Did you know they played cricket in Croatia? Neither did we, until we met Paul Musin. Read our interview with him below to find out how the sport is doing in Croatia, what Paul misses from New Zealand, and what on earth a silly point is.

I recently read an article you wrote on Croatia Week about cricket in the Balkans. You’re clearly part of the core of the cricket circuit here. What is your role in it exactly? What do you do?

I first got involved in cricket in Croatia in 2004 when I was selected to play for the Croatian national team for a European Championship tournament in Slovenia. Since then I have been playing for Croatia and currently I work for the Croatian Cricket Federation based in Zagreb. My role primarily is to administer and develop the game of cricket in Croatia, right from coaching kids in schools, up to everything to do with the Croatian national side.

I feel like Vis always pops up when cricket in Croatia comes up as a topic. Why is that?

Vis is the birthplace of cricket in Croatia. That is where the sport was first played in Croatia over 200 years ago in 1811, when the British set up a naval base on the island during the Napoleonic wars. Captain William Hoste decided that playing cricket in their spare time would be good for morale.

After the British left, they took their equipment with them and cricket would not be played again till the late 1990’s on the island. The Vis cricket club, now named after William Hoste, is regularly visited by touring sides from Europe because of its spectacular location. Vis cricket ground may be one of the only few grounds in the world situated in a vineyard, and the whole Vis experience and hospitality from the guys down on the island mean international clubs keep coming back for more.

Where are you and your team members from? Many locals?

We have three cricket clubs in Croatia, obviously one on the island of Vis, which is made up of all local Vis-born players and captained by a Yorkshire man who has lived on the island for more than five years. We have a club in the Dalmatian city of Split, again all of its members are local Croatians, and we have two teams at the Zagreb Cricket Club which is made up mostly of expats living here.

I grew up in New Zealand and we a real mix at the club with players from Australia, South Africa, USA, the UK, India, Canada, Zimbabwe, Jamaica and a handful of local Croatians.

It’s easy to see when reading your article how much passion you guys have for the sport and you’ve overcome lots of obstacles to keep it alive so far. What do you think was the hardest challenge you faced?

In a football-mad country where just a few years ago most locals thought the game of cricket involved riding around on horses, there are a number challenges we faced.

Getting locals to grasp cricket’s complicated rules and trying to explain that you can play a game for 5 days in a row and still now have a winner was pretty hard. Other obstacles such as finding large flat oval-shaped fields, funding, lack of support/interest from the government with school programmes and lack of media (TV coverage of matches) exposure does make it tough.

A women’s league will soon be formed in Croatia as well. Can you tell me a bit about that? How easy or hard do you imagine it will be to put together a women’s team, and why?

One of our next goals here in Croatia is to form a women’s team. I think the fact that Zagreb cricket club is sponsored by a winery may make the task a bit easier, but we actually already have some girls keen to play here.

The interesting thing I notice when I teach cricket in schools here with the young kids, is that generally the girls pick up cricket a lot faster than the boys and are some of the better players. Unlike a lot of other sports, there are no real physical attributes required to play cricket, so the game can have a wide appeal and I think we can get girls hooked once they realise how social and fun cricket is.

I hear cricket has some unusual and pretty comical terms. Can you give us a few of the odder or funnier ones and maybe explain them?

Cricket has loads of unusual terminology and can be pretty confusing for someone new to the game. From names for fielding positions, to ways to get out, there a literally hundreds of terms. Here are a just a few.

Chinaman – a left-handed bowler who spins the ball from left to right
Googly – When a bowler ball spins the ball the opposite way than it should spin
Cow corner – a fielding position on the boundary
French cut – terms for any poorly executed shot which results in an inside edge which narrowly misses hitting the stumps
Long hop – when the bowler pitches it short
Silly point – a fielding position close to the batsmen

You’re originally from New Zealand. Is your family Croatian? What made you decide to move here? Is there anything you really miss about New Zealand? Anything you’re glad to have left behind? Top 3 things about living in Zagreb as opposed to anywhere else you’ve lived?

My family is originally from Pupnat on the island of Korcula in Croatia. I had been coming back and forth from New Zealand for many years, and a few years ago ended up living here in Zagreb permanently. I don’t miss the 24-hour flights getting over here but do miss family and friends, but I am fortunate that they do pop over often to Croatia.

Zagreb is a great place to live, it is not too big and has everything you need. Top 3 things about living here would be morning shopping at the Utrina farmers markets where I live, playing cricket followed by a BBQ at the lovely Budenec Oval and going up Sljeme mountain during the winter.

What would make you happiest with the state of cricket in the Balkans? What are your hopes and dreams for the sport here?

Croatia has already achieved a huge amount in a short time in cricket. In just 10 years we managed to work our way from nothing to the top division of European cricket, winning many ICC tournaments along the way. I would be happy if the legacy that is about to be left behind can be continued. I would like to see more junior teams come through with local kids choosing to play the great game of cricket. I would also like to see the women’s game develop here.

Where can we watch your team play, and when?

In Zagreb we play at Budenec Oval in Sesvete every Saturday from May to October from 2-5pm, and from December to April we play indoor cricket at the Trnje Recreation Centre in Trnje every Saturday from 2-4pm. We also practice at Mladost. You can find out what is going on via the Croatian Cricket Federation Facebook page or website.

Source: http://www.likecroatia.com/news-tips/interview-with-an-expat-paul-from-new-zealand/