Mexico all set for CAC 2019: ‘Cricket is one of the oldest modern sports here’

The umpires are flying in from Canada, the problems with Costa Rica’s hotel have been sorted and the weather forecast predicts sunshine and clear skies for the tournament’s opening day this Thursday. But organising the 2019 Central American Cricket Championships has not been without its challenges – Mexico may be home to 132 million people but the country boasts no more cricket infrastructure than you would find in the average Shropshire village.

“We only have one proper cricket pitch in the country and two nets,” says Craig White, the secretary of the Mexico Cricket Association. “We have a challenge just finding the space to play cricket. You need at least two side-by-side football pitches and it’s hard to find that kind of space for cricket in Mexico.”

But space has been found for the seventh edition of El Campeonato Centroamericano de Cricket (or CAC). Squeezed in between two football pitches at the Reforma Athletic Club in Naucalpan on the outskirts of Mexico City lies Mexico’s only turf pitch. At more than 2,500m above sea level it’s the second highest in the world (there is apparently a track in north India about 200m higher) and bowlers from Costa Rica, Panama, Belize and an MCC side will enjoy the extra pace the thin air allows when the tournament gets under way on Thursday.

The MCC won the last edition, held in Belize in 2017, while Mexico have triumphed on the two previous occasions they hosted the tournament. (Geography pedants spluttering with outrage at Mexico’s presence in a “Central American” tournament might also like to know that they also held off Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to win the South American Championships last year. And then go for a lie down.) For the first time the matches, other than those featuring the MCC, will be full Twenty20 internationals and, in another first, there is a women’s competition featuring Mexico and Costa Rica running alongside the men’s version.

As much as crowning a regional champion, the aim of the tournament is to increase awareness of the game in the area. “It’s not visible here, nobody knows what it is,” says White. “People get it confused with the game from Alice in Wonderland. ‘Croquet?’ Even though cricket is one of the oldest of modern sports in Mexico – the first recorded game here was in 1827, decades before baseball or football or boxing.

“So it’s got a very long history. The challenge is that nobody knows what cricket is. That’s what we’re trying to change, to make it more visible.”

It was visible once, none more so than in the late 1800s when British companies and their workers arriving in the country looking for a new life and a new wage brought their old bats with them. Several Mexican football clubs were formed as cricket clubs – the six-time Liga MX champions Pachuca, for example, can trace their origins back to the 19th-century cricket clubs of the region. In 1865 the Emperor of Mexico, Maximilian I, played in a game in Mexico City. There’s a longer history than you might think.

And the relationship between cricket and Mexico doesn’t end with the Industrial Revolution. The track at the Reforma Athletic Club was installed in the 1960s. Fred Trueman played on it for a touring British Airways side in the 1970s (Lincoln Clarke, playing for the home side, edged a hook for four through the slips: “What kind of a bloody shot is that?” came the growl from the bowler’s end, Trueman clearly having lost none of his fire despite being well into his 40s). And in 1985 an England football squad featuring Gary Lineker, John Barnes and others dropped in for a quick game during a 1985 tour of the country in advance of the World Cup the following year.

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As you might expect, despite that long and rich history the current Mexico men’s side is made up of expats, as are the squads of the other nations arriving on Wednesday for the tournament. But while the women’s sides might be a little behind in terms of numbers – with only two countries represented rather than four – they are ahead in terms of local representation. Both the Mexico squad and the Costa Rica team are predominantly filled with homegrown talent.

So there is hope for growth. And for the hosts hope of a third success on home soil, a first men’s and women’s double and perhaps a few more players coming through the local ranks. “Baseball is the second most popular sport in Mexico – there’s no reason why cricket can’t also be popular given the similarities,” says White. “We want to make the tournament a festival of cricket and use it as a springboard.”