French cricket team

Early years

One of the many theories about the origin of cricket is that France could be a possible birthplace of the game: a mention of a bat and ball game called "criquet" in a village of the Pas-de-Calais occurs in a French manuscript of 1478,^[6] and "criquet" is an old French word meaning "post" or "wicket".^[7] However, it is also possible that this could be an early variant of croquet.

Horace Walpole, son of former British Prime Minister Robert Walpole mentioned seeing cricket in Paris in 1766.^[7]

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) were due to make the first ever international cricket tour of France, in 1789, however this was cancelled due to the French Revolution. This match was finally played in 1989, as part of the bicentennial celebrations of the revolution, with France beating the MCC by 7 wickets.^[8]

The first documented match took place in the Bois de Boulogne between Paris Cricket Club and Nottingham Amateurs in 1864.^[9] The Paris Cricket Club published a book explaining the game the following year.^[7]

Olympic Games

The first, and so far only, appearance of cricket at the Olympic Games took place in 1900, with the French team losing the only match played to Great Britain: France therefore remain the reigning silver medalist until 2028, when cricket will return to the Olympic Games (in the Twenty20 format).

The French team, however, consisted of ten British residents in Paris and two Frenchmen, members of the Standard Athletic Club.^[10] The match was twelve-a-side, and the following players represented France:

• Philip Tomalin (captain)
• William Anderson
• William Attrill
• John Braid
• W. Browning (wicket-keeper)
• Robert Horne
• Timothée Jordan
• Arthur MacEvoy
• Douglas Robinson
• H. F. Roques
• Alfred Schneidau
• Henry Terry

19–20 August 1900 Scorecard

Great Britain	v	France
117 Frederick Cuming 38 William Anderson 4/27		78 John Braid 25 Frederick Christian 7/19
145/5d Alfred Bowerman 59 F. Roques 3/29		26 William Anderson 8 Montagu Toller 7/9

Great Britain won by 158 runs Exhibition Ground, Vélodrome de Vincennes Umpires: Delorme (Fra) and Wilian (Fra)

• No toss
• First ever international match for France.

The Standard Athletic Club restaged the 1900 Olympic cricket match in 1987, and France played the MCC in Meudon in 1989.

In 1910, France took part in an exhibition tournament in Brussels, also involving the MCC, the Netherlands and Belgium. They played one game, against the Netherlands, winning by 63 runs.^[11]

The modern era

Many cricket clubs folded after the Second World War, but an influx of English and Asian immigrants led to a resurgence of the game in the early 1980s.^[7] The current French Cricket Association was formed in 1987, and they gained Affiliate membership of the ICC the same year.^[4]

After the win in the 1989 match mentioned above, there were a handful of tours from English county teams, and France toured Austria in 1996, losing both matches against the national team.^[12] In 1997, they played in the European Nations Cup in Zuoz, Switzerland,^[13] winning after beating Germany by one run in the final.^[14] This match was included in the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack list of 100 best matches of the 20th century as David Bordes ran the winning leg bye with a fractured skull.^[15]

They played in the European Championship in the Netherlands in 1998, finishing eighth after losing to Germany in a play-off.^[16] They became an associate member of the ICC the same year.^[4] They finished third in Division Two of the 2000 European Championship.^[17]

France played their only ICC Trophy in the 2001 tournament in Canada, though they did not progress beyond the first round.^[18] The following year, they finished fifth in Division Two of the European Championships,^[19] and finished as runners up in the 2004 tournament.^[20] They finished sixth in the 2006 tournament after losing a play-off to Guernsey.^[21]

In 2008, France finished fourth in Division 2 of the European Championship. In 2010, France finished third in the same competition, narrowly missing out on qualification for the 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division Eight. In 2011, they finished sixth in the ICC Europe Division 1 T20 Championship after losing the fifth place play-off match to Norway. In 2012, they finished second in the ICC European World Cricket League 8 Qualifier, held in La Manga, Spain; again missing out on qualification for Division 8 of the World Cricket League.

In 2018, France competed at the ICC World Twenty20 Europe Region Qualifier in Netherlands.^[22]

In 2021, France played their first ever T20 international match against Norway in a tri-nation series in Germany, winning the match by 4 wickets.

5 August 2021 15:30 Scorecard

Norway  112/7 (20 overs)	v	France 113/6 (19.3 overs)
Waqas Ahmed 32* (36) Dawood Ahmadzai 2/10 (4 overs)		Suventhiran Santhirakumaran 34 (39) Raza Iqbal 2/13 (4 overs)

France won by 4 wickets Bayer Uerdingen Cricket Ground, Krefeld Umpires: Jason Flannery (Ger) and Vinay Malhotra (Ger) Player of the match: Suventhiran Santhirakumaran (Fra)

• France won the toss and elected to field.
• First ever T20I match for France.

Summer Olympics

Cricket at the Summer Olympics records
Host/Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	T	NR
1900	Runners-up	2/2	1	0	1	0	0
2028	TBD
Total	1/1	0 Titles	1	0	1	0	0

ICC Trophy/CWC Qualifier

ICC Trophy/Cricket World Cup Qualifier records
Host/Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	T	NR
1979	Not eligible–Not an ICC member
1982
1986
1990	Not eligible–ICC affiliate member
1994
1997
2001	Division two	20/24	5	1	4	0	0
2005–2023	Did not qualify
Total	1/12	0 Titles	5	1	4	0	0

T20 World Cup Europe Sub-regional Qualifiers

T20 World Cup Europe Sub-regional Qualifiers records
Host/Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	T	NR
2019	Round-robin (DNQ)	4/6	5	2	3	0	0
2023	Round-robin (DNQ)	4/10	5	3	2	0	0
2024	Round-robin (DNQ)	4/10	5	3	2	0	0
2026	Round-robin (DNQ)	4/10	5	3	2	0	0
Total	4/4	0 Titles	20	11	9	0	0

European Cricket Championship

European Cricket Championship records
Host/Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	T	NR
1996	Did not participate
1998	Round-robin	8/10	5	2	3	0	0
2000	Round-robin	3/6	5	2	3	0	0
2002	Round-robin	5/6	5	2	3	0	0
2004	Round-robin	2/6	5	4	1	0	0
2006	Round-robin	6/8	3	1	2	0	0
2008	Round-robin	5/6	5	2	3	0	0
2010	Round-robin	4/6	5	3	2	0	0
Total	7/8	0 Titles	33	16	17	0	0

European T20 Championship Division One

European T20 Championship Division One records
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	T	NR
2011	Round-robin	6/12	6	2	4	0	0
2013	Round-robin	5/12	6	4	2	0	0
2015	Round-robin	6/6	5	0	5	0	0
Total	3/3	0 Titles	17	6	11	0	0

Other tournaments

Twenty20 International

• Highest score: 208/4 v. Croatia on 17 May 2026 at Happy Valley Ground 2, Episkopi.^[24]
• Highest individual score: 109, Gustav Mckeon v. Switzerland on 25 July 2022 at Tikkurila Cricket Ground, Vantaa.^[25]
• Best bowling figures in an innings: 6/21, Dawood Ahmadzai v. Malta on 9 May 2024 at Dreux Sport Cricket Club, Dreux.^[26]

T20I record versus other nations^[23]

Records complete to T20I #3898. Last updated 23 May 2026.

Opponent	M	W	L	T	NR	First match	First win
vs Associate Members
Austria	2	0	2	0	0	16 June 2024
Belgium	4	1	2	1	0	10 May 2024	11 May 2024
Croatia	1	1	0	0	0	17 May 2026	17 May 2026
Cyprus	1	1	0	0	0	16 May 2026	16 May 2026
Czech Republic	1	1	0	0	0	24 July 2022	24 July 2022
Estonia	1	1	0	0	0	30 July 2022	30 July 2022
Germany	2	0	2	0	0	6 August 2021
Guernsey	1	0	1	0	0	31 July 2022
Hungary	1	0	1	0	0	29 June 2025
Isle of Man	1	1	0	0	0	9 June 2024	9 June 2024
Italy	1	0	1	0	0	10 June 2024
Jersey	1	0	1	0	0	19 May 2026
Luxembourg	4	3	1	0	0	11 July 2023	11 July 2023
Malta	7	4	3	0	0	10 July 2023	10 July 2023
Norway	7	4	3	0	0	5 August 2021	5 August 2021
Portugal	4	1	3	0	0	5 April 2026	8 April 2026
Romania	1	1	0	0	0	13 July 2023	13 July 2023
Sweden	3	1	2	0	0	7 August 2025	10 August 2025
Switzerland	3	1	2	0	0	25 July 2022	22 May 2026
Turkey	1	1	0	0	0	15 June 2024	15 June 2024