With an ICC T20I World ranking of 47, Argentina might not be the first name that pops up in a discussion of cricketing royalty. Surprisingly though, the South American nation has a rich legacy of cricket dating back to the start of the 19th century.
A storied past
While football is undoubtedly country’s number one sport, it is cricket whose roots are far deeper. It is worth nothing that Argentina’s first international match in football took place in 1906 against Uruguay. By then, it had already been 38 years since the first cricket match had been staged in the country in 1868, also against Uruguay.
That cricket has such a storied past in Argentina is largely down to the fact that the country was, at one point, home to the largest British immigrant community outside the Commonwealth. The first cricket club – The Buenos Aires Cricket Club in Palermo – was officially established in 1864, although some historians argue that its actual existence dates back to the 1830s. Now known as the Buenos Aires Cricket and Rugby Club, it is one of several spots in the Argentine capital where cricket is still being kept alive.
Supported by the Anglo-Argentines, cricket was actually thriving in the country in the latter half of the 19th century. There is even a famous anecdote about the Argentina cricket team crossing the Andes mountain range by mule in 1893 to reach Santiago for a fixture against neighbours Chile.
In 1891, the first North v South fixture was held in Argentina and the match has since become an annual three-day tradition in the country. With the exception of a few years during the two World Wars, the North v South match has been staged without fail in the South American country. The Argentine Cricket Association was formed in 1913 and there was a time when many cricketers from the nation were considered to be of English county standard.
Sadly, the game’s popularity in Argentina declined sharply after the Second World War. The country did become an ICC associate member in 1974 and even participated in the inaugural ICC Trophy held in 1979. However, their international standing has fallen ever since, with Argentina ultimately dropping out of the ICC World Cricket League Division Six in 2013.
“Until the Second World War, the game was played mainly by British communities in Argentina. It was played between clubs that were founded by British people and it was restricted to the families of British descendants,” Cricket Argentina chief executive Esteban MacDermott told Sport360.
“So if you were a native Argentine, you couldn’t even become a member of those clubs, let alone play cricket. After the Second World War, many of those British people went to fight for the war and didn’t come back. Many of those clubs were forced to open their doors to the local community or they were forced to shut down. So they had only these two options.
“Once they opened the doors to the locals, Argentine people started bumping into cricket in the summers. This happened during the 1950s and 1960s. By the time cricket started entering the lives of native Argentine people, football and rugby were already installed as the main sports of the country. It was always an uphill battle for cricket to try and get more players into the system.”
A difficult present
While the sport was largely confined to the Anglo-Argentine community for several decades, the picture is starting to change drastically now. According to MacDermott, there are as many as 3,000 players incorporated into the domestic system, a large majority of which are native Argentines.
“These days, when we travel abroad for a tournament with a squad of 14, only two or three are expats,” MacDermott says.
“The rest are all natives. In our domestic league, I would say 80 to 90 per cent are natives. At grassroots levels, it is almost completely native Argentine children who are playing the sport.”
They might not be fighting it out in the big leagues when it comes to global cricket, but Argentina have certainly turned into a powerhouse in the context of South America. In the 16 editions of the South American Cricket Championship held so far, Argentina have triumphed 10 times including the most recent competition in Peru last year.
They have also made strides in women’s cricket of late, with Warwickshire’s Sian Kelly coming on board as the team’s first head coach in 2018.
Having taken the Argentina women’s team – also known as the ‘Flamingos’ – to the 2019 South American Championship final, Kelly has now transitioned into a new role as the women’s development officer of Cricket Argentina.
Kelly and MacDermott are the only full-time employees at Cricket Argentina, with everyone else in the system – including players and coaches – working in part-time capacities. Cricket, after all, still remains a largely amateur sport in the country.
Recent initiatives such as Cricket Without Borders and the ICC Development Programme are helping spread awareness about the game in the country, though the challenges ahead are still plenty.
“Out short-term target is definitely to get the base of the pyramid wider, to get cricket to more people,” MacDermott says.
“To do that, we need to have a national venue, which at the moment we do not have. We use the facilities of different clubs we have over here currently. That is not really feasible and restricts the number of people we can accept into the system.
“That is because we have to direct any interested people to these clubs. They have their own membership fees along with other requirements to become a member. So we lose many people we are able to attract in the first place. If we have a national venue, then we can centralise.
“All the new people that come into cricket for the first time, they can come there. They can get free lessons over there and get a taste of cricket from us. That will help them to carry on with the sport.”
Infrastructure is a big obstacle for Argentine cricket and the lack of a national venue is the least of their problems.
The Flamingos and Kelly (top: second from R). Image – CricArg/Twitter.
“Facilities are a big issue,” former Argentina head coach Dan Sutton said.
From Scotland originally, Sutton coached in Argentina for five years before returning to his homeland to take up various cricket-related roles in Aberdeen.
“There are no indoor training nets and, during winter, it can become quite the issue in Buenos Aires. It can get as cold as five to six degree Celsius, which hinders training schedules.
“There is a lack of bowling machines, that sort of thing. They (Cricket Argentina) do as much as they can with the resources that they have, to be fair.”
The lack of cricketing facilities and infrastructure notwithstanding, Cricket Argentina continue to make further inroads domestically.
“We have a first division and a second division. The first division is comprised of seven teams. The second division, which is a lot more social and not so competitive, has eight teams,” MacDermott explains.
“At the moment we are looking to incorporate two more teams into the structure from the upcoming season, which would make it nine teams in the first division and seven teams in the second division. It is great for us, since it will mean we are not playing the same people every time.
“That is very important for players to develop since they get an opportunity to play competitive cricket.”
Systems are being put in place for the long-term development of the sport, more so in women’s cricket.
“My role has changed slightly in that in addition to coaching the women’s team, I am also now in charge of the girl’s junior development program,” she says.
“This is great because, looking back, previously I was trying to develop girl’s cricket without a system in place, whereas this current role has allowed us to put a structure in place that is working really well in its pilot year.
“I am able to coach the women’s team at the same time as leading a team of female coaches in setting up women and girls cricket in their respective clubs, which for me is the best of both worlds. It is also much better in terms of long term strategy for Cricket Argentina, since Argentine women are the ones taking charge and leading girl’s cricket at various clubs.”
That Argentine cricket is experiencing a sort of mini-renaissance despite their multiple hindrances is a credit to MacDermott and his tireless team. With cricket far behind sports such as football, rugby and field hockey, generating funding has not been an easy task for Cricket Argentina.
“Our main source of funding is the ICC funding,” MacDermott says.
“We get a bit of collaboration from people in the cricket community who chip in through some sponsorships. Nothing from the government and nothing from outside, that is from sponsors who know nothing about cricket. We rely mostly on ICC funding.”
A promising future
The lack of government support could very well change in the future if cricket was to be included in the summer Olympic Games. The only time the sport has ever featured in the quadrennial event was more than a century ago in 1900 Games in Paris. Of late, there has been a renewed push by the ICC to get cricket back into the Olympics, with the 2028 Games in Los Angeles mooted as a possibility.
However, concerns about cricket’s inclusion remain among the sport’s biggest superpowers such as the BCCI, who remain fearful of losing their autonomy of the sport.
When asked if an Olympic inclusion for cricket could be a game-changer for Argentina, MacDermott replied: “Definitely, the sports ministry in Argentina, and I think it is pretty much all over the world, they subsidise sports which are a part of the Olympics.”
“They provide funding to develop athletes to take part in the regional Olympic Qualifiers and then more funding is poured in once they qualify for the Olympics.
“That would definitely help. Not only in financial matters, but also for raising awareness. Cricket is not visible to the average Argentine on television or in the newspapers. Once it starts being a part of multi-sports events, there will be more awareness about the game on television and in papers. The sport then becomes more visible to the people and that is how you get more people into cricket.”
One move by the ICC that is giving MacDermott and Argentina hope is the according of T20I status to every cricket playing nation in 2018.
“I think T20 is a format which will allow us to progress quicker in the rankings. I am really hoping that we will have a similar pathway like the ICC has in the World Cricket League (for ODIs) for the T20 format soon,” MacDermott reasons.
“I really think, for minor countries such as us, the 50-over format is obsolete. It is very hard to get a new player who knows nothing about cricket to a format which takes around six hours to play.
“I think T20 is the way forward to attract more people into the sport since it makes it easier for the new targets.”
With a sustained push, there is no doubt that cricket in Argentina can make a giant leap. It is a long road ahead littered with many challenges, but the enthusiasm definitely exists within its administrators and participants.
Sutton, on his part, is excited by the potential at Argentina’s disposal.
“If you see the players in the schools in Argentina, I would say they are more naturally gifted than their counterparts back in Scotland where I live or even in England,” he says.
“Their hand-eye co-ordination is much better, their movement skills are much better, their understanding of the game is also much better due to how much time they spend outside. It is due to the cultural difference compared to what we have here in the UK.”
Kelly, too, is positive about the future of Argentine women’s cricket.
“I think the future for Argentina women’s cricket holds aiming to be the strongest team in the Americas,” she says.
“From there we would love to go to reach World Cup Qualifiers in Europe. We’re working hard on expanding our base of junior players, and are seeing some strong talent coming through.”
A few years ago, nobody would have predicted for Japan to be one of the participants of the recently concluded ICC U19 World Cup in South Africa. Similarly, the qualification of the Thailand women’s team for the 2020 T20I World Cup in Australia would have been deemed far-fetched. Yet, here we are with cricket continuing to make new inroads across the globe every day despite its limitations.
South America, as a whole, remains the last frontier to conquer for the ICC and cricket with substantial progress made in every other continent. It is Argentina, and to some extent Brazil, who are the torchbearers of the sport in the continent at the moment. The football rivalry between the two countries is legendary, and it would be some spectacle to see the same renewed in the biggest of stages in cricket in the years to come.
