Read The Shorter Wisden 2013 Online
Authors: John Wisden,Co
So, exactly how far has women’s cricket come? Official figures show there are almost 4,000 registered female players in Afghanistan, 700 of them disabled. In October 2012, an eight-team
tournament was held between school teams. But the majority of registered cricketers have the opportunity to play for only a few days a year, and some do not even tell their families. Women’s
cricket is a regular occurrence in only four of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, invariably the more westernised areas. Many Afghans who cheered the success of the men’s side feel
differently about the women.
Unsurprisingly, then, Afghanistan have yet to play an official international women’s game, despite several attempts – although they did travel to Tajikistan in July 2012 for an
unofficial three-match 25-over series, and won 2–1. Most recently, in January 2013, they were on the verge of taking part in the Asian Cricket Council Women’s T20 Championship in
Thailand. ACB chief executive Noor Mohammad Murad admitted “political reasons” lay behind the withdrawal, and said: “It needs long-term planning, including clear strategy to
convey the message to the community that we will strictly follow up all religious rules for women cricket.”
The circumstances of these cancellations have prompted some to question the extent of the board’s commitment to women’s cricket. One prominent figure in Afghan cricket, speaking
anonymously, said the board “were arranging a day or two of cricket camps for the ladies, just to show the media they are working with Afghan girls to learn cricket”. The source also
claimed the ACB “wanted a women’s department just as a symbolic thing to show to the ICC”; the ICC have declined to comment. As the ACB bid for Associate status, a women’s
set-up is one requirement. As more money is invested in Afghan cricket, it must be supported by deed as well as word.
There is no shortage of willing contributors. UNICEF hosted a camp for 140 in Jalalabad in 2010, and the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan – yes, really – have also helped Afghan
Connection and MCC to build cricket pitches in schools.
Afghan Connection have been particularly significant. Working closely with MCC and a range of charities, including Cricket for Change, they have held camps and allowed girls the chance to play
at school. In 2012 alone, they were responsible for building pitches for 16,000 children in ten schools although, given the difficulty of finding locations that can provide the necessary security
for girls, these will primarily benefit boys. In recognition of her achievements, Afghan Connection founder and chief executive Sarah Fane was elected an honorary life member of MCC.
Fane emphasises the “massive progress” women’s cricket has made, and the “incredible talent” of many who play it. Yet she is also realistic about the need for camps
to be conducted in “a culturally sensitive way”. She says: “We do them only in the big cities. We make sure we get parental consent, and we do them in girls’ schools behind
a wall so they all feel secure.” Above all she wants to guard against repercussions. “If we suddenly did a cricket camp for girls in a conservative area, there’d be such a
backlash against them and against us – so we’re moving very slowly with girls.” Nevertheless, some cricketers have been labelled prostitutes for having the temerity to play the
game.
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
F
ARAZ
S
ARWAT
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.
M
ARTIN
W
ILLIAMSON
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 internal
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.
B
ARNEY
D
OUGLAS
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.”