The wonderful 39th Vienna Winter Cup has just taken place…but unprecedented snowfall nearly kiboshed the whole tournament…which ended in a triumph for cricket development.

A group of English coaches and I started hooking up with tournaments in Italy and Germany from 2010, but Vienna was the place that excited me the most. Linking with Vienna Cricket Club, I started to help organise the annual indoor event in 2014. I had been so impressed by this fast, furious version of the game, and was amazed by how good the Vienna team themselves were - they could seemingly manipulate the ball into the smallest gap to generate a quick run. We turned the Cup into a 3 day event featuring teams from across Europe, with the social side almost as important as the cricket. A curry in Austria on the final evening is the perfect way to end a cricket event, after all. It’s great fun, and team always come back for more.

This year, as always, I was already in the city on the Thursday evening and everything seemed fine. There was some snow, but it didn’t seem too heavy. In fact, it had only snowed twice in all my time coming there - in 2018. This was one of my favourite trips as the snow made an already beautiful city even more so. The city lights bouncing off the snow and the Danube was magical.

By very early the next morning I realised we had a serious problem. I started to receive a barrage of texts from players at various British airports saying that nothing was going into Austria. Vienna Airport had been shut as it was submerged under snow. The locals I spoke to seemed surprised - their alpine airport rarely shuts.

All the British players were trying to find alternative ways to get to Vienna. Multiple flights were cancelled, and some teams were literally on the runway waiting for clearance to take off before being called back to a gate. Some flights were eventually diverted to Salzburg or Linz, but several guys didn’t make it in the air. Airport Travelodges and possible RyanAir compensation discussions were happening…

But everyone still wanted to come, despite the adversity…some were looking to get to Bratislava or Prague and get a train or a taxi. I never came close to cancelling the tournament as there seemed so much will from the teams to make it happen. There were also four Viennese teams expecting a contest, so we couldn’t let them down.

The key flight was the 14:30 from Stansted. On it were two teams. I thought that if they could make it to Austria, the tournament was properly on. I anxiously refreshed tabs on my laptop featuring multiple flight departure boards. I felt like air traffic control talking to multiple planes on runways. Finally, I received a text from that plane: ‘In the air, we’re coming!’ And I knew this could happen. Churt & Hindhead weren’t so lucky. At one point it was looking like there was no way they’d arrive, so I started frantically creating alternative schedules and tournament formats. Finally, Churt said they could come, but 24 hours late. I am so grateful for how hard they worked to make it.

And so, on the Saturday morning the cup started on time with a hugely rejigged schedule. One umpire dropped out so I stepped up and really enjoyed it - it’s definitely something I’m going to do more. I like to get players onside, create a relaxed environment and make sure it’s fun for everyone. It’s such a fast version of the game that the pressure is on especially with close run out moments happening twice an over, with the ball ricocheting off the walls. When they’re tight, I take my time and replay what happened in my head. The hardest thing to judge is when wicket keepers or bowlers fumble an inbound throw and claim a run out - was the ball in the hand?

To the story of the tournament - the triumph of the young Vienna Rockets team, made up of 13-18 year old Afghan refugees. Each year Vienna CC usually win, but this year was different: it was a complete shock when in the group stage Vienna Rockets bowled them out for 42 in 5 overs and then knocked off the target in 5 overs without losing a wicket. Something seismic was happening.

18 months ago, we staged an Autumn Cup for young players. The Vienna Rockets were there, and this felt like a turning point. Their players had always been mad for their cricket - they are apparently always ever present at training and nets and possessed limitless energy.  But under the coaching and guidance of Mark Simpson-Parker and Wolfgang Schmidhuber-Tindle that energy had been refined.  Last week we saw the results. They were still playing passionate cricket but with more discipline. Teenagers beating 1st XI club stalwarts. They played with real nouse, showed great communication and didn’t just try to smash it. They batted sensibly, and just wanted to win the cup, which they spectacularly did. Top wicket taker in tournament Jawad Sadat’s bowling stood out - his late inswing showed such control for someone so young. One key factor was their outstanding fielding. They saved so many runs. Other teams struggled to bend down! And they go for run outs all the time, many of which come off.

It’s so tough to play cricket in Afghanistan itself, but in Austria and Germany especially cricket has thrived.

Building on the Winter Cup, we have many events coming up: at the end of March there’s a Spring Cup for boys with teams from Norway, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Estonia amongst others. We’re staging the first Vienna Walking Cricket Summer Cup - Sky commentator Charles Colvile is bringing out his Holmbury St Mary team. In the autumn we have a cup for women and girls which this year we’ve expanded due to demand to 12 teams from all over Europe.

These tournaments are great ways for players to expand their cricket horizons and link up with like-minded people from across the continent.

I hope the success of Italy and other associate nations in the T20 World Cup will inspire potential cricketers in Europe. The gap between the big teams and the smaller ones is becoming smaller and smaller and cricket finally is starting to become a global game. There are nearly 150 cricket clubs in Germany! We need to get national federations to not just focus on the Men’s Senior team (which is often the case) and look at the wider impact the sport could have on diverse communities.

I asked the captain of one of the teams - Touregs Noosa - to write his impressions of the snowbound Winter Cup tournament, which we’ll share tomorrow.