| 2022 European Cricket League | |
| Fromdate: | 7 February |
| Todate: | 19 March 2022 |
| Administrator: | European Cricket League |
| Cricket Format: | T10 |
| Tournament Format: | Round robin and knockout |
| Champions: |  Pak I Care Badalona |
| Runner Up: | Tunbridge Wells |
| Count: | 1 |
| Participants: | 30 |
| Player Of The Series: | Muhammad Babar |
| Most Runs: | Chris Williams (477) |
| Most Wickets: | Muhammad Babar (23) |
| Website: | European Cricket Network |
| Previous Year: | 2019 |
| Next Year: | 2023 |
The 2022 European Cricket League (abbreviated as ECL22) also known as the 2022 Bet2Ball European Cricket League was the second edition of the European Cricket League that was held at the Cartama Oval in Málaga, Spain. It was postponed from 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.[1]
The European Cricket League was founded in 2019 by German cricketer Daniel Weston intended as a way to develop cricket in emerging nations in Europe as a cricket equivalent to football's UEFA Champions League. In 2020, it was announced the European Cricket League expanded from 8 teams to include the national club champions of 30 European countries.[2] This came after Weston signed agreements with several European cricket boards to ensure their domestic champions would be invited.[3]
The host for the 2021 and 2022 editions was announced as Spain.[4] The Cartama Oval in Málaga was chosen as the host city ahead of La Manga, Murcia, who were due to host in 2021.[5] It was announced the 2022 edition would run from 7 February 2022 to 25 March.[6]
The following teams were invited to take part as champions of their domestic leagues.[7] The draw was made according to International Cricket Council seedings with England's ECB National Club Twenty20 champions Tunbridge Wells entering as top seeds. Jersey's Farmers expressed concern about the scheduling of the tournament due to the Jersey national cricket team's participation in the 2019–2022 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League and qualifiers for the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, as well as their players needing to use leave from their jobs to play.[8] The reigning European Cricket League champions VOC Rotterdam were also invited back to participate.[9]
It was announced that, due to issues with getting visas, that Petersburg Sporting would not be taking part in their group. They would be replaced by the Calpe Giants of Gibraltar.[10]
| Groups | Teams participated in the 2022 European Cricket League | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tunbridge Wells | Svanholm |  Austrian Tigers |  Star CC |  Helsinki Titans |  Dreux | ||
| Brigade | Griffins |  Bjørvika |  Royal Tigers | Indo Bulgarian | Zagreb Sokol | ||
| Carlton |  Brescia | Cluj |  Prague CC Kings | Olten |  Zeytinburnnu Zafir | ||
| V.O.C Rotterdam | MSC Frankfurt |  Alby Zalmi |  Ostend Exiles |  Malta Super Kings |  Calpe Giants | ||
| HBS Craeyenhout | Farmers | Pak I Care Badalona | Malo | GEK Corfu |  Punjab Lions Nicosia | ||
The Group Stage is to be played across the first 5 weeks of the tournament, with each Group lasting a week. Each week starts with a 3-day round-robin tournament, from which the top 3 progress to a Super 3 playoff. The bottom two teams face off in an eliminator, with the winner going on to play the team who finished 4th. The winner of that game then plays the 3rd place team from the Super 3 playoff, while the Top 2 from that playoff play each other in the first Qualifier. The loser of that game and the winner of the third eliminator then play in the second qualifier. The winners of the Qualifiers then play in the group final to decide the overall Group Winner.
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The Champions Week features a slightly modified version of the Group Stage model. The 5 group winners play in a double round-robin format from the Monday to Thursday. The top 2 teams after this progress to the 1st Qualifier, while 3rd and 4th go to the Eliminator. The loser of the Qualifier and the Winner of the Eliminator then face off for the right to play the Qualifier winner in the Championship Final. The teams moving on to the Finals week are:
| Team | |
|---|---|
| Tunbridge Wells | |
| Brigade | |
| Brescia | |
| Alby Zalmi | |
| Pak I Care Badalona |
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| Runs | Player | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 477 | Chris Williams | Tunbridge Wells | 19 | 61 | 29.81 | 248.43 | 2 | 6 | 24 | 54 | |
| 445 | Alex Williams | Tunbridge Wells | 19 | 58* | 40.45 | 223.61 | 2 | 5 | 34 | 37 | |
| 433 | Muhammad Babar | Pak I Care Badalona | 20 | 75 | 25.47 | 220.91 | 2 | 4 | 17 | 53 | |
| 384 | Babar Hussain | Brescia | 19 | 102* | 25.60 | 193.93 | 1 | 2 | 34 | 27 | |
| 361 | Graeme McCarter | Brigade | 18 | 56* | 25.78 | 184.18 | 2 | 4 | 28 | 28 | |
| 356 | Ali Raza Islam | Brescia | 16 | 54 | 25.42 | 215.75 | 2 | 4 | 16 | 37 | |
| 310 | Yasir Dullu | Brescia | 19 | 66* | 20.66 | 174.15 | 1 | 3 | 31 | 21 | |
| 282 | Azam Khalil | Alby Zalmi | 17 | 53* | 20.14 | 157.54 | 1 | 0 | 25 | 18 | |
| 262 | Sudesh Wickramasekara | Prague CC Kings | 6 | 76* | 52.40 | 231.85 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 28 | |
| 261 | Zeeshan Kukikhel | Royal Tigers | 10 | 54 | 32.62 | 193.33 | 2 | 2 | 25 | 22 | |
| Source: European Cricket Network | |||||||||||
| Player | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | Muhammad Babar | Pak I Care Badalona | 20 | 10.43 | 8.00 | 3/4 | 7.82 | |
| 21 | Dave Smith | Tunbridge Wells | 18 | 9.38 | 8.20 | 3/6 | 6.85 | |
| Ryan MacBeth | Brigade | 18 | 11.66 | 9.07 | 3/10 | 7.71 | ||
| 19 | Ali Raza Islam | Brescia | 17 | 7.57 | 7.51 | 3/0 | 6.05 | |
| 18 | Iftikhar Hussain | Brigade | 17 | 13.50 | 9.34 | 3/10 | 8.66 | |
| 17 | Muhammad Kamran | Pak I Care Badalona | 17 | 10.94 | 6.88 | 3/3 | 9.52 | |
| Shehroz Ahmed | Pak I Care Badalona | 20 | 11.35 | 8.90 | 4/8 | 7.64 | ||
| 16 | Tas Qureshi | Alby Zalmi | 16 | 11.50 | 8.00 | 2/7 | 8.62 | |
| Matt Barker | Tunbridge Wells | 18 | 14.00 | 8.90 | 3/8 | 9.43 | ||
| Neeraj Tiwari | Punjab Lions Nicosia | 9 | 10.50 | 9.33 | 3/11 | 6.75 | ||
| Source: European Cricket Network | ||||||||