Barcelona to Build 1st Cricket Pitch Thanks to Campaign By Women Cricketers

Barcelona, a major city of Spain will be building the first cricket pitch in the country thanks to a campaign led by the public, especially women for the betterment of the women’s cricket team. As many would know that Spain is not associated much with cricket with Football being the major sport in the country, closely followed by field hockey and other athletic sports.

However, Barcelona has a large Pakistani and Indian community, and there are some 400 cricketers in Barcelona divided among 25 men’s and women’s teams. Unfortunately, the Mediterranean city doesn’t have facilities for this still exotic sport. Instead, an empty parking lot or field has to do for those looking to show their batting and bowling skills.

Barcelona City Hall To Build A Cricket Pitch Next To Olympic Stadium

But now players will have their own pitch, right next to Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium on a hill overlooking the city. This is due to Barcelona’s city hall asking citizens last month to choose an initiative as part of a 30 million euro ($35 million) investment package in new facilities and improvements to public spaces.

The plan to spend 1.2 million euros ($1.4 million) on a cricket pitch finished first in the voting among 184 proposals. This big win for a sport that is not popular in Spain came due to the efforts of a campaign led by a group of young women, mostly first-generation Spaniards, some of them Indian and Pakistani immigrants living in working-class suburbs of Barcelona.

“It’s a dream come true to have won the vote after all the effort we put in. We spent weeks encouraging people to vote for our project so we could win. And in the end, we were able to get the first cricket field in Barcelona for us to play and train,” said cricket player Nadia Mustafa, an 18-year-old university student.

The word-of-mouth campaign caught traction and gained the attention of local media and on social media as well. Besides the pitch, the project includes changing and storage rooms, lights, and other amenities specific to cricket.

“We are happy. Soon, in a year or a year and a half, we will have our own field here in Barcelona We won’t have to think of getting cars and means of transportation to play elsewhere. We will have our field here,” said team coach Shahbaz Shauqad, a 30-year-old greengrocer.

Spain does have a national cricket team that gained affiliate status in 2017 and full member T20I status in 2018.

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