Welcome to the 26th Anniversary of Cricket on Ice

Mr. Alexander Mackay (Switzerland), Mr. Clive Denney (Switzerland), Mr. Andrew Holton (Germany), Mr. Peter de Boeck (Belgium), Ms. Mira Koshy (Switzerland).

Please get in touch with the organising committee if you have any questions, 

or check the website, www.cricket-on-ice.com. It would be a great pleasure to welcome you on the lake, to offer you delicious refreshments and a chair in the sun, from where you can watch the matches in the champagne climate of St. Moritz!  

John Hallam

+41 79 460 50 01

The picture-postcard Swiss resort of St. Moritz is famous for the beauty of its ski slopes and the adrenalin rush of the Cresta Run, but for sheer quirkiness few sporting occasions can beat its February cricket festival on the ice of its frozen lake! This testament to the sport’s eccentricity began in 1988, when a group of Britons challenged the students of the international boarding school Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz to a game, since which time it has become an integral part of the cricket calendar, attracting international players and high-flying businessmen from all over the world.

Cricket is a way of life, a game like no other in which one man, the batsman, is pitted against eleven opponents. But the bowler, too, when he stands alone before the man with the leg pads and the wooden bat, knows how much his aim may determine the success or failure of his team. Not without good reason, the captain has charged the bowler with the task of confronting the batsman who stands transfixed before him, eyes glued on him and almost motionless save for the ritual, gentle beating of the ground with his bat.

Cricket is renowned primarily as a sport for gentlemen and it may seem that what matters most of all is keeping those long, elegant white trousers free of grass stains. However, those who want to play the game seriously (and which English game isn't played in earnest?), will deploy considerable strength, agility and toughness, as well as tactical intelligence. Wielding that bat and reacting to spinning balls are skills not learned overnight and even learning the art of fair play, in which every clever move by your opponent is acknowledged with polite applause, needs years of experience.

On Lake St. Moritz, the game is a little different. Instead of whites, the players wear warm tracksuits. The ball is made of hard rubber, because traditional leather would become wet, heavy and unpredictable on the snow. The pitch is artificial grass. Under the weathered mixture of synthetic and natural snow, the ice creaks! In summer, players tread the meticulously prepared grass with a ghostly silence. Every step crunches on Lake St. Moritz.

Whether the players score their runs enthusiastically or with nonchalance, their performance can be checked acoustically.

The teams compete in a Round-Robin tournament. Depending on the weather conditions, 20 to 25 overs per innings are played. Bowlers are limited to 5 overs. The players are allowed and recommended to wear spikes. Each team wears a coloured tracksuit. 

The cricket played is on quite a high, but amateur, level and depends a lot on fairness and the spirit of friendship between the teams. (“For when the one great scorer comes to mark against your name, he writes - not that you won or lost, but how you played the game.”) 

Professionals from the press are invited to take pictures and to film at any time. Enjoy the show! Please be aware of the risks which are involved in a cricket match. Between the innings, the organizer is offering a 15 minutes time-gap for close-up shooting.

Semi-professional pictures and video material can be requested after the event at the organizer’s office.

Or visit www.cricket-on-ice.com for downloads.  

No entry ticket is required to watch Cricket on Ice.