ECC Representative Festival: Zagreb Cricket Club
Ivan Bilic - 18 August 2000
Considering this is the first ever appearance of a Croatian national cricket
team in any shape or form, it will be difficult to predict an outcome as far
as Croatia is concerned. Unfortunately Zagreb CC lost their first round
match in the Austrian Trophy Competition to Vienna CC by five wickets, and
that was the only real competative match this year. During the remainder of
the season crickters in Croatia have been reduced to playing friendlies
against Ljubljana and domestic matches in difficult conditions.
Croatia will travel to the tournament in Vienna with 15 players and an
official scorer, which means a squad of 16. The core of the national team
will be provided by Zagreb CC.
The Croatian bowling attack in Vienna will be spearheaded by right-arm fast
bowler Robert Vidaković. Vidaković has played at club cricket level in Sydney and is fully committed to playing for the Croatian national team. He has the ability to both swing and cut the ball and will definately be a handful for the best of batsmen. Vidaković will have strong support from the Zagreb CC medium pace quartet of Ivan Bilić (c), Marko Ivković, Jasen Butković and Miro Bilić. Danny Scott (when not keeping) is also a handy bowler.
Batting however is a department that could cause headaques for Croatia.
While Zagreb CC bowlers have had relatively good success in restricting
batsmen against all opposition, the batsmen have frequently struggled. In
the batting department a lot will depend on openers Zdenko Leko (v.c.) and
Joe Jurić (wicket-keeper-opener). If they can provide a solid start then
batsmen such as Frank Matijasko especially can be very aggressive. Nediljko
Ivković, Robert Dumančić and Tony Lesar will also be hoping to build on
momentum and will be looking to be amongst the runs.
The real strength for Croatia however could come from the Vujnović brothers.
Both John and Paul Vujnović have played cricket in Auckland and will be a
big boost to the Croatian National Cricket Team. John Vujnović is an excellent opening batsman and is a right-arm medium fast bowler. His brother
Paul is a LH top order batsman and a specialist slips fielder.
Croatia will be travelling to Vienna hoping to do well and generate much
needed media exposure at home. If Croatia were to do well at the tournament
it could be a way of opening the public eye in Croatia and generating even
greater interest in the sport. Norway and Austria may be a tall order for
Croatia at this point in time, but Slovenia and Finland are opposition that
Croatia is hoping to match.
One area in which the Croatian team will differ from the others in that
every single person in the squad with the exception of Danny Scott has
Croatian citizenship. Danny in any case has been living in Croatia for five
years and will be settling down with his Croatian girlfriend. Considering
the squad is pretty young in relation to others (ages span from 22-34) it
means that this will be a huge experience for the Croatian National Cricket
Team, which hopes to be involved in similar tournaments in the future.