This week, I am in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, which last week was accorded the unwanted title of the world’s most polluted city. It is an unlikely setting for an international six-a-side cricket tournament.
Yet, the competition is in its 33rd year. The last three years were lost to the coronavirus pandemic, so it was with some relief that many of the participants, who only meet each other at the event, have gathered together.
This is an amateur tournament, teams paying for the opportunity to take part. In previous years, retired former international players have played. They came mainly from Australia, England, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand, adding quality to the playing side and anecdotes to the perpetual conversations.
The team with which I have played for almost 20 years meet together only at this competition. The average age of players in most teams has risen, so it is always encouraging to welcome new teams.
There is a handful of Pakistanis who live and work in Chiang Mai. The pandemic years have been tough for their businesses. This year their numbers have been supplemented by a team who have travelled from Pakistan. Its members originate mainly from Islamabad.
According to my memory, there has been only one other team from Pakistan which has participated previously in the sixes. They told me of the difficulty of raising funds, obtaining visas, and the challenges of coordinating the process with flight bookings.
Hence, it was with a heightened level of interest that I approached the members of this new team, to find out what had motivated them to join the event, what their cricketing backgrounds were, and how the team had been formed. A fascinating story unfolded.
Firstly, they are guided by the principles of having fun, respecting the game, and putting in maximum effort. These are manifest in being what they believe to be the only mixed-gender team in Pakistan, certainly at amateur level. In addition, they seek members irrespective of socio-economic and religious background.
Secondly, membership is largely by recommendation. Potential members are given guest status from which they may progress to full-member status once their alignment with the team’s principles have been established.
Over the last three years, the team, known as the Islamabad Doosras, has grown in Pakistan. Matches have been played away from the capital, in Peshawar and Lahore.
The trip to Thailand is the first international venture, with the team’s name being shortened to the Doosras, the description given to a particular type of spin delivery in cricket.
It is commonly accepted that the doosra originated in Pakistan, relatively recently. An off-spin bowler aims to deliver a ball which turns from the off-side toward the leg side of a right-handed batter. In delivering a doosra the bowler is seeking to make the ball turn toward the offside to the surprise of the batter. In Hindi/Urdu, doosra means the second or other one.
The name was chosen to reflect a different, not entirely conventional, approach. The Doosras were proud to tell me of the moment when a female player, Huda Rizwan, claimed the first ever wicket by a woman for the team.
Another unconventional approach has been taken toward the funding of the tour.
In a belief that those who make up the touring party should be selected irrespective of the ability to pay, there has been an element of cross-subsidization. Players with a greater ability to afford the trip are supporting those who would not be able to make the trip on their own. Sponsorship was obtained from a company, Shaping the Future, which is aligned with the club’s principles and focused on human development.
Currently, the team has a domestic squad of around 20 players, of whom 15 are active players. The ambition is to provide more opportunities for women to play and a goal was expressed to send a women’s team to the Chiang Mai Sixes in the future. In this year’s sixes, four of the 28 teams are comprised of women.
The Doosras’ developmental goal is influenced by the number of matches which the team can play each year. Depending on the incidence of the rains, the aim is to play three or four matches per month between November and March if suitable venues can be booked.
It was clear from the opening matches that the Doosras team assembled for this tournament comprises talented players, who ensured their qualification for the cup section, the highest level.
The players have different cricketing backgrounds. One of them, Umer Javaid, has played first-class cricket in Pakistan and has a level two coaching badge. Muhammad Fayyaz is the oldest member of the club and, apparently, the fittest member of the squad. Hisham Azhar, has been a long-term guest member but recently become a full member, having played against the Doosras for several years.
Zubair Ahmed is originally from Karachi and has worked on covering stories of the game, while, for Rafi Romi, who has played competitive cricket in Pakistan, the trip is the first time that he has ever travelled on a plane. Usman Javaid, who works with the World Bank as a gender specialist, swam competitively for 17 years and represented Pakistan. He is the founder of the team and a key architect of its principles, philosophies, and structure.
In the tent next to the Doosras was a team based in Kolkata, India. Bonds between the two squads have been forged quicky, making a mockery of the tensions which exist between their respective cricketing boards.
At a time when cricket’s image, at least in the UK, is suffering as a result of the Azeem Rafiq racism case, the Chiang Mai Sixes provides an example of how the game can bring together people of different abilities, genders, races, and socio-economic backgrounds in harmony.
This is even more relevant when the emphasis is on having fun, respecting the game, and putting in maximum effort.