We, at Female Cricket, have been covering Pakistan cricket for a while and our appreciation grew for the cricket board in recent times when we saw PCB announcing increases at times when the world calls for cuts.
Recently, we made our way across a piece from Kamila Shamsie from The Cricket Monthly. She is a novelist and her work with regards to Pakistani women’s cricket seems to be a perfect destination for anyone who wants to know about the past and wonder for the times ahead. She has kept her writing interesting, detailed, and very intensive.
There is a significant amount of light on the different phases of Pakistani Cricket and its emergence from nothingness. As we often hear, Pakistan still is greatly under the shadow of communal Orthodoxy, and a large section of the society root for a fundamental Islamist state. It is not hard to speculate that under these circumstances, the arrival or even growth of women’s cricket would mean a dream.
This dream, however, was taken by Khan Sisters. They played their share of cricket in England until Pakistan got a Democratically elected government with promises of reform. It was naive to believe that a mere change in rulers will cause a transformation in people. Khan sisters had to fight the Pakistani society, the state machinery, and the rival group that claimed its stake over women cricket in Pakistan.
It has been wonderfully summarised that while the Khan sisters got the recognition and support from countries abroad, the real challenge was to win their homeland. In the first match played, there were serious death threats and consequently, there was an attendance of eight thousand in the ground and all of them were security personnel. The women had to leave the country and their father told them to return when the nation becomes “ready” for them.
From there we see Urooj Mumtaz Khan taking charge of the Pakistani side and her journey and experiences, as recorded by the author, explains the complications faced in a misogynistic society. PCB and its inefficient methods took the life of a player who dared to come up but was slapped defamation. There are journalists who have played a significant role in the story.
The story from Khan Sisters to Sana Mir is fascinating to a great extent and keeps the reader hooked. Sana, the first superstar of Pakistan women’s cricket, seems to know that the infrastructure and sufficient support for women. She refrains from any comment on the regime but we are reminded of the times when the current PM declined the idea of women playing cricket. The world, and especially the cricket lovers, should read the article online. Passion for the game makes one fight the world, forget the bleeding hands, and just keep moving ahead.
You can read the complete story here:
Source: The Cricket Monthly
A student who enjoys studying cricket more than anything else, keen to learn the insights of the women’s game.