The journey of women’s cricket

Walk into Mkwawa primary school in Dar es Salaam and you will see a group of girls and boys playing cricket, organised or not, in their school playground. A former student of the school, Nadhifa Hamisi reminisced when she was introduced to the sport of cricket for the first time on these grounds. The 18 years old Nadhifa began playing the sport when she was in standard 4.

“I had quit playing cricket in standard seven, in fact I was forced to stop this sport,” Nadhifa began talking. She added that it was the environment that made her quit cricket, her father thought she was prioritising cricket over her studies and concluded that cricket was a ‘waste of time’. She stopped playing the sport for four years.

Despite objections from her father, Nadhifa did not lose hope. She used to secretly go for matches and training as a spectator and observe the game play. After her secondary education, Nadhifa’s mother convinced her father to let her pursue her dream of being a cricketer but her father had a passive response. “My father doesn’t like that I play cricket, he has never come for my regional or school matches and has never once asked about my training. I do play cricket but I know he fears that I will fail to balance sports and studies,” added Nadhifa.

Last month Nadhifa participated in the regional women cricket tournament in Tanga where she was scouted to play for the national squad who are currently being trained to participate in African women twenty20 world cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe. This was not the first time that Nadhifa has gotten selected to play for the national team, she had been selected few years ago, but the reason was obvious as to why she never appeared for her trainings.

“I faced the same resistance to participate in this tournament like I did few years ago. But, this time I put a condition. I told my father that if he doesn’t permit, I will have no option but to leave this house and run away,” Nadhifa stated. She also questioned her father as to why he isn’t supportive of such a proud moment in her life, but he never uttered a word.

Nadhifa studies at VETA (Vocational Education and Training Authority) and goes for training at the Muhimbili Academy every afternoon. “I just simply want to play cricket, it is in my blood and I aspire to become a good cricket player,” she said.

Cricket has come a long way

Girls like Nadhifa play an important role as sports ambassadors of Tanzania. Women cricket has travelled a long distance in the country – from its beginning at the grass-root level, when girls began playing chanzo cricket (kanga cricket) at their schools, to now, when Tanzanian girls are under the Tanzania Cricket Association (TCA) and officially recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). “The actual development of women cricket began in 1999 when we began expanding the cricket game to be played by the majority of the population, and not just restrict it to closed societies or elites. We as TCA worked in partnership with local municipal primary schools where we introduced chanzo cricket (beginner’s cricket),” Mr Taher Kitisa, the chairman of TCA explained the initiation.

The association witnessed a tremendous response and in 2002, the first women’s team of under-15 was formed to take part in the East African tournament. This initiated them to begin a development program which took them very far. Currently, 20,000 Tanzanians are engaged in the sport and Tanzania began hosting women’s tournament after 1999.

Mr Taher added, “We are always trying to motivate the women to make them more mainstream into the sport of cricket by conducting school and regional tournaments. For example, this year, we started the secondary school league in Dar es Salaam where six schools will take part. The girls need this, if they know they are working and training towards something like a league, then only will we see them coming in.”

TCA doesn’t have a permanent women cricket squad yet, because of the phasing out of the women players. Due to social taboos, family responsibilities or pregnancy, many of the women players retire in two years. Hence, every two years, TCA conducts regional tournaments to scout out new players and start training them from scratch. This is seen as a challenge the association faces.

But the case of Zaina Hassan, a 24 years old player from Morogoro is unlike. She, like Nadhifa, got scouted in the recently held regional tournament in Tanga to play for the national team.

Zaina, 24, has been playing cricket since 2006 and has a 5 year old child. This factor, unlike most former players, did not hinder her to continue playing the sport. “I got pregnant in 2011 and was unable to play cricket for a year. But, I did not consider this as the end of my career as a cricketer.

When my child turned 9 months old, I played a regional tournament which boosted me to up my game and here I am playing for the national team,” said Zaina. For Zaina, cricket is her teacher. She added that the game has helped her understand life better, tackle situations better, attain a balance and discipline in her life and much more.

“Other players who phase out due to marriage or children, should understand that the association of cricket in Tanzania is not only about the game, it helps you become better by pushing girls to be educated, you travel to places you have never imagined going and moreover the association communicates with you about your problem and they help you get out of it,” Zaina encouraged her fellow players. Zaina’s strength is bowling and wants to be a role model to many aspiring women cricketers in Tanzania.

A sport of majority

Zully Rehmtullah, the pioneer of women cricket team in Tanzania had a huge role in developing a national program to uplift cricket as a sport of majority. “Women have got a lot of potential and in my personal research, women have a tendency of learning very fast and are very good observers. The only challenge with many of these girls is ignorance which disturbs their career. But these are challenges, till date, that we tackle – it is just a matter of pushing them to study and be educated,” said Mr Zully, currently the development director of cricket in Africa.

He further explained that women in cricket sport form a big portion. There are more than 24 teams in every region of Arusha, Tanga, Morogoro, Mwanza and Dar es Salaam. During the indigenisation of cricket, the biggest problem that they faced was English – as all the terminologies of cricket were in English. He decided to write a book in Kiswahili, ‘Chanzo Cricket’, which accounted as the first book in history of cricket to be written in Kiswahili. “We had to put ourselves in their shoes. The aim of this book was to make the grass-root level understand the game and it worked out really well,” added Mr Zully.

According to survey statistics, with regards to the development program, Tanzania’s women cricket is ranked third in Africa along with the test playing countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe. “There has been a great deal of development in women’s cricket. Tanzania has hosted women’s tournament and we had marginally lost to be qualified to participate in the previous women world cup against Zimbabwe.

Two of our former players, Mwanaidi Ibrahim and Saida Khamis where chosen to be in the Africa team for global tournaments. Also, the country has been able to produce one of the best umpires, Lucy Mayunga. She receives direct invitations from Africa Cricket Association (ACA) to officiate crucial matches internationally, both men’s and women’s,” Mr Zully explained the development of women in cricket.

The vice-captain of the current national squad aspires to continue her career in cricket for not less than 10 years. The 17 years old, Wilfrida Jeremiah does not want to phase out anytime soon and her biggest motivation is the encouragement she receives from her community and family. “I began liking cricket when I was in standard 2 and used to follow my sister Sarafina when she went for her trainings. My primary school coach, Mr Riziki at Mkwawa trained and supported me till I got to the TCA academy to better my approach to games.

People like what I do, my parents are supportive and encourage me not to miss out on trainings, and this itself is such a motivation,” Wilfrida explained, currently studying at Kigogo Secondary School. Once she completes her secondary education, she would want to get into law at an esteemed University and it is the sport cricket that makes her want to achieve her set goals.

Despite the social challenges the women players in Tanzania go through and how it affects the association, women cricket is surviving and thrives to represent the country in women cricket world cup. According to TCA, the women teams in different sports are doing well, it was only the opportunity that was lacking but now Tanzanian women sports teams have begun to be recognised in the international grounds.