A home for cricket in the Kempen
We're a new club, built around a simple idea: this region is full of people who'd love to play cricket, and there was nowhere to do it. So we made one.
The Kempen had nowhere to play
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world — but not here, not yet. Across Geel, Mol, Balen, Westerlo, Olen, Kasterlee, Herentals, Laakdal, Meerhout and Tessenderlo, there has been nowhere to learn the game or play it properly.
People who grew up with cricket and moved to the Kempen had to let it go. Children curious about it had nowhere to start. A sport played by hundreds of millions of people simply had no front door.
Kempen Cricket Club is that front door. We exist to give this region a proper home for cricket — welcoming to complete beginners, and serious about doing it well.
Fun first. Everything else follows.
We think the best way into any sport is to enjoy it. So that's where we start — a friendly, low-pressure place to pick up a bat, whatever your age or background. For those who catch the bug, there's a real path: proper coaching, a development pathway, and the ambition to produce players who can go far. But nobody has to be ambitious to belong here.
Open to everyone
Every age, every background, every nationality. Juniors, teenagers and adults all have a place. Cricket is a global game, and our version of it should look like the Kempen.
Built around the next generation
We started with juniors because the future of the club is the children we welcome today.
Rooted here
We're not importing a club from somewhere else. We're growing one, in Geel, for the Kempen.
Play hard, play fair — respect everyone
Cricket is unusual among sports: its official Laws open not with rules, but with a promise about how the game should be played. The MCC's Preamble — the Spirit of Cricket — asks every player to respect opponents, teammates and umpires, to play fair, and to accept decisions with grace. At KCC that isn't small print; it's the point.
Respect, first and always
For your teammates, your opponents, the umpire's decision and the game itself. Children who learn cricket learn to win with modesty and lose with dignity.
Self-discipline & honesty
Cricket rewards patience, concentration and owning your mistakes — a batter who walks, a fielder who signals a bounced catch. Habits that serve you far beyond the boundary rope.
One game, every background
The Spirit of Cricket belongs to everyone — whatever your language, culture or level. It's how a club of many nationalities becomes one team, and how newcomers know they'll be treated fairly from day one.
The Spirit of Cricket is written into the Laws kept by the MCC at Lord's. Read the Preamble at lords.org.
Honest about the beginning
We won't pretend to be more than we are. Kempen Cricket Club was founded in 2026 as a non-profit (VZW). We've held our first sessions, we're training across local indoor and outdoor facilities, and we're in conversation with Cricket Vlaanderen and the Belgian Cricket Federation about affiliation.
Our founders are putting themselves through recognised cricket coaching and club-governance training before the first full season — because we want this built properly from the start.
We're at the very beginning. We think that's the best reason to join: you won't be a number here. You'll be part of building something from the ground up.
Built in Geel, for the whole Kempen.
A good time to start
Cricket returns to the Olympic Games at Los Angeles 2028, in the fast, three-hour T20 format — its first appearance since 1900. There's a neat footnote: the last time cricket featured at the Olympics, in Paris in 1900, Belgium was one of only four nations to take part.
To be clear, we're a small community club — we're here to help you enjoy cricket, not to promise anyone a place at the Games. But it's a wonderful time to start, and we think that energy is worth sharing.
You won't be a number here
New to cricket? Start with our plain-language guide, or test yourself with Gully.