At the very top of Slovenia, high in the Julian Alps
lies the town of Mezica. A skiing and mountain-biking
centre which is well known for its lead and zinc
mines. It is however less well-known as the unlikely
birthplace of Slovenian cricket.

The story goes that a young man named Borut Cegovnik
went on an exchange trip to Kent as part of his
English lessons in 1974. There he was introduced to
cricket (by the Single Wicket champion of
Birchington.) Borut was captivated by the game and
returned to Mezica accompanied by a bat, ball and copy
of the laws of cricket. He convinced his friends that
this should be the sport for them and regular games
were played on a farmers field underlooking stunning
alpine scenery. Around 1982 as the boys were growing
older and entering into things like the army, marriage
etc cricket began to be nothing more than a pleasant
childhood memory for most of them.

Until about 20 years later that is, when one of them
mentioned to Borut that he had seen a story about
people playing cricket in the Slovenian press.

Ljubljana cricket club had been formed in 1997 by a
group of translators, English teachers and businessmen
from cricketing nations that were living in Ljubljana
at the time. Their first match was against The Hague
CC from Holland. In those dark early days of the
Internet, word of mouth was the main method of
discovering new clubs to play against and soon there
were regular matches taking place in Austria and
Italy. A ground was found about 16 kms from the heart
of Ljubljana and visiting teams began to come. The
MCC, The Crusaders (from Australia) soon joined the
likes of Zagreb CC and Munich CC in playing games at
the picturesque Valburga ground.

 Once contact had been established Ljubljana Cricket
Club assisted a reunion of the original cricketers in
Mezica and a new club was born. Clubs have also been
formed in the shape of Maribor CC and in Bela Krajina
CC. The first National Championships were held in 2007
as part of Ljubljana CCs 10th anniversary celebrations
and nobody was disappointed that the Old Boys (with a
little help from a young son or 2) of Mezica lifted
the first trophy. Mezica also began work on a new
ground in their home town and an 6 team invitational
tournament was held there with visiting teams from
Hungary, Slovakia and Austria in addition to the 3 new
Slovenian clubs. To top it off they embarked on a tour
to Scotland to cap off their busy year.

Cricket is also played by primary school kids in 5 or
6 schools where volunteer members of Ljubljana CC go
and introduce the sport to them and their sports
teachers. With the construction of our first practice
nets at one of these schools, it is hoped that some of
these players will develop into future stars.

Cricket is still a relatively unknown sport here in
Slovenia and passers-by can often be heard exclaiming
the words Rugby, Baseball and even Polo. However
Slovenes have been introduced to playing cricket and a
few complete novices have gone on to represent their
country at the sport (As has Borut). Slovenia has been
competing in European tournaments since the year 2000
(even successfully hosting a 6 team tournament in
2004). Our next tournament is the European
Championships - Division 4 in 2009.

The last month or so has been a particularly exciting
one for cricket in Slovenia. Our schools program has
been recognised officially by the goverment and now
Slovenia is one of the very few countries in Europe
with Cricket on the Sports curriculum. Both Mezica and
Maribor cricket clubs have found sites for a ground
and nets (Mezica have already built theirs). 2 new
clubs in different parts of the country are in the
process of being founded bringing the total of clubs
to 6 or 7. Finally the first ever Slovenian Cricket
League schedule has been drawn up for next year.

For more information on cricket in Slovenia please
visit or contact us at www.ljcricket.com

Copyright: Cover Point