Tinder, cigars and tears: The making of the inaugural European Cricket League

NICK HOWSON: Founder Dan Weston has built cricket's own version of the Champions League which could soon be heading to England. But how did he do it?

From a laughing stock to cherished commodity in the space of three days. The European Cricket League might not have been the highest-profile white-ball event taking place this summer, but there is little doubting how significant to the tapestry of the sport it could yet become.

Placed in a relative vacuum in the calendar between the World Cup and the start of the Ashes, eight sides from across Europe competed in a three-day T10 event in La Manga to crown the continents' leading club side. Russia, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Romania and Netherlands were all represented in an event designed to draw attention to the untapped potential of European club cricket.

Unless you were one of the 140 million global viewers or glued to social media, you'll be forgiven for having missed the event entirely - but that might not be true for long. The 2019 edition was very much the soft-launch and like so many one-day events it plans to become a staple of the cricketing landscape.

Reassuringly, the event does at least come from a good place. Dan Weston was already a hub of business, media and cricketing knowledge when the idea of the ECL first came to pass. A handful of business ventures, the success of German Cricket TV and a central figure in Germany's formative years on the international stage made him well-placed to identify a gap in the market.

Experience of what promoting cricket in the right way could do to grow the sport in Germany was central. Weston had taken the sport to the masses via his online video channel, leading to the number of clubs in the country multiplying. If this was the impact a few GoPros and some creative filming could achieve, what could a competition comprising of the continent's best-emerging nations do?

^{La Manga played host to the inaugural European Cricket League (credit: ECL/Facebook)}

After being convinced to remain in Munich after meeting his current wife Manuela on Tinder, Weston met Roger Feiner - the former director of broadcasting at Fifa. A night of whiskey and cigars led to a meeting with Thomas Klooz and Frank Leenders, who had been behind the marketing of football's Champions League.

Weston had 30 days to put together the framework for the event and in Zurich he outlined his vision for the future of European cricket in front of two of the men who helped develop one of world sport's most recognisable brands. "I caught the bus back from Zurich to Munich pinching myself because it was going to happen," he told The Cricketer.

The war in Afghanistan had led to refugees flooding into Germany and central Europe, helping to reignite cricket in the region. Mussolini and Hitler had snubbed out cricket's development in the midst of World War II, but in a roundabout way the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaeda had inadvertently helped reignite it.

Using the model of the football's thriving Champions League, eight nations were identified to compete in the inaugural event, with the onus on development rather than performance. Granted, there was a (free) TV deal, sponsorship, ICC anti-corruption talks, pre-match entertainment and a credible format of two groups of four, a semi-final and final, but that aforementioned ethos shone through and created a pure atmosphere in south-east Spain.

"It was a celebration of cricket there is no other way to put it," explained Weston. "The friendships that were formed through different countries and clubs, you could sense that there was love in the room and we never wanted it to end.

NOW READ: Pavel Florin: Twitter fame, Transylvania and a night at The Oval

"It was like a big birthday party or a big celebration it was incredible. The players were so happy, everyone pretty much had tears in their eyes because they'd seen something bigger than their club, bigger than their country and bigger than the sport. There was a big community feeling. I'd never imagined that to happen."

Alongside some of the most widely covered cricket events on the planet such as the Indian Premier League or the 50-over World Cup, it was clear the standard of the tournament was short of what even the untrained eye might have become used to. Catches would go down, bizarre run-outs were regular and techniques were unorthodox.

Social media soon began to crow and those misunderstanding the purpose of the tournament began to mock. And then came Romania's Pavel Florin, whose bowling technique grabbed the attention of Fox Sports, who couldn't help but draw the world's attention to the episode.

“Thanks chap for your interest. Our loyal followers might find some cricketers buying sandpaper,” was how the European Cricket League's Twitter account, run by 10 of Weston's friends, responded. And then thanks to an interview with Florin when he declared his undying love for cricket, scorn quickly turned to admiration for the ECL.

Ladies and gentlemen ... welcome to the #EuropeanCricketLeague

🤷🤷🤷 pic.twitter.com/ctrhyJvs4b

— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) July 30, 2019

"I was a bit numb," the Australian Weston said. "I've played European cricket for 10 years, so it was nothing new to me someone like Pavel bowling coming out of Europe. 

"My immediate reaction [to the Fox Sports tweet] was "these f**king arrogant p***s, who are they to say that?!" That was my first instinct. 

"That was when I was told me the viewers have just gone up by three (times) since Pavel's over. I was running around in every direction and then I see this guy rolling his arm over and saying 'but I love cricket'. 

"I absolutely melted and I started crying. I did not see this coming. We've done something really good for the sport here and Fox Sports are going to be eaten alive.

"Sport is just the world's best reality TV - you're got heroes and you've got villains. Pav could have hit a six off the last ball but him being the hero is something that we could not have planned at all. To me it was all about emotion and passion and trying your best not being the best."

^{Dan Weston (left) pictured with the man-of-the-moment Pavel Florin}

V.O.C Rotterdam were crowned champions after three jam-packed days but to celebrate and highlight their success would be to miss the point of the tournament's existence. Despite initially having modest goals, growth is very much on the agenda. Florin will not be part of that evolution - though he could return next year with his Cluj side - but a new venue, more teams and a sophisticated rights package are all in the pipeline.

The swelling of competing nations is likely to include a side from England, with a route possibly provided by the Vitality Club T20, following an offer from an unnamed Test match ground to host next year's offering. It is an intriguing proposition, particularly given the messy summer schedule in England which will be further complicated by The Hundred.

Grass wickets elsewhere - Denmark and a return to Spain is also possible - are difficult to come by, but after all this competition is around to change just that.

The T10 format will remain, with Weston insistent it is the future of European cricket with the idea being to make Tuesday and Wednesday, much like the football equivalent, the home of the ECL. It is a bold plan to make this new event the flagship club competition in the northern hemisphere.

The problems encountered by the Canada GT20 and the now-cancelled Euro T20 Slam are however of no concern to Weston, whose model is based on giving club players a platform to perform, rather than another payday.

"You have to get communities and club cricket involved if you ask me," he stated. "We've planned it in a way where we're conservatively doing it for the long-term and not trying to blow the balls in the first year."

He added: "The ECL is the highest level of cricket for these club cricketers so they all want to give it a crack. It is sad because it taints our sport."

Insatiable desire for victory and money makes finding sport for the sake of competition more difficult than hitting a Florin full-toss for six. But Weston has identified a formula which offers authenticity in a sector which is often a facade. But as he prepares to announce plans for 2020, retaining such an elusive characteristic is the ultimate challenge.

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