Cricket is a powerful sport. Played and watched by millions across the world, it can unite communities, teach valuable skills and bring vast amounts of joy. This is the belief that anchors the work of Chance to Shine, who use the sport to inspire young people, and give them new opportunities to fulfil their potential.
Through their programmes, Chance to Shine’s main objective is not to find the next Ben Stokes or Tammy Beaumont, though this wouldn’t be the worst outcome, but to give children a home in a sport they may not have thought was for them, and to watch them thrive using the skills and confidence they develop.
For some of the young people reached by Chance to Shine, this resonates particularly deeply, as for them, the concept of ‘home’ has become more difficult to define. Children and young people forced to flee due to war or persecution experience more than their fair share of barriers in life. For them, sports like cricket can be a welcome embrace in a new place where everything feels unfamiliar.
Aside from the physical benefits it brings, cricket provides a common language, a new group of friends, and a sense of normalcy in otherwise uncertain circumstances. While lives are in limbo, the sense of purpose brought through regular training and activity can be invaluable. It helps refugees to rebuild their lives in their new home.
Chance to Shine welcomes young refugees and asylum seekers at many of its Street cricket clubs, and the free, weekly, year-round sessions are tailored to the needs of young cricketers.
In London, Brent Young Adults Street Club offers a sanctuary where young refugees, mainly from Afghanistan, find a sense of belonging through a shared love of cricket and through the community into which they are able to integrate as a result.
“Community building is really important for people who don’t have family in the UK, which is most of the people we work with,” says Laura, who works with Young Roots, an organisation which Chance to Shine collaborates with to ensure sessions meet the needs of those involved.
It’s difficult to emphasise enough the truth in Laura’s words. Without a support-network, life in a new place can be daunting, especially for children who have arrived in the UK without their parents.
But through cricket, there is hope. Bashir, who arrived alone from Afghanistan as a child, first attended a Chance to Shine Street session in Thetford in 2019. Through these sessions, and the help of coach Mick and other Street cricketers, Bashir has grown into a confident young man with a real community around him. He even mentors other young refugees, knowing all too well the importance of that support network for new arrivals.
Bashir reflects on the second chance that cricket gave him. “I lost my family. I don’t have anyone,” he says, “but cricket gave me some happiness. I know I have something here.”
It is these stories that really speak to the power of cricket. On World Refugee Day, it is important to reflect on the game we love so much and what it can do for those who have faced unimaginable hardship and loss. Cricket inspires, it unites, and it builds a family that anyone can be a part of.
