The Shorter Wisden 2013 (80 page)

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

C
OMPILED
BY
J
AMES
C
OYNE AND
T
IMOTHY
A
BRAHAM

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.

T
IMOTHY
A
BRAHAM

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 great
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.”

T
RISTAN
L
AVALETTE

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.

T
IM
B
ROOKS

CHINA

In May, Jiang Shuyao, a PE student at Shenyang Sports University, became the first cricketer from mainland China to play a league match overseas – for Cleethorpes Academy
against Holton-le-Clay Fourth Eleven in the East Lindsey Cricket League. Jiang walked out, took first strike and scored an unbeaten 76 to chase down 121. Paul Hewstone, cricket chairman at
Cleethorpes, said “Shu would have got into the first team on his fielding alone. He’s one of the best in the club.” But the first team already had a South African fast bowler as
their registered overseas professional in the Yorkshire Premier League. Instead, Jiang found his level in the seconds, averaging 30 and helping out with the wicket at the first-class ground, where
Nottinghamshire used to play the occasional game. The Asian Cricket Council paid for his flights and travel costs, and Jiang’s family – by no means members of China’s nouveau
riche – forked out 50,000 yuan (£5,000) to support him for six months. Cleethorpes players put him up for the entire trip. “He’d only really played Twenty20 before,”
said Hewstone. “There were a couple of times early on when he’d cream two fours, then slice one up in the air.” The student learned fast. As the season wore on, Jiang grew more
cautious, and less likely to throw his bat at one on a sticky dog. Armed with a translation device on his smartphone, he gradually got to grips with the language too, with the odd understandable
mishap – among them a three-hour wait in a car park in Doncaster after missing his stop on the train. Tactics were less of a problem. “He instinctively understood field positions and
strategy – and started to contribute more in the field as he became more confident in English,” said Hewstone. But he did well to refrain from using either English or Mandarin in a
fractious cup match at Nettleham, when Jiang was last man out for 50, five short of victory, to a questionable lbw decision; he simply put his bat under his arm and walked off. Opportunities to
play at such a high standard have been rare for Chinese cricketers, who remain largely excluded from the expat-dominated leagues in Beijing and Shanghai. But in 2012, three of Jiang’s
national team-mates spent time playing and training in Sydney; three other men and three women came to England as guests of the charity Capital Kids Cricket. Alas, their trip coincided with the
wettest June in London in living memory, which obliterated almost all their matches.

J
AMES
C
OYNE

FRANCE

MCC marked London 2012 by crossing the Channel in June for an Olympic commemoration fixture. It was conceived as a rematch of sorts of the 1900 Paris Olympics, when Devon County
Wanderers, representing Great Britain, beat the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (France) by 158 runs in a two-innings game. This time, a Twenty20 game was played at the charming Chaˆteau de Thoiry, west of Paris. To a soundtrack of roaring lions and other exotic wildlife from the zoo
in the grounds, MCC won by 34 runs. That was a far cry from the last time they were in town: in 1989, to mark the bicentenary of the French Revolution, they slipped to a seven-wicket defeat against
a France team led by an Irishman, Jack Short, and containing just one Frenchman. It was a hollow victory – cricket hasn’t progressed much since, and remains largely the preserve of
expats. But that may change. The France Cricket Association has invested heavily in Kwik Cricket, introducing the game into 150 schools in September. The aim is to reach 300 to 500 schools –
and 40,000 children – within three years. Around 150 teachers have been trained up in the basics of the game; that figure is expected to reach 800. A full-time project co-ordinator has been
hired, along with five regional development officers. The FCA have also forged an Anglo-French relationship with Kent: 18-year-old leg-spinner Zika Ali has spent time at the Academy in Canterbury,
and received a leg-spin masterclass from board patron Richie Benaud at Thoiry. If the kids come through, then in 15 years perhaps MCC will be able to play a team of thoroughbred Frenchmen.

B
ARNEY
S
PENDER

GERMANY

The first summer’s cricket on the spectacular Maifeld, beside Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, was an almost unmitigated success. Cricketers had been evicted from the
nearby Körnerplatz field in 2011, after fears about potential damage caused by flying cricket balls, but a new venue was eventually agreed, with the grant of two new synthetic pitches.
Highlights included the emergence of a young Afghan tweaker, and the first schools match at the ground, during which children aged eight to 11 inspired hopes that cricket may yet gain a grassroots
footing in the German capital. An incursion by the national polo championships in August was tolerated with good humour, although the cricketers showed less understanding when a local groundsman
decided to paint a line down the centre of one pitch to demarcate the viewing area for a fireworks display. But no season in Berlin would be complete without controversy. During one league match
involving DSSC Berlin, the eventual champions, the age-old question of ball-tampering raised its head. The umpires, noticing the number of abrasions on one side, confiscated the ball and sent it in
for inspection; fines and suspensions ensued.

F
ABIAN
M
UIR

GUATEMALA

Guatemala, cradle of the Mayan civilisation, but new to the game of cricket, won the regional Easter Cup by whitewashing El Salvador home and away. Cricket’s early
pioneers were Manuel Farfan, a PE teacher who introduced it into public schools on the advice of British friends, and Asociación Manos Amigas, a non-governmental organisation keen to reduce
violence among disadvantaged children. But it took Luke Humphries, a young Christian missionary from Hampshire, to establish the first club, in 2011. It has since morphed into Guatemala City
Jaguars and Santiago Sacatepéquez Knights, while the Asociación de Cricket de Guatemala has been set up to entice more Guatemalans to the game. Training takes place on football
grounds, with competitive matches at the Democracia Stadium in Guatemala City. Those of us first enchanted by the game on trips overseas were honoured to represent our nation, and have done her
proud.