Israel is known as a land of miracles, and the survival of cricket in the Holy Land must surely rate as one of those miracles. The odds have always been heavily stacked against the game, yet cricket has endured and even flourished despite lacking adequate playing surfaces, equipment and financial backing. Naturally enough cricket was introduced to the Middle East by the British. During the prestate Mandate era, there were pitches in Jerusalem, Haifa and the TelHashomer army camp, where British and Australian military personnel and members of the Anglo Saxon Mandatory civil service regularly partook of the games subtle pleasures. After the British left in 1948, their local successors somehow managed to keep the game going in the fledgling State, though little is documented. The first All Israeli match took place in 1956 in TelHashomer, between teams representing Tel Aviv and the Negev desert town Beer Sheva. This game is notable chiefly for the fact that the Beer Sheva side comprised Ben Abrahams and his seven sons, plus three others. Bombay born Abrahams was to become the doyen of the local game, playing and umpiring up to his death in 1974 at the age of 71. The Ben Abrahams Memorial Cup remains an important fixture in the local cricket calendar. In 1958, an unofficial tripartite cricket tournament between players representing England, South Africa and Israel was held at the old Haifa Oil Refineries ground in the framework of the Maccabi Games. Local cricket struggled through the ensuing years, despite economic austerity and the draining influence of compulsory military service. By the mid sixties the game was in danger of disappearing altogether, but an influx of cricket playing Jewish immigrants from countries such as Britain, South Africa, Australia, India and Pakistan revived its fortunes. Clubs sprung up wherever the immigrants settled and in 1966 the first national league was established, with ten clubs from as far apart as the Galilee, Haifa, Beer Sheva and Ashdod. This league eventually led to the foundation of the Israel Cricket Association ICA in 1968.

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