I am Dr. Samara Afzal, an avid cricket fan who has previously represented Warwickshire CCC. Currently, I play for Walmley CC and I am also a level 1 coach. My journey into cricket has been an interesting one and certainly one that has helped shape my character too.
As a child growing up in an inner-city deprived area I faced many challenges, which moulded my character. My parents typically owned a ‘corner shop’ so the children at school would mock me for that as well as for my background. Many a time I walked in the playground and someone would whisper racial slurs under their breath. When we went on holiday to Pakistan I would be seen as a foreigner. This led to a strange identity crisis. However, one thing that united us as a family and a community was our love for Cricket. Many times, my father and his friends would gather at our house to watch Pakistan play. I would see the passion in his eyes and it was the only time I would see the tiredness disappear from his face after the long hours he worked. I then naturally developed an interest in cricket and my father would take me to play along with his friends and my other male relatives when time allowed. I looked forward to this most weekends as it was the much-needed respite from the weekly stress I had encountered at school. There then came a time however when I reached puberty and the relatives told my father it was no longer appropriate for me to be playing with the men. I was distraught, my brother could continue to play, ‘it’s not my fault I was born a girl’ I said to my father. These words got to him. He happened to find a girls-only club but it was some 30 miles away, being Wolverhampton CC. This itself was a challenge, I was the only Asian face in a group of well-spoken, mainly privately educated girls. Eventually, I found my feet and through cricket developed the confidence to play with them. After a short while, I found a club closer to home to play for and then successfully trialed for Warwickshire CCC and represented them for a year. University then took priority but I continued to play for my university and for Walmley CC. I felt at this stage with university life and cricketing experiences that there was a huge benefit in my personal development which helped increase my confidence, self-esteem, communication, and teamwork skills. I’m confident that these essential life skills have been imperative in the development of my career as a Doctor too.
In early 2018 I was approached by Gulfraz from the Club Cricket Conference and Chairman of the NACC as they were in the process of delivering portable defibrillators to the South Asian Cricketing Community with an initiative that was supported by the ECB and the Club Cricket Charity led by Robbie Book. Gulfraz was aware of my passion for cricket and invited myself and a colleague to help deliver training to the recipients of these defibrillators from the South Asian Cricketing Community in our region of Birmingham, which was hosted kindly by Warwickshire CB at Edgbaston.
In June 2019 and with my NACC association I was kindly invited, along with other South Asian female cricketers to partake in the inaugural match against the prestigious MCC women’s team at Walmley CC. This was a brilliant experience and also a huge honour as many of us have never had a chance to play in a game of such a profile. We finally had the opportunity where many of us, all from similar backgrounds and struggles were able to unite and play the sport we were all passionate about.
It was also during this time we discussed the importance of South Asian females being involved in sport. Why is that you ask me? Well firstly South Asians have a higher prevalence of Diabetes ( 6 times more common than their white counterparts) and Heart disease is up to 50% times more common. Both of these conditions cause premature death along with a huge burden on the National Health Service, financially. We know one of the key components in controlling Diabetes and heart disease is a physical activity and weight loss. We also know that certain segments of the South Asian communities (such as my patient cohort) are not likely to engage in any form of physical activity which is not in line with their cultural values such as dancing, or anything that involves mixing with the opposite gender. We, therefore, sat down, and collectively we came up with the initiative of taking cricket in a safe, female-only environment to my South Asian patients. We knew that if there is one thing that is common to this community, then that is the love of cricket. Most of these mums and their daughters had never played a sport in their life and many were from underprivileged backgrounds and had gone through various cultural, psychological, and physical trauma. My surgery being an inner-city practice, meant there was a high disease burden, and many of these women were unhealthy with diabetes, heart disease, and obesity and subsequently this had a knock-on effect on younger female members of their family. Most of these households did not engage in the usual health programmes offered through the surgery due to language and cultural barriers. I understood this cohort of mums and daughters would feel comfortable with engaging in our cricketing programme as I had been their trusted GP for the last 3 years and of course they all knew about cricket and shared a passion for the game. The initial plan was to get these women active in order to control their health issues which would be important to prevent them from premature death.
With the cricketing initiative we had planned, the aim was to help them lose weight over an 8 week period and get them exercising and aiming to live a healthier lifestyle with nutritional advice supporting. We checked their BMI, weights, and blood pressure at the initial session. Some of these mums and daughters had their BMI’s checked for the first time and were surprised to hear they were overweight. I was able to address this with them individually as well as to educate them as a group about how to keep themselves healthy and of normal weight. After the 8-week course of cricketing activities, we then measured their weight at the end of the 8-week programme and to my satisfaction, the majority had lost a few pounds by the end of the course, mainly as it was the first time many of these and particularly the older women had physical activity. This for me was an outstanding result as I know how hard it is for my patients to lose weight, especially with a typical South Asian diet.
Our achievements however were far beyond this. Not only did we get these mums and daughters who were between the ages of 7 and 65 doing an hour of exercise every week and improve their fitness but I also saw a dramatic change in their mental well-being and body language. From being timid at the first session to loudly screaming and shouting ‘howzat’, ‘six, ‘four’ etc by the end I could see their confidence and self-esteem had jumped in leaps and bounds. I felt this was the first time the mums and daughter could bond together and have something in common, which came from playing cricket.
An essential part of this was the help and support from Warwickshire Cricket Boards Mina Zahoor who is also a qualified coach and had also played in the NACC vs MCC game. Mina also absolutely believed in this initiative, gave up her personal time, and made a vital contribution to the programme in training these mums and daughters in a safe and fun environment. As a professional cricketer herself Mina wanted to make a difference in the lives of these mums and daughters through cricket. Mina being culturally aware developed a fantastic rapport with these mums and daughters and was able to keep them engaged with active energy-filled sessions. This highlights the importance of having female coaches who have the cultural understanding and direct connectivity that allowed this programme to be so successful. It is important to highlight in the spirit of working with key cricketing stakeholders, we received fantastic support from Worcestershire CB too.
Another hugely positive aspect of these sessions was that we were lucky to have Kay Baig, who is a level 2 cricket coach as well as a mindset coach, and delivered a talk at one of our sessions. This was an eye-opener for the mums and daughters and most welcome addition to our programme. What was pretty evident early on was that the mums and daughters had no clear action plan for the future and Kay’s session got them all brainstorming and subsequently thinking out of the box. They all felt confident and inspired in talking and sharing their current roles and future aspirations with each other. I felt that many of us take these opportunities for granted but unfortunately, not everyone has the same access to resources available to them in order to develop a more active lifestyle. Unfortunately, some aspects of the South Asian community still lag behind in sports and education and also miss out on the positives that sports and education can bring to enhance a person as it was in my case.
A heartening part for me was that I had seen many of these mums and daughters previously telling me, as their GP, about their challenges and how they had been unable to cope with these but now I saw confident women with smiles on their faces who weren’t afraid to call out myself or Mina if they felt they weren’t out or had made a single and were incorrectly given run out. The women bonded well with each other with many exchanging numbers and thus opening their social circles which was positive in developing a good supportive network that is essential for mental well-being.
At the end of the 8-week pilot programme the mums and daughters were disappointed to see the sessions coming to an end as they had all had a positive mental and physical experience by playing cricket. They also praised Mina for the way she conducted her sessions and emphasised that had it not been someone they knew and trusted they probably wouldn’t have engaged in these sessions. They were very keen to now step outdoors however unfortunately due to the COVID 19 pandemic things are on hold.
Not only have these sessions proved to be a game-changer in getting these mums and daughters to be physically active and playing a sport for the first time but it has done wonders for their mental well-being too. I would now love to see this type of programme all over the country and use cricket as a catalyst in order to bring a much-needed change in the physical and mental wellbeing of South Asian women. In the long run, this would hopefully lead to a reduction in diseases such as diabetes and heart disease and in return lead to reduced mortality in these patients, as well as a reduction in the burden on the NHS.
This program also demonstrated to me the important role the mother plays in the house, not just being the homemaker but playing a crucial role in the mental and physical well-being of their daughters. This in turn would be replicated in the next generation through cricket. Ultimately, through cricket, if we can make a change in the mental and physical well-being, it will increase their confidence, self-esteem and produce future female leaders in the household and in the communities.
From a cricketing point of view, we recognised some natural talents had also been discovered and there is a lesson here that through this programme nationally we can look to discover talented cricketers that may have the ability to play at county level just as I did. The positive difference being that now we are lucky to have organizations such as the NACC along with a good support network of talented individuals allowing mums and daughters to access these opportunities without the hurdles that I faced. With the proven success of this programme and working with key partners being County Boards, local community champions such as Mina and Kay, this can only have a greater impact thus bringing the cricketing family closer together.
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