PAKISTAN: Boost to women’s cricket

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

LAHORE, 23 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have launched a ground breaking campaign using cricket to focus on girls' right to education and sports.

UNICEF representative in Pakistan, Omar Ahmed Abdi and PCB chairman Shahryar Muhammad Khan signed the agreement on Thursday in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, as part of the regional "Fair Play for Girls" initiative.

"The campaign across South Asia is a creative response to one of the biggest development challenges facing the region. The focus is on how to get more girls into schools and keep them there while they receive quality education," said Abdi in his speech.

The programme in Pakistan is aimed at helping young women to start playing cricket, in the context of school sports. Cartoon film character Meena, who is already familiar to the Pakistani audience as a role model for girls, will lead the campaign. She will be seen playing cricket in videos, on posters and in leaflets, all reaching out to the younger audience.

PCB chairman Shahryar Khan told reporters that the board had joined hands with UNICEF to help young Pakistani women to participate in the sport, which is very popular amongst men and boys across the region.

"I believe cricket is an ennobling sport and can help bring about great change. It transcends the barriers of difference and the divisions of culture, language and race. Cricket buttresses fraternity, fair play and equality," he said.

Women's cricket was first introduced to Pakistan in 1996 by Shaiza Khan and Sharmeen Khan, two women who studied in England and had played for Middlesex women's team. They were amongst the first female members of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 2000, when the club allowed women to join for the first time in the club's 212-year history.

The PCB organised its first National Women's Cricket Championship earlier this year. Teams from Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Multan, Quetta, Hyderabad, Peshawar and Faisalabad took part. The tournament was seen as a key development in female participation in sport, as women from even the most conservative parts of the country took part and displayed their skills on the field.

Under the UNICEF-PCB campaign, two women's teams will play an exhibition match on 14 September. An invited crowd of 20,000 youth and family members will watch the 30-over match.

The event is designed to explore the potential of girls and promote girls' education and the right to play women's cricket. "Our main focus is on two things. First the game is being played in every part of the country today in which it has become an obsession. We need to channel it and secondly we need to make women's cricket a success," said Shahryar Khan.

The PCB formed a women's section last year to improve the standard of women's cricket in Pakistan, in accordance with International Cricket Council (ICC) guidelines. The PCB's women's section chairperson, Dr Mira Phailbus, who attended the signing ceremony, said she saw the event as promoting girls' participation in education and sports.

[ENDS]