Cricket in Slovenia
LJUBLJANA CRICKET CLUB

Cricket in Slovenia has continued to develop and become more permanently established in the last 12 months. The Ljubljana Cricket Club have excellent financial support from their main sponsor, Harvey Norman, who you may know opened their very first European outlet in Ljubljana a couple of years ago. Their financial backing enables them to do a lot of work which would otherwise be impossible. This is an excellent example of support from Australia.

LCC have been working in 5 schools in the Ljubljana area for about 12 months now. They are targeting 9-11 year olds, hoping that they will develop into the first generation of Slovenes for whom cricket is a 'domestic' sport. There is huge enthusiasm for the game amongst these kids, as well as their teachers and
parents.They have a number of schools on a waiting list to join the schools' programme. Unfortunately ,they are being held back by a lack of manpower, as the members visit these schools in their free time.

The schools
which are waiting in the wings understand this, though, and are proving to be very patient. The aim is to double the number of schools which they are visiting
once a week to 10 in 2004. One of the schools where cricket is played every week
is Grosuplje Primary School, about 20 kilometres from Ljubljana, in Dolenjska. We would like to draw attention to them because the equipment they are using was all donated by the Slovene community in Australia via the St Johns' Park Panthers.

The programme in 2003 culminated in the first even National Junior Championships, which were held in a sports hall in Ljubljana in mid-October. Nine teams from their schools participated (one school even had three teams). There was a large turnout of parents to support the kids, and there was a fantastic atmosphere all day. Remarkably, the winning team comprised 7 girls and only two boys, which they were especially pleased with. They are promoting cricket as a team game which both boys and girls can play together in primary schools.
As many of you will already know, cricket started in Slovenia in 1997, when Ljubljana CC was formed by a group of ex-pat Aussies and Brits. They are now very proud to say that there are three clubs there. In the last 12 months, clubs have formed in Maribor and Mezica na Koroskem. Mezica is especially noteworthy,
as it is made up entirely of Slovenes, with no'foreign' members. Ljubljana cricketers are sctively supporting and promoting the development of our sister clubs, and this is further evidence that we are definitly getting established.

LCC have a full programme of cricket lined up for the summer of 2004, with Ljubljana CC's fourth season in the Austrian League. They also have many friendlies against visiting teams from other countries. Interestingly, their first fixture of 2005 has already been confirmed; in mid-July 2005 Ljubljana will play Galah CC from Australia, who will be on a European tour. This is another opportunity to develop contacts between Slovenia and Australia. More information about all aspects of cricket in Slovenia can be found on their website http://www.ljcricket.com.