“It was a fantastic and most enjoyable cricket tour to Mombasa.I would also pass my regards and thanks to Coast Cricket Association for their hospitality and good game of cricket and looking forward to coming again next year.” These were the words from the President of Denmark XL team.

The team comprises players who are above the age of 40 and are from various part of Denmark. All of them are enthusiastic cricketers who either played their cricket at club level or at national level in Denmark. Their oldest player, Mr Ole Christiansen, also leader of the team, is 68 years old and played in two of the three matches. One other player, Kim, former committee member of Danish cricket association is 67 years in age and again as with Ole he played in two of the three matches. Both these players displayed remarkable levels fitness. Can you imagine anyone from our current players playing cricket at the ripe old age of 68?

The visiting team played 3 games at Mombasa Sports Club on 4^th, 7^th and 10^th October. Although they  lost all 3 games, they put up a spirited fight in all matches played against the CCA Over 40, CCA under 17 and CCA select side.

First game they played was against the Coast Cricket Association Over 40 side and winning the toss Danish Xl selected to bat first. Batting first they lost 2 early wickets but the partnership of Hansen and Jaconsen pushed them to the score of 68 and then a fantastic innings of 36 by Perben took  them to a total score of 115. For CCA over 40’s team, Mohamed Sawjani took 2 wickets and Khan took 3 wickets.

Batting second CCA 40 openers, Kamal Gohil and Jasmeer, scored runs hitting the ball all over the ground before both of them retired. Victory was then achieved by good batting performances from Mike Fernades, Satpal Singh and Rajesh Shukla.

The second game was played against CCA under 17 team. It was a game of young inexperienced coast players versus the experience of former talented Danish players. Unfortunately for the Danes, our youngsters had energy, fitness and technique to help them to achieve victory.

In the third game which was played against CCA Select, batting first The Danish Xl made only 100 runs in a rain reduced 20 over game. Main contributor to this score was Steen with 26 runs. For CCA select Irfan, Hameed, Sidhant and Khan all took 1 wicket each.

Batting second CCA select lost their first wicket with the very first delivery but and then Mohamed Sawjani (49) & Bharat (40) Chavda played a sterling innings to take them to victory.

Finally in recognition of development of Cricket on the Coast, the visiting Denmark side donated two junior training cricket kits and one adult cricket kit for the CCA Development program. Currently CCA is running a development program in 16 local schools on Mombasa Island and is currently in contact with schools on the mainland (Changamwe & Kisauni) to popularize the game of cricket at grassroot levels.

Adding to this, under the Cricket Kenya Development program, whose officials were also present to promote the game in Mombasa donated full development kits to CCA.