Defying stereotypes, Brazil is emerging as a force in cricket, especially the women’s national team, which was awarded a professional contract in 2020 – making the country the first country in the world to take its women’s team ahead of men’s became.
Defying stereotypes, Brazil is emerging as a force in cricket, especially the women’s national team, which was awarded a professional contract in 2020 – making the country the first country in the world to take its women’s team ahead of men’s became.
On a concrete playground in a poor mountainous region of Brazil, excited children are chasing a ball at high speed.
But in an unusual sight for a football-crazy nation, they are indifferent to the nearby goalposts, instead swinging the cricket bat and fielding drives.
Welcome to Pocos de Caldas, a city of 170,000 people, the capital of a peculiar quest to turn the land of Pele and Neymar into a spirited cricket nation.
pioneer women
Defying stereotypes, Brazil is emerging as a force in cricket, especially the women’s national team, who were awarded professional contracts in 2020 – making the country the first country in the world to put its women’s team ahead of men’s became.
Most players have learned the game from 63 community youth programs run by the Cricket Brasil organization, headed by former professional cricketer Matt Featherstone, an Englishman who married a Brazilian and moved here two decades ago.
“My wife thinks I’m crazy for trying to make Brazilians play cricket,” jokes Featherstone, 51, a strapping player with infectious enthusiasm.
But their charisma and community spirit has transformed Pocos de Caldas, a small spa hub nestled in the green mountains of southeastern coffee country, which Mayor Sergio Azevedo claims is “the only city in Brazil with more kids cricket than football.” play.”
cricket, samba style
When Featherstone moved to Brazil in 2000, he tried to spread his love for cricket in private schools, but he soon realized that he was interested in rugby, hockey, rowing and “everything else you can imagine”. were competing against, he says.
But in poorer neighborhoods, where the options were “football or soccer,” they found families excited for a new sporting program.
Unlike in England, where cricket is sometimes viewed as a sport for the rich, “here we have a blank piece of paper to invent cricket culture as we wish,” he says. Huh.
first impression of cricket
Women’s team captain Roberta Moretti Avery recalled her first reaction after watching cricket on TV.
“It wasn’t the best impression,” laughs the 36-year-old. “I didn’t understand it, I saw all these people dressed in white. And it seemed like it would go on forever.”
But she noticed that the game was similar to the Brazilian street game she loved, known as “bats” or “tacos”.
The story goes that Brazilian slaves invented the game, playing with brooms for the bat and bottles for the wickets, after seeing the cricket played by the Brits to build the Brazilian railroads in the 19th century.
The enthusiasm and openness in Cricket Brasil won him over, says Moretti Avery, a small dynamo with a wide grin and an average swing honed from playing golf.
Brazil has put its stamp on cricket. The women’s team plays Brazilian funk in practice, plays samba before matches, and prefers loud parties to tea and cucumber sandwiches in the field.
“The way cricket was developed here was really good. We’ve made it fun,” says Moretti Avery.
Pocos de Caldas. explosion of talent in
Thanks to community projects started in 2009, Pocos de Caldas has more than 5,000 cricket players. Cricket Brazil wants to reach 30,000 and expand to other cities. Some are winning international recognition.
In October 2021, 16-year-old all-rounder, Laura Cardoso, made headlines around the world with what one player called a “miraculous” performance, bowling a hat-trick as Brazil took five wickets in six balls in the final over. Dramatic one-run victory over Canada in the T20 World Cup Qualifier.
This was a feat never achieved in a women’s T20 International.
Featherstone says that after playing professionally in Dubai, Cardoso, a natural athlete with a mighty compact physique, could become one of the top players in the world.
The young phenom, now 17 years old, takes it all in stride. “Oh my god, what did I do to get here?” She says with a laugh near the national team’s training center donated by the city government.
T20 Rankings and Performances
The Brazilian women are currently ranked 28th in the T20 International rankings and are aiming high. He has won four of the last five South American championships. And with success receives cash from the International Cricket Council and sponsors.
Cricket Brasil’s annual budget has grown from about $5,000 a decade ago to $350,000, enabling the organization to launch an apprentice coach program and send promising talent to the university.
Cricket has been a life changer for players like 20-year-old Lindsay Mariano. “Before playing, I didn’t even have a passport,” she says on a break from training for the national team’s upcoming tour of Africa.
“Now, I have traveled the world thanks to cricket.”