Key Points
- Cricket coaches say players from diverse backgrounds have rejuvenated interest in the game in Australia.
- As a new multicultural ambassador for Cricket Australia, Rita Anwari says she will help provide platforms for emerging players from diverse backgrounds.
- Cricket Australia says it is creating opportunities for people from multicultural backgrounds across all aspects of cricket.
Rita Anwari fled Afghanistan's civil war 30 years ago and has been at the forefront of social activism in the community, especially in the area of women's rights, ever since.
Named as a multicultural ambassador with Cricket Australia in May, she said the role came with a responsibility to promote the game by forging pathways for cricketers from diverse backgrounds.
Her appointment is welcome news for players and club coaches and members around Australia who say diversity is the key to keeping the sport thriving.
Brisbane-based Anwari said of her own experience as a newly arrived refugee, "I couldn't speak a word of English and I couldn't pick up the culture."
She said the experience had made her determined to one day "empower" other women from Afghanistan and the Middle East through education and skills such as financial literacy.
Rita Anwari was founder/director of Women's Empowerment and Leadership in 2018.
She added that as an Afghan-Australian, she would be very keen to help Afghan female cricketers living in Australia unite, train and get back to the ground after being forced out of the arena by the Taliban nearly three years ago.
“We have got strong and talented Afghan players living all across Australia and they are still playing in individual capacities so my effort would be to listen to them and provide them a platform for support and growth," she said.
Her words open a window of opportunity for emerging players including 13-year-old Zara Sameer, renowned at her Greenvale Kangaroos Cricket Club in Melbourne for her straight drives.
Rita Anwari from Afghanistan has been named as multicultural ambassador by Cricket Australia for the next four years.
"My dad loves playing cricket and when he took me to an India vs Pakistan cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and later to a Boxing Day test, I loved the atmosphere and I decided to make my way to that arena and play there."
'They live and breathe cricket'
"They are extremely keen, they love the game and would play it seven days a week if they could," Greenvale Kangaroos Cricket Club coach and captain, Catherine Morrow, said.
It is winter in Australia, which means a few months of off-season in most parts of the country, but that has not stopped the cricket enthusiasts who gather in indoor avenues to perfect their batting, bowling, and fielding skills.
She acknowledged the huge impact influence players from the subcontinent were having on the domestic scene in Australia.
She told SBS Urdu that the influx of players from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal had changed the landscape and there was now no such thing as an off-season for cricket.
Zara Farooqi during a batting practice session with her team mates at the Greenvale Kangaroos Cricket Club in Melbourne's north.
"They live and breathe cricket."
According to official estimates from Cricket Australia's Multicultural Action Plan, last year, 18 per cent of cricketers in Australia were from South Asian backgrounds.
By contrast, and at the elite level, they only make up four per cent of players contracted to state and territory teams.
Around two-thirds of South Asian players reported it was "challenging" to find and join a local cricket club in Australia, compared to one-third of non-South Asian respondents, the plan said.
"Cricket Australia wants to be a sport for everyone, and so we're really looking at increasing the opportunities for people (from multicultural backgrounds) across all aspects of cricket," Sonya Thompson, Cricket Australia's head of national development, said.
Right-hand batter and occasional wicket keeper, Zara Farooqi, from Pakistan, says she loves playing cricket.
Charlie Walker’s Moonee Valley Cricket Club was established in Melbourne more than 50 years ago and he agreed that the "fresh blood" had not only revived the game at a grassroots level but had, "saved it from stagnation".
"The reality is that, in my view, if it had not been for the influx of players from subcontinent backgrounds in club cricket generally in the past 10 or so years, cricket would have been stagnating or even going backwards," he said.
The seasoned Australian domestic cricketer said that the intense interest among players, particularly youngsters from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka backgrounds, was keeping the sport alive.
... without them, (cricket) would have been stagnating or even going backwardsCharlie Walker, Moonee Valley Cricket Club
"Otherwise, cricket in Australia would have needed to do a fair bit of soul-searching about how to keep up with other sports."
Thompson said Cricket Australia wanted cricket to be a sport for everyone, "... so we're really looking at increasing the opportunities for people from multicultural backgrounds across all aspects of cricket."
