MALAWI ELEVEN

Malawi, 2016 

The Under 19 National Women's Team, is Malawi's first-ever female national cricket team. Most of the girls who make up this team come from low-income families where people earn less than $2 a day.   

Cricket might have emerged from its colonial shadow, but, in Malawi, it remains a game for the privileged male: sons of high-ranking officials or ministers, or those who attend the country’s elite primary and secondary schools. Not only is cricket a male-dominated sport, but the traditional and cultural expectations of Malawi’s patrimonial society mean that gender inequality in sports continues to be a serious obstacle.   

Although Malawi's constitution, adopted in 1994, guarantees equal rights for men and women, gender disparity still exists in many aspects of daily life. Due to Malawian women's sweeping unequal status in society, sport is also affected. Which makes the story behind the pictures of the Malawian Under 19 Women's Cricket Team even more remarkable. That these girls are here at all is a miracle. Some have walked for hours, others have defied tradition, but all are hell bent on changing the face of the quintessentially male game of cricket.