The south London project giving newcomers a cricket family once more | Barney Ronay

The Brixton pulse may be long gone but a new plan is helping young cricket-loving Afghans to integrate in the area and recover from recent traumasCricket, south London and immigration have a long and fertile shared history. Albeit, in recent years this connection has receded decisively, just as the sport itself continues to retreat from its urban spaces. Looking back on the peak years of The Oval as the hub of Caribbean cricket in England, when the old colonial sport could also feel like a balm, glue and armature for the best bits of being in a city, it can all seem like a distant, pork pie-hatted dream.Not that these things ever disappear completely. The Oval may have lost its Brixton pulse, Surrey have barely produced a black British cricketer since Michael Carberry, although George Edwards played a few games, but the fading of that connection shouldn’t lessen its significance in its own time. Continue reading…
Via: The south London project giving newcomers a cricket family once more | Barney Ronay