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Basel
Cricket Club had its beginnings on the notice board of the Carnival Squash
Club in Allschwil in 1978. Anyone interested in playing cricket was
invited to put his or her name down on the list. Thirty people did in fact
put their names down declaring their interest.
The person responsible for trying to get up a cricket team in Basle was a
Scotsman called Ian Bigland who was a translator at Geigy AG in Basle. Ian
had played cricket in his younger days for Scotland and was an excellent
squash player eventually becoming Chairman of the Swiss Squash
Association.
Ian paid for a coconut mat, and all the equipment a cricket club needed
and it was agreed that the club would reimburse Ian over the next few
years as the club’s finances improved. (This was to take a long time!)
Our first match was against Bern Cricket Club on the 10th of
June 1978 played on Bern’s ground at Marzilimoos. That was the fist match
of many subsequent matches that Basle played against Bern who became our
archrivals. I believe that I am the only person still living in
Switzerland who was in the team for our first match. Needless to say we
lost. Bern batted first and scored 105 all out. Basel were bowled out for
86 (for 13 wickets). We had too many players but all were allowed to play!
Our second match was against Geneva Cricket Club arguably the strongest
side in Switzerland. There were only four clubs then. Bern, Basel, Geneva
and Zurich Cricket Clubs. Against Geneva we were thrashed. Geneva scored
143 all out and Basel were bowled out for just 30 runs.
We only played three games in 1978 and lost all of them, and again in 1979
we played three matches and lost all of them again. But in 1979 Bob
Schlumpf joined the club. He was a great cricketer and organiser. Always
motivated and hard working he helped to build the Basel Cricket Club into
one of the best teams in Switzerland in the 80’s. Ravi joined the club in
1980, as did Assad Sadiq another wonderful cricketer. The number of clubs
in Switzerland was now increasing. We played against CERN Cricket Club and
also we had a match against the school team from the Lyceum Alpinum School
in Zuoz.
On June 27th 1981, we had our first victory against Bern
beating them by 7 wickets. A historic day for the club.
In 1982 Benji Roberts joined the club. Benji is from Dominica and played
exciting cricket and he helped us to many great scores. 1982 saw the
formation of the Zurich Sri Lankans with whom we had many great games.
1985 saw the influx of a number of very good players into the club. Jamil
Chaudry and Philip Rae were extremely good players; Jamil probably was the
best player in the country at that time. We played 17 matches in the
season and won the Brennan Challenge Cup for the first time beating Geneva
in the final in Bern by three wickets. A wonderful result and a wonderful
season. The Brennan Challenge Cup was donated by the then Australian
Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Brennan to be competed for in a knock out
competition.
Basel Cricket Club won the Brennan Cup three times and on the way to these
successes no game could have been more exciting than our semi-final
against Bern which we won with the last ball of the match! We were also
runners up twice. Jack Aston who was our President for many years and
prolific opening batsman left to go to Nairobi, Assad went back to
Pakistan. Other players have come and gone but Basel owes a big thankyou
to all players past and present and it is great to see the club is still
in existence thanks to Jay Singh and his team.
Peter
Nixon
Honorary Member
January
2004
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