From Greece and South Sudan to Sunshine Heights: At this club, it's not just about the cricket

When Akat Mayoum arrived in Australia, at age nine, he didn't know a thing about cricket, the strange sport that always seemed to be on everyone's television.

He had just a spent a year in Egypt, waiting to be processed as a refugee.

Racism was rife there, and it wasn't something that stopped when he arrived in Melbourne. Even though he picked up English quickly, he was treated differently in his new home.

"Coming to a new country, [Australia] — an Anglo country — I had reservations. And a lot those reservations I had were confirmed with my early experiences," he says.

Loading...

Sport became an important outlet. It was through cricket — that strange game with its seemingly endless rules, customs and jargon — that Akat began to feel at home in his new country.

Akat's love affair started with watching cricket on TV and playing in the backyard with friends and family.

How sport is bringing communities together in challenging times

^[1]

When his cousins moved to a primary school in Ardeer, about 15 kilometres west of Melbourne's CBD, they were invited to join a junior session at the local cricket club at Sunshine Heights. Before long, Akat joined in, too.

"It was really exciting. For me, coming to Australia and trying to integrate myself into society was hard because I didn't have a lot of opportunities to play and meet kids from different backgrounds," he says.

"Sport was a way for me to break down a lot of those barriers and be part of a team, and my skills and contribution to the team were more important than my background or where I came from."

Now 22, Akat captained the Sunshine Heights Cricket Club's T20 turf team last season, as well as helping as a junior development coach.

As well as learning how to bat and bowl, Akat has developed his leadership skills and confidence through cricket.

Image Cricket teaches important life lessons, Akat says, like patience, discipline and team-work.(ABC Life: Patrick Wright)

Crossing cultures with cricket

The Sunshine Heights Cricket Club was founded in 1954 and has a long history of welcoming players and members from diverse backgrounds.

Like Akat, Nick Hatzoglou — the club's current president — didn't grow up around cricket. His parents emigrated to Australia from Greece in the 1960s and settled in Sunshine, not far from the cricket club.

Cricket cup for people with disabilities A cricket competition in Tasmania is helping people with disabilities become more self-confident and independent.Read more^[2]

"For me, this is the great lesson: those people [at the club] embraced us migrant kids," says Nick, who still captains one of the senior teams.

"Our parents didn't know anything about cricket. It was a game that was foreign to them. But, somehow, all these guys … took all these Greek kids — in those days it was only boys — and they took us under their wing, and nurtured our involvement in cricket, taught us the game, and invited us into their houses.

"We had functions, we got to know them, and they looked after us."

A generation later, Nick and the rest of the leaders at the club continue that culture.

In the team Akat now captains, cricketers from South Sudanese, Sri Lankan, Vietnamese, Kuwaiti and Anglo-Australian families play side-by-side.

A sport for everyone

One of the driving forces for diversity and inclusion at the club is Matthew Shawcross, the club's vice-president.

The international cricket ground in one man's backyard Stirling Hamman loves cricket so much that he's built his own private ground nestled in bushland, which has now hosted international matches.Read more^[3]

Until recently, Matthew was deputy principal at the Mother of God primary school in Ardeer — the school where Akat's cousins were introduced to cricket. Over his time there, he built a strong relationship between the club and the school, which has continued since he left.

The school has about 150 kids, many of them from South Sudanese families, and a strong cricketing and sporting culture, says principal Gerard Broadfoot.

"I remember my first year here. I was chatting to Matthew one night after school, and all the South Sudanese kids were coming for cricket training and they were all walking up the street with their whites and their cricket bags and their cricket bags," he says.

But it wasn't always easy. For many families in the area, the cost involved with sport and the transport required to get to games and training was a barrier.

Image Matthew Shawcross (centre) with one of Sunshine Heights' junior cricket teams.(Supplied: Sunshine Heights Cricket Club)

To help out, Matthew and others at the club helped with driving, and the local council chipped in with grants for equipment and fuel vouchers for volunteer drivers.

"Sunshine Heights takes it upon themselves to subsidise memberships and drive kids around. Without that, participating would be quite difficult," Akat says.

Beyond the cricket pitch

When Akat has having problems at high school, the trips to cricket events with Matthew were also an opportunity to get advice from someone he could trust. Eventually, Matthew helped Akat find a new school with a great sporting program.

The refugees setting new standards in Australian athletics How Joseph Deng, a Sudanese-Australian who last week broke a 50-year-old national athletics record, is inspiring others to follow in his lightning-fast footsteps.Read more^[4]

"He finished off all his secondary education there. He was able to pursue his sport, but he also developed an interest in world history and politics, and he got into university," Matthew says.

"It's an outstanding achievement for someone who's only been learning English since grade four or five."

Just like Nick and Matthew, Akat's passionate about giving back to the sport that has given him so much.

Through his coaching, captaincy and his work as a teacher aide at the Mother of God school, he has already become a powerful role model and mentor.

"The refugee story can be a traumatic one. Sport can be a way to heal and to integrate yourself in society, foster empathy and build relationships you otherwise wouldn't have," he says.

Source http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=2416397C717C4C1687B0C9B52FD41F9E&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Flife%2Fsunshine-heights-cricket-club-helping-new-australians%2F11059154&c=17078298019834145019&mkt=en-ca