A revised format for league cricket in Portugal for the 21st Century gave rise for cautious optimism that this year would be the beginning of a new era and that the emergence and formation of new clubs would lead to an even greater expansion of the game.

In the event, the past season suffered from much the same ailments which have beset previous cricket seasons in Portugal and although a great deal more cricket was played, the debate will continue as to whether or not much was achieved in terms of development.

The late withdrawal of the fledgling Oeiras C.C. from both National & Lisbon league competitions left an uncomfortable gap in the fixture lists and made the "B" division of the National League a simple three-cornered contest between CHP"B", Lispak & Cavaliers. Lispak won the two matches contested in this competition and therefore took the "B" Division title. Although there were four teams nominally contesting the "A" Division, the results clearly indicated that the Oporto team was below the necessary strength and despite being granted home advantage for all three matches they lost heavily to CHP"A", Carcavelos & A.C.C.

Champions A.C.C. continued their winning ways and with comfortable victories over CHP"A" (by 8 wickets) and Carcavelos (by 9 wickets) the indomitable A.C.C. wrapped up the National League "A" Division by early June.

The 6 teams in the Lisbon area continued their league fixtures throughout the summer with A.C.C. dominating the programme to such a degree that the only competition was for second place. In the meantime, local attention turned to loftier things with the ill-fated International Triangular Tournament in Oporto in June when the last minute withdrawal of the Swedish squad due to visa problems for their non-E.U. nationals left Portugal and Switzerland to play the best of 3 matches. The competitive edge to these proceedings was consequently blunted before the first ball was bowled and the organisers' experiment at blooding new umpires for a higher level of cricket proved to be a failure with several highly contentious umpiring decisions going against the visitors and causing unnecessary additional embarrassment to the beleaguered administration. However, notwithstanding these problems, the Portuguese national squad emerged with three victories and, perhaps more importantly, a much clearer picture of what their own strengths and weaknesses were and with time in hand to work on these before the European Championships in Scotland in July.

The 2000 Kendall Cup match was played at Carcavelos between the traditional "foes" Oporto & Lisbon. The men from Oporto fielded a much stronger side than had represented them in the National League and from the first session of play it appeared that a draw was always going to be the inevitable result.

The Portuguese national squad which went to the U.K. the week after the Kendall Cup contained a few new faces and many old & familiar ones. A week at Bradfield College in Berkshire provided splendid acclimatisation to British conditions as well as giving the squad the opportunity of developing together as a unit. The efforts and achievements of Richard Holdsworth as national coach cannot be understated and a great deal of the success which the team enjoyed during the following week in Scotland was directly attributable to his coaching. Victories over Greece and Israel and highly creditable performances in defeat against France, Gibraltar & Germany gave clear notice that Portugal was by no means out of its depth in this company.

The nomination of Intesab Mehdi as "Man of the Tournament" in the B Division was an indication of the good impression that the Portuguese players had made upon their opponents and the administrators.

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