From 18th Century England to modern day, cricket’s evolution has not only been dramatic but also revolutionary to the extent that it has spread its wings from metropolises and vast arenas to even unlikely places and people. It travelled to where the British colonialists went. The end result after over three hundred years is that cricket is a global game.

No wonder then that the International Cricket Conference established in 1905 and now known as International Cricket Council (ICC) boasts of over a hundred affiliate and associate members besides the elite 10 who have the privilege of playing the game at the highest level, from Tests to ODIs and T20s. And a couple more like Ireland and Afghanistan in the race to join the elite.

I am lucky to have been a part of the changing face of the game from the 1960s onwards. It certainly has taken a giant leap and now with more floodlit Tests on the cards it is bound to divert us to many more exciting avenues.

Qamar Ahmed shares his experience of watching a team of nomadic tribesmen from Africa playing cricket at Lord’s

I can say that I have not missed much and have seen the lot from the Cape to the Caribbean to Down Under and even to a cricket ground in Hollywood where Don Bradman also played once. Not many can boast of watching a team of nomadic tribesmen from Africa playing cricket at Lord’s and that, too, a team of Maasai warriors playing the game in their traditional robes wearing colourful bead necklaces around their head and neck. Bare-footed and bare-chested with minimum covering around their waists, they fielded, bowled and batted to go in the record books to be the first ever Maasai team to play at Lord’s in 2013.

They were the guests of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) during the Last Man Stands World Championship finals. The championship features club teams from all over the world but invited from Laikipia from near Mount Kenya theirs was a unique presence.

In an eight-a-side match of 20 overs they no doubt showed some skills as bowlers and fielders but their lack of batting skills in the end let them down. It was interesting to see how keen they were to compete at equal level. Their warrior instincts always showed up when charging at the batsmen or when throwing the ball at the keeper’s end to claim a run out.

Their captain Sonyanga Ole Ngais treasures the old adage of his tribal ancestors that, ‘The eye that leaves the village sees further’. That was the reason why, he says, they travelled overseas to play and experience this glorious game in the mother country of the game itself.

The Maasais are Nilotic group of people who over the years have moved from Nile Valley to various parts of East Africa. Pastoralists by tradition they are found mainly around Mount Kenya and in Tanzania. Agile and athletic, they walk miles every day in search of pastures for grazing their herds, even encountering the dangers lurking around every bend such as attack by lions, rhinos and wild elephants.

Only if one kills a lion is when he is considered to have reached adulthood. And therefore they know how to wield their spears and arrows. Throwing a cricket ball or wielding a bat came only recently to them when the game was introduced to them by a South African lady, Aliya Bauer, who while researching on the primates (baboons) in the area came across the Maasais and saw them as likely people to take on the game as far back as 2007.

Her purpose to introduce the game to them also was to create awareness amongst them of HIV/AIDS, preservation of wildlife, women’s issues and their rights, childhood marriages and to prevent them from poaching of the rhinos. This has certainly worked through the introduction of the game of cricket which they so adore now and regularly take part in even in their local climes, playing various teams in the area including the army.

The captain of the Maasai team Ole Ngais confirmed to me at Lord’s that the game has given the tribe a new direction and interest in a sport which they have had no experience of nor had their ancestors known about it.

“Ours is a hunting culture and we love it. Exchanging spears for the bat and ball is something new but exciting. And we love playing the game.

“We now know things outside our own culture and understand a lot more about conservation and problems that we encounter in our day-to-day life. The game has surely taught us the other way of life,” admitted Ngais.

The match at Lord’s they did lose through lack of skill but not for lack of effort. Maa is the language that they communicate in but I noticed that some of them even made an effort to speak in English.

Meeting them was an experience in itself and watching them play the game and that, too, at the home of cricket was even a greater thrill for me and for those who had the privilege of looking at the Maasai warriors running up to bowl or to prevent a boundary striking the fence instead of throwing spears at wild beasts in the massive jungles of African Savannah.

Twitter: @qamaruk

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 10th, 2016