Cricket in Germany has a history going back to 1858, when a group of people from England and the United States founded the first German cricket club in Berlin. Several more teams were later founded in Berlin and the rest of Germany, as well as a national federation. Cricket lingered on over the following century, with occasional visits of German players to England and British and other foreign teams touring in Germany, but only when it got a foothold in the German universities in the 1980s did the number of German cricket clubs and players start to grow again. Until recently, much of the cricket was played by British soldiers stationed in Germany. However, in recent years the popularity of the game has increased due to an influx of migrants and refugees from cricket-playing countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan. The national organisation for the game is currently the German Cricket Federation, founded in 1988. In 2016 there are about 220 cricket teams in the country, up from 70 in 2012. By 2019, the number of teams had increased to 350.
German Cricket is organized in several regions, which all have their own leagues. The winner of those will play for the national championship. Those regional associations are:
Britannia, BFC Viktoria 1889, Reinickendorfer Füchse, AC Berlin, Dresden, HCCW, Bautzen, USG CCC and Berlin CC field a team in the Verbandsliga too.* field a team in the T20-League Other teams:
A feature of club cricket in Germany is that many clubs experience rapid fluctuation in membership, which is composed largely of expats playing the sport. Clubs which cannot join a league may still take part in independently arranged friendly matches. The club's wicket can vary from a grass pitch to coconut fibre wickets on concrete, flicx® pitches, and do-it-yourself constructions. The size of the field also varies, from a good club size to double hockey pitches which the club hires, and unusual fields such as that at Göttingen, which is large, but has a bank that rises up to 4 metres above the level of the square. Indoor cricket is played in various tournaments throughout the winter, mostly in German 3 field gyms, or in indoor tennis halls, in Twenty20 format.
Leagues
The majority of cricket clubs are organised into six regional leagues. Each region hosts one or two leagues of 6 or 7 clubs. Matches are over 50 overs. In two of the leagues the first and second placed teams meet in play-offs, and the winner of the play-off is the regional champion. At the end of the regional season, national play-offs are held: the northern league champions, NRCU, BCV ) play against each other, and the southern teams, BWCV, BYCV ) do likewise. The overall northern and southern winners then play off for the German Championship. Independent of the regional leagues are 20/20 tournaments which are mostly invitational tournaments initiated by one team.
