Tournament hosts Belgium began their campaign in style with a relatively comfortable 60 win run win against Austria at Mechelen in Group B. An opening partnership of 69 between Nirvam Shah (40) and Amir Iqbal (25), laying the foundation for their total of 183 for 6. Abdul Rehman smashed an amazing 8 sixes as he raced to 58 from just 18 balls, sharing in a match winning stand of 82 with Nadeem Khan (20no). Satyam Subash removed three of the Belgian top order to finish with the excellent analysis of 3 for 26.

In reply, Belgian opening bowler Waqas Shafiq dismissed three of the top order to reduce Austria to 28 for 4, and virtually seal the contest. Benjamin Loader played some delightful shots in a spirited half century from 46 balls (6 fours, 1 six), as he shared in a stand of 58 for the 6th wicket with Satyam Subash (26). In the end, Austria finished on 123 for 8, with Amir Iqbal (2-16) the other bowler of note.

An urgently convened meeting of the ICC European Division 2 Championship Event Technical Committee (ETC) has met to discuss damage to the outfield at Ostend. The ETC has decided that the pitch and ground is unsuitable for any match to be played on it on Monday 20th June 2011. The Belgium Cricket Federation are actively carrying out work to ensure that the Ostend venue is suitable for play on Wednesday when it next hosts matches.

It has therefore been decreed that the match between Isle of Man v Luxembourg which was scheduled to be played at Ostend, with a start time of 1030 has now been rescheduled to be played at Ghent starting at 1530.

For most of the eleven teams competing in the ICC European Division 2 Championship in Belgium this is a first major international outing in the game’s shortest form – Twenty20, with the prize for the two finalists of a place in next month’s Division 1 tournament in the Channel Islands. And for those taking part there is the prospect of a place in the Global Qualifying Tournament in the UAE next March.

The Belgian competition will have an initial group phase, with two pools of five and six sides respectively. The imbalance is the result of the late withdrawal of Switzerland, which has left Group A with one team fewer.

The ICC European Division 2 Championship begins this month in Belgium, as the eleven teams fight it out for two places to take them one step further along the ICC World Twenty20 qualifying path. Belgium are welcoming teams from across the continent which include Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Hellas, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Division 3 winner, Sweden and hosts Belgium.

The ICC European Division 2 Championship is a pathway event to the ICC World Twenty20 2012, with the winner and runner-up of this tournament taking their place in the ICC European Division 1 Championship co-hosted by Jersey and Guernsey in July. The tournament is taking place between the 20-25 June, 2011 at four venues across Belgium; Royal Brussels, Ghent, Mechelen and Ostend.

The International Cricket Council’s first-class tournament, the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2011-13 will feature eight teams this edition – Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands, Namibia, Scotland and United Arab Emirates (UAE) when the tournament begins next month.

Namibia and UAE were selected by the ICC Development Committee to participate in the event having finished in the top four of the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 2 tournament in April 2011.

Bulgarian captain Saif-ur-Rehman won the toss at Valburga and elected to bat, but his batsmen had no answer against the strong Swedish attack. Serge Conein and Aman Zahid bowled their four overs each unchanged, and by the time they had finished their spells Bulgaria had subsided to 33 for six.

Aman Zahid took two for 12 – seven of which were from wides – while Conein did even better with four for 21. Then Azam Khalil completed the rout with three for 8 in three overs as Bulgaria were all out for 50 in 12.4 overs.  Bilal Zaigham took two good slip catches, and there were three for Azam Mohammad. This latter pair then knocked off the runs in just 7.1 overs, Zaigham making 17 while the more aggressive Azam hit 26 from 20 deliveries with three fours and a six.