Baseball players aren't the only ones swinging bats in the Holy Land. Sixteen cricket teams in three divisions, with an additional junior league, celebrated "opening day" on April 13.

Cricket was introduced to the Middle East by the British. Prior to 1948, there were pitches in Jerusalem, Haifa, and the Tel Hashomer army camp, where British and Australian military personnel and members of the Anglo-Saxon mandatory civil service regularly played.

The British left the region in 1948, but cricket remained on an informal basis. The first all-Israeli match took place in 1956 in Tel Hashomer between teams from Tel Aviv and Beersheva. In 1958, an unofficial tournament between players representing England, South Africa, and Israel established the framework of the Maccabiah Games.

By the mid-1960s, cricket was in danger of disappearing from the Israeli scene, but an influx of players among Jewish immigrants from Britain, South Africa, Australia, India, and Pakistan led to a revival. The first national league was established in 1966 with 10 clubs; the Israel Cricket Association was established two years later. The league continued to grow despite adverse conditions, including a lack of playing space; early matches were played on dusty, grassless soccer fields.

The 1972 Maccabiah featured the first international cricket tournament held in Israel, with teams from Australia, South Africa, and the United States participating. Cricket is now a regular feature at the quadrennial event.

The national team began competing out of the country, with tours of England and Ireland in 1970 and 1974, when Israel was accepted as an associate member of what is now known as the International Cricket Council. Pakistan was the only member nation voting against Israel's inclusion.

Cricket really came of age in Israel in 1979 when the country was one of 15 nations in the inaugural ICC associate members' trophy tournament held in Birmingham, England. Since then, Israel has participated in all seven ICC trophy tournaments.

In 1997, Israel played in the ICC tournament in Malaysia, the first visit of any Israeli sports team to that country. Throughout the games, the Israeli team was the target of violent political demonstrations by the PAS Muslim fundamentalist movement.

In 1996, Israel – along with Denmark, Gibraltar, Holland, Ireland, Italy, and Scotland – founded the European Cricket Council in Copenhagen at its inaugural championships. The Israel national team has participated in all four championships to date, recording six victories. In the most recent competition, played in Glasgow in 2006, Norway defeated Israel by 91 runs.