When girls come out to play

KheloKricket’s tournament for women highlights Karachi’s love for the sport

KARACHI: On dusty terraces, crowded streets and purpose-built grounds, Karachi is abuzz with the sound of cricket enthusiasts dabbling in the country’s most popular sport.

Karachi’s 20 million population makes no bones about being cricket crazy, and the love for the sport is not only limited to the city’s male population.



Not too long ago some Karachi University girls were beaten up for playing cricket on the varsity’s streets, but even such unfortunate incidents are not enough to deter them. The Women’s Cricket Tournament organised by cricket website KheloKricket proved as much.

A total of seven eight-a-side teams, divided into two groups, competed in the three-day tournament that proved quite successful.

In the end it was Athletic Club who defeated Raptors in the final by seven wickets but there was more to the tournament than just the results.

Ariba Khan, captain of Karachi’s U17 team, was declared the player of the tournament as she scored 49 runs and took two wickets for Athletics club.

With young talent on show, Ariba feels the women’s game is on the up in the city. “This tournament has made it easier for Karachi to scout and recognise talent,” she said. “I have seen many girls who have talent and need just a bit of improvement. I will be calling some of them for the U17 camp too.”

For others, it was a completely new experience. “This is my first competitive game in a ground,” said batswoman Khudayja Makda. “Previously, I used to play with my brother and father at a nearby ground whenever we got the time.”



The 18-year-old believes such initiatives can help silence critics who believe cricket is solely a man’s game and hopes it can further improve the female cricketer’s skillset.

Athletic Club coach Waseem Khan said he registered his team for the tournament to test his team’s fitness levels, with many of the girls training under him for four years now. “They have proven that they are fit for the game and were the best team out of the seven,” he said, adding that the tournament should be held more frequently to ensure interests remain at a high level.

All of this though wouldn’t have been possible without KheloKricket, whose co-founder Hadeel Obaid said their aim is to improve cricket in the country at the very grassroots level.

“This initiative is to encourage those girls that are playing and are passionate about cricket but don’t have a platform for the right kind of exposure,” she said.

A previous such tournament took place during Ramazan this year but the number of teams almost doubled from four to seven.

“The girls that participated in the last tournament simply registered through social media and the demand for another was unrelenting; leading us to host another tournament,” she said. “Some of the girls who had previously played were here, but girls from academies, schools and universities also registered for this tournament.”



The tournament featured girls from all parts of an increasingly divided Karachi and Obaid added that everyone was welcome to join.

“We encourage anybody who is interested in playing cricket to come join us, either as an individual or as a collective team,” she added. “We had a wide demographic of girls — coming in from Gulshan, Nazimabad, Defence and Clifton to name a few places while they ranged in age from 14 all the way up to 26.”

With the tournament set to take place every three months, Karachi’s female population has a place to play the sport that they so dearly love.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2016.

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