A partnership has been formed between the popular global cricket media channel Cricket District and the fast growing European Cricket Network to create and capture stories, highlights and content for the promotion of cricket in Europe.
The European Cricket Network (ECN) and Cricket District are pleased to announce a joining of forces to create a new wave of entertaining content to continue to grow and promote cricket in Europe.
Cricket District will be covering ECN events for the coming European cricket competition to capture the action and tell the “insider” stories over an incredible 1,200 cricket matches planned for the year ahead.
The partnership also marks the social media launch of “THE BIG SHOT”, which will be a weekly show found on the European Cricket Network and Cricket District’s own channel as well as Facebook and YouTube, covering all the best (and worst!) plays of the week.
Cricket District has grown a huge community of cricket lovers around the world thanks to their entertaining, social-first content with the mission of growing the game they love. “Our missions are aligned - to grow the sport we love and show people just how much fun cricket can be. Cricket District and the ECN is a perfect match and I'm excited to get started!” said founder, Toby Marriott.
“ECN is delighted to be taking European cricket's level of promotion to the next level with the partnership with Toby and his Cricket District platforms to entertain new and old cricket fans around the world.” said Roger Feiner, CEO of the ECN. “To show the incredible pride, performances and passion of European cricket to the world is vital.”
The origins of the ECN were born out of German Cricket TV, which was the first social media endeavour of ECN Founder, Daniel Weston in using social media focussed short, viral content to help grow cricket in Germany.
“The use of social media platforms to ignite the promotion of cricket is so important. It is the fastest way to spread the word that the game exists and is enjoyed in the many parts of the World where it is not commonly understood that cricket is played at all. So by creating engaging and entertaining content, the attraction and sharing of the joys of cricket grows faster in the communities, which is then the way to increase levels of participation and for people to be exposed to cricket for the first time through sharing of content.” said Daniel.
Cricket District has grown to global cricketing fame by presenting all levels of cricket in a light that celebrates international through to club level cricketers. With Cricket District and ECNs combined efforts, there is soon to be an even larger stage for European cricketers to take their “big shot” to shine and tell their stories.
The show's name “THE BIG SHOT” comes from Daniel throwing soft balls to his three year old son to hit and calling the game “Big Shots” instead of cricket. ECN Commentator Vinny Sandhu, aka ‘Mr. Maximo’, visited Daniel in the cold of January last year in Germany, which resulted in many hours with Daniel and his son playing “Big Shots” in the family room. The coaching method to Daniel’s three year old son was simple: hit the ball as far as he can. The game was fun, but admittedly the family room TV was smashed in the process when a bat slipped out of the hands!
Since then, the phrase has caught on, with “Big Shot” being commonly used by ECN live commentators Vinny, Rico Phull and Corey Rutgers to describe the action during some of the most incredible ball striking ever seen on TV.
Now, the ECN is a platform for European cricketers to have their “Big Shot” at being broadcast around the world, show their talent on TV, hit “Big Shots” in the T10 format, and seize their “Big Shot” at glory on the world stage in the various European cricket events.
This partnership and project is a multi-generational effort, with the clear goal to make cricket the number one bat and ball team sport, to sit alongside Football as a sport loved by people in all corners of Europe.
