Cricket is a minor sport in Iraq, with the majority of national focus on football, followed by basketball, swimming, weightlifting, bodybuilding, taekwondo, boxing, kickboxing, and tennis. Sporting activity in general has been limited somewhat by the Iraq War and succeeding conflicts. Iraq is not a member of the International Cricket Council, and what cricket is found has been introduced to schools largely through the British Armed Forces, or played between the militaries of the various Commonwealth forces stationed there – most often Australian, British and New Zealand troops.[1]
CricketArchive records matches as having been played in Iraq as early as July 1931, when a two-day match was played in Baghdad between Royal Air Force officers and "casuals" (enlisted ranks).[2] At least one first-class cricketer has been born in Iraq – Zayyad Qayyum (born in Baghdad in 1979), who played Pakistani domestic cricket and represented the Pakistani national under-19 team.[3]
In 2003, a sergeant of the British Royal Logistic Corps petitioned the Marylebone Cricket Club for cricket equipment to be sent to troops in southern Iraq to create a cricket training centre. The equipment was sent to forces in the country, presented by former Test player Mike Gatting.[4] In April 2007 Wisden writer Tony Munroe covered the efforts of Major Andrew Banks, who toured schools in Iraq with a detachment of the Royal Air Force handing out cricket equipment and explaining the laws of cricket to teachers.[5] He recorded that "after some simple explanation of the basic rules of cricket (through an interpreter) and a quick demonstration by members of the RAF, the Iraqi children joyfully hit the ball around the playground. I duly handed over the set to the games mistress and she in turn professed to be keen to allow her charges to play on a regular basis."[6] He noted that "The teachers have seen a lot of projects come out of the West so they were sceptical until they saw the kids having fun" and that "They never quite understood the lbw law but they enjoyed themselves and that was what mattered."[5]
Inter-force cricket matches between various units of the British Army have taken place in the country, and in September 2007 a British Army team were defeated by a team from the Australian military near Basra. The match raised 14,000 US Dollars for charities.[1]
^ ab"Australia claim the Basra Ashes". ESPNcricinfo. September 17, 2007. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
^Other matches in Iraq in 1931 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
^Zayyad Qayyum – CricketArchive. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
^"Cricket heads for Iraq". BBC News. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
^ ab"ECB takes Kwik Cricket to Iraq". England Cricket Board. 12 April 2007. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
^Munroe, Tony (2007). "Cricket round the world". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
Cricket is a minor sport inIraq, with the majority of national focus on football, followed by basketball, swimming, weightlifting, bodybuilding, taekwondo...
The Christians of Iraq are considered to be one of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world. The vast majority of Iraqi Christians are indigenous...
They are defined as Assyrians residing in the country of Iraq, or members of the Assyrian diaspora who are of Iraqi-Assyrian heritage. They share a common...
The status of women inIraq at the beginning of the 21st century is affected by many factors: wars (most recently the Iraq War), sectarian religious debates...
list of events that took place in 2015 related to British television. The entire series of Call the Midwife was successful in the ratings this year, with...
The wildlife of Iraq includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats. Iraq has multiple biomes from mountainous region in the north to the wet...
a men's Twenty20 cricket league contested by six city-based franchise teams. The league was founded in 2015 by the Pakistan Cricket Board. Instead of...
Iraqin existence from 1995 to 2003 United States Office of Facts and Figures (OFF); see OWI (United States Office of War Information) Of, a city in Turkey...
fiction authors List of Canadian historians List of Canadian women writers in French List of Quebec writers List of French Canadian writers from outside...
documents relating to Australia's involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the National Archives in 2020 for public release. Anthony Albanese announces...
Rashid, Iraqi politician and minister Latif Safarov, Azerbaijani actor and movie director. Latif Salifu, Ghanaian football player Latif Yahia, Iraqi author...
bronze figurine (perhaps the base of a vase) found at Khafaji inIraq shows two figures in a wrestling hold and dates to around 2600 BCE. Interpreted as...
June 12 – In the Camp Speicher massacre inIraq, ISIL kills 1,566 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets. It is the second deadliest terrorist attack in history and...
Operation Iraqi Freedom Métal hurlant, also called "Heavy Metal", a French comic book Heavy Metal (cricket), an incident in a 1979 cricket match involving...
May: 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup in Qatar : Japan : Uzbekistan : Iraq 4th: Indonesia 17–28 April: 2024 AFC Futsal Asian Cup in Thailand : Iran : Thailand...
explodes in Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least 135 people and injures 339 others. February 13 – North Korea agrees to shut down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon...
(1967–1975). Sami Michael, 97, Iraqi-born Israeli writer (All Men are Equal – But Some are More, A Handful of Fog, A Trumpet in the Wadi) and human rights...
original member of the Special Air Service. Mushtaq Talib Al-Saeedi, 43, Iraqi militant commander (Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba), drone strike. Kishin Shinoyama...
playing "cricket, quoits and football" was established in Newcastle on Tyne in or before 1848. The Surrey Football Club was established in 1849 and published...
events that took place in 2022 relating to television in the United Kingdom. 2022 in the United Kingdom 2022 in British music 2022 in British radio List of...
Pakistani to play cricket for the Scottish cricket team). Mahmood attended Craigholme School and Shawlands Academy in Glasgow. In 2015, her family challenged...
with legends, dies UN envoy Giandomenico Picco, who helped end the Iran-Iraq war and won hostage releases, has died Isère : un dernier hommage aux obsèques...
region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live inIraq, primarily...
Northern Bust, in which the player's score is reset to whatever it was immediately before the last dart they threw. C In a game of cricket this refers to...
couple performs for the Australian troops inIraq. A lawyer complains about the cricket results when his client in jail. Father Inappropriate 'thanks the...
Chris Kyle who became the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history with 255 kills from four tours in the Iraq War Amour Fou (2014) – Austrian biographical...