"We sat down and asked how we could make a difference": The story behind Brazil's central contracts

NICK FRIEND: On January 9, Associação Brasileira de Cricket – the South American country's governing body – announced the introduction of 14 landmark central contracts for its women's national team

‘Congratulations for leading the way,’ read the final line of a message sent to Matt Featherstone by a member of staff at the ICC.

‘That’s quite a statement by Cricket Brazil,’ it continued. ‘I can’t imagine there’s any other member in the world that has centrally contracted women players and no centrally contracted men’s players.’

On January 9, Associação Brasileira de Cricket – the South American country’s governing body – announced the introduction of 14 landmark central contracts for its women’s national team.

On multiple levels, the news represented a groundbreaking moment for the sport: for the growth of the game in the region, it marks a statement of intent; on a far wider plain, it reinforces the belief that entry to cricket’s top table through the women’s game is eminently achievable; for Brazil, where opportunities like this have rarely before existed in women’s sport, it is a chance to make a career out of a hobby and, by extension, for cricket to grow immeasurably. A quirky pastime has, just like that, become a viable pathway for young women.

And then there is society at large. The message is clear. If Brazil can do it, why not others?

“We’ve got 14 central contracts and we’ve now got 16 members of staff at Cricket Brazil that have come through our other development programmes,” Featherstone explains.

Brazil have handed central contracts to 14 members of their women's squad. Pictures: Cricket Brasil

“What that means now is that there are 30 people that have got a life through cricket. It was just a sport before with no real future; now what we’re trying to say to people who are starting is that, yes, there is a sport and there is a pathway on the social side, but there is also a future in you playing cricket.

“You could actually live from being a cricket player or a cricket coach and become part of the cricket community, which wasn’t an option not very long ago.”

The sport has been played in Rio de Janeiro since the mid-1800s, but the nation only became an ICC affiliate member in 2002. Featherstone reflects on a time a decade ago, when he was faced with a blank canvas and a nation of athletes in a country where ‘taco’ – a street game with similarities to cricket – has long existed.

Ten years later, he has 3,700 children playing the sport – 50 per cent of whom are girls. The women have won the last four editions of the South American Championship, while nine of the 14 contract recipients have come through Cricket Brazil’s grassroots projects in disadvantaged areas.

In the next year alone, Brazil will play against USA in July, face five one-day matches against Argentina, an evenly-matched rival and long-time benchmark in the region, before Brazil set their sights on a fifth consecutive South American crown.

“Soon, we are going to be knocking on the door of the top 20 countries, asking to play games,” Featherstone warns.

“This has been done on merit. The people that are taking this forward are the women’s team. It’s a definite merit-based decision. The level is just going to get better and better every year.”

To a degree, the milestone deals are symbolic reward for the success of a generation but more so, they are indicators of what might be possible now that this team has the chance to grow in a professionalised environment. He describes the precedent set by Thailand, who will make their T20 World Cup debut in Australia, as “the perfect example”.

“It’s come about through quite a lot of hard work,” Featherstone explains. “We started working with our social projects in underprivileged areas in 2010. From those social projects, we were very lucky.

“We had an empty piece of paper, so there was no real thought process that cricket was a men’s game or a women’s game. There was no prejudice. Therefore, when we started, we had as many women playing as we did men. We really felt that this was an opportunity for women to develop their game and to be part of an organisation, whereas football in Brazil doesn’t really offer that to many women’s teams.

“That’s how it started. Really, we’ve sat down as an organisation and asked how we can make a difference. What can be the real postcard of Cricket Brazil? Without a doubt, it has to be women’s cricket.”

And from there, the decision was made. It has taken time, of course. Once, this was a pipedream about which Featherstone had scarcely dared imagine. Nobody has done this before – certainly not in this part of the world, and certainly not with the women’s side as trailblazers.

Previously – and in far more conventional cricketing nations, women’s contracts have come about second, in countries where the men’s game is firmly established and contract systems are already in place for them. The story of Brazil, therefore, is a reminder of why the growth of women’s cricket has handed it such a thrilling opportunity; it can reach areas not fully exploited by the sport in the past. As Featherstone points out, there has been no prejudice, no real thought of gender.

Brazil are an affiliate member of the ICC

“It’s so big,” says Sian Kelly, who heads up the women’s cricket programme in Argentina.

The two countries are fierce sporting rivals in the football sphere, but the pair work closely as the dominant cricketing nations of the region.

Only a decade ago, Argentina’s men hosted Afghanistan in World Cricket League Division Three, while their women’s team – Las Flamingos – set the initial standard for the women’s game on the continent.

“If you think of other teams that are giving women central contracts, the men already have them – people are trying to make their women’s team equal to the men,” she adds.

“What’s different in this case is that the men don’t have the central contracts. They’ve completely flipped it on its head and said: ‘We’re going to go for the women instead.’ That’s a proper statement, saying this is really important.

“It’s not like they’re compensating the women because the men already have contracts. They’ve decided to go for the women, which is really significant. I don’t know if that’s ever been done before.”

Brazil’s women are ranked 36th in the world, while their male counterparts sit 76th. As a four-wicket victory in a low-scoring final against Kelly’s Argentine team clinched a fourth straight South American title in 2019, the men’s side finished joint last in their equivalent competition.

“It’s starting to make the game more equal in terms of people seeing these two teams and comparing them and looking at which team is going to be more successful as opposed to the genders of the two teams,” she stresses.

“For me, as someone who promotes equality, I think that’s the best thing. If you think the men have got a better chance of making it, then that justifies putting more money into the men.

“But if the women have a better chance, that will also justify putting more money into the women. For me personally as a feminist and a promoter of equality, that’s something that’s really refreshing to see that it’s heading in that direction.”

A combination of limited ICC funding and grants, as well as private sponsorship, has made it all possible, while two large companies are also on board – not because of cricket, but because of what this initiative signifies.

“The whole thing is not just about cricket, it’s about giving women the chance and making a difference in South America,” Featherstone adds.

“Cricket is just a vehicle for this. In 2010, if you’d have asked me, I’d never have imagined it nor that it would have been the women’s team to be the first 14 contracted players. But as time has gone on and as we’ve seen that the women’s game has been where the progression has been at the highest level, it is a really interesting stage for Cricket Brazil, but also for cricket in South America.

“When you imagine central contracts, you think of masses of money. But that’s not the case in South America. Also, minimum salaries in South America are not astronomically high, so there’s chance to get this ball rolling through a fee that’s not ridiculous.”

That sport has the capacity to change lives is one of its unique traits. Where the national side used to train for two hours twice a week, now they are full-time professional sportswomen. They will spend four hours each afternoon in the nets at the country’s new high-performance centre, while also working daily with a fitness coach. Lessons in swimming and English also come as part of the programme.

When they are not training, the women will be giving back; it is a fundamental reason for the contracts’ existence. Each morning, the 14 players will help out in underprivileged areas and contribute to social projects. “The whole idea is that we’ve increased the number of coaches through the central contracts as well,” he explains: 16 have become 30, an expansion that will facilitate further national development of the game.

“What we’ve realised is that Brazil doesn’t lack numbers of people to play cricket, it lacks numbers to teach it. Our main principle now is that we have 12 people at university, for whom cricket is funding their university programmes.

“They are the first people in their whole families – you can imagine, given the communities they come from – that will ever have been to university. That was a challenge in itself. But we need to create locals that are educated at university and can teach cricket.

“We’re in that process. We’ve got two that have now finished and 12 that are still doing the course. Every year, we enter three more. As people come out of university and are fully qualified, they become employed by Cricket Brazil. We then spread that out from one city to the next as we grow out number of coaches.”

The plan is to take the game nationwide on a gradual basis; conquering a land of Brazil’s vast span remains an objective for the long-term.

Its sheer expanse will naturally come with its challenges. Three of the players currently live in Brasilia, with two in Rio de Janeiro and another in Sao Paulo. The rest are already based in Pocos de Caldas, a small city in the southeast of the country of 160,000 people, where the national cricket setup is based, and where Featherstone began to grow the game in 2010.

Some of those who live outside the town will move immediately to be closer to their new surroundings, while others will stick to their commute, at least to begin with.

Brazil's women are ranked 36th in the world

The system is not dissimilar to the scheme in place in Vanuatu, where former Australian first-class cricketer Shane Deitz is chief executive. A central contract system was put in place a few years ago and they are hoping to add five women to the programme this year.

They spend 20 hours each week training, with the other 20 hours spent leading school visits, growing the game that way.

“It has made them think about what it means to be professional and has also probably changed their happiness to be at training,” Deitz explains. “They are there every day now, so they are getting more ‘westernised’ to a certain degree. The results have been much better and their skill levels have gone up.”

As Brazil’s first batch of professional cricketers assemble at their inaugural group meeting on Thursday, they will learn more about the expectations upon them.

“This is a whole new thing,” Featherstone laughs.

“It will be interesting to listen to them to hear what their perspective of being a professional sportswoman is going to be like.

“They have really come through the grassroots and realised what cricket is going to do for their lives. It’s not just the cricket, it’s the whole social aspect and the whole community aspect. It’s what they want to be doing. It’s given them a different opportunity. In South America or Brazil, this is a new thing for women’s sport and, specifically, women’s cricket.”

Tangible differences will not be seen overnight, he repeats, well aware of the process he is readying himself to oversee. Rome wasn’t built in a day, of course.

In many nations, a step like this simply is not economically possible, given limited funding and the cost of living. In others, it might not fit the demographics of the national side, nor match up against outstanding job commitments.

In an industry where the pathway to the top for those beyond the status quo is such an unforgiving meander, central contracts might once have looked like an overly ambitious risk.

But this is a game-changer and a bar-raiser. Brazil have made their move. The onus is on others to follow.