France national cricket team

One of the many theories about the origin of cricket is that France could be a possible birthplace of the game. A mention of a bat and ball game called "criquet" in a village of the Pas-de-Calais occurs in a French manuscript of 1478, and the word "criquet" is an old French word meaning "post" or "wicket".[4] However, it is equally possible that this could be an early variant of croquet. It must be remembered that most of France during the 14th and 15th centuries was under English occupation in the Hundred Years War and so any cricket references in France at this time are probably due to the game having been introduced to France by the English occupiers.[5]

Horace Walpole, son of former British Prime Minister Robert Walpole mentioned seeing cricket in Paris in 1766.[4]

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) were due to make the first ever international cricket tour of France, in 1789, however this was cancelled due to the French Revolution. This match was finally played in 1989, as part of the bicentennial celebrations of the revolution, with France beating the MCC by 7 wickets.[6]

The first documented match took place in the Bois de Boulogne between Paris Cricket Club and Nottingham Amateurs in 1864.[7] Paris Cricket Club published a book explaining the game the following year.[4]

Poster for the 1900 Summer Olympics cricket match

The one and only appearance for cricket at the Olympic Games took place in 1900, with the French team losing the only match played, and thus remaining the reigning silver medal holders to this day. The French team however, consisted solely of British residents in Paris, members of the Standard Athletic Club.[8] The Standard Athletic Club restaged the 1900 Olympic Cricket match in 1987, and France played the MCC in Meudon in 1989.

In 1910, France took part in an exhibition tournament in Brussels, also involving the MCC, the Netherlands and Belgium. They played one game, against the Netherlands, winning by 63 runs.[9]

Many cricket clubs folded after the Second World War, but an influx of English and Asian immigrants led to a resurgence of the game in the early 1980s.[4] The current French Cricket Association was formed in 1987, and they gained Affiliate membership of the ICC the same year.[2]

After the win in the 1989 match mentioned above, there were a handful of tours from English county teams, and France toured Austria in 1996, losing both matches against the national team.[10] In 1997, they played in the European Nations Cup in Zuoz, Switzerland,[11] winning after beating Germany by one run in the final.[12] This match was included in the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack list of 100 best matches of the 20th century as David Bordes ran the winning leg bye with a fractured skull.[13]

They played in the European Championship in the Netherlands in 1998, finishing eighth after losing to Germany in a play-off.[14] They became an associate member of the ICC the same year.[2] They finished third in Division Two of the 2000 European Championship.[15]

France played their only ICC Trophy in the 2001 tournament in Canada, though they did not progress beyond the first round.[16] The following year, they finished fifth in Division Two of the European Championships,[17] and finished as runners up in the 2004 tournament.[18] They finished sixth in the 2006 tournament after losing a play-off to Guernsey.[19]

In 2008, France finished fourth in Division 2 of the European Championship. In 2010, France finished third in the same competition, narrowly missing out on qualification for the 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division Eight. In 2011, they finished sixth in the ICC Europe Division 1 T20 Championship after losing the fifth place play-off match to Norway. In 2012, they finished second in the ICC European World Cricket League 8 Qualifier, held in La Manga, Spain; again missing out on qualification for Division 8 of the World Cricket League.

In 2018, France competed at the ICC World Twenty20 Europe Region Qualifier in Netherlands.[20]

• 1979 to 1986 inclusive: Not eligible – Not an ICC member[2]
• 1990 to 1997 inclusive: Not eligible – ICC affiliate member[2]
• 2001: First round[16]
• 2005: Did not qualify[21]

• 1991: 8th place[14]
• 1993: 1st place (Division Two)[15]
• 1998: 3rd place (Division Two)[17]
• 2002: 2nd place (Division Two)[18]
• 2006: 6th place (Division Two)[19]
• 2008: 4th place (Division Two)
• 2010: 3rd place (Division Two)
• 2011: 6th place (Division One, T20)
• 2013: 5th place (Division One, T20)

The following French national team players have played first-class or List A cricket:

• Waseem Bhatti – played first-class cricket for Pakistan International Airlines in 1998 and 1999[24]
• Simon Hewitt – played first-class cricket for Oxford University in 1984[25]
• David Holt – played first-class cricket for Loughborough UCCE in 2005 and 2006[26]
• Paul Wakefield – played List A cricket for Cheshire in 1983[27]