Over the next few days, a converted ice hockey arena inVienna will echo not to the sound of puck against backboard but leather against willow in the Vienna Winter Cup, an indoor six-a-side cricket tournament.

This year the competition, which started out in 1986/87 for local teams features four sides from England, including 2001 national club champions Pudsey Congs, as well as Vienna and Prague. In the past 30 players with first-class experience have taken part including England duo James Foster and Jeremy Snape.

Michael Bailey, secretary of the Austrian Cricket Association, said the game was gaining ground in Austria although some locals were still uncertain as to what it was all about. "Often people say to me 'cricket, yes that's the game with horses isn't it?'" explained Bailey, a 24-year-old Englishman who has worked in Vienna for the past two years as a translator.

However, thanks to Austria's efforts in European cricket, the national press has given the sport some coverage, although Bailey, who has been in Vienna for two years, said it had been "slow progress" generally - but not always. "One day we were above Tiger Woods on one of the sports pages," Bailey proudly said on Friday.

"That was great but sometimes there were misinterpretations with a lot of focus on how a cricket ball can break your hand or how you might even be killed playing the game. That's true but then again you might get killed walking across the streets."

Historically, European cricket teams have consisted mainly of expatriate Englishmen, but Vienna will have its fair share of native players in this weekend's tournament. "Out of our squad of eight, three are Austrian and they are all there on merit," explained Bailey, who was introduced to the sport by his "cricket-mad mother" as a child in Somerset.

Last summer Austria hosted a five nations outdoor cricket festival which featured teams from Norway, Finland, Croatia and Slovenia, showing how far the sport has strayed beyond the traditional boundaries of the British Empire.

But football, despite the recent poor performance of the Austrian national team, remains the dominant summer sport. "Because of the space you need to play cricket it's hard sometimes to persuade authorities here to let you use their grounds when they might think we can get a couple of football games on here," Bailey explained.

Ironically, in the light of Bailey's comments, it is interesting to discover that Austria's most famous football club, Rapid Vienna, actually started life as a cricket club as did AC Milan.

Bailey, then is the latest in a line of administrators, sent from the home of cricket to spread the word, although he is at pains to point out that the sport was up and running in Austria before his arrival. "I heard about Vienna Cricket Club on the internet when I was searching for a team out here and because I could speak the language and loved the sport I ended up becoming secretary," explained Bailey, who grew up watching cricket greats Ian Botham, Viv Richards and Joel Garner play for Somerset.

And any Viennese walking into the Sporthalle Hopsagase this weekend may yet find themselves becoming hooked on the sport too, although if it's horses they're after they'd be better off going at the city's Spanish Riding School.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd