Raising standards in Rajbiraj

Sitting at the back of the officials tent on day 2 of the Dignified Menstruation Triseries here in Rajbiraj, I am feeling extraordinarily proud of the progress that has already been made in developing girls cricket here in Saptari District, over the last 12 months.

Almost exactly one year ago I was invited by our collaborators from Sabal Nepal to attend the inaugural Dignified Menstruation Cup. A fixture between Saptari and Siraha districts, the players showed great spirit and enthusiasm in the game but the skills and game knowledge on display were still largely rudimentary. For many of the girls, it was their first ever game of cricket and it showed, with plenty of the daft run outs and bent elbow bowling that will have marked many of our own first games of cricket.

Fast forward one year, and rather than 2 teams there are now 5 teams competing – three teams here in Saptari district for the triangular series, and two teams in a bilateral series in Siraha district which represents new ground for the Cricket for Equality project.

The step up in standard for the Rajbiraj team in Saptari in particular has been spectacular. As well as a half century by Sakshi Yadav – who has always shown exceptional potential – there were solid contributions from all members of the top order including Sakshi Dev, who first picked up a bat 2 years ago and now combines her studies with training, coaching alongside head coach Dhamendra Chaudhary, and supporting her fellow students. 

We knew Sakshi Dev was destined for a leadership role from the very start of our time here in Rajbiraj – on the first camp we held here less than 2 years ago she was immediately helping her peers once she understood the activity. We are so lucky to have great female leaders like this who can be role models for the girls coming up through the programme!

The next challenge is to replicate the success of regular coaching here in Rajbiraj into three additional Hubs in Saptari district, plus two Hubs in Siraha district. With two members of the Cricket Changemakers team picked out as assistant coaches in Saptari we already have those vital female role models in place to motivate, inspire, and reassure parents that cricket is a safe place for their girls to train. Watch this space as we expect to see even greater improvements in skill and game knowledge over the next 12 months.

Engaging boys in action to challenge restrictive gender norms

As well as the girls matches, our partners Sabal Nepal and Saptari Cricket Association have arrange pre- and post- match training camps for boys and girls from local schools. While a few girls have attended these camps the vast majority of attendees have been boys. 

We will be working hard to engage schools to encourage them to release girls to attend in future projects. In the meantime we have taken the opportunity to engage these teenage boys in discussions about how gender inequality negatively affects girls and their ability to participate in community activities like cricket, and what positive action they can take to make cricket more gender equal.

In the first session, we asked boys to tell us what they think the reasons were for girls not attending the camp. Initially, the answers were as striking as they were frustrating: “they are not interested”, or “they are too weak to play”. Luckily, the small gaggle of girls who were in attendance were able to dissuade them of that notion – when we asked them if that was true, they loudly shouted “NO!”.

We were then able to get to the heart of the matter – lack of opportunity, unfair distribution of household chores, teasing of boys, and parents not allowing girls to play were all identified as true reasons for the lack of girls. We then asked boys to come up with positive action they could take to redress the balance, including advocating for girls right to play, encouraging girls, and helping with the household chores (this was probably the least popular of the suggestions – no one likes to do the dishes!).

Over the following two days we produced illustrated flash cards to facilitate further discussion on this topic, reinforcing key messages with repeat attendees and engaging new players who joined the sessions. These discussions were great and made all the more powerful by the delivery of these messages by Dipendra Chaudhary, a highly respected Level 3 coach involved in the Nepal senior sides. He was an excellent role model for the boys in attendance, and also gave plenty of time to the girls to develop their game craft in particular.

Overall, I am so excited to see what comes next in this powerful collaboration between CWB, the MCC Foundation, Sabal Nepal and Saptari and Siraha Cricket Associations. The future for girls cricket in this part of Madhesh Province is bright!