Bend it like Salma Bi

Writing in the Guardian, Huma Qureshi introduces us to player and coach Salma Bi. Pakistan-born Bi, who has been recruiting teenage girls and young women from Birmingham's Asian community into her weekly coaching sessions and has played on a men’s team, is determined to see more British-Asian girls play the game.

Twelve young women turn up to Bi's weekly sessions. It is just about enough to put a team together, but she is constantly looking for more girls to join. “The youngest in my coaching session is 14, the oldest is 33. Some are married, some have kids, but most have never played cricket before, though they know the game from watching it at home, in the way Pakistani families do…”

Bi understands how difficult it is to convince [Asian] parents to let their daughters play – last year, she convinced a men's team to take her on as their only female player, but did not tell her family. “I knew my dad wouldn't approve … I asked to join the team because I wanted to set myself a challenge. At the beginning, I could tell the other guys on the team didn't take me seriously, but once I started to play, the men started to respect me and they treated me no differently. I ended up playing for them all season.”