Refugee Cricket Project "benefits from extra cover"

Jun 11, 2010

Following the Refugee Cricket Project's maiden match versus the MCC at Chigwell yesterday (10th June), Patrick Kidd of The Times wrote the following article about the match and the Refugee Cricket Project:

'AFGHAN REFUGEES BENEFIT FROM EXTRA COVER'

The Times - June 11, 2010
By Patrick Kidd

There will be few better catches this season than the one taken at Chigwell School yesterday by a 16-year-old extra-cover fielder, who dived and stuck out his left hand to end a third-wicket stand of 98 by MCC. More remarkable than the athleticism was that he was playing at all.

Thirteen months ago, he arrived in Britain as an Afghan refugee in the back of a lorry. He was arrested and held in a detention centre, but now lives in a hostel in London. He does not know if the family he left in Kabul are alive or if he will soon be deported to join them. He is one of more than 4,000 unaccompanied child refugees in Britain, but yesterday he was simply a young man loving his cricket.

None of MCC’s opponents yesterday can be named for legal reasons and their own protection, nor can their faces be photographed. They were all asylum-seekers playing for the Refugee Cricket Project, nine Afghans, one Bangladeshi and one, the only player not in his teens, a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka. Before coming to Britain, none had played cricket with a hard ball or on a turf wicket.

The project is run by Danny Baker, a coach with the Cricket for Change programme set up after the Brixton riots in 1981 to support troubled youths. Every Thursday evening, 40 or more refugee children attend a centre in South London for nets, training or simply to watch DVDs of international cricket. Children from Iran, Eritrea and Albania have tried cricket this way.

Three are being trained by Baker to become qualified cricket coaches. He is also organising a tour to Scotland in August. It clashes with Ramadan, but the coach has agreed to join their fast if they try British cultural activities such as eating (halal) haggis and reading Robbie Burns. As if English lessons were not hard enough.

Yesterday, they gave a fine account of themselves. MCC lost two wickets in the fourth over but reached 249 for six in 40 overs. In reply, the refugees showed heart before being dismissed for 199. “They have unbelievably good hand-eye co-ordination and love to bowl fast,” Baker said. “They lack batting nous but if they hit the ball it will stay hit.” Ten balls cleared the ropes for six yesterday.

MCC has a strong relationship with Afghanistan. Mike Gatting led a tour to play them in 2006; Matthew Fleming, the former Kent captain, has been developing cricket in the country and two Afghans spent a summer at Lord’s as MCC Young Cricketers. MCC also sponsored Afghanistan in the recent World Twenty20 and one of the prized possessions of the refugee project is a replica Afghanistan shirt from that tournament, which the best player each week can wear.

There are more than 4,200 children in Britain who were sent here through agents by parents in dangerous countries who felt it was the only way of saving their lives. It was reported this week that there are proposals to return 12 children a month to Afghanistan, but that would not be welcomed by those playing yesterday, such as the 17-year-old captain, who has been here for three years.

“I grew up playing cricket with a tennis ball on the streets in Jalalabad,” he said. “My uncle was a Taleban commander, who wanted my father to join them and give money. My father refused. The problems started from there.”

“Problems” is a euphemism for a tragic story, but the father saved his son’s life, if not his own, by arranging for him to be smuggled away. The player is determined to make a go of things, if allowed to remain. After passing basic qualifications, he is studying for a diploma in applied science and wants to become a doctor.

Then there is his Tamil team-mate, who escaped the civil war in 2008. “My father and my brother are no more,” he said before talking, like any other cricket-mad youth, about how he wants to bat like Sachin Tendulkar.

Indeed, apart from the desperate stories that brought them here, these young men are no different to MCC’s usual opponents. They are polite, sporting and passionate about the game.

Antonia Cohen, who co-founded the project with Baker, said: “They are unwitting ambassadors for Afghanistan because of their attitude and their manners. They permeate areas of British life that refugees don’t usually reach.”

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