THE tireless work of Heather Booth di Giovanni with cricket-playing Afghan refugees and asylum seekers in Bristol has been recognised with an MCC Community Cricket Heroes award.
Heather was one of 11 volunteers from across the grassroots game in this country to be selected from hundreds of nominations by a panel that included former England captain Mike Gatting and Ricky Reynolds, the MCC’s Head of Community and Inclusion.
She was invited to Lord’s for the first day of the recent Test match against Sri Lanka where she spoke about becoming involved with Afghans who had a passion for the sport.
Heather said: “It was hearing Mark Nicholas speak about Chance to Shine which inspired me to get involved. I used to attend international matches, and at one game at The Oval there was an inspirational presentation about the Chance to Shine initiative.
“I registered to receive their newsletter, and in the winter of 2017 I read an item about Bristol Afghans Cricket Club who had already played for a season but were looking for some support.
“I wanted to do something totally different in life that seemed to be useful. I was pretty open minded so made contact and the club responded immediately saying ‘yes please!’
“At the time I knew absolutely zero about club cricket and had no idea of how to support them, apart from donating some money.”
It was not long before Heather was also providing practical help, scoring matches and then taking over the club’s administration after undergoing a crash course in fulfilling league regulations.
The Afghan Youth Cricket Bristol club successfully joined the North Somerset League this summer
And, with the backing of the club, she then drove the formation of an Under-19 team in 2022 to provide organised cricket for younger players, finding a venue for winter training sessions thanks to the assistance of the Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation, and hiring a coach.
Heather, who has continued to cover many of the running costs and the purchase of kit out of her own pocket, added: “We found Ahmed Hassan, and in him we totally struck gold, someone who is strong, empathetic and an excellent coach.
“Forming the team was a leap of faith … I wasn’t really sure we had enough players before we started, but thanks to word of mouth the numbers grew, and the team ended the season by reaching finals day at the County Ground which was a wonderful experience for everyone.”
Fast forward to 2023 and the decision was taken to establish a new club – Afghan Youth Cricket Bristol – which entered the North Somerset Sunday League for the 2024 season. The club began work to build the new team by providing 10 weeks of indoor winter training at the Shine Sports Hall in Henleaze.
In spring 2024, Sport England provided a grant which took care of coaching fees for summer training, and helped with many other expenses, including the hire of Saltford’s ground for home fixtures.
The team recently finished third in its division, fulfilling all its fixtures and is looking forward to making more progress next year, thanks to another grant from Sport England which will cover the cost of 15 winter training sessions.
Heather added: “It’s been extremely challenging at times, but I really cannot think of anything more joyous than seeing these boys playing together and having fun.
“The majority are asylum seekers or refugees. Many of them have unspeakably difficult back stories, both before leaving Afghanistan and during the journey here. No one would make such a horrible journey unless they faced absolutely desperate circumstances at home.
“Most of our players are under the care of social services, and have either lost, or been separated from, their parents since their early teens. There are some truly wonderful foster parents in Bristol, but foster parents are scarce. Most of our players live instead in shared accommodation overseen by support workers.
“In that respect the cricket team has become like a family, and to see how they’ve changed – growing in confidence, developing their skills, expressing so much joy in their cricket and in their team – brings me such joy.
“I’m sure there must be lots of other people out there who would find it rewarding to volunteer and become involved with a club in some way.”
Anyone interested in becoming involved with Afghan Youth Cricket Bristol, please contact Heather via email at: habdigiovanni@gmail.com