In 2020, the women’s national cricket team of Brazil will be the first in the world to be handed professional contracts before the men’s.
Children in a poor hillside community in Brazil are chasing a ball at full speed on a concrete playground. On the other hand, this is a strange sight for a football-crazed country: instead of swinging cricket bats and fielding drives, they stand motionless at goalposts. Welcome to Pocos de Caldas, a city of 170,000 people and the capital of a lovably weird ambition to turn the land of Pele and Neymar into a passionate cricketing nation. Brazil’s women’s national cricket team, which will receive professional contracts in 2020, is breaking preconceptions and becoming a major player in the sport. Brazil will be the first country to provide professional contracts to its women’s national team before it does the same for its men’s.
Matt Featherstone, an Englishman who relocated to Brazil two decades ago and married a Brazilian, is the head of Cricket Brasil, a non-profit organization that runs 63 community-based youth programs.
‘My wife thinks I’m crazy,’ jokingly quips Featherstone, 51, a hefty jock with contagious enthusiasm for cricket in Brazil.
He has turned Pocos de Caldas, a sleepy spa town in the coffee area of southern Brazil, into “the only city in Brazil where more kids play cricket than football,” because of his charisma and commitment to the community.
Samba-style cricket
Trying to promote his passion for cricket at private schools in Brazil after moving there in 2000, Featherstone soon found that cricket had to compete with “anything else you can imagine,” according to Featherstone.
However, he noticed that in poor communities, where the only options were “football or football,” families were delighted to have a new sports program.
Although in England cricket is sometimes considered a game for the wealthy, “here, we are given a blank sheet of paper on which we may invent our own form of cricket,” he adds.
In an interview with the women’s team captain, Roberta Moretti Avery, she talks about her initial impressions of cricket.
When asked if she thought she made a good first impression, the 36-year-old laughed.
“Nothing made sense to me; all I saw were these people in white dresses. And it felt as if it went on indefinitely.”
The game reminded her of “bats” or “taco,” a popular street game in Brazil.
According to legend, broomsticks were used as bats, and bottles were used as wickets when the game was invented by slaves in Brazil in the 19th century.
According to Moretti Avery, an energetic golfer who has been hooked to Cricket Brasil’s excitement and openness since she first arrived in the country a few years ago.
Cricket has been given a Brazilian twist by the country. Brazilian funk and samba are the music of choice for the female players during practice, as well as during pre-match celebrations on the field.
“Cricket was created in a unique way in this country. We’ve had a good time doing it, so why not? “says Moretti Avery, who has worked on the project.
Expanding one’s perspective
Pocos de Caldas now has more than 5,000 cricket players thanks to the community projects initiated in 2009.
With a goal of 30,000 members, Cricket Brasil intends to branch out into additional cities.
Some of them have achieved international acclaim.
It was a “miraculous” performance by Brazil’s 16-year-old all-rounder Laura Cardoso in the T20 World Cup qualifiers when she bowled a hat trick in the final over and helped her team win by one run against Canada, which made headlines across the world.
Until now, this had never been done in a women’s T20 international match.
Featherstone believes that Cardoso, a natural athlete with a physically compact frame, has the potential to become one of the world’s best players.
Now 17, the teen sensation is taking it all in her stride.
Oh my my, how did I get here? She adds with a chuckle as she stands by the city government’s donation to the national team’s training complex.
The ladies of Brazil are currently ranked 28th in the world in Twenty20 cricket, but they have big aspirations.
For the last five years, they’ve won four out of five South American titles.
Success also brings money from the International Cricket Council and other sources of financial support.
With an annual budget of $350,000, Cricket Brasil has the resources it needs for a trainee coach program, as well as the ability to send promising young players to university.
Cricket has had a profound impact on players like Lindsay Mariano, a 20-year-old from the Philippines.
Amid training for the national team’s African tour, she recalls, “Before I played, I didn’t even have a passport.
Cricket has taken me around the world, and I’m grateful for it.
