Unsanctioned France cricket team plays international tournament amid 'high' legal risks

French sports fans normally swell with pride when their famous footballers, rugbymans and Olympians step out in the bleu, blanc et rouge. But when a dubious Équipe de France appeared at the Santarem Cricket Ground in Portugal on Sunday, few in France were behind them – not even their government.

The French sports ministry confirmed in a statement that France Cricket has not held official status since January 1 and therefore is “not legally authorised, under French law, to organise official national competitions, to award national titles, or to designate national teams”.

And yet there they were, taking part in an International Cricket Council tournament that runs through Thursday.

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France Cricket only held official status by virtue of an agreement with the French Baseball and Softball Federation (FFBS), which expired at the end of last year.

The website of the International Cricket Council (ICC) – the sport’s global governing body – notes that France must have government recognition to qualify as a member. An account of France Cricket's history that has not been updated since 2016 reads: “France Cricket had to rejoin the FFBS … to comply with ICC requirements concerning government recognition.”

France Cricket is due $560,000 in development funding from the ICC for the period 2026-2027 and reported having made $328,172 in non-ICC income during the previous period.

Le rebel tour

France Cricket has long sought to become a fully independent federation in its own right, free from the FFBS umbrella and directly recognised by both the French government and the ICC. The signature of France Cricket chairman Prebagarane Balane is on the final agreement between France Cricket and the FFBS – which applied from December 2022 to December 2025 – but it specifies that France Cricket must first obtain official recognition, or agrément, from the sports ministry before attempting to be an independent federation: “Obtaining the ministerial agrément referred to in Article L.131-8 of the Sports Code is a mandatory prerequisite.”

“We are still waiting for agrément," France Cricket acknowledged, according to the minutes from a January 30 meeting.

Minutes from a March 13 meeting in the presence of Jubaid Ahamed, president of the French National Teams Committee, noted attempts to arrange talks with the sports ministry and claimed: “The agrément procedure or ministerial delegation have no bearing on France Cricket’s ability to organise federal competitions.”

Those same notes announce plans for three Equipe de France national teams: The men will go on tour to Portugal, the women will begin training at the start of April and the under-19s will train every Sunday morning at Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris. 

In an email to those involved in the Portugal competition dated March 19, seen by FRANCE 24, Balane was defiant. He said, “France Cricket is a recognised national federation and fully authorised to field a national team.” 

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The French government's position was already public by that point. 

A report in The Cricketer magazine cited correspondence from France's sports ministry to a dissatisfied cricket club saying that, under the French Sports Code, France Cricket may not use official designations including “Fédération française de cricket", "Fédération nationale de cricket" or "Équipe de France de cricket" (France national cricket team). 

“France Cricket has neither ministerial agrément nor a delegation [to run cricket],” the sports ministry confirmed in their statement to FRANCE 24 on March 25.

Spot the difference

Yet on April 5 – at the start of the T20i series between France, Portugal and Norway – “FRANCE” was clearly emblazoned across the blue, white and red kit of the senior men’s team. The French flag and France Cricket's cockerel logo appeared on hats and shirts. Match results were diligently added to France’s tally on the official ICC website under the French flag and the name "France".

The only difference to normal proceedings: on a YouTube stream set up by hosts Portugal, France was labelled as “France XI” (a reference to the 11 players on a cricket team). A person familiar with tournament preparations confirmed that France Cricket asked to field its team as such.

At the venue, a printed sign reading "France" had "XI" added beneath it in pen.

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'High criminal risk'

“The fact of organising international competitions knowing that the legal framework has collapsed constitutes a management fault on the part of the director,” assessed Jim Michel-Gabriel, barrister at the Paris Bar and founding president of the Association of Sports Agents' Lawyers.

By losing its FFBS affiliation, France Cricket also lost its federated insurance contract, he pointed out – so players taking the field in Portugal do so without injury cover.

“Without the agrément, the association can no longer guarantee players for bodily injury," he wrote in an email, noting that France Cricket could face insolvency if a serious incident led to major compensation claims.

Management also risks personal civil liability for fielding national or international competitions without the legal shield of a delegated federation, he said, or could even be held criminally responsible. Under the Sports Code, "the administrator or director of any legal entity" that uses official appellations without authorisation could be charged a €7,500 penalty.

"It would be very surprising if, in the absence of delegation ... 'France Cricket' or 'France XI' could compete officially under the 'France' banner, which could be confused with the banner of a recognised federation," said Paris lawyer Fabienne Fajgenbaum.

"France Cricket faces a convergent set of legal risks, primarily criminal and institutional, linked to the exercise of rights reserved for delegated federations," she added, saying such behaviour put it at "high" to "very high" risk of legal exposure to criminal liability, civil liability and administrative misconduct.

Moreover, she said, these practices undercut its chances for official recognition.

According to an initial assessment, Isabelle Wekstein-Steg, a lawyer specialising in sports at Paris cabinet WAN Avocats, said the use of "France XI" does not appear to violate the French Sports Code, which prohibits unrecognised bodies from using designations including, "French National Team." But she said that if a court were to determine that the team was being presented as a national team, it could be considered a violation of the code regardless of its name.

Also on the line in Portugal was ICC competition money.

The ICC recognises all 20-over matches between associate members as ranked international matches: Perform well and you climb the rankings. Perform badly and you drop.

The top 60 nations in the men’s rankings are remunerated: "France" was at 52nd before the tournament began, a rank worth $13,500 in bonus funding; the prize halved at rank 55, which is where France found itself after two losses on the first day. But this source of funding remains modest for an ICC member running a total budget of about $900,000.

There is, however, a bigger prize in their sights.

"France" is set for a shot at glory in European qualifiers for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2028, slated for May 16-23 in Cyprus, according to an ICC press release.  

Vacuum

A potential rival emerged to vie for France’s cricket mandate – the multi-sports federation ASPTT – but pulled its candidacy amid concerns around taking on such a burden before securing ICC backing.

In its March 25 statement to FRANCE 24, the sports ministry said no federation had yet earned the delegation for cricket as of January 1. This means that cricket no longer has a recognised authority in France at all, and dozens of clubs across the country might soon struggle to secure funding.

Neither the ICC nor France Cricket responded to a request for comment. Citing an ICC source, The Cricketer reported that the matches would retain their T20 international status.

In a January 9 statement, France Cricket said no national or international authority had published a decision "withdrawing or modifying" its delegation, and that it had filed for ministerial agrément in August 2025 and was awaiting a response. "No ministerial decision calls into question either the recognition of France Cricket or its current management of the discipline," it said.

The description on its Instagram page now reads “French cricket association”, and not “French Cricket Federation”.