The game was played in St Petersburg as early as the 1870s. In 1875, the British residents of the city challenged the sailors of the Prince of Wales’ Royal Yacht Osbourne to a match. By 1880 cricket was well established in St Petersburg, with British diplomats and merchants challenging the British managers and foremen of the textile mills in an annual match. By 1895 there were four cricket clubs in St Petersburg.
Recent developments
Cricket Russia was founded in 2004 by Ashwani Chopra and Mohanjeet Singh Arora with the help of cricket lovers like Vineet Arora, Manish Rana, Samar Shakeel and many others. It gained affiliation to the International Cricket Council on 28 June 2012. Cricket Russia is the sole and legitimate governing body of cricket in Russia. In March 2012 the first cricket academy was opened in Moscow and at present 50 young native boys, 32 senior native men and 58 native girls are enrolled and are learning the skills of the game. All the rules, regulations and coaching manuals are translated into the Russian language. Cricket Russia achieved affiliation to the International Cricket Council and reached new heights with the help of Alexey Kylasov, Arvinder Singh, Saqib Shaikh, Mahendra Mapagunaratne, David John Warlond, Abhijat Sawarkar, Alexander Ratner, Gorman Mathew, Suyogya Sharma and Sergey Kurchenko. Cricket Russia is also thankful to the MSU baseball stadium for providing the facility to play and learn the game. The bulk of the players representing the Russian national cricket team are drawn from the Cricket Russia's annual tournament which is played in Moscow. The Russia national cricket team played their first home representative match against a touring side from North Wales – Carmel & District Cricket Club – at the Moscow State UniversityBaseball Stadium in 2007. There are also sporadic games of cricket played in St. Petersburg and other cities of Russia. A St Petersburg XI, made up primarily of students from, Mechnikov State Medical Academy also contested two Twenty20 matches against Carmel & District Cricket Club in 2007 using a proper cricket balls and equipment. Highlights of Team Russia In 2008 Russian team participated in the 1st edition of European t-20 held in North Wales where it lost all the matches. In 2008 Russian team participated in the six nation t-20 cup in Czech Republic and were winners there. In 2009 Russian team reached the semifinals of the European t-20 held in North Wales . Here on its journey to semifinal the team remained unbeaten. In 2010 Russian team reached the finals of the European t-20 held in Macedonia. In 2012 Russian team participated in European t-20 held in Bulgaria and finished sixth there. The main highlight of this tournament was that for 1st time Russian natives played for the country. Year 2013 brought some major developments in Cricket Russia. Russian Cricket federation was formed along with its 44 regional bodies. Mr. Nic Britz from South Africa was appointed as the coach of Team Russia. New Cricket Ground at Karacharova in Moscow came into existence. In August 2013, Hong Kong's Craigengower Cricket Club continued its proud touring tradition, by playing a three match, 35 over/side series against Moskvich, Cricket Russia Invitational and Rest of Russia at the Karachavo ground. In October 2013 Russia participated in International cricket tournament in Malta and finished 3rd. In July 2019, cricket was not included on Russia's list of official sports. This means that Cricket Russia did not receive government funding over the year.. However, Cricket was included in a list of officially recognised sports in Russia in 2020, meaning that the federation could apply for government funding.
