Finland here we come at third time of asking

Fingers crossed it will be third time lucky for the Sarnians, who had initially been due to play a Europe sub-regional qualifier in Helsinki in June 2020 and then in a re-arranged event last year, but the pandemic caused the cancellation of both those trips.

This time around it will be the first step on the road to the ICC 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup in USA and the West Indies with Guernsey being drawn in a group with Austria, Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Slovenia in the second of the summer qualifiers to be held in Finland in July while the third will be in Belgium as 28 member nations begin their campaigns.

‘After the amount of effort Finland have put in over the last few years to host such an event, it’s good that we can go and enjoy the facilities there,’ said Guernsey Cricket Board chief executive Mark Latter.

‘Jersey and Germany are already through to the regional final and the ICC have basically seeded the next three [in the European rankings] for the qualifiers, which is us, Italy and Denmark.

‘Norway are the next-best ranked team in our qualifier so the seeding would be for us and Norway to meet in the final, but all the European sides have improved over the last few years because they have upped their game in terms of coaching structure and also the players who are available to them, so we can take nothing for granted.’

The confirmation of the European qualifier dates has also allowed Latter to make progress with the whole summer schedule, although the postponement of Jersey’s ICC Challenge League B tournament in Uganda, which was due to be taking place at the start of the year but has been put on hold due to Covid, has complicated matters.

‘Jersey are in Zimbabwe in July for their T20 global qualifier and I think they are trying to move the Uganda event so that it will mean just one trip to Africa, but that could be either before or after Zimbabwe,’ Latter said.

‘We have spoken with Jersey and there is an agreement that we will have a T20I tri-series here, hopefully some time in early June, depending on their Uganda and Zimbabwe dates.

‘We have also pencilled in a 50-over Inter-Insular in Jersey for the 27 August.

‘Also, in June we will be looking to fit in all the women’s and age-group inter-insulars.’

The idea of Guernsey taking part in a warm-up tournament with a couple of other countries ahead of their qualifier has been put on the back-burner, although Latter revealed that discussions remain ongoing about playing a ‘high-profile’ European nation early in July as part of the preparations for Finland.

Those preparations will get under way in earnest this month, though, when Nic Pothas and Stefan Jones are scheduled to visit the island to assist Guernsey men’s team manager Lee Savident with some coaching.

The squad will also look to get off-island for a training camp in the spring.

ICC 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Sub-Regional Qualifiers

Qualifier B, 24-31 July 2022 in Finland

Group One – Guernsey, Austria, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Slovenia.

Group Two – Norway, France, Czech Republic, Estonia, Switzerland.