Early years One of the many theories about the origin of cricket is that France could be a possible birthplace of the game: a mention of a bat and ball game called "criquet" in a village of the
Pas-de-Calais occurs in a French manuscript of 1478, and "criquet" is an old French word meaning "post" or "wicket". However, it is also possible that this could be an early variant of
croquet.
Horace Walpole, son of former British Prime Minister
Robert Walpole mentioned seeing cricket in Paris in 1766. The first documented match took place in the Bois de Boulogne between Paris Cricket Club and Nottingham Amateurs in 1864. The Paris Cricket Club published a book explaining the game the following year. The match was twelve-a-side, and the following players represented France: •
Philip Tomalin (
captain) •
William Anderson •
William Attrill •
John Braid • W. Browning (
wicket-keeper) •
Robert Horne •
Timothée Jordan •
Arthur MacEvoy •
Douglas Robinson •
H. F. Roques •
Alfred Schneidau •
Henry Terry The Standard Athletic Club restaged the 1900 Olympic cricket match in 1987, and France played the MCC in
Meudon in 1989. In 1910, France took part in an exhibition tournament in
Brussels, also involving the MCC,
the Netherlands and
Belgium. They played one game, against the Netherlands, winning by 63 runs.
The modern era Many cricket clubs folded after the
Second World War, but an influx of English and Asian immigrants led to a resurgence of the game in the early 1980s. In 1997, they played in the European Nations Cup in
Zuoz,
Switzerland, winning after beating
Germany by one run in the final. This match was included in the
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack list of 100 best matches of the 20th century as David Bordes ran the winning
leg bye with a
fractured skull. They played in the
European Championship in the
Netherlands in 1998, finishing eighth after losing to Germany in a play-off. They became an associate member of the ICC the same year. France played their only
ICC Trophy in the
2001 tournament in Canada, though they did not progress beyond the first round. The following year, they finished fifth in Division Two of the European Championships, and finished as runners up in the 2004 tournament. They finished sixth in the 2006 tournament after losing a play-off to
Guernsey. In 2008, France finished fourth in Division 2 of the European Championship. In 2010, France finished third in the same competition, narrowly missing out on qualification for the 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division Eight. In 2011, they finished sixth in the ICC Europe Division 1 T20 Championship after losing the fifth place play-off match to Norway. In 2012, they finished second in the ICC European World Cricket League 8 Qualifier, held in La Manga, Spain; again missing out on qualification for Division 8 of the World Cricket League. In 2018, France competed at the ICC World Twenty20 Europe Region Qualifier in Netherlands. In 2021, France played their first ever T20 international match against
Norway in
a tri-nation series in Germany, winning the match by 4 wickets. ==International grounds==