Cricket is certainly not the first sport that comes to mind when one thinks of Estonia. (Actually not many sports come to most people's minds when they think of Estonia -- it turns out the most popular sports are basketball and cross-country skiiing.) Estonia has yet to be a major force on the international cricket scene, although it did recently join the list of 'official' cricket-playing countries, and as of last year was ranked in 123rd place (out of, yes, 123 countries).
Surprisingly, however, Estonia has made its mark on the cricketing world, namely as the originator and world leader in the fledgling sport of 'Ice Cricket.'
Ice cricket is a winter sport, thus better suited to Estonia's semi-arctic climate, and is played on various ice-covered lakes in the vicinity of the capital, Tallinn. Its been going for about three years now and several teams from abroad (mostly from England) visit each winter to challenge the local teams. Matches are limited to 6 overs per side because of the challenging conditions, and a specially modified ball is used.
Estonian ice cricket has caught the attention of the media and there have been various stories about it in the British and Australian press. Below is a link to a short video story about ice cricket from the Reuters news site.
Ice cricket video
Its an interesting coincidence that one of the first teams to come to Estonia to play ice cricket was from Wolfson College, Cambridge, where Shelley and I were from 1998 to 2000, and whose cricket team we used to play!
arb
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