BLOG OFF..

Having spent a great 4 days in Berlin at our office there last month (although I can only remember 1 of them) it’s a bit sad to see what the Berlin Authorities have been up to, cricket may be a minority sport but it’s still a world sport, German authorities appear to have some sort of issues with anything minority ..shades of 1939…..I hope not.

The Hitler Nazi cricket ban in Berlin has apparently been reinstated by the Berlin authorities when some little jobsworth discovered that two car windscreens/windows were apparently damaged by cricket balls, apparently that’s too high a risk in the 60 years or so after Hitler’s cricket ban in Berlin was lifted after the end of world war two, this is somewhat ironic, if you happen to go to see a Bundesliga football match in Berlin with the amount of riot police in attendance you could be forgiven after spending 90 minuets watching football that WW 3 had actually broken out.

The Berlin cricket club formed in 1850 and the oldest club in Germany and the last of 4 clubs in Berlin are in effect without a ground, there is speculation the ground could now be converted to a Polo ground in pace of a cricket pitch, with groundsmen already making preparation with the removal of some of the cricket specific facilities at the ground.

It’s a sad day when a local authority feel they have the power to ban a sport that has a history in a city of some 160 years, white the closure of the Central Berlin airport of Tempelhof there is sufficient space there to host cricket on the huge amount of space that is currently unused, Andre Leslie of the German national side says, “It really shows the contempt they have for the sport. The Germans just do not really get cricket. We have seen an improvement since the last Cricket World Cup and people have actually realised that with two billion people watching the final they better show a passing interest.”

Berlin is a brilliant city, much of it is hidden so have a look on our Hidden Berlin section of our Berlin web site,  come on Berliners, don’t let these petty bureaucrats spoil the English game, we might not be able to beat you at football when it counts….but at least with cricket we have a chance..but not in Berlin of course…