Beginnings
The first game of modern cricket in Belgium appears to have been a match played by British soldiers before the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, [7] though research has suggested that cricket may be related to a game exported from Flanders to England in the Sixteenth Century. [8] The first record of organised cricket is a painting dated 1870 that hangs in the pavilion of Lord's Cricket Ground in London that depicts the opening of the Brussels cricket ground in 1866 by mayor Jules Anspach. [9]
The national team first played a match in 1905 when they played against the Netherlands. The match was played almost every year until 1986. [9] Belgium hosted a tournament as part of the 1910 Brussels Exhibition also involving France, the MCC and the Netherlands. [10] Belgium lost their match against the MCC by an innings [11] and lost to the Netherlands by 116 runs. [12]
ICC membership
Belgium became an affiliate member of the ICC in 1991. [4] They began to play in European tournaments, playing in the ECC Trophy for the first time in 1999 when they finished last. [13] They fared better in the next tournament, reaching the semi-finals of the 2001 ECC Trophy in Austria. [14]
They finished sixth in the ECC Trophy in 2003, [15] and gained associate membership of the ICC two years later. [4] Belgium finished fourth in the European Affiliates Championship in 2005 [16] and both played and hosted Division Three of the newly restructured European Championship in August 2007, they finished fifth. [17]
In 2009, Belgium played in La Manga Club Ground, again in Division 3. Richard Nash captained the team and finished fourth. In 2011, Belgium hosted the new 2011 ICC European T20 Championship Division Two where they won the championship undefeated. [18] The captain for the T20 squad was André Wagener. Belgium got promoted to Division 1 where they finished a credible 7th out of 12 teams having fielded a weakened team because of visa issues. Their performance qualified them for the WCL 8 qualifier the following year.
In 2012, Belgium played the World Cricket League 8 Qualifier in La Manga Club Ground where they beat Gibraltar, Austria and France to qualify for the World Cricket league for the first time. Captained by Sheriyar Butt and Simon Newport in this tournament, they will travel to Samoa in September. On July 31, the Under-19 Belgium Cricket Team (Aadit Sheth, Aaryan Mehta, Raj Sanghvi, Sabhya Jain, Burhan Niaz, Shaan Shah, Dev Jogani, Aarjav Jain, Alex Uzupris, Theodore Develodore, Aamad Ali Rehman, Rehaan Shah, and Zeeshan Diwan Ali), travelled to Essex to participate in the U19 Cricket World Cup Qualifier Europe Division 2.
France at Brussels; 19 June 1910
Germany at Royal Brussels Cricket Club, Waterloo; 11 May 2019
Serbia at Bayer Uerdingen Cricket Ground, Krefeld; 12 July 2024
