Girls Allowed

Wednesday

We remain in Rajbiraj in the Saptari district of Madhesh province. Having spent two full days of coaching at the Pabi Ground with pre and post school coaching sessions interspersed by Menstruation Cup matches (between the Rajbiraj Champs, Khadak Queens and the Sauranga Survivals), today we travelled out of Rajbiraj to run coaching sessions at two schools.

Having split into two teams, team 1 were dropped off at BSRJ School where they ran three separate sessions for 53 boys and 46 girls. In a tightly confined area, space was at a premium with Ali heroically managing a batting skill station on what turned out to be a thoroughfare for locals including one tractor bringing bricks to the school. Unperturbed, the sessions all went smoothly and we were visited by the local Mayor, his wife and two helpers in between sessions to see us at work. Impressed, the Mayor promised he would support continuation of cricket at the school by improving the school’s facilities, including building of nets and playing facilities at the ground.

The second team continued onto another location near Lahan to coach two schools. Having walked across some farmland to a nearby pitch, at first the Principal of the nearest school would not let any girls out to join in with our coaching. After some discussions, it was agreed that girls would be allowed to join in and a total of 28 girls then arrived. After a good session with great enthusiasm from the girls especially, the team reunited for lunch at the Everest roadside restaurant. All enjoyed authentic Dal Bhat served on a traditional Thali. It turns out that two of the Khadak Queens also live here and were delighted to see us.

Returning to Rajbiraj, the team met up with local umpires for a masterclass given by our very own Yolanda (ECB Level 3 Umpire) followed by a session for coaches given by Dipendra Chaudhury, ICC Level 2 Coach Educator and national selector.

Following a busy day the team debrief included a special presentation to CWB’s very own Miss Sara Begg for her recent ECB award for outstanding contribution and services to coaching development in Yorkshire – and of course Nepal. The team then made a tactical return to Khan’s Kitchen for some scrumptious food with excellent customer service. It is now our no.1 restaurant in Rajbiraj.

Thursday

A slow start to the day commenced with some excellent egg rolls kindly provided by Khan’s Kitchen again, who went out of their way to provide us with breakfast, the hotel being unable to on account of a large wedding. The team then travelled to two local schools splitting again into two teams.

Team 1 were welcomed at Tope Shree Public Higher Secondary School by an initial 260 girls from both that school and a nearby private school. Sub team leader Yolanda quickly put into place a cunning plan to split the group in half and deliver an off the cuff session of umpire signals and quite possibly the largest game of over and under for 130 girls, there being only a couple of cones left in the kit bag to use. After two sessions for all 260 girls a further session for 120 boys was delivered resulting in 380 children receiving important messages on gender equality and the need for much greater inclusion of girls in cricket at all levels.

Team 2 travelled to a high school in Bhardaha, close to the Koshi barrage, and engaged 60 boys and 70 girls insisting again that more girls were included despite being initially advised that ‘girls have exams’. After further discussion the girls were allowed to participate and thoroughly enjoyed it with many of them being first time players and rapid fire bringing lots of laughter.

After reuniting, the team returned to Rajbiraj for some much needed lunch at our second favourite eatery, Mamacha, with more egg rolls and coffee eagerly devoured. As the team travelled to Lahan for an overnight stay (enforced by the wedding in our Rajbiraj hotel), we reflected on our time over the past four days. A key achievement we felt was coaching as many girls as boys in large part to our insistence that each coaching session must include as many girls as boys – because girls are allowed to play cricket too.