Cricket life suits Maasai

29 March 2012 04:12

They might be a people steeped in tradition, but some Maasai warriors are showing former Kenyan cricketers how to bat and bowl.

Volunteer coach Aliya Bauer showed the game of cricket to the Maasai she was working with in Maasailand in central Kenya five years ago, and it has progressed to a two-month training camp run by former national players, including Steve Tikolo, in Mombasa.

The team is currently preparing for the Last Man Stands Twenty20 Championship in Cape Town, South Africa.

Warrior Francis Meshame said the skills of cricket were not all that different from those that the Maasai use.

"It is an easy game because as you throw the ball it is just like throwing the spear, and pads we use are just like the shields we use when we are fighting, and the bat itself is just like the rungu, the clubs that we use," Meshame said.

Bauer said the students of the game were quickly becoming the teachers too, as the game began to break into a new culture.

"Some of our Maasai cricket warriors are level one coaches so in addition to them playing cricket they are also going back into the schools and teaching children at the schools. In addition to that they are spreading the aids awareness message," Bauer said.

Another warrior, Sonyanga Weblen Ole Ngais, said the sport was bringing together communities that would previously spar with one another.

"This for sure has helped our community because the warriors are not now being used to fight the other communities and raid and bring their animals, instead now we are coming to cricket," Ngais said.

The Kenyan beach at which they play on may be far from the Melbourne Cricket Ground or Lord's, but that has not stopped the Maasai from becoming masters of the historical discipline.