Israel Cricket Association
Encyclopedia
Israel Cricket Association is the official governing body
Sport governing body
A sport governing body is a sports organization that has a regulatory or sanctioning function. Sport governing bodies come in various forms, and have a variety of regulatory functions. Examples of this can include disciplinary action for rule infractions and deciding on rule changes in the sport...

 of the sport of cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. Israel Cricket Association is Israel's representative at the International Cricket Council
International Cricket Council
The International Cricket Council is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.The...

 and is an associate member and has been a member of that body since 1974. Its principal object is to incorporate and manage cricket within. Israel along with Denmark, Gibraltar, Holland, Ireland, Italy and Scotland founded the European Cricket Council
European Cricket Council
The European Cricket Council is an international body which oversees cricket in European countries other than the Test-playing cricketing nation of England and Wales.-Activities:...

 in 1996.

Beginnings

As is most often the case, cricket was introduced to Israel by the British. Local enthusiasts managed to keep the game going once the British had left in 1948, but the game was struggling until the mid 1960s, when an influx of Jewish immigrants from cricket playing countries revived the game, mainly South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, and the Indian Subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

.

The first national league was formed in 1966, which led to the formation of the Israel Cricket Association (ICA) in 1968. The league prospered despite conditions ill-suited to cricket. Games were played on dusty, grass-less football fields, on matting wickets. However, the enthusiasm of the players has overcome these drawbacks.

ICC Membership

Israel became an associate member of the ICC
International Cricket Council
The International Cricket Council is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.The...

 in 1974,with only Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 opposing their membership. Israel competed in the first ICC Trophy
ICC Trophy
The ICC World Cup Qualifier is an international one-day cricket tournament run under the auspices of the International Cricket Council. Any Associate or Affiliate member of the ICC may attempt to qualify for the ICC Trophy by means of a system of regional qualifying events. The test-playing Full...

 in 1979
1979 ICC Trophy
Canada proved too strong for Malaysia, Rasiah Ratnalingham's excellent analysis of 12-5-18-3 not enough to stop the Canadians winning by 44 runs thanks to 77 from Cecil Marshall and 4-33 from John Vaughan...

, failing to get past the first round. They also failed to progress beyond the first round in the 1982 tournament
1982 ICC Trophy
The 1982 ICC Trophy was a limited-overs cricket tournament held in England between 16 June and 10 July 1982. It was the second ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, with matches between the 16 participating teams played over 60 overs a side and with white clothing and red balls...

 and 1986 tournament
1986 ICC Trophy
The 1986 ICC Trophy was a limited-overs cricket tournament held in England between 11 June and 7 July 1986. It was the third ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, and as with the previous two tournaments, games between the 16 participating teams played over 60 overs a side and with white clothing and...


21st Century

Israel have been playing in Division Two of the European Championships since 2000. ICA has been praised many times for its peace work within Israel; The International Cricket Council, has awarded the Israeli Cricket Association with a top prize for bringing together Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 and Bedouins in the Southern Negev desert through cricket, the award is not the first of its kind for the ICA. They were honoured with a similar prize in 2001. In 2009 the ICA started working with cricketing charity Cricket for Change
Cricket for Change
Cricket for Change , registered as the London Community Cricket Association, is a UK charity established in 1981 to provide support for young disadvantaged people to be able to take part in Cricket events...

 to introduce cricket to young people from both the Israeli Arab and Jewish communities around the city of Beersheba
Beersheba
Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....

.

Board of Directors

The ICA is run by a Board of Directors who are elected by its members every two years, according to the articles of association of the company. This is a list of current members of board.
Name Position
Stanley Perlman Chairman
Ezra Ben Yehuda Treasurer
Naor Gudker Secretary
Yonatan Oskar Director
Michael Mohnblatt Director
Rafi Penkar Director
Isaac Samson Director
Steven Shein Director

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK