We’re sure that all our viewers associate cricket with nations like Australia, India and England. Various nations have started playing this wonderful sport over the last few years. What if we were to tell you that Romania has begun it’s cricketing journey again? Yes you heard the right, Cricket Romania is on it’s way to establish themselves as a cricketing team all over again. So can Cricket Romania succeed as a cricket nation? Will Romania participate in events organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC)? What’s the entire hype around them reinstating cricket in their national? We promise to answer all your questions by the time you get done reading this piece.
Romania’s national cricket team represents the country of Romania in international cricket. Cricket was played in Romania between 1893 and 1930, after which it declined and the sport in Romania died out. It was safe to say that all Romanians felt that their cricket died. In recent years the game has begun to grow again, particularly in Bucharest, Timișoara and Cluj-Napoca. In July 2010 they played in a European Twenty20 tournament which was held in Skopje, Macedonia. On 29 June 2013 Romania was granted affiliate status by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and are therefore entitled to participate in ICC official events. Since 2017, they became an associate member. Romania had played their first international cricket match against Bulgaria way back in 2009.
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They played their last T20I against the same team in 2020, which was last year. The main ground of the team for national and international matches is at Moara Vlăsiei, 26 km (16 miles) away from the Bucharest city centre. It was built between 2011 and 2013 and is the only turf ground in eastern and central Europe. Back in 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between Romania and other ICC members after 1 January 2019 will be a full T20I. Romania played their first match with T20I status on 29 August 2019 against Austria during the 2019 Romania T20 Cup.
Ever since they played their first T20I match against Austria on 29 August 2019 during the 2019 Continental Cup in Romania, they have never looked back since then. Romania’s highest ever T20I total is 226, which they scored against Turkey in 2019. Ramesh Satheesan is not only Romania’s highest run scorer in T20I history but has also taken the most number of wickets by any Romanian bowler. Thus to answer the initial questions, Romania can participate in ICC events and are now an associate nation. No matter how long it takes, cricket in Romania is due for a rise and there’s a huge chance of seeing a new nation in the cricket map. Each and every individual would pray Romania succeed in this lovely sport known as cricket