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Matt Jenkinson appointed new Finnish Bears Head Coach

Published February 7th, 2020

With a massive 2020 ahead for the Finnish Bears, Matt Jenkinson has been appointed as Head Coach, replacing the long-serving Yasir Abdul Quadir, who in turn will remain in an assistant coach role.

Matt grew up in Melbourne Australia where he played cricket in the Victorian Premier (District) Cricket League, arguably one of the best domestic cricket competitions in the world. Matt played for two clubs over a ten-year period. Six years at the Prahran Cricket club, coached at the time by Dav Whatmore and then a further four years at the Fitzroy Doncaster Cricket Club. During those years he says he was fortunate enough to play against some of the top cricketers in the world during that era.

Cricket took him to England in 1997 where he played as an overseas player in Yorkshire and then he returned for another season overseas in sunny Kent in 2000. He returned once again to Kent in 2002 where he met his now wife and settled there for fifteen years before moving here to Helsinki nearly two years ago. In Kent, Matt played as an overseas player for the Canterbury Cricket Club and later captained their first eleven for several seasons. Work and family commitments meant a break from playing cricket and he is excited to be back from the cricketing wilderness.

“It’s a fantastic honour to become the head coach of the National Cricket Team here in Finland. I look forward to sharing my knowledge and experiences with the players in this new role. I’ve had some terrific coaches, teammates over the years who have gone on to great things as players and in the coaching world.  It seems natural to share with the guys all I know and have learned the hard way. I’ve been incredibly impressed with Cricket Finland so far, the national team’s squad and all they have achieved to date as a cricketing community. It will be an incredibly exciting summer ahead with Finland hosting a T20 world cup qualifying event for the first time. I look forward to the challenge and I know the team will do themselves and Finland proud. I am also looking forward to meeting as many players and coaches of the domestic teams here in Finland during the summer season. It will be exciting to work with the cricketing communities, helping the game continue to flourish here in Finland”

For more information, contact Andrew Armitage p. +358 50 3237099