The influx of asylum seekers into Germany, especially from cricket-mad Pakistan and Afghanistan, has created an unexpected boom for the sport in a country where football has long been king.
Of the 476,649 people who applied for asylum in Germany last year, 31,902 came from Afghanistan alone, with a further 8,472 from Pakistan, which has seen the German Cricket Federation (DCB) flooded with a simple question: “Where can I play?”
The DCB’s chief executive officer, Brian Mantle, says they have been swamped by enquiries through their website to set up new clubs across the country, supply equipment and point new arrivals to their local team.
Mantle, who is based in the western city of Essen, runs the DCB with only an additional part-timer for assistance.
When the Englishman took over in 2012, there were around 1,500 cricketers in Germany playing in 70 teams.
Today there are 4,000 registered cricketers playing in 205 teams and last week the DCB welcomed its 100th new club, from Bautzen near the Czech border. And the numbers keep growing.
We’ve been getting up to five enquiries per day from groups wanting to set up new clubs. Often it’s from social workers, who had never even heard of cricket before groups of refugees from Afghanistan and Pakistan started asking where they could play it. They had been offered volleyball or football, but most just want to play cricket.Brian Mantle, CEO, German Football Federation
Thanks to donations from existing German clubs of bats, balls and cricket gear, including 35 boxes sent by the Lord’s Taverners, the UK’s leading youth cricket charity, the DCB has recently sent out its 400th box of supplies to help new clubs.
(With inputs from PTI.)