The Sweden national cricket team represents Sweden in international cricket. It is organised by the Swedish Cricket Federation, an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) since 1997 and an associate member since 2017.
The first cricket club in Sweden was formed in Gothenburg in 1883. One of the founders, Erik Blidbert, had learnt the game in London and became a natural leader for Sweden's pioneering Cricket enthusiasts. The club's full name was Lyckans Samfund (Society of Joy), a pun on the name of the local neighbourhood.
The first organised club of modern times, called the Stockholm Cricket Club, was created in 1948 by the staff of the British Embassy in Stockholm. They played against the crews of passing ships and made annual visits to Helsinki. Västerås started in the 1960s and teams from Gothenburg and Mariestad (founded by Ugandan-Indians) followed in the 1970s.
The Swedish Cricket Federation (SCF) was formed in 1990. The driving force behind it was the Guttsta Wicked Cricket Club. The Swedish Cricket Federation became a Member of the ICC in 1991.
Over the years, clubs like Stockholms Akademiska Cricketsällskap, set up by students at Stockholm University in 1996 and now one of the largest clubs in the country, have fuelled the growth of Cricket in Sweden. In the initial years, progress was slow, but there was interest. Foreign teams also toured Sweden from time to time to keep things interesting.
MCC visited Sweden in June 1999, which was one of the high points for Cricket in the country. After becoming an affiliate member of the ICC, Sweden participated in many ICC-organised tournaments. In 1997 Sweden successfully hosted its first ever ICC Europe (then ECF) tournament, an indoor tournament in Halmstad.
In 2011, Sweden participated in and won the European Division 3 in Slovenia. The following year, Sweden became runners-up in the European Division 2 championship in Corfu, Greece, which earned the national team a place in the European Division 1, the highest-level tournament Sweden ever played in. Inspired by the national team's achievements, the national club scene started taking cricket seriously and in 2012, the SCF increased its membership to 21 clubs.
The newly formed Division 2 was set up the same year. In 2013, six new clubs joined the league, with the total number of players in the country standing at around 1500. With the ICC development fund, youth cricket also got much attention, with youth camps organised in the three larger cricket regions: Stockholm, Malmö, and Gothenburg.
All of this meant further strengthening the club scene and adding to the membership of SCF.
From the Wikipedia article "Sweden national cricket team", available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
