Migrant stories, a multi-millionaire and the Tinder date – the rise of German cricket

In the intervening time Weston was featuring at Munich Cricket Club, but had made the decision to leave for New York. He might have been lost to German cricket altogether had it not been for a Tinder date with Manuela Meltl, the daughter of Josef Meltl, who founded one of Europe’s largest yacht manufacturers. The relationship persuaded Weston to stay in Germany and Manuela is now his wife.

When Weston got involved in the German national set-up, the businessman inside him was interested in the thousands of people watching a live stream of the players walking off the field after a game in Sweden.

Knowing that investors would not be attracted to German cricket unless they could see it, he began uploading clips of players to Facebook. German Cricket TV was born.

“Football is probably at its peak,” says Weston. “I don’t know how football can grow any further in Europe. It’s the number one sport by a long way.

“It’s very strange that Europe doesn’t have a hitting, bat-and-ball sport, apart from cricket in the UK. France, Germany, Spain, Italy – they have football and then they have holidays.

“Everywhere else on the planet has football or rugby in the winter and either cricket or baseball in the summer. In France, Germany, Spain, Italy – these four, big, monster countries – you don’t have a team bat-and-ball sport in the summer, which is completely bizarre to me.”

German Cricket TV took Weston to an ice cricket event in Switzerland and a chance encounter with Frank Leenders and Thomas Klooz, the men who revamped the Uefa Champions League in 1992, and former Fifa head of broadcasting Roger Feiner.

They were on the lookout for a new sport to promote and asked Weston to pitch an idea for cricket. The European Cricket League (ECL) held its inaugural event in 2019, broadcast live in 112 countries on the European Cricket Network.

It is the ECL that Weston hopes will inspire all Germans, either ethnic or immigrant, to take up the game.

If the league rings a bell in your mind, it is where Romanian Pavel Florin was ridiculed, then taken to hearts on social media for his unusual bowling action and subsequent declaration of love for the game.

Florin might be at one end of the ability scale. At the other, champions VOC Rotterdam had Netherlands internationals Max O’Down and Scott Edwards opening the batting. In the final against SG Findorff of Germany, Edwards clubbed 137 not out from 39 balls, with 18 sixes.

“We are on a trajectory where we are igniting clubs around Europe with something to play for,” says Weston. “When there’s something to play for, the performances start to really rocket, but it also means if you’re a member of a cricket club in Europe, your kids could play cricket on TV, just like football.

“Go to the central station in Paris, Milan or Berlin. There is a vast number of people in these cities coming from places which historically have played or loved cricket. They just need a good reason to get involved in the game. I hope the ECL is that reason.”

If Weston is right, it is the spread of people from traditional cricketing nations to other parts of the globe that will eventually cause the game’s power base to shift.

“Australia and England are dead,” he says. “In 20 years, cricket will be run by India, Europe as a whole, and America. England has 10 million cricket fans. This is tiny, tiny stuff compared to India.

“You could end up with a lot of cricket fans in America, a lot of cricket fans across Europe. Australia and England, I’m sorry to say, will be irrelevant.

“The ECL can become the world’s second biggest cricket event, after the Indian Premier League. It’s pretty easy, to be honest.”