In the impoverished, once war-ravaged country, young people are taking up cricket in hopes of joining the big leagues as Afghanistan did.
DILI: Navigating pigs and goats as they practise on a dusty paddock, a group of young East Timorese are hoping to copy the fairy-tale rise of Afghanistan by making it as Asia’s latest emerging cricket nation.
Young and a Pakistani colleague, Muhammad Tayyeb Javed, argue 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. Through the Volunteer Service Abroad aid agency, Young was placed in East Timor as an adviser to a government organisation tasked with diversifying the economy.
“We have exciting plans to take a representative team to Bali in April 2019 and one day be the newest ICC nation in Asia,” he said. In addition to the scores already playing, Young estimates there would be at least 100 more youths involved if he had sufficient equipment. Young is using his contacts in New Zealand and a public fund-raising campaign to secure equipment and a portable pitch, which he believes will make a massive difference to the young players’ skills.
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