IMAGO/Funke Foto Services
Brian Mantle, his main job is a communications trainer and also managing director of the German Cricket Association
Aritharan Vaseekaran, Jamshed Khan and Tristan Neubauer are three current German national cricket players who are much better known internationally than at home. Streams of games from the German selection sometimes reach “up to 40 million views,” says Brian Mantle, a communications trainer in his day job and also managing director of the German Cricket Association (DCB). There is one prerequisite for this: India is not allowed to play at the same time. Then most of the spectators disappear to the other game.
Mantle has no illusions that his sport in Germany can achieve anywhere near a similar status to that on the subcontinent, where a superlative World Cup is currently taking place. And yet the native Englishman is proud of what he has achieved: 70 clubs in Germany have become 170 in the past seven years – and all without the boost of being reinstated in the Olympic program.
»Most of the players are immigrants from Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Many study in Germany and want to play cricket,” says Mantle in an interview with sid. Especially for native Indians, cricket is “much more important than football for the Germans.” In German football he identified “three or four levels of fan existence; in India there is only one.”
Since the IOC decision on Monday, all active participants have been able to live the dream of the biggest sporting stage, because cricket will be part of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 for the first time since 1900. Four years later, in Australia, which is hardly less cricket-crazy, the sport is also likely to be on the program. And in 2036, when India, a country with a population of 1.4 billion, receives the expected contract after its official application, anyway.
»Cricket is the number two sport in the world. And the world is changing: the British used to bring cricket to India. The Indians have adopted it and are now taking the sport back to the world,” says Mantle. The annual turnover of the Indian Premier League is twice as high as that of the Bundesliga. In addition to the IOC, the world association ICC has also understood how to develop markets and revenues and is investing heavily in the USA, Brazil, China, but also in Europe.
The prospects are therefore better than ever. “By being included in the Olympic program, we hope to attract attention and further growth,” says Mantle, who is particularly pleased about the promotion to classic television. And: “We can knock on the door of the DOSB.” Funding is the keyword.
However, the manager sees the chances of a German cricket selection being in LA in five years as “very low at the moment”. According to the current status of IOC planning, six nations qualify for the Olympic variant Twenty20, in which a game “only” lasts around three hours. The two German teams are beyond the top 30 in the world rankings, even if the men are currently making people sit up and take notice at the European Championships in Spain. On Monday they beat Ireland. The game has at least reached a six-digit number of hits on YouTube.
