Batting on the side of history

An exhibition of photographs from the Wakefield Asian Cricketing Archive will go on display tomorrow as part of a heritage project.

The pictures of cricketers down the years will be on display at Light Waves, off Marsh Way from 1pm to 3pm on Saturday, February 18. There will also be an opportunity to share cricketing stories with a filmmaker.

The project is called ‘This is my Story… now Tell me Yours’. The aim is to record stories from first generation immigrants in order to build an archive, which can be accessed at the end of April on a new website by youth and community organisation Next Generation.

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Heritage Project coordinator Sarah Cobham said: “Going through a large bank of photographs held by Next Gen has been an absolute joy and has prompted the re-telling of many stories in the office. We are so excited to hear what stories members of the Asian Community have to share and look forward to documenting them on film.

“Already some of the young women and men who are involved in the project are capturing, through the medium of film, ‘First Memories’ from their parents and grandparents and it’s incredible to hear them.”

She also hopes to capture stories during the cricket coaching programme at Light Waves, which runs until April 8.

Alongside the photographs from Wakefield, there will be a further exhibition from the ‘Parks to Pavilions’ project based in Bradford,

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Curator Mobeen Butt said: “The photographs perfectly capture how young Asians played cricket in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. They didn’t play on cricket grounds, in practice nets or even in parks - they played wherever they could, and that meant playing in alleyways, car parks and wastelands.

“They played with milk crates, traffic cones and crisp boxes for wickets and would carve out a bat from pieces of broken floor board or fence.”

There will be a further opportunity to see a larger exhibition from the Heritage Project at Light Waves between 1pm and 3pm on Saturday, April 1.