Norwegian cricket was first organised in the 1960s by a few Asian immigrants and has grown to the current state of 55 clubs playing in five divisions. Norway became a member of the
International Cricket Council in 2000 and played in their first international tournament – the European Representative Championships in
Austria – that same year. They won the tournament without losing a game, but did not play again until 2003, when they took part in the ECC Trophy for the first time. They won this tournament too, again without losing a game. This qualified the team for a place in Division Two of the
European Championship in 2004. They finished fourth in the six-team tournament, gaining wins against
Gibraltar and
Israel. In 2005 Norway won the European Affiliates Championship, the equivalent of the ECC Trophy. They once again won the tournament without losing a game, and again qualified for Division Two of the European Championship in 2006. They won the tournament, beating debutants
Jersey in the final after losing to them in the group stage. This gave Norway a place in Division One for the first time in 2008 and earned them a place in
Division Five of the
World Cricket League. In May 2008, Norway travelled to
Jersey to take part in the Division Five tournament. Although they beat
Vanuatu in Group A, it was the team's only group stage win and with four loses they failed to make the semi-finals. Norway finished ninth overall after defeating the
Bahamas and then
Japan in positional playoff matches. With only the top two from this tournament qualifying for Division Four in Tanzania later in the year, Norway missed out on the chance to take their
2011 World Cup dream any further. In July 2008, Norway met the top nations of European cricket when they participated in Division One of the European Championship. The Norwegians finished sixth overall in the six-team tournament, beaten convincingly in four of their matches – against
Denmark,
Ireland, the
Netherlands, and
Scotland – whilst their match against
Italy was abandoned owing to rain. In August 2009, Norway travelled to Singapore to compete in
Division Six of the World Cricket League. They won only one of five group matches and finished sixth overall after losing a positional playoff to
Botswana. As a result, Norway were relegated to Division Seven. In May 2011, Norway travelled to
Botswana for
Division Seven of the World Cricket League and their relatively poor performances at ICC events continued as they finished fifth overall, although they did beat Japan in a group match and then a positional playoff. Fifth place saw Norway relegated to
Division Eight of the World Cricket League. However, by the end of year 2011 a drastic change in team performance was observed in the World Cricket League, mainly due to the inclusion of a number of new, younger, and fitter players. Under the captaincy of Rakesh the team went on to win several qualifying rounds and titles in games against higher or similarly ranked teams, such as Japan. In June 2012, in the World Cricket League, the team gained the top spot in the shortest format of the game, with amazing reformations in the field. This success won Norway a spot in another ICC qualifier event, potentially securing them a place in the
T20 World Cup competition. In September 2018, Norway qualified from Group C of the
2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 Europe Qualifier to the Regional Finals of the tournament. The Norwegians played their first T20I match against
Italy on 15 June 2019. ==Grounds==