On a muddy football pitch in Wiesbaden, not far away from buzzing Frankfurt, a group of abandoned cricketers stand waiting in drizzling rain.

The players of SV Wiesbaden arrived here early in the morning to lay down the coconut matting and set up the boundary markers, but it looks like their game will now be called off. The weather is against them and their opponents haven't shown up.

Frustrated, they head out onto the pitch anyway to practise fielding with their coach. Amongst them is 22-year-old Noorwali Aryoubi, who has been in Germany for just eight months.

He used to play top level cricket back in Afghanistan, before setting out on a lengthy journey to get to Germany as a refugee.

From all over the world, people are uniting through cricket in Germany. ( DCB: Andrew Schou )

"It was dangerous for me there in Afghanistan, I want to stay in Germany for a long time," he says in broken English, before repeating again and again that he is grateful to have found a home to play cricket here, a country better known for its football prowess.

His team manager Javed Khan, also originally from Afghanistan, says Noorwali is one of around 30 young Afghans and Pakistanis to have joined his club in the last 12 months. Many of them are seeking asylum in Germany.

"These Afghan players are of such a good standard," Khan explains. "I have played here for a long time, but I have never seen cricketers like this."

"The people that come here, they don't know how they will live," he adds. "They just close their eyes and go for it."

Brian Mantle, the general manager of the German Cricket Federation (DCB), says that for many new arrivals in Germany, cricket is a taste of home.

"It gives them the opportunity to integrate into German society and they are also adding to their happiness," says Mantle. "This gives them a little bit of what they are used to."

Germany's changing face

SV Wiesbaden, based just outside Frankfurt, are one of a number of local teams now playing in German parks. ( Supplied: Javed Khan )

Traditionally one of the economic powerhouses of Europe, Germany took in over a million migrants in 2015, and they continue to stream into the country this year.

It's a border policy that has hit Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity hard, as sections of the German population argue that the country doesn't have the resources to cope.

Mantle admits that the surge in foreign cricketers has brought challenges for his organisation too.

Brian Mantle is the general manager of the Deutscher Cricket Bund. ( AFP: Sascha Schurman )

"We've gone from 1500 registered players three or four years ago, to over 5000 now. It's a boom, whichever way you look it."

Since November, the German Cricket Federation has helped over 400 refugee projects up and down the country with cricket kits and other playing gear.

"Cricket has been developing for 30 or 40 years in Germany, mainly with the help of migrants," Mantle explains. "Obviously, the boom in refugees has made that extreme over the last nine to 10 months.

Mantle says the new arrivals have already improved the level of cricket across the country and, although he admits that Germany doesn't plan on beating Australia or England anytime soon, they are now setting new goals.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see us get amongst the top 20 countries in the next ten years. But becoming a cricket powerhouse is perhaps going a bit too far."

Young all-rounder Noorwali says he's just happy if he makes the local representative team, the Hessen Thunders, in the DCB Super Series next season. The new domestic Twenty20 competition is the first step on the ladder to playing for Germany.

"Our national team squad has four or five players who were born in Afghanistan," says Mantle. "Now they represent Germany all around the world."

"They are learning to be proud and to represent the country they have come to."