Read moreFrance Cricket faces power struggle as government backing hangs in the balance<\/a><\/p>\n France Cricket only held official status by virtue of an agreement with the French Baseball and Softball Federation (FFBS), which expired at the end of last year.<\/p>\n The website of the International Cricket Council (ICC) \u2013 the sport\u2019s global governing body \u2013 notes<\/a> that France must have government recognition to qualify as a member.\u00a0An account of France Cricket’s history that has not been updated since 2016 reads: \u201cFrance Cricket had to rejoin the FFBS \u2026 to comply with ICC requirements concerning government recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n France Cricket is due $560,000 in development funding from the ICC for the period 2026-2027 and reported having made $328,172 in non-ICC income during the previous period.<\/p>\n France Cricket players run between the wickets at an ICC tournament on April 5 2026 \u00a9 FRANCE 24 <\/p>\n Le rebel tour <\/p>\n France Cricket has long sought to become a fully independent federation in its own right, free from the FFBS umbrella and directly recognised by both the French government and the ICC.\u00a0The signature of France Cricket chairman Prebagarane Balane\u00a0is on the final agreement between France Cricket and the FFBS \u2013 which applied from December 2022 to December 2025 \u2013 but it specifies that France Cricket must first obtain official recognition, or agr\u00e9ment, from the sports ministry before attempting to be an independent federation: \u201cObtaining the ministerial agr\u00e9ment referred to in Article L.131-8 of the Sports Code is a mandatory prerequisite.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are still waiting for agr\u00e9ment,” France Cricket acknowledged, according to the\u00a0minutes from a\u00a0January 30<\/a>\u00a0meeting.<\/p>\n Minutes from a\u00a0March 13<\/a>\u00a0meeting in the presence of Jubaid Ahamed, president of the French National Teams Committee, noted attempts to arrange talks with the sports ministry and claimed: \u201cThe agr\u00e9ment procedure or ministerial delegation have no bearing on France Cricket\u2019s ability to organise federal competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n Those same notes announce plans for three Equipe de France national teams: The men will go on tour to Portugal, the women<\/a> will begin training at the start of April and the under-19s will train every Sunday morning at Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an email to those involved in the Portugal competition dated March 19, seen by FRANCE 24, Balane was defiant. He said, \u201cFrance Cricket is a recognised national federation and fully authorised to field a national team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Read moreAllegations of fake matches, murky finances plague cricket in France<\/a><\/p>\n The French government’s position was already public by that point.\u00a0<\/p>\n A report<\/a> in The Cricketer magazine cited correspondence from France’s sports ministry to a dissatisfied cricket club saying that, under the French Sports Code<\/a>,\u00a0France Cricket may not use official designations including \u201cF\u00e9d\u00e9ration fran\u00e7aise de cricket”, “F\u00e9d\u00e9ration nationale de cricket” or “\u00c9quipe de France de cricket” (France national cricket team).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFrance Cricket has neither ministerial agr\u00e9ment nor a delegation [to run cricket],\u201d the sports ministry confirmed in their statement to FRANCE 24 on March 25.<\/p>\n Spot the difference <\/p>\n Yet on April 5\u00a0\u2013 at the start of the T20i series between France, Portugal and Norway\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u201cFRANCE\u201d was clearly emblazoned across the blue, white and red kit of the senior men\u2019s team. The French flag and\u00a0France Cricket’s cockerel logo appeared on hats and shirts. Match results were diligently added to France\u2019s tally on the official ICC website<\/a>\u00a0under the French flag and the name “France”.<\/p>\n France Cricket players and staff at Santarem Cricket Ground in Portugal on April 5, 2026 \u00a9 FRANCE 24 <\/p>\n The only difference to normal proceedings: on a YouTube stream<\/a> set up by hosts Portugal, France was labelled as \u201cFrance XI\u201d\u00a0(a reference to the 11 players on a cricket team). A person familiar with tournament preparations confirmed that France Cricket asked to field its team as such.<\/p>\n At the venue, a printed sign reading “France” had “XI” added beneath it in pen.<\/p>\n Read moreFrench women\u2019s cricket team disbands after probe into fake matches<\/a><\/p>\n ‘High criminal risk’ <\/p>\n \u201cThe fact of organising international competitions knowing that the legal framework has collapsed constitutes a management fault on the part of the director,\u201d assessed Jim Michel-Gabriel, barrister at the Paris Bar and founding president of the Association of Sports Agents’ Lawyers.<\/p>\n By losing its FFBS affiliation, France Cricket also lost its federated insurance contract, he pointed out \u2013 so\u00a0players taking the field in Portugal do so without injury cover.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout the\u00a0agr\u00e9ment, the association can no longer guarantee players for bodily injury,” he wrote in an email, noting that France Cricket could face insolvency if a serious incident led to major compensation claims.<\/p>\n Management also risks personal civil liability for fielding national or international competitions without the legal shield of a delegated federation, he said, or could even\u00a0be held criminally responsible. Under the Sports Code, “the administrator or director of any legal entity” that uses official appellations without authorisation could be charged a\u00a0\u20ac7,500 penalty.<\/p>\n “It would be very surprising if, in the absence of delegation … ‘France Cricket’ or ‘France XI’ could compete officially under the ‘France’ banner, which could be confused with the banner of a recognised federation,” said Paris lawyer Fabienne Fajgenbaum.<\/p>\n “France Cricket faces a convergent set of legal risks, primarily criminal and institutional, linked to the exercise of rights reserved for delegated federations,” she added, saying such behaviour put it at “high” to “very high” risk of legal exposure\u00a0to criminal liability, civil liability and administrative misconduct.<\/p>\n Moreover, she said, these practices undercut its chances for official recognition.<\/p>\n According to an initial assessment, Isabelle Wekstein-Steg, a lawyer specialising in sports at Paris cabinet WAN Avocats, said the use of “France XI” does not appear to violate the French Sports Code, which prohibits unrecognised bodies from using designations including, “French National Team.” But she said that if a court were to determine that the team was being presented as a national team, it could be considered a violation of the code regardless of its name.<\/p>\n France Cricket and Norway coaches watch the action at Santarem Cricket Ground on April 5, 2026. \u00a9 FRANCE 24 <\/p>\n Also on the line in Portugal was ICC competition money.<\/p>\n The ICC recognises all 20-over matches between associate members as ranked international matches: Perform well and you climb the rankings. Perform badly and you drop.<\/p>\n The top 60 nations in the men\u2019s rankings<\/a> are remunerated: “France” was at 52nd before the tournament began, a rank worth $13,500 in bonus funding; the prize halved at rank 55, which is where France found itself after two losses on the first day. But this source of funding remains modest for an ICC member running a total budget of about $900,000.<\/p>\n There is, however, a bigger prize in their sights.<\/p>\n “France” is set for a shot at glory in European qualifiers for the ICC Men\u2019s T20 World Cup 2028, slated for May 16-23 in Cyprus, according to an ICC press release<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Vacuum <\/p>\n A potential rival\u00a0emerged<\/a>\u00a0to vie for France\u2019s cricket mandate\u00a0\u2013 the multi-sports federation ASPTT\u00a0\u2013 but pulled its candidacy amid concerns around taking on such a burden before securing ICC backing.<\/p>\n In its March 25 statement to FRANCE 24, the sports ministry said no federation had yet earned the delegation for cricket as of January 1. This means that cricket no longer has a recognised authority in France at all, and dozens of clubs across the country might soon struggle to secure funding.<\/p>\n Neither the ICC nor France Cricket responded to a request for comment. Citing an ICC source,\u00a0The Cricketer\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that the matches would retain their T20 international status.<\/p>\n![\"France](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Cricket-France24-0005-r.jpg\")
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