Cricket in Vanuatu

There are 17 players on the pitch, but the umpire doesn't bat an eyelid. Standing on the tropical outfield of a desert island, the fielders chatter in French while four batsmen convene for a chat about tactics. You could be forgiven for thinking that you've fallen through the looking glass. In reality, this is Éfate, the largest of the islands of Vanuatu.

Vanuatu has known about cricket since the turn of the 20th century, when British colonial administrators needed something to do to while away boring hours in this island paradise which lies 1,000 miles off Australia's north-east coast, and was known as the New Hebrides before independence in 1980. But while their national association has been encouraging the development of cricket among the republic's children, there is competition from an imported version of the game which has awoken interest in a quite unexpected quarter.

It is known as Traditional Cricket, it has found a niche among the islands' women. "Traditional Cricket appeals to older women, often in their 50s," says Betty Essaou, President of Women's Cricket in Vanuatu. "Games like basketball, volleyball and netball, which are played in the town, are more popular with the young girls. But the older women who stay in their villages still want to have a game to play."

Traditional Cricket was introduced to the islands in 1997 during an ambassadorial visit from the Ministry of Sports of New Caledonia, Vanuatu's neighbour. New Caledonia is French-speaking, but that does not seem to matter. "Their president of cricket introduced the game here because they have played it for a long time and they wanted it to be more widely known," says Essaou. Moreover, New Caledonia was anxious to have someone to play Tests against.

But as the New Caledonians travelled through the villages spreading the message, they made little impact on the men. It was the women who proved eager to learn. The game now has more than 100 senior players in Vanuatu and the New Caledonians can now play Traditional Cricket Tests - although it may be some time before the pupil is on equal footing with her master.

Earlier this year the best players from Vanuatu took on a New Caledonian XIII and suffered a humbling defeat.

Like Bislama, the national language, Traditional Cricket is a pidgin version of the English original with many bizarre native variants. Bats are long and carved from local materials such as Burao wood - willow trees being rare in the 30º heat. The ball is made of the sap of the banyan tree and is considerably lighter than your average Reader. But most astonishing to the purist is the field setting.

"We have 13 players on each side, and the game is not over until every one of them is out," explains Essaou. "There are no limited-overs matches. In fact, there aren't any overs. The ball is bowled from whichever end the fielder throws to. Bowlers carry on until the coach has had enough of them." The delivery is from neither over nor around the wicket. It comes from directly above the stumps with the bowler in a standing position.

Four reserve players are included on the scorecard, and they don't just linger on the bench. "We have two batsmen and two runners," says Essaou. "If players want to run themselves they can, but normally we each take a runner." The potential for chaos sounds unlimited, but Essaou maintains that discipline is good and more wickets fall to catches than throw-downs. This is, perhaps, not surprising in tropical outfields where a full-blooded drive along the ground is soon smothered in a thick floor of grass.

A club structure has sprung up, along with a league competition that pits each of its seven clubs against each other home and away. The season normally extends from March to November, and the players accommodate the game to the climate by batting on in rainstorms that would drive Dickie Bird to tears. A busy sporting year in Vanuatu meant that the deciding game between top teams, Isira Blackbird and Orion, was not played until late December, when a close-fought battle fell eventually in Blackbird's favour.

Betty Essaou wants to see Traditional Cricket grow alongside the orthodox version. She organised a demonstration match as part of Vanuatu's national games in 2001 to raise its profile and hopes that "maybe, in the coming years, men will play too." Until then, we wish it happiness in obscurity.