The CCC is a national cricket organisation in England, boasting many hundreds of Cricket Club members, many of which are some of the coutries leading club sides. They are a selected team, and there selection is based upon performances in domestic club cricket in England over the past two seasons says coach Min Patel. We have recently returned form a tour ”Down Under” where we encountered some pretty tough ”Aussie” cricket, and we are expecting an equally tough challenge when we visit Copenhagen next week.
For the Danes, the CCC series will be the first representative cricket since the ”Vikings” returned from the European Championships in July. There have been a few changes to the squad that landed in St Helier two months ago, some of the sides senior players have been rested, and others replaced in a re-shaping to the already young squad.

”These are continually exciting times for Danish Cricket ” explained National Coach, Simon Talbot. ”The enforced resting of some of our senior players has given me the chance to bring in some of the youngsters that did so well against Finland earlier in the year. Naveed Mughal for example, had an oustanding series with the bat against Finland, including a magnificent century; as did Taha Ahmed with a couple of accomplished half centuries and some tidy glove work behind the stumps. The two Ahmed brothers, Aftab and Shezad will get their chance to shine again, as will the Ishøj duo, Basit Raja and Ali Ahktar. Back into the squad also comes Svanholm’s Sair Anjum, once again on the back of some solid performances for the A Team and Svanholm this season.

Joining the youngsters into the new look squad will be KB skipper, Yasir Iqbal. Yasir was not available for the Jersey tour due to his recent marriage, but its bad news for KB’s other National teamer, Daniel Nielsen, as he is again forced out of the squad with a recuring knee injury. Michael Pedersen will again lead the ”Vikings” in this series, and Freddie Klokker will step up to vice-captain. They will form the main backbone of the batting, along with Skanderborg’s Rizwan Mahmood. ”I am looking for some consistency and big scores from these players in this series, all three had their moments in Jersey, but we as a team need them to push on from their good starts and start turning forties and fiftes into hundreds, something that they are very capable of achieving. Also looking to cemement their places in the Denmark side will be Troels Thørgesen and Omar Hyatt, both had quite Euro’s, and both will see this series as opportunities to book a place on the plane to Hong Kong.

In the allrounder and bowling departments the series will again be fantastic opportunity for youngsters such as Martin Pedersen to establish himself within the Danish team. ”Martin made a promising debut in Jersey and we are going to be looking for him to kick on from here and establish himself in the side as one of the main allrounders”.
Another to impress in the recent European championships was Herning allrounder, Jacob Larsen.”Jacob was outstanding with the ball in Jersey, and he has started making some valuable contributions with the bat as well, we are all hoping that this acts as a springboard from which he can jump forward and again finally establish himself an allrounders slot in the ever improving team”.
Jersey also proved the stage for a revival in form for legspinner Bobby Chawla who after a series of niggling injuries is beginning to capture some of the form that has made him such an exciting player to watch. The national coach will also be watching the form of finger spinner Bashir Shah as well, a quiet European campaign for the AB stalwart, but the second half of the season has seen ”Bash” almost back to his best. ”It is very important for the team that these two hit their tracks early this series, both players are pivitol in the bowling attack of the Danish team. ”
So, some fantastic new players to watch in this intriguiging series, as well as some established names looking to cement their names into their ”new roles” within the team. All matches will be played at Svanholm Park, Brøndby, Thursdays T20 begins at 16.00, and the remaining three 50 over games start at 11.00 in the morning. All are welcome to come along and support the ”Vikings”, indeed the more the merrier! ” It was an interesting tournament in Jersey, and recently in Italy, watching the home teams play. The players seem to be really lifted when their friends and family were there in support.” ”So come on Denmark, lets get behind our boys!”