A WARM Sunday afternoon, the calm of Plittersdorf’s American quarter disrupted intermittently by the hum of bikes, and the excited shouts of sportsmen. In the ground next to Bonn’s popular English school, sporting a purple uniform, Nadeem Abbasi — skipper of the Golden Star Cricket Club (GSCC) — warms up for his turn. Abbasi, mostly known as ‘Nadeem Bhai’ among the fraternity, wants his all-rounder Kapil to run up a good score before lunchtime.

Kapil Chandani, a German migrant from India, has been playing for this club for the last five years. Today his team is facing the Rheinland Riders Club, a rival team led by a former GSCC member from Bangladesh, Kawsar. “In tense matches, Nadeem Bhai counts on me,” says Kapil proudly.

Near the River Rhein, this place has become one where Pakistani or South Asian migrants lead the field. Nadeem is hailed by all Asian Bonners as one of those who pioneered the trend of cricket in a football-crazy Germany. A domestic cricketer back home, he immigrated from Murree to Bonn in 1998.

“I started off with the oldest cricket community of this city i.e. the Bonn Cricket Club that was dominated by Sri Lankans, with only a couple of Indian or Pakistani players on board. I was very keen to play in the beginning but gradually communication became a barrier,” Nadeem recalls.

This common language ground between Pakistanis and Indians united them to form their own team under Nadeem’s captaincy. The GSCC was founded in 2010.

“I have been playing cricket for 15 years. Although we still lack proper infrastructure in Germany and I have to run the club on a self-finance basis,” explains Nadeem, “the sport has evolved tremendously.” The place where they’re playing, the Rheinaue Cricket Ground, didn’t exist until 2002.

Bonn’s cricket community and individuals such as Kawsar, captain of the Rheinland Riders, and Mian Wasim, chairman of Bonn Zalmi, also credit Nadeem’s club for developing this British sport more enthusiastically than the British expats in Germany who, according to Kawsar, “don’t waste their time just for the love of sport like South Asians.”

According to Nadeem, there are nine cricket clubs in Bonn supervised by the German Cricket Federation that was established in 1989. The federation, better known as the Deutsche Cricket Bund (DCB), is the main governing body authorised by the ICC that oversees leagues and clubs. Germany has a national men’s and women’s 11 too, both of which include many South Asians.

At lunchtime, Pakistani food packed in boxes along with a crate of water bottles arrives from Nadeem’s home; the boys lay it out on a sheet. The umpire, who is paid by both clubs, is having a discussion about match time with Kawsar and Nadeem. The Rheinland Riders have their own meal but both teams share food and drinks. One can hear a mix of Urdu, Pashto and English in addition to the German chatter of a few footballers in the corner.

As regional rivals, so ethnically diverse, how do they get along with each other?

Kapil says, “We have no issues here about Hindu/Muslim or India/Pakistan. We are like a family under Nadeem Bhai’s leadership and our commonalities unite us. The real challenge is playing cricket as a full-time profession because the DCB doesn’t pay the players. So no one wants to make a career in cricket.”

When I ask Kawsar if ethnic conflicts made him part ways with the GSCC, he laughs it off: “No, not at all. In fact, I was not satisfied with the level of professionalism. I wanted to take it to the next level by playing more than friendly matches.”

Kawsar, like Nadeem, also mentions the price attached to this volunteerism. “From buying kits, to fees paid to the DCB and umpires to our time invested, the growth of this sport owes us our time and family life.”

This voluntary South Asian patronage is having a social impact for newly arrived refugees, many of whom are from cricketing nations.

Bonn Zalmi, the authorised official club in Germany of the Peshawar Zalmi, focuses on helping young Afghan refugees engage with society by providing them opportunities for sports and guidance for education in Germany. Mian Waseem, a cricketer from Swat and vice-president of the West Deutsche Cricket Bund, also established his club as a volunteer. The club aims at tapping young talent that emerged after the “refugee crisis”. Although many members speak Pashto or Urdu, Waseem says he encourages them to communicate in German “because at the end of the day, this is what they need in Germany.”

While the Riders get ready to bat, I ask GSCC vice-captain Imitat Sardar if he feels demotivated because of the lack of a cheering crowd. “Pushing families to watch our matches is really an issue,” he says. “We can only play on weekends and the game goes on for the whole day, which is for a German a waste of time.”

The community needs more professional infrastructure, and Nadeem pins hope on Bonn’s Indian-origin mayor, Ashok Alexander. As for these veterans, they plan more Open Day Sessions and coaching workshops for German schools and universities and envision forming a women’s cricket teams as well.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2018