by John Wisden
No one can be naive about the challenges facing women’s cricket in Afghanistan. But there is a commendable optimism and resolve in those who play it. Let the last word go to Diana Barakzai. “The boys’ national team had very good achievements during the last few years, and the reason is the strong support from the government, donors and all other agencies. If we also receive support, I am sure we can have a brilliant women’s cricket team in the near future.”
Tim Wigmore is a freelance journalist, and writes for ESPNcricinfo, The Independent and New Statesman. For more information about Afghan Connection, visit www.afghanconnection.org
CRICKET IN CANADA, 2012
All-star fudge
FARAZ SARWAT
Canadian cricket has developed a tendency to start the year on the wrong foot – and 2012 was no exception. In January the national team participated in the Caribbean T20 as preparation for the World Twenty20 qualifying tournament, but went down to heavy defeats in all four matches. The following month, captain Jimmy Hansra stepped down.
The official press release, which quoted Hansra as saying “I am very happy with the organisation and I believe we are definitely heading in the right direction,” had a touch of Stockholm syndrome. Rizwan Cheema, surprisingly sidestepped in favour of Hansra once Ashish Bagai had quit the team after the 2011 World Cup, was finally put in charge for the World Twenty20 qualifiers in the UAE, but results hardly picked up. Canada managed to see off lesser teams, but came unstuck against stronger opposition – losing to the Netherlands, Afghanistan, Ireland and Scotland.
Shortly after the tournament, Michael Dighton resigned as coach, only seven months into the job. Gus Logie, Canada’s coach during the 2003 World Cup, returned to the role, and David Patterson, the former head of New South Wales’ Emerging Players programme for a decade, was hired as High Performance Manager in October. With many players still adjusting to cricket at a high level, Patterson’s arrival may have been the highlight of the year.
On April 1, Cricket Canada held elections for president, with Alberta’s Ravin Moorthy taking on the incumbent, Ranjit Saini from Ontario. When the votes among delegates ended in a tie, the brains trust of Canadian cricket apparently decided to settle the matter with the toss of a coin, which Moorthy won. The toss took place on April Fool’s Day, so it was perhaps sensible that Cricket Canada did not go public with their method of deciding the presidency.
Poor showings in Namibia and Scotland meant Canada finished the year bottom of both the ICC 50-over World Cricket League Championship and the first-class Intercontinental Cup (which were both due to finish in April 2013). These were tournaments Canada once aspired to win. Some success finally came in November, when the team retained the Auty Cup against the even more dysfunctional USA. Canada’s modest 196 – against a second-string American attack – proved enough to win on first innings in Florida.
The intended centrepiece of Canada’s year, an all-star Twenty20 exhibition match in May, turned into a farce when many advertised players failed to show up – and those who did were not paid on time. The Rogers Centre (formerly the SkyDome), home of Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays, is a marvel of a building. But a drop-in artificial pitch with spring-fitted stumps made the game difficult to take seriously, even with the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya and Jacob Oram doing their best to keep everyone entertained. A crowd generously estimated at 12,000 looked sparse in a stadium that can accommodate more than four times as many.
Match organisers Kat Rose Inc had promised to include Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal – among others – in the Asia XI but, with Pakistan about to tour Sri Lanka, it was always unlikely they would be released by their board. Brian Lara also pulled out of captaining the International XI. Kat Rose continued to list the players on their website on the eve of the match. The no-shows hit the promoters hard and, by October, the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations had initiated legal proceedings against the organisers over non-payment to 16 players.
Cricket Canada chief executive Doug Hannum described the event as a “national embarrassment” on a television newscast, which irked many of his colleagues, though his assessment was not far wrong. The board insisted they had carried out due diligence in researching the unknown promotions company before sanctioning the event.
A lack of accountability and cynicism in Cricket Canada continued unabated, with office-bearers holding on to their positions come what may. And so 2012 went down as a year with no international cricket in Canada, no progress on building a national stadium, and disastrous results on the field. Those who follow the sport here had every right to feel aggrieved.
CRICKET IN KENYA, 2012
Heading in one direction
MARTIN WILLIAMSON
The restructuring forced on Cricket Kenya by their dismal performance at the 2011 World Cup continued, but there was no significant upturn on the field – despite the retention of a fully paid squad. Kenya lost their two matches in the Intercontinental Cup, the first-class tournament for the leading Associate countries, to leave them languishing second from bottom. In the one-day World Cricket League Championship, Kenya at least managed wins over Ireland and Namibia, but still finished the year in sixth. With only the top two automatically gaining places for the 2015 World Cup, Kenya will go into a ten-country qualifying tournament in New Zealand to decide the two remaining slots.
Kenya performed as feared at the World Twenty20 qualifiers in Dubai, beating only the real minnows – and missing out on the knockout stages by 0.007 of a run, to Scotland. More heartening were the performances of Alex Obanda, Collins Obuya and Duncan Allan, who all scored more than 250 runs. Kenya’s women, meanwhile, made next to no impression, finishing last in the ICC Africa Women’s Twenty20 qualifying tournament.
At present, Cricket Kenya are in a sound financial position. But fear is growing inside the country that they will struggle to retain their top-six Associate status at the 2014 World Cup qualifier – and thus miss out on the substantial ICC High Performance funding that goes with it. CK doggedly retained 20 players on professional contracts, but that would almost certainly end without the extra ICC money, as would the ability to attract high-quality administrators and coaches. Tom Sears left the chief executive’s post in June to move to Irish rugby union franchise Connacht, and had not been replaced by the end of the year. In May, national coach Mike Hesson returned home to New Zealand citing safety concerns for his family, and was replaced on an interim basis by Robin Brown, a former Zimbabwe player and coach (Hesson became New Zealand coach in July). Security issues in Mombasa, often blamed on the Somali Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, led to some international matches being shelved and others relocated to Dubai. Ireland did go ahead with their tour in February after some doubts, and won all three Twenty20 internationals.
A senior international administrator privately admitted the Kenyans had squandered a decade of substantial investment. A few years ago, they had been rated the best outside the Test nations, but there are now at least half a dozen ahead of them in the pecking order; even in Africa, Namibia and Uganda are seen as better long-term prospects. At least a successful second edition of the elite domestic tournaments – broadcast on the SuperSport satellite network for the first time – gave the local game a boost.
Board elections should have been held in March 2012, but were delayed because of squabbling within the fractious Nairobi province, then a last-minute court order obtained by Tom Tikolo, the disgraced former CK chief executive. When elections finally took place in November, Jackie Janmohamed – a close associate of Sharad Ghai, the former boss of the old Kenyan Cricket Association forced from office in 2005 – was elected to succeed the internationally respected Samir Inamdar as chairperson. She was the first woman chosen to head a major cricket governing body. Even her supporters recognised Janmohamed faced a hard battle to convince the wider community she was not a throwback to the bad old days, and within weeks she was embroiled in a number of in
ternal disputes. One involved an unofficial tournament – aptly named “Cricket Wars” – backed by Ghai and intended to take place at Nairobi Gymkhana, but CK refused to sanction the event. Janmohamed had a year to turn things round. The odds seemed stacked against her.
It emerged in May that an unnamed Kenyan player was being investigated on suspicion of spot-fixing during the 2011 World Cup game against Pakistan. “The Kenyan Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs are aware of the allegations,” said Sears. The ICC refused to comment.
KENYA’S MAASAI CRICKETERS
Cornered lions
BARNEY DOUGLAS
It’s an awe-inspiring sight – red robes flooding through the air, the crisp chink of beads, eyes wide and homing in on the target. In years gone by, that target would have been a wild animal. Now, it merely has a bat and pads by way of self-defence.
This is the Maasai Warriors cricket team, a side that have developed over the last few years in the village of Ilpolei in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Introduced to the sport by Aliya Bauer, a South African volunteer and qualified coach, the Warriors related cricket to their traditional hunting techniques. The ball is the spear, and the bat the shield, while the footwork recalls their nimbleness and stamina built up from herding cattle across rough terrain. After witnessing the game being taught to schoolchildren as a means of communicating HIV/Aids awareness messages, the Maasai came to realise cricket could inspire them. It has brought warring clans together, educated young men, given them a common goal and spirit.
But a darker heart exists in their community, where HIV/Aids is rife, female genital mutilation still practised, and abuse of women a huge social issue. The team are aiming to encourage the Maasai to move away from such behaviour. They feel this is the only way to progress and preserve their future as a people. However, elders fear even this change will herald the end of the Maasai. It is tradition versus progress, identity versus change.
Sonyanga is the captain of the Warriors. Quiet and unassuming, he leads by example – particularly off the field. He has a hunger to learn, and a thirst for education. He is proud of his heritage, but you can see in his eyes the conflict he must over-come to break from the elders’ path. He convinced his own father to abandon female genital mutilation, saving his sister from the prospect of pain, physical and mental scarring, and considerable health risks. “Being in cricket gave me the confidence of going against the community,” he says. “You know, some of the elders won’t take it positively. But you have to tell them it’s no good. You have to gain that courage.”
The Warriors hope to play a tournament in England in 2013, believing it will energise Maasai youth and usher through changes back home. Even to fly overseas has a large bearing on their status in the community. “Without change,” says one player, “we will surely perish.” As the Maasai saying goes: “The eye that leaves the village sees further than the eye that stays.”
Barney Douglas is a director and producer. His film, Warriors, is due for release in late 2013. The England bowler James Anderson is an executive producer.
CRICKET ROUND THE WORLD
COMPILED BY JAMES COYNE AND TIMOTHY ABRAHAM
Seven countries and a French overseas territory make their debuts in this year’s Cricket Round the World.
ICC WORLD CRICKET LEAGUE
As the World Cricket League – the 50-over pyramid for non-Test nations which began in 2007 – reached the end of its second cycle, it was becoming easier to identify decline and fall. Nepal carried off the Division Four title in September, earning their highest WCL ranking yet. On slow pitches in Kuala Lumpur, their spinners were too canny: Shakti Gauchan returned 9– 4–8–1 against Singapore and 10–8–2–3 against Malaysia. A top-two finish in Division Three in May 2013 would earn Nepal a place in the 2015 World Cup qualifying tournament in New Zealand.
Nepal also won the Asian Cricket Council Elite Trophy for the first time, sharing it with the United Arab Emirates after a tie in Sharjah; they lost nine wickets to the UAE’s six, so were fortunate the tournament had no tie-breaker. UAE’s semi-final thrashing of Afghanistan – remarkably, their seventh win out of seven against them in 50-over cricket – meant they and Nepal were rewarded with inclusion in a one-day tournament against A-teams from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, scheduled for 2013. More such arrangements are needed to avoid the leading Associates being cut adrift.
Argentina, though, were in complete free fall, and finished bottom of Division Five – suffering their fourth consecutive relegation. With Bermuda also slipping back two divisions since 2007 – the year they appeared at the World Cup in the Caribbean – it was clear the cricketing malaise in the Americas went deep. It remains to be seen whether West Indies’ World Twenty20 triumph can act as a spark in the region.
Were Argentina to be relegated again in 2013, they would face elimination from global competition, after the ICC Development Committee decided to cut back from eight WCL divisions to six for the next cycle (beginning in 2014). There was a feeling that one-day cricket was not always appropriate at the lower level: some teams struggle to bat out 50 overs, possibly because they do not play the format domestically. But it was primarily a financial decision: in Europe, it costs around £10,000–12,000 to host a WCL event. The cutback was especially bad news for the East Asia–Pacific region: Fiji, Vanuatu, Japan and Samoa, all likely to finish the cycle in Divisions Seven and Eight, will be left without global 50-over cricket.
ANDORRA
Sir Ian Botham’s next skiing holiday to the Pyrenees won’t be just about the slopes if Andorra’s emerging cricketers get their way. Botham has been a regular visitor to Hotel Montané, in the village of Arinsal, run by Fiona Dean, also Britain’s Honorary Consul in the principality. She was contacted by Dr Michel Bakker from a nomadic Dutch team called Fellowship of Fairly Odd Places Cricket Club, founded in 2005, whose aim, as their name suggests, is to enjoy a game once a year in unconventional locations – hence they were keen to play the first recorded match in Andorra. Though not a player herself, Dean enlisted a “rag tag bunch of expats”, including a Swiss national who had never played cricket before, to take on FFOPCC in September on an artificial surface at a football ground in the town of Ordino – 1,298m above sea level. Huib van Walsem scored an unbeaten 110 as the Dutch posted 187 for five from their 30 overs; in reply, the Andorra XI could manage only 105 – giving FFOPCC their first win over international opposition, after previous defeats by Iceland and Vatican City. Andorra-born teenager Daniel Carrington was the closest the home side got to a native player, although the game generated enough interest to lead the front page of Diari d’Andorra. “Sir Ian actually agreed to umpire the game, but unfortunately a clash of commitments prevented him from doing so,” said Dean. “A few of the players are planning to coax him into giving them some coaching and advice on his next holiday.” Andorra were planning home and away fixtures against teams from over the border in France for 2013.
TIMOTHY ABRAHAM
BULGARIA
Saif Rehman is the pioneering force of Bulgarian cricket, a soap star, semi-finalist in Bulgaria’s Got Talent – and now symbol of egalitarianism in his adopted country. During the Communist era, Bulgarian disabled children were often hidden from view by their families, or abandoned in state institutions. While there has been undoubted progress, some attitudes have proved hard to shake. A 2008 investigation by Europe’s highest social-rights body criticised the Bulgarian government for failing to provide disabled children with an education. Two years later, it was reported that 166 had died from neglect in care homes over the previous decade. Rehman, 39, originally from Pakistan, was deeply upset at what he saw, and vowed to bring cricket to the less fortunate. In January 2012, he introduced a group of children from Sofia to table cricket, a miniature tabletop version of the game for six players. By November, around 100 Bulgarians aged six to 17 with cerebral palsy, Down’s Syndrome or other disabilities were playing table cricket, and a national championship was held. “We’ve had gr
eat results,” said Rehman. “Doctors have told me that a 16-year-old opened his hand for the first time after he started playing, because he was getting movement in it and was so determined to play.” The widespread praise for the initiative inside Bulgaria persuaded Rehman to begin coaching a national squad of blind cricketers, whom he hopes to take on a tour to England in 2013. Germany and Spain are the only other countries in continental Europe to play any official disability cricket. “My ambition is to form a disability cricket league and encourage it in nearby countries,” Rehman declared. “This is my duty.”
TRISTAN LAVALETTE
CAMBODIA
Manish Sharma’s mission to spread the gospel was stirred by a chance meeting in a Hong Kong restaurant, when he overheard a lament by schoolboys who were desperate to play but couldn’t afford the kit. Sharma, the director of Rudrapriya Sports, a Hong Kong-based retailer, gave the boys a couple of pairs of batting gloves – and embarked on a crusade to help more would-be cricketers. But his offer to provide equipment was rebuffed by the established clubs in Hong Kong, who wanted to allocate his money themselves. Upset but undeterred, he set his sights on Cambodia, a country with next to no heritage in the sport. Sharma’s plans were ambitious: bring structure to the disparate expat cricketing culture, and immerse the local population in the game – no easy feat when children attend school from 7am to 5pm, and spend the evening in language classes. The solution was simple: start practice at 5am. Sharma woke up in time, and so did more than 3,500 Cambodian schoolchildren eager to learn – leading in 2012 to the establishment of a youth league, including eight schools, and a girls’ team. Sharma, vice-chairman of the Cricket Association of Cambodia, successfully lobbied the Cambodian Olympic Committee to include cricket on the curriculum – opening up the possibility of participation in the Asian Games; the board also won Associate status from the Asian Cricket Council. Next on Sharma’s list is Madagascar. The fact that cattle-wrestling is one of the island’s most popular spectator sports, and that its sole world champion played pe´tanque, suggests it could be his biggest challenge yet.