Navigating pigs and goats as they practice on a dusty paddock, a group of young East Timorese are hoping to copy the fairy-tale rise of Afghanistan by making it Asia’s latest emerging cricket nation.
In the nation that only gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, the manicured pitches of Lord’s are a world away for aspiring cricketer Juvelino Mique “Micky” Rama Pinto, 16.
His 14-year-old batting partner, Joana Gonsalves Borges, has seen cricket on TV and is excited by “watching big sixes and wickets being taken.”
Photo: AFP / Timor Leste Cricket Association
The vision to turn soccer-obsessed East Timor onto cricket originated with Mark Young, who played at league level in Lancashire and Gloucestershire before emigrating to New Zealand in 1997.
Young and a Pakistani colleague, Mohammed Tayyeb Javed, say that East Timor can use cricket as part of its revival just like Afghanistan, whose players learned the game in refugee camps, but have risen to the elite Test level.
East Timor is still suffering the effects of a violent, decades-long independence struggle that destroyed infrastructure.
With high levels of poverty, one of the world’s worst rates of malnourishment and 60 percent of its 1.3 million population under the age of 24, there is an urgent need for new opportunities for young Timorese.
Young and his partner, Lara, came to East Timor hoping to help the country after first working in India, where “the poverty there left a big impression on us.”
Through the Volunteer Service Abroad aid agency, Young was placed in East Timor as an adviser to a government organization tasked with diversifying the economy.
Walking to work one morning in Dili, Young noticed a group of kids playing cricket with homemade bats and stumps.
They had been taught the basics by Tayyeb, who lived in Dili with his Timorese wife Mariana Dias Ximenes — a marathon runner who represented the nation at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“I contacted him and we are now working together to develop cricket in Timor,” Young said. “We now have over 100 young Timorese playing the game, 40 percent female.”
“We have exciting plans to take a representative team to Bali in April 2019 and one day be the newest ICC [International Cricket Council] nation in Asia,” he said.
Every Sunday, a group of excited teenagers pack the back of a small truck in the city of Ermera for the one-hour journey to practice at a makeshift cricket field in Dili, the capital.
In addition to the scores already playing, Young estimates there would be at least 100 more people involved if he had sufficient equipment.
“Cricket is giving the young Timorese a sense of purpose in a society where there is much poverty and many people struggle with day-to-day living,” Young said.
The group played their first tournament in December last year with four teams, and were coverage by national media.
“They were interviewed afterward and felt really special. A lot of tears of joy,” Young said.
A national body — Federacao de Criquete East Timor — has been established with a strategic plan that talks of “young Timorese people using cricket to grow and fulfill their potential.”
The next step is to raise enough money to send a team to the Bali Sixes tournament and to start a home league of four teams who would play each other on a regular basis.
ICC general manager of development William Glenwright is closely watching the “great strides” taken in East Timor.
“Cricket can be a vehicle for change and have a positive impact on people’s lives,” he said. “This is also particularly true in East Timor and we are excited to see the developments in the coming months.”
Young is using his contacts in New Zealand and a public fundraising campaign to secure equipment and a portable pitch, which he believes would make a massive difference to the young players’ skills.
Micky is already dreaming about playing for East Timor.
“I want to have the opportunity to play for my country, which would make my country very proud,” he said.
Joana said she does not know much about world cricket yet, but added: “I like to try to practice most days. I’ve never been outside East Timor, but I want to play cricket for East Timor one day.”
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