Belgium plays host to MCC tour

Marylebone Cricket Club took a touring XI to Belgium and enjoyed mixed fortunes against a series of representative sides while conducting coaching clinics for youngsters and newcomers to the game.

The MCC touring party was captained by Chinmay Gupte, formerly of Middlesex and Gloucestershire who is now a surgeon, and featured a selection of British professional and amateurs including Mustafa Rabajali, a veteran of 60, who plays his cricket every week in the Thames Valley League and Stuart Ransley, 18, who has represented Hampshire in all youth categories and turned out for the county's 2nd XI earlier in the season.

First stop for the visitors was the town of Ghent, which is aiming to be the sporting capital of Flanders. The MCC touring party was received by the Mayor at the Ghent Town Hall before playing their first match against a Cricket Vlaanderen XI at the Claeys Brouüaert Ground in Mariakerke.

MCC won the toss and despite the damp conditions that threatened to postpone the start, opted to bat first producing a innings total of 180-8 with Gupte leading from the front with 63 and Gareth James backing up with 45. His departure triggered a mini-collapse from 122-1 to 137-6, sparked by the spinner Amir Iqbal who finished with 3-32. On a drying pitch, the Flemish side cruised to 99-2 then wobbled to 111-8, as player after player got out caught playing the ball up in the air.

Amir Iqbal top scored with 80 runs (off 90-odd balls), and Amir Diwan Ali was unbeaten on 23. The English spinners took seven of the eight wickets with Rabajali taking 3-13, Ransley 4-20 as Cricket Vlaanderen were all out for 140 runs handing MCC a 40-run victory.

The MCC then went on to play three more matches during their stay in Belgium. The first was a 50 over clash against a full representative Belgium XI played in Mechelen, where the Belgium side defeated the MCC by six wickets in a rain affected game.

MCC then fell at the hands of a BCF Chairman’s XI in a Twenty20 match in Rumst and the final match of the tour saw the Belgium U19s lose to MCC by seven wickets in Ohain.