Cricket and Germany – two words that just don’t go together. Except, of course, if there is a Pakistani present; in that case, his passion for the game will ensure the seeds of cricket are not left unsown anywhere he goes.

Wasif Abbas, a Pakistani living in Germany, is one such example.

Five years ago, Wasif realised his responsibilities and worked hard to establish a cricket team in Germany, when there was very little presence of organised cricket in the country. He muses that it was the moment when his son, Marcel, found an old bat lying in the basement and said he wanted to play with him, that moment made him realise just how much he missed the game.

Back in Pakistan, he was not able to pursue his passion because of personal economic conditions and a lack of facilities. Of course, he never missed any Test or One Day matches on TV. He had his own street cricket team in Faisalabad, where they used to play tape-ball cricket matches on the streets.

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After his son found his bat, Wasif started researching on the internet and found many small groups of mostly Asians, who played in public parks in Germany with tape-balls. He also came across some more formal avenues, with teams playing in a league system. And then, he went on to discover that there was indeed a German Cricket Board, a group of volunteers, who had managed to build up a league system between German states.

So he joined a club in Munich and started playing cricket again. Now, traveling to Munich every Sunday to play cricket costs time and money. In the meantime, he tried to recruit players in Herzogenaurach, the town where he lives.

Luckily, Adidas and Puma have their headquarters in Herzogenaurach. Wasif was approached by Adidas to form and coach an office team. He has managed to be quite successful in Munich and has made a name for himself in Bavarian cricket.

The Adidas project was successful too. As word spread about cricket, potential players started contacting him with requests to join in.

This is when Wasif decided to quit the Munich team, and join a local football club so that anyone could join in, and not just Adidas employees. He formed the very first cricket section in a local sports club in Bavaria. Each cricket player had to pay the club fee to be able to play cricket.

Wasif's club qualified for the German League in 2012 and even won the Championship. They were awarded with bronze medals for the best upcoming team and were all over the local media.

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The local football club was happy to have them and enjoyed the publicity they were getting, but hardly graced them with any attention. Wasif recalls how they had to play between two football fields on a roll-out Flicks pitch which wasn’t really very efficient.

It was time to take the next step: Early this year, Wasif's entire team quit the football club and registered their own cricket club in Erlangen (the big city next to Herzogenaurach), where he applied for a ground and raised funds to build a proper pitch/Astroturf. After a tiring tug-of-war with the authorities, they finally acquired permission to build a pitch.

The Erlangen cricket Club e.V. has one of the most beautiful cricket grounds in Bavaria, surrounded by trees and green fields. The German Cricket Board sponsored the pitch with a small amount; the players had to raise the rest of the money themselves. Each member pays approximately 150€ p.a. in club fee. They saved up for two years and did most of the work themselves, but the pitch still ended up costing around 2800€.

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Setting up his cricket club was not the only thing Wasif had strived for. The organisation of the League was in shreds when he started playing again and there was hardly any proper communication or data banks. After Wasif was elected to the executive committee of the Bavaria cricket board, he has created a website, set up a proper financial and commercial system and helped new team and clubs to organise themselves.

There are now 12 registered clubs in Bavaria playing in a two-tier system. Wasif is president of his own creation, the Erlangen Cricket Club e.V. With his love for cricket, he has thus united all those cricketers in Germany who were missing cricket, under one roof, and has given them an opportunity to play it professionally.

As Pakistanis, it is hard not to be proud of Wasif Abbas.

—All photos by author