5 minute read
National Backyard Cricket is Back This Summer
Cricket all-star legends lend their support to raise funds to improve access to education at home and abroad
Summer is here so it is time for Australian cricket fans to pad up and face the deliveries in 2022’s National Backyard Cricket Day.
National Backyard Cricket is an opportunity for enthusiasts to take time out with family and friends to enjoy a game of cricket, and it’s for a good cause as the funds raised support education projects in Australia and other cricket-playing nations.
This year’s events will culminate on Sunday 6th February 2022, however Australians can get involved by playing their own Backyard Cricket Game anytime over the summer.
National Backyard Cricket has secured allstar support from some of the world’s cricketing legends including Brett Lee, Alyssa Healy, Ryan Carters, Steve O’Keefe, Russel Arnold, Asanka Gurusinha, Alex Blackwell, Ed Cowan, Simon Taufel and Nathan Lyon.
The National Backyard Cricket Chairman and LBW Trust Director, Marek Ristwej, said: “We are excited to be working with Cricket Australia to get Australians playing the sport we all love for a great cause. National Backyard Cricket is a wonderful way to enjoy cricket at any age. So many of us have great memories of summers spent playing backyard cricket, and this summer you can play and also know that you are doing good by supporting Australian Country Libraries and student tertiary education in cricket-playing nations.
“By registering your team to participate in National Backyard Cricket, you will be supporting libraries across regional Australia as well as tertiary education in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan and Indonesia.”
“National Backyard Cricket is a community funding event that helps level the global playing field in education in places not as lucky as Australia. Australians can come together to create transformative educational opportunities for disadvantaged young men and women in these cricket-playing nations,” said Brett Lee, Australian International Cricketer.
“Games aren’t restricted to the backyard, so cricket fans can roll their arm over at the beach, in the park or anywhere they can find a suitable pitch to set up stumps. The most important thing is to have fun and enjoy time with family, friends, your team or colleagues.” The LBW Trust said gathering in big numbers may not be possible while we are impacted by
COVID-19, so people are urged to play in a safe environment while enjoying their game of backyard cricket outdoors.
MAY BE UN‘FAIR’ YET LOVELY
Today, I am sharing a story of a five-year-old girl, born and brought up in Australia to Indian parents, exploring her way through her first year of primary school. This little girl, charming, full of energy, driven by curiosity has almost always drawn everyone’s attention with her mischievously expressive eyes and her cheerful laughter. She started Kindergarten, in the local primary school, in a suburb with a highly anglicised demographic and a Christian population of 62.4% (according to 2016 Census data).
Brimming with excitement on the first day of school, looking forward to what the school had to offer, in terms of friends, teachers, art, sports, holding the hand of her elder sister, she took those tiny steps into the gates of the school. COVID-19 was just rearing its ugly head and just a few weeks after, starting her Kindergarten, restrictions hit - ability to move freely around the school, play and do what a five-year-old can do at school all got re-defined. This, however, did not dampen her spirit one bit or her love to live life. Her experience with adventures the school had to offer continued each day.
It was end-of March when we moved into full Lockdown and online schooling began with schools and teachers not fully equipped or geared mentally to start teaching these young and influenceable children remotely, but the whole school and parent community came together to ensure the young minds continued to develop uninterrupted. School resumed in May 2020, and although not back to normal, a modified routine developed, but I started noticing the excitement of going to school wane in this little girl. She was no longer excited, nor curious about school. As a parent, I attributed it to a turbulent start to the year, with the constant changes and restrictions imposed by COVID-19, until…..
One fine morning, my beautiful and adorable little girl, refused to go to school. She refused to shower, get ready, have breakfast and was just beside herself crying uncontrollably. Worried, I asked what was so disturbing and if she had a fight with her “akka”. Swallowing some of her tears, and with a heavy heart, she said “Amma, if I shower myself, twice a day, and scrub my body, will I become fair like you”. Surprised by the comment, and overcome by compassion, I, at that moment could do nothing but just hug my little girl. I then had a very calm conversation with her and enquired from her if anyone at school or outside made her feel “this way”. She unwaveringly refused and didn’t reveal the source of her anxiety. I then changed tact, and spoke to her about how beautiful she was, and we spoke about many analogies to explain to her that every skin colour is truly beautiful. I told her, that if she was given a painting and only given the colour white, to paint as opposed to a painting with many different colours to paint, which one would look nicer. She agreed the one with many colours would be more attractive and so I told her “What you bring to Australia, sweetheart, is that colour that makes the painting look pretty”.
I also told her, you know at night-time with no light, it doesn’t matter what colour we are, because we are all the same colour in darkness. I said to her, did you know when we bleed, we all bleed red. She intently listened, nodded, her crying reduced and breathing returned to its normal rhythm, and a glimmer of smile returned to her face. She seemed to absorb all the information, and the curiosity in her eyes returned. As I stopped, she asked me a question – “Amma, if I shower every day really well, when I get older will I be fair like you?”
As I hugged my little child, I held back my inner laughter at the thought that – “all this conversation with her, and it had zero impact”, and told her that she is beautiful, more beautiful than I ever will be. She is and will always remain
