Howzat St. Moritz

Every year, in mid-Feb, the town of St. Moritz, Switzerland, hosts a unique cricket tournament perhaps as unusual as it can get. Cricket on Ice is organised by the St. Moritz Cricket Club and played on a makeshift ground, a public space that exists for barely three months in a year. The venue is the frozen St. Moritz Lake with a snow cover that makes playing feasible.

A few years ago, when I first heard of this fixture it led to bewilderment. Who would imagine that cricket is played in Switzerland? And that too on ice? What was to follow was a string of surprises and discoveries that uncovered my ignorance of the sport’s reach. Traditionally associated with Commonwealth nations, cricket is being embraced by countries far and wide that have had no conceivable connection with this game. And with the International Olympics Committee’s decision to introduce cricket as an Olympics sport starting 2028, its spread is likely to pick up further steam.

Cricket on Ice 2025

Better known for its jet-set crowd, fancy ski resorts and for being the gambling and party capital of Switzerland, St. Moritz seems about the most unlikely of venues for a cricket tournament. To its credit, the St. Moritz Cricket Club facilitates a surreal tournament which they have been organising annually since 2012 although its roots go back to 1987 when the idea was first floated.  

A visit to Switzerland, by sheer chance this winter gave my wife and I the opportunity to make a less-than-24 hours sojourn in St. Moritz where these matches were being played in a community-like atmosphere. Here I was startled to see cricket being played like it isn’t anywhere else.

At the base of the St. Moritz Engadin mountains and what seemed like endless fields of snow, we were welcomed by an improvised cricket ground, a pitched tent that served as a pavilion and a well laid out synthetic turf with wickets intact. Of course, corners need to be cut to make playing this game viable. In a limited over cricket match the radius of the boundary is typically 65 to 70 metres away from the pitch but here the boundary was more like 35-40 metres. In a normal cricket match a hard leather ball is used but here the organisers make do with a synthetic ball with printed seams to give it a real-feel. Strictly speaking, this hack is unavoidable because a leather ball cannot travel very far when snow and humidity abound.

We reached the cricket venue whilst the inaugural matches between St. Moritz Cricket Club and Tallin Hippos and the one between Old Cholmeleians XI and Lyceium Alpinium XI were being played. The tournament is played out between eight teams divided into two groups. This year, three of the teams were from Switzerland, two from the U.K., one from Australia and one each from Germany and Estonia. The format is 15 overs a side and each bowler is allowed a maximum of one-third or three overs per game. Other than these modifications, the tournament adopts the rules laid out by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

The finals were held on day four of the tournament. In what was a thrilling contest, Old Cholmeleians XI won the toss and elected to bat. Chasing 104-7, Tallin Hippos won the match 106-4 with ten balls to spare.

Cricket Switzerland

Cricket in Switzerland is barely visible but it is being seeded across the country and its roots are spreading fast. According to Cricket Switzerland, a member of the International Cricket Council, there are 27 cricket clubs in Switzerland registered with it. Cricket in Switzerland owes its origin to the Commonwealth diaspora that resides there as well as students studying at Switzerland’s international boarding schools. Even the scientists at C.E.R.N. have formed a cricket club and the city of Lausanne has a for-purpose cricket stadium.

So, where might this all be heading to?

In March 2003, Switzerland’s Team Alinghi led by Ernesto Bertarelli stunned the world by winning the America’s Cup, the most coveted cup in sailing, by successfully challenging defenders Team New Zealand by 5-0. Note, they achieved this on their maiden attempt. And who would think Switzerland, a land-locked country has any connection with sailing? If you take a closer look, there is sea and ocean access from Basel and a lot of cargo moves down the Rhine before it enters the North Sea. In fact, I recollect a catamaran with a Swiss flag that had several years ago sailed from Basel all the way to Mumbai.

For those not familiar with its parlance, the expression ‘Howzat?’ is an abbreviation of the words ‘how’s that’; an appeal to an umpire beseeching him or her to rule the batsman ‘out’. This, however, isn’t a question; it is a rhetorical question amalgamated with a shrieking exclamation. In a few years from now, thanks to the efforts of clubs like the St. Moritz Cricket Club,  it might very well be the case that Switzerland stumps the world  by winning crickets T-20 World Cup. Howzat?

Shakti Saran is a systems thinker, writer, consultant, and the Founder of Shaktify, an initiative to power changemakers

Feature image credit: Cricket on Ice