Maasai Cricket Warriors bat for social change

Parched.

That is the first word that comes to mind when you espy Ilpolei Sports Centre. Even then, that word does not paint the whole picture, or fully describe the terrain leading to the fenced compound.

It is a word you can use because you are tired after a bumpy 48-kilometre ride on an earth road where wild animals have right of way — after turning off the Meru-Nanyuki highway.

Dusty. Rocky. Windy. Those adjectives might as well apply. Not for the sake of it, but because you experienced those conditions.

You lived through them for close to two hours, while asking yourself why in the name of cricket you are going up and down the gullies of Laikipia County which is surrounded by the never-ending Loldaiga Hills.

Yes. I was at Ilpolei because of cricket, the gentleman’s game which was once played by only by British aristocrats. But at Ilpolei, it is not your ordinary One Day International or Twenty20, but cricket that has inspired, and brought social change.

“We use cricket to create awareness about HIV and Aids and fight social ills such as crime,” says Francis “Chairman” Meshami. “We sensitise the elderly on the dangers of female genital mutilation and early marriages.”

For a start, the members of the local community speak fondly of the British and treat them as family because they played a major role in the construction of the Ilpolei Sports Centre on a portion of land that belongs to Ilpolei Group Ranch.

“This place was rough, rocky and rugged and the British Army Engineers levelled it for us,” offers Chairman. A sign post bares him out: Maasai Cricket Warriors Field. Built by 70 Gurkha Field Squadron.

“Rough, rocky and rugged,” the bare-chested Chairman says again, as if he is surprised by the flat field which is their playground. “It took them less than 24 hours to make it this good.”

The handiwork of the British can be seen and felt in and around the Ilpolei Sports Centre. The six-room club house was built by Australia Aid, a charity from Britain’s former penal colony.

“The BATUK bought us the furniture and the stove in the kitchen,” says Chairman, who is clad in traditional Maasai attire — red shuka, beads, sandals made from old tyres and reddened hair — but he does not have a sword, a spear and a club to complete a moran’s look.

The BATUK is British Army Training Unit in Kenya. Their base is about 46 kilometres from Ilpolei.

The British Army Engineers not only landscaped the training grounds, but also erected a barbed wire fence around it to at least keep wild animals at bay so the Warriors can peacefully conduct their warring activities on the crease, which is a maintenance-free cemented strip and not the grassy type that is seen on many cricketing grounds.

Ideally, the playing strip should be a grassy one. But the biggest challenge is water for keeping it green and a roller for keeping it in perfect shape.

They do not have a water pump, and above all, the place does not have electricity, thus they do not have an electric fence to keep animals away from their playground at night.

Chairman rarely receives visitors. On a normal day, he rarely sits in the club house.

Together with 20 or so other morans, he is always out in the open field, in the hot sun, performing exercises — and running, bowling, batting, keeping wickets, and doing everything else associated with the gentleman’s game.

A British scientist working with the Baboon Research Project introduced them to cricket in 2007.

They were fascinated. They fell in love with it. It did not take long before they formed a team. That is how Maasai Cricket Warriors was born.

A lot could have changed in their lives. For the better. But they have maintained their look. They play cricket in the traditional Maasai attire. Or moran regalia.

It is not really a case of the new and the old, but the new and novel. That is what makes them different. And fascinating to watch.

Even though this group of young morans figured long ago that they can fight and win many wars not with the sharpest spear, or the strongest club, but with a cricket bat, they are still warriors, and the world has recognised them as such.

Pepsi-International Cricket Council Development Programme [for] Africa has given Cricket Kenya two awards because of them: Best Spirit of Cricket Initiative and Photo of the Year.

England and Wales Cricket Board’s video producer Barney Douglas made a documentary film, Warriors, about them.

It has been screened at several international film festivals across Europe and the United States and it received rave reviews.

During our visit, the Warriors were preparing for a nine-day tour of Australia. They are still Down Under, enchanting and enthralling crowds in Sydney.

Just like during their previous tours of South Africa and England, they did not carry spears or clubs which they usually carry in Ilpolei to defend themselves against wild animals which roam the rugged landscape without any care in the wild.

“The wind helps us in avoiding wild animals, especially elephants,” says “Captain” Jonathan, a 30-year- old moran whose grasp of the English language is so good it is not easy to tell that he attended what they call a shepherd’s school.

“Elephants rely on their strong sense of smell, so to be safe, we determine the direction of the wind using dust, and then we walk against it.”

At Ilpolei, the morans not only walk against the wind.

At some point, they were going against the elders, and their culture by telling their people that FGM, and early marriage are killers.

These activities are killing them softly. Turning them not in to valiant men they are supposed to be, but killing their morale, and making their community weaker.

They met resistance. But they were determined to overcome it. And they think they have.

“We were not going to fight with our children,” says Memusi Lengai, an elder who ironically understands the benefits of this game which disrupted their lives, traditions and cultural practices.

“We realised that cricket was keeping them busy, away from crime and they were also getting a chance to travel and see the world.”

Two of his sons are in the team that is touring Australia, and which on Wednesday and Thursday displayed its cricketing skills at Sydney Cricket Ground.

This is the stadium where Australia beat India by 95 runs on March 26, 2015, and bundled them out of the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Dreams die at this ground. But the Warriors are just realising theirs.

During the week, they played against Sydney Swans XI and a team comprising Australian rugby union and rugby league players, as part of Primary Club’s Marathon Cricket fundraising event.

The matches involving the Warriors were the centerpieces of Primary Club’s annual Marathon Cricket event. Primary Club is a charity which raises funds for sporting and recreational facilities for the disabled.

Saturday, the Warriors went to Bowral, also in New South Wales, and a welcome function was held in their honour in the Bradman Museum and International Cricket Hall of Fame.

They will play two Twenty20 matches today, at the Bradman Oval.

“We are proud to host the Warriors for matches in Bowral to enrich and complement our work, using cricket as the vehicle to increase awareness with audiences across generations and cultures,” Bradman Foundation executive director Rina Hore, was quoted by Southern Highland News as saying.

“The Warriors use cricket to act as role models for their community and to draw attention to societal and cultural issues affecting their tribe.

“Their culture and community is under huge pressure from modern society, with poverty, the spread of HIV and traditional gender issues impacting heavily upon their society.

“They are also raising awareness of the threat to northern white rhinos that are on the brink of extinction and have firmly become ambassadors for wildlife conservation.”

In August last year, the Warriors were in South Africa for a series of friendly matches.

That was their second tour of South Africa. In 2012, they were in England, for the Last Man Stands World Championships. They played at Lord’s, the hallowed grounds of cricket.

For the elders and their sons and daughters, cricket is not a social sport any more. It is an educational tool. It brings the morans together, and they talk about issues that initially they could only be told about, or ordered to perform lest they should be cursed.

When they are together or when they travel, they learn and teach each other about the dangers of HIV and Aids, and the health risks of FGM.

“We figured that there was nothing wrong with marrying educated women, so we told the elders they should keep girls in school and stop early marriage,” Chairman says.

“We are the ones who are going to marry these girls and they do not have to undergo FGM to become women as we were once told

“We made a pact that we will be ready to marry those women who did not undergo FGM to prove a point.”

For them to succeed, they had to talk to the girls, and assure them that all would be well.

They started telling them about the benefits of education, and teaching them about the dangers of early marriage, and the cut.

They told the elders to do away with the practice. If anything, it was against the law. The government had also outlawed it.

“We listened to them and agreed that FGM as it was being performed exposed the girls to serious health risks as they were sharing either knives or razors,” says Siranga Naimodu, a community elder.

“If it was about turning the girls in to women, they could go through other alternative rites, like attending school and getting educated about life.”

Cricket is already part of their lives and the elders take time away from looking after their cattle, and go to Ilpolei grounds to watch the young morans bat, bowl, take wickets, make runs and take catches too.

In cricket, catches win matches. And the morans are winning. Their game has caught the attention of the elders.

“Even if there are no financial benefits, the results can be seen because the boys are off criminal activities,” says Muterian Putunoi.

There is financial gain. It may not be much, but the efforts of their sons, is not in vain. Almost half of the film’s proceeds is given back to the community.

“We plan to set up an HIV and Aids Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centre,” Chairman reveals. “That is our long term project.”

For the morans, the bats, the shin guards, the helmets, the arm guards, the groin protectors, the crotch guards, the forearm protectors are not just protective gear — they look at them philosophically.

“Our equipment act as metaphors for HIV and Aids awareness,” Captain says. He adds the morans needed to change their attitudes more than even the girls when it came to circumcision. And hospitals.

According to the Maasai, men were not made in hospitals. Strong men, who could defend their families against wild animals and any enemies, were toughened by getting circumcised in traditional ceremonies.

They were stoic, hard-headed. Even stupid. During the circumcision ceremony, one knife could be used on a group of them, and they were not supposed to question why.

If, in cricket terms, one retired hurt and visited a hospital, several kilometres away, his manliness was not recognised. He was considered a sissy who had brought disrepute to himself, and to the community.

Even if he did not suffer from any infection and his age-mates did, he was the odd person out. That ain’t cricket, for sure.

You can easily argue that the Warriors are used to being ignored by their own people, considering that the national cricket body, Cricket Kenya does not give them any help at all.

Their coaches come from Cricket Without Boundaries, a UK cricket development and Aids awareness charity that is run almost entirely by the dedication and enthusiasm of its volunteers. Last Man Stands also gave them some equipment.

Finally, Laikipia North Constituency Development Fund chipped in too, probably because of the campaigns and initiatives that the Warriors are involved in.

They use cricket to promote peace between the Maasai and the Samburu, who used to intermittently clash. In September, the Warriors will hold peace games at the Laikipia Nature Conservancy.

Also, together with Cricket Without Boundaries, they are introducing cricket in schools in the area, and there are a number of children who have joined.

One of their biggest initiatives involves the issue of male circumcision. Out of hospitals.

Since the elders seemed to have a problem with those who were circumcised in hospitals while at the same time admitting that traditional circumcision ceremonies posed health risks, the Warriors had to find a lasting solution: If a moran cannot visit a hospital, the hospital will visit him.

“Nowadays, the doctors come to our villages and perform the cut, a move that has been accepted by all,” says Chairman.

“That way, we can perform all the rituals as stipulated by culture, but the surgical procedure has to be performed by a professional in a safe manner.”

After all is said and done, in cricket terms, the Warriors are no longer on a sticky wicket. They are definitely playing with a straight bat and scoring runs.