of their unusual double. Keith Barham, the club’s fixture secretary, said: “We flew the Argentinian flag on our ground when we played them, and I have asked the Falkland Islanders to bring theirs so that we can fly that – blue with union jack and Falkland coat of arms.

He added: “We got soundly beaten by Argentina in a 60 overs match when they were over for the ICC Trophy, though we weren’t as strong as we are now. We don’t expect the Falkland Islands to be very good. They’ve only got a population of 2,500, and they are a bit limited who they can play. They can’t really tour Argentina.”

Barham arranged the Falkland fixture when he discovered their intention to tour. “I have several investments down in the Falkland Islands and subscribe to their local weekly newspaper Penguin News ,” he said. “On the front page it mentioned plans to tour England, so I picked up the phone and suggested a date. In two days it was fixed.”

The Falkland Islands, recently granted affiliate status by the ICC at Lord’s, open their tour next Tuesday against a Foreign and Commonwealth Office XI in London. Another game is against their namesakes Falkland, a club defined by a Victorian memorial to the Civil War commander Lord Falkland, killed at Newbury in 1643. The islands’ name originates from Viscount Falkland, an Admiralty commissioner in 1690.

Charles Randall runs the www.charlierandallcricket.com blog where this article first appeared