Malawi cricket: Overcoming teething problems

Covid-19 was a blow for almost every business/vocation across the world, especially for projects still in infancy stages. Like cricket in Malawi.

The south-east African nation that managed to form an independent cricket team in 2003 when the International Cricket Council (ICC) recognised it alongside Zambia, faced teething problems, being banned between 2010 and 2014 and then after re-entry, when things were starting to fall in place, the aftermath of the pandemic.

“While in 2022, there have not been any disruptions so far, during the two-year hiatus prior, some cricket grounds were lost for good either through private member clubs opting to use their grounds to rent out for concerts or big weddings to make up for the shortfall of loss of revenue over the two years,” said Arjun Menon, the Operations Manager of Cricket Malawi.

“Or some private school facilities opting to not rent their grounds out anymore to the general public due to restrictions enforced during COVID. So the main challenge has been trying to have enough grounds to complete all the leagues we intend to stage in 2022,” added Menon, who is Singapore-born and has played for the south-east Asian nation.

Cricket, during colonial era, remained popular only among the European and Asian communities while the local, indigenous people stayed away. Pics Courtesy: Cricket Malawi

At the moment Cricket Malawi, that earlier sent its team as part of East Africa and later East and Central Africa, is planning to purchase its own facility to overcome the problem. This, Menon said, should be done this year alone so as to ensure there are no breaks in the nation’s league cricket.

The sport of cricket has a 100-year history in the nation. The first official (recorded) game in Nyasaland (Malawi’s former name), then a British protectorate, took place in 1920.

Cricket remained popular only among the European and Asian communities while the local, indigenous people stayed away.

Even as Nyasaland gained independence in 1964 – then known as Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland — and was renamed as Malawi, cricket continued at a decent level through mid-60s, 70s and 80s.

However, playing standards didn’t improve much and if the current administrators like Menon and Vivek Ganesan, the boss at Cricket Malawi, are to be believed, it only went down.

“Playing standards dropped over the years as popularity waned with the younger generation within these communities. With that, the established private members clubs, which were the hubs for cricket, gradually disbanded their cricket sections,” said Menon.

Malawi too has gradually started to increase representation of the native.Like many of the African countries (Zimbabwe as well as weaker countries like Nigeria) who have begun to include indigenous black African cricketers, which is the only way cricket can grow as their power in nation’s governance and establishment increases, Malawi too has gradually started to increase representation of the native.

The Cricket Academy, started by Ganesan in 2010, trains many young cricketers, including many indigenous ones, for future.

Ganesan, in his mid-40s now, came to Malawi as a three-month old in 1977 when his father shifted here from India. He has seen plenty of local cricket from up close and is responsible for introducing Menon to Malawi. Ganesan runs the Bakeman’s biscuit and snacks firm in the country.

“Cricket is elitist here. We are in the process of localising it. Unless people take it seriously, we won’t improve but we have seen improvement as majority of the players in our team are indigenous,” added Ganesan.

“I started the academy in 2010 with just 10 trainees. By the end of 2013, we had about a 1000. The focus was on the grassroots level,” he explained.

In 2014, the ICC contacted him and Malawi was re-enlisted in the ICC with the suspension revoked and funding resumed. Whatever fund ICC gives to these nations, it expects the home association to match it.

Like in many cricket bodies, Cricket Malawi too has suffered from factionalism, in the past. But things now appear to be back on track.

“Cricket has been newly introduced to the indigenous people in most of Africa. Kenya led the way before countries like Uganda followed. However, for consistency, you need role models,” added Ganesan.

At the moment, cricket can’t be pursued as a living. There are three hubs of cricket in the country and as many as 40 clubs. There are seven clubs in the premier league which is run on the pattern of the top T20 leagues of the world like the Indian Premier League (IPL).

There are a couple of reasons why cricket hasn’t yet become a mass sport among the locals.

Firstly, most of the current crop is not from traditional cricketing families, and the players would often be the first generation in their family to play it.

“While some learn and grasp the game very quickly, a large number are still finding their way with the sport,” said Menon.

The second reason is the lack of TV exposure.

“Many indigenous Malawians do not have access to cable TV only on which they can get to watch cricket being played at the highest level and get to watch and learn the nuances of the game. Many of these players would not have their own cricketing idols as compared to football where they see the best African players playing at the highest level,” added Menon.

The lack of clout of cricket administrators was clear during the pandemic. Due to the various waves of infections, the leagues had to be stopped midway.

“Most times we relied on the strong lobbies to the government from the sport of football to continue their seasons through which other sporting activities were allowed to resume. Most other sport do not have much clout with the government unlike football,” added Menon.

There are 130 players in each of men’s and women’s premier league. Rough estimate according to officials puts 35% local, indigenous Malawians playing cricket while the rest are Malawians of Asian ancestry, expatriate Asians mainly from India, followed by Pakistan and Sri Lanka. There are some Malawians of European ancestry as well as expatriate South Africans, Zimbabweans and the odd English or Australian.

The actual demographic break-up will be out only after 2022, when it will be officially collated.

While there are 12-13 grounds around the country, there are just four grounds with turf wickets. However, lack of local expertise has resulted in deterioration of these wickets over the years.

Help has been sought from Zimbabwe Cricket for expertise and training of local groundstaff. There is also a plan to install Africa’s first hybrid wicket which is being sourced from Australia. A hybrid wicket has synthetic as well as natural grass and requires less expertise for maintenance.

Sami Sohail is of Pakistani descent but has played all his cricket in Malawi.

Sami Sohail is one of their top internationals. He is of Pakistani descent but has played all his cricket in Malawi. Sohail feels cricket has grown in the country.

“For the past few years, cricket has grown rapidly in Malawi, especially with local guys getting involved a lot more. Some of the national players going abroad and playing quality competitive cricket is a really good thing for gaining experience,” he said.

But he added that if the country has to grow as a cricketing nation then the infrastructure needs to improve.

“I feel that there’s a difference in terms of the quality of cricket (with top nations). The infrastructure is better in the Test-playing nation so that makes it better for the country,” he added further.

“Having plenty of grounds makes it a lot easier. With that more games are being played, more players get a chance with cricket being played regularly.”

Donnex Kansonkho

Donnex Kansonkho is an indigenous player representing Malawi. He started playing cricket in 2011 when his older brother invited him to play at Ganesan’s The Cricket Academy, where free sessions were being given out.

He talked about difficulties and how things have improved a bit.

“It has been always difficult for us to keep on playing our game due to lack of grounds and access to equipment. We don’t have specific equipment for the senior or juniors. Instead, we just use what we have in that particular time. In the last two years though, this is becoming better as our funding has increased,” said Kansonkho.

“I think we need to start identifying those who have capability, group them and keep them together so that we can train the young stars together. We also need to improve how we handle our players in terms of following on them always and having high performance centres to develop them,” added Kansonkho.

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