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A contribution by Merle Vorschulz for the project “What’s going on there?!” by students at h_da
Cricket has a long history. Yet women are still barely represented in the sport. For the team from TG 1875 Ziegelbusch, the first hurdle is finding a training ground.
The sun is high in the sky this Sunday morning in Darmstadt. The thermometer reading continues to climb, and the wild ducks that live in the Herrengarten park are making good use of the pond. Some strollers have brought parasols. Despite the sweltering summer weather, the Herrengarten is well-attended. And why not? After all, it's the site of the 47th Sports and Games Festival.
The sports and games festival has been held annually since 1979. The main sponsor is the company Merck. From taekwondo and historical fencing to quidditch, everything is represented. All the clubs from Darmstadt and the surrounding area are gathered in the park. Between various food options, they offer a glimpse into their sports. Among those present is the women's cricket team from TG 1875, based at the Ziegelbusch sports park.
How does cricket actually work?
Cricket is a team sport and a game of bat and ball. Each team should have eleven players. The playing field is usually an oval grass area with a diameter of 100 to 140 meters. In the center is the pitch, a 20-meter-long playing area. At both ends are the wickets, which consist of three upright posts and two short crossbars. This is where the bats are exchanged.
One team bowls, and these bowlers are the bowlers. The other team bats, and these batsmen are the batsmen. The batting team sends two batsmen into play at the start. The fielding team is at full strength. The batsmen's objective is to hit the ball away or force the opposing team into a fault to score runs. Once the ball is hit away, the two batsmen run back and forth between the wickets. The more often they complete the run, the more runs their team scores. The teams switch roles once ten of the eleven batsmen have been sent out of play. The team that is now batting must make up any runs already scored.
The sport can be traced back to the 16th century. It was first mentioned in England in 1597 under the name Kreckett. Through colonization, the sport then spread to India and the Caribbean. From there, it spread to Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. The rules of the sport were first written down in the mid-18th century.
The miniature version of the playing field, set up by TG 1875, is a popular attraction for visitors strolling through the Herrengarten. The small field sparks curiosity. Despite the heat, one of the boys seems reluctant to leave. His ice cream has already melted in his friend's care. Hitting balls is his priority.
Cricket as a women's sport
The young women are participating in the sports and games festival for the first time this year. Nupur K. is the team captain. The doctor is passionate about promoting the sport in Germany. "My husband plays, and my sons will start too. That's when the thought came to me, 'Okay, what do I do?' That's how it all began for me," she explains. Currently, her team from Ziegelbusch is still too small to compete independently. The women's team from Rüsselsheim faces the same issue. This season, the two teams can participate in the Bundesliga together. "We currently have six players. I hope we'll have a full team by next season," explains the Indian-born woman.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the sport was also played in an organized form in Germany. Initially, however, there were only men's teams. According to Nupur, women still find it difficult to find clubs that will let them train. Female players from all over Germany contact clubs in their area to get an opportunity to train. It's a difficult task. Many clubs decline the request due to the effort involved and their limited capacity.
Nupur explains: “If men don’t support us, we’re kind of left hanging. There isn’t just a mat on the pitch, like the one we’ve set up here. There are also heavy wooden boards that we women can’t set up on our own.” Nupur quickly realized, when she started playing cricket, that even as an experienced dancer, she still had room for improvement in terms of fitness. “I always thought I was fit. Through cricket, I’ve learned that there are many types of muscle soreness I’d never experienced before,” she says.
The team from Ziegelbusch has been training at the Cricket Club eV in Rüsselsheim since January of this year. The men's team also adjusted their training schedule to allow the women to play.
Player Huong B., wearing jersey number 10, adds: “In cricket, we have more weight to play with because of the equipment. Speed is also a factor.” She says that women often have fitness problems more than men, and this is also evident in cricket. The extra weight slows the players down. Muscle mass and endurance have to be built up first. “That can definitely be demotivating,” she says.
Success experiences as a motivator
Despite the challenges, the sport is very fulfilling for her. The feeling she gets in her arms when the ball is struck correctly is one of the defining moments in cricket for her. "That's when it clicked. I always aim to learn one new skill per year. With cricket, it feels like a hundred."
Huong also recounts her greatest success. In the team's first Bundesliga match, the still inexperienced group faced a team that included a national player. "I was really afraid we'd do terribly," says the young woman. In the end, the team didn't play badly at all. Deflecting a ball from the national player was a particularly special moment and motivated her even more to stick with the sport. "My husband was so proud," Huong says, beaming.
The team hopes to not only participate in competitions like the Bundesliga as Cricket Team Ziegelbusch, but also to promote the sport and gain more support from established clubs, making it easier for women to find training opportunities.
This article was created as part of the "Was da los" project – a student-run newsroom run by students of the Online Journalism program at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (h_da). DA.news supports the project and publishes selected articles on its platform. Further information and articles can be found here and at: www.was-da-los.de
