Island cricket in the sun

The Maldives are an isolated nation and is among the smallest countries in the world. Once, the islands provided the main source of cowrie shells, then used as currency throughout Asia and parts of the East African coast. It has also had strategic importance because of its location on the major marine routes of the Indian Ocean. Although it remained under nominal Portuguese, Dutch, and British influences after the sixteenth century, there is a record of officers of a British naval ship playing cricket on its shores in 1887.

Maldives remained a British protectorate till 1965. And like many other parts of the erstwhile Empire, the Maldivians too had inculcated a fancy for cricket. The game received a big boost when Maldivians started going to India, Sri Lanka and UK for studies where they were enticed and enchanted by its mass following.

In 1953, organised cricket started taking shape at the initiative of the then President Mohammad Amin (who himself was educated in Sri Lanka and England) when clubs were established. These efforts were augmented when members of the educated middle class returned home and joined the clubs. Being a small country, it started with four wards (clubs) in 1953. The two pioneers were Victory Sports and Manafuna clubs. The centre of cricket activities has always being Male.

The turning point in the fortunes of cricket came in 1980 when then President Maumoon Gayoom (who himself played a good level of the game) founded the Cricket Control Board of Maldives and appointed its office bearers. Further support came from the interest and initiative of Abdul Sattar, father of President Nausheed who was a keen cricket player and a patron of the game. He was also the financer of Victory Club.

Another breakthrough came in 1986 when President Maumoon made land available to the CCBM and an indoor cricket hall was built for locals to hone their skills. With the visit of clubs from India, Singapore and Sri Lank, and due to Maldivian clubs travelling to India and Sri Lanka cricket received a big boost. Visit by ex Test cricketers from India (Ajit Wadekar, Abid Ali) who came on short coaching stints to the island followed.

In 1990, the Musa Kalim school tournament was successfully organised and led to the induction and involvement of youngsters. Another important landmark was land reclamation for the ground of the CCBM at Male at the behest of President Gayoom.

To encourage and popularise the game, the CCBM started organising an inter-club level competition where 10 teams took part. There were six teams in Division I and four in Division 2 along with 15 schools. The club competition and school cricket ultimately proved to be the backbone of Maldivian cricket.

The recent Maldives Premier Cricket League T20 was won by Raees Office Ijuthimaaee Club (ROIC) with Lahiru Rashmika, Abdullah Shahid, Indika de Saram and Tushar Jashani, bagging the best batsman, bowler, wicket-keeper and most promising player awards respectively. The Twenty20 Maldives Championship was then annexed by New Star Cricket Club. ROIC and Sri Lankan Cricket Club Maldives jointly claimed the Maldives 50 overs cup.

In 1996, Maldive became a member of the Asian Cricket Council and was upgraded to affiliate status two years later. The ACC has been in the forefront in providing funding and infrastructure in terms of men and material (coaches, scorers, expertise in laying turf wickets and maintaining ground). Since it is a country of scattered islands, pooling of facilities is very difficult and lack of proper turf wicket is the biggest bane of cricket in Maldives.

Maldives cricket gained immensely from Hussain Afeef who played a good level of cricket while studying at Trinity College in Sri Lanka. He came back and captained the national team in the 80s and 98s. Afeef, a top entrepreneur has promoted country’s cricket by sponsoring the game in a big way. He is the leading light of tourism in the island.

With the separation of the ACC Trophy into Elite and Challenge divisions, following their performance at the the Maldives have competed in the Challenge divisions in both (when they came third) and 2010. The 2010 competition marked their first victory in an international tournament, defeating by one wicket in the final.

In 2010, the Maldives, along with the SAARC summit, also organised an emerging cricket nations tournament where Bhutan, Brunei, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea participated.

Over recent years much work has been done to strengthen the cricket development programme begun in 1999. A number of players have progressed from the youth development programme to club and ultimately, national cricket.

Unlike other affiliates of the ACC where expatriates are the majority of players in their national teams, Maldivians have indigenous cricketers. Still, cricket in Maldives does not have a distinct flavour of its own. The challenge is that it must project a new identity and flavour of its own.

“Our collective vision is to make cricket a leading competitive sport in the Maldives and achieve excellence on the international stage by creating an atmosphere for cricket to grow and prosper”, reads the vision document of the MCB.