 | ||||||||||
| Association | France Cricket | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personnel | ||||||||||
| Captain | Gustav McKeon | |||||||||
| Coach |  Tim de Leede | |||||||||
| International Cricket Council | ||||||||||
| ICC status | Associate member withT20I status (1998) | |||||||||
| ICC region | Europe | |||||||||
| ||||||||||
| International cricket | ||||||||||
| First international |  France v.Great Britain (Paris;19 August 1900) | |||||||||
| One Day Internationals | ||||||||||
| World Cup Qualifier appearances | 1 (first in2001) | |||||||||
| Best result | First round, 2001 | |||||||||
| T20 Internationals | ||||||||||
| First T20I | v Norway atBayer Uerdingen Cricket Ground,Krefeld; 5 August 2021 | |||||||||
| Last T20I | v Sweden atBotkyrka Cricket Center,Stockholm; 10 August 2025 | |||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| As of 10 August 2025 | ||||||||||
TheFrance national cricket team is the men's team that representsFrance ininternational cricket. They became an associate member of theInternational Cricket Council (ICC) in 1998, having previously been an affiliate member since 1987.[4] The country's national team is best known for winning the silver medal inthe cricket event at the1900 Summer Olympics inParis, the only time a cricket competition has been held at the Olympics. France now plays most of its matches inEuropean Cricket Council (ECC) tournaments, although the team also appeared at the2001 ICC Trophy.
In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant fullTwenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, allTwenty20 matches played between France and otherICC members after 1 January 2019 have the full T20I status.[5]
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 thePas-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 ofcroquet.
Horace Walpole, son of former British Prime MinisterRobert Walpole mentioned seeing cricket in Paris in 1766.[7]
TheMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) were due to make the first ever international cricket tour of France, in 1789, however this was cancelled due to theFrench 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]
The first, and so far only, appearance of cricket at theOlympic Games took place in1900, 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 theStandard Athletic Club.[10] The match was twelve-a-side, and the following players represented France:
19–20 August 1900 Scorecard |
v | ||
Great Britain won by 158 runs Exhibition Ground,Vélodrome de Vincennes Umpires: Delorme (Fra) and Wilian (Fra) |
The Standard Athletic Club restaged the 1900 Olympic cricket match in 1987, and France played the MCC inMeudon in 1989.
In 1910, France took part in an exhibition tournament inBrussels, also involving the MCC,the Netherlands andBelgium. They played one game, against the Netherlands, winning by 63 runs.[11]
Many cricket clubs folded after theSecond 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 touredAustria in 1996, losing both matches against thenational team.[12] In 1997, they played in the European Nations Cup inZuoz,Switzerland,[13] winning after beatingGermany by one run in the final.[14] This match was included in theWisden Cricketers' Almanack list of 100 best matches of the 20th century as David Bordes ran the winningleg bye with afractured skull.[15]
They played in theEuropean Championship in theNetherlands 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 onlyICC Trophy in the2001 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 toGuernsey.[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 againstNorway ina tri-nation series in Germany, winning the match by 4 wickets.
v | ||
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) |
| Ground | City | Region | Capacity | Matches hosted | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dreux Sport Cricket Club | Dreux | Centre-Val de Loire | 1,000 | T20Is | Hosted France’s first home T20Is; used for ICC Europe qualifiers and ECS |
| Parc du Grand Cricket Ground | Nantes | Pays de la Loire | 800 | T20Is | Newer venue near Paris; hosts European Cricket Network tournaments |
| Cricket at the Summer Olympics records | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host/Year | Round | Position | GP | W | L | T | NR |
| 1900 | – | 2nd | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 1/1 | 0 Titles | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 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 | |
| ICC Twenty20 World Cup Europe Sub-regional Qualifiers records | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host/Year | Round | Position | GP | W | L | T | NR |
| 2019 | DNQ | 4/6 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
 2023 | DNQ | 4/5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
 2024 | DNQ | 4/5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 3/3 | 0 Title | 15 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 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 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 | 1 Title | 17 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 0 | |
| Valletta Cup records | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | GP | W | L | T | NR | |
 2019 | Did not participate | |||||||
| 2021 | ||||||||
| 2022 | ||||||||
| 2023 | Round-robin | 2/5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 1/1 | 0 Title | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mdina Cup records | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | GP | W | L | T | NR | |
| 2023 | Round-robin | Champion | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 1/1 | 1 Title | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
International match summary — France[23]
Last updated 10 August 2025
| Playing Record | ||||||
| Format | M | W | L | T | NR | Inaugural Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twenty20 Internationals | 35 | 16 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 5 August 2021 |
T20I record versus other nations[23]
Records complete to T20I #3402. Last updated 10 August 2025.
| 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 |
 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 | |
 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 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 August 2021 | 5 August 2021 |
 Romania | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 July 2023 | 13 July 2023 |
| Sweden | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 August 2025 | 10 August 2025 |
 Switzerland | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 25 July 2022 | |
 Turkey | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 June 2024 | 15 June 2024 |
Updated as of 7 August 2025.
This lists all the players who were part of the French squad for the2025 Viking Cup.
| Name | Age | Batting style | Bowling style | Last T20I | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batters | |||||
| Gustav McKeon | 22 | Right-handed | Right-armmedium-fast | 2025 | Captain |
| Mukhtar Ghulami | 26 | Right-handed | — | 2025 | |
| Lucas Smith | 19 | Right-handed | — | 2025 | |
| Christian Roberts | 22 | Right-handed | Leg break | 2025 | |
| Mustafa Omer | 25 | Right-handed | Left-armmedium-fast | 2025 | |
| Alestin Johnmary | 32 | Right-handed | — | 2025 | |
| All-rounder | |||||
| Usman Khan | 35 | Right-handed | Right-armmedium | 2025 | |
| Zain Ahmad | 22 | Right-handed | Leg break googly | 2025 | |
| Jamshid Nasiri | 21 | Right-handed | Right-armoff break | 2025 | |
| Rahmatullah Mangal | 22 | Right-handed | Right-armmedium-fast | 2025 | |
| Dawood Ahmadzai | 31 | Right-handed | Leg break | 2025 | |
| Wicket-keeper | |||||
| Lingeswaran Canessane | 22 | Right-handed | — | 2025 | |
| Hevit Jackson | 29 | Right-handed | — | 2025 | |
| Pace Bowlers | |||||
| Faisal Safi | 23 | Left-handed | Left-armmedium | 2025 | |
| Noman Amjad | 21 | Right-handed | Right-armmedium-fast | 2025 | |
| Rohullah Mangal | 21 | Right-handed | Right-armmedium-fast | 2025 | |
| Zaheer Zahiri | 23 | Right-handed | Left-armmedium | 2025 | |
The following French national team players have playedfirst-class orList A cricket:
