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Germany’s cricket boom poised to hit the silver screen
BERLIN: A boom of interest in cricket in Germany, fuelled by the influx of asylum seekers from Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a tale poised to hit the silver screen.
BERLIN: A boom of interest in cricket in Germany, fuelled by the influx of asylum seekers from Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a tale poised to hit the silver screen. The season has just finished, but as Brian Mantle, chief executive of the German Cricket Federation (DCB), explained, 2016 has seen clubs shoot up all over the country. “The summer has been unbelievable, we’ve had success on and off the field and we’ve attracted sponsors,” Mantle said.
“If you name an area of Germany, chances are there is now a cricket club there or one about to be set up.
“It’s been quite incredible. We could even be soon watching a feature film... about German cricket and its impact on Afghan refugees.”
In 2015, Germany took in 890,000 asylum seekers, among them just over 40,000 Afghans and Pakistanis. Many of them soon asked: “Where can I play cricket?”
Before refugees began arriving in large numbers last year, there were only around 1,500 active cricketers playing in 70 teams in Germany. Mantle says there are now 5,000 cricketers, playing in around 250 teams for 108 clubs — and the numbers keep growing.
The national German team, many of whose members have roots in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, has just won promotion from the International Cricket Council’s European Division Two.
“The goal for next year is to win promotion again in division one, which would put us in the world cricket league,” said Mantle.
The cricket craze has generated huge publicity, both at home and abroad, and then came a phone call from a London-based film company, Life & Soul Pictures, which is interested in bringing the story of German cricket to the cinema. The project is in its early stages, but has the working title “Rites of Passage”.
