Viral European cricket league faces uncertain future

Jersey club side Farmers won the 2025 European Cricket League

The organisers of a series of European cricket leagues and tournaments are facing a major financial obstacle that has cast serious doubt over their future.

Since 2019 the European Cricket Network (ECN) has arranged events across the continent, live streaming them on the internet.

To date, it has organised more than 7,200 matches, nearly all of which have been played using the T10 format, in 55 European cities, towns and villages in 26 different countries.

During that time nearly 800 different teams and more than 10,500 individual players have played in matches under the auspices of the ECN, which is formally sanctioned by the International Cricket Council.

Clips from matches organised by ECN have showcased the best, and worst, of European cricket and a number of them have gone viral on social media.

Romania international Pavel Florin, who works as a bodyguard, shot to cricketing fame in an early tournament for his unorthodox bowling style.

However, a change in Indian law is set to have a major impact on ECN which is heavily reliant on financial backing from a partnership with Dream11, India's biggest fantasy sports platform.

On Thursday, India's parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025 which will ban online games played with money.

Dream11 is poised to pull the plug on its involvement with the ECN when the bill is signed off by India president Droupadi Murmu. This is expected to be within the next month.

Australian Daniel Weston, who founded the ECN, told BBC Sport it was a "devastating" blow and cricket in Europe "risks being pushed back 20 years" and "may never regain that momentum".

"Fantasy sports have provided unmatched financial support to help grow cricket, especially in Associate nations, creating opportunities for both men and women," he said.

"Our vision was to make cricket the number one bat-and-ball team sport in Europe. Now, those hopes feel shattered.

"It is a very sad moment for cricketers, cricket fans, and the children of cricketers all over the world, who will now likely not grow up in a world that is developing cricket outside of the big three."

ECN remains optimistic it can pivot its business strategy and hopeful it will see out the events scheduled for the remainder of 2025 as planned.

But unless a major sponsorship partner is brought on board quickly it faces the reality of scaling back its operations drastically.

Dream11 has been approached for comment.

Huge setback for continental cricket - analysis

The various tournaments and leagues run by ECN are strongly associated with viral clips of comical run-outs, incredible catches, outrageous hitting and unusual bowling actions such as Florin's.

But there has been a serious underlying development aspect to the cricket organised by the ECN which has stimulated interest in European cricket across the globe.

The ECN has also been a vital source of income for cricket boards - with a small hosting fee, believed to be around 10,000 euros (£8,500), paid to stage tournaments.

BBC Sport understands that the ECN has paid out a combined total in the region of £4m (4.6m Euros) to cricket boards across Europe since it began organising tournaments.

Similarly, events have brought national cricket boards in Europe closer together, given greater visibility and incentivised players at local level.

In addition to its main domestic club tournament - won earlier this year by a club side from Jersey - it has provided opportunities for national teams outside of ICC events.

Cricket Ireland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association have sent representative teams to the main ECN international tournament.

An England XI, made up of players selected from the National Counties, has taken part with the blessing of the England and Wales Cricket Board, and won the 2023 tournament.

Weston, a former hedge fund manager who played international cricket for Germany, pulled in senior executives who previously worked for Uefa and Fifa to help make ECN financially viable from the outset.

Without Dream11's backing, and fantasy cricket, it now faces a huge challenge to keep the show on the road.