On the streets of Brazil they call it Taco.
No, it’s not a shell you fill with seasoned meat and guacamole. Taco, also known as Bats, is a Brazilian descendant of cricket, born from British ex-pats of the 19th century and mutating into its unique form over generations. It’s a popular game that requires only four players and minimal equipment and it has become a common boast to claim you are the best Taco player in your neighbourhood.
Each side has two batters and two fielders. Three sticks, balanced on the ground and meeting at the top, form the stumps but empty bottles or oil cans are a handy substitute. The bat is narrow and, if none is available, a broomstick will suffice and the crease is a full circle marked around the stumps.
Runs are accumulated by running between the two sets of stumps, there are stumpings and run outs and many of the more familiar skills and concepts of cricket.
Roberta Moretti Avery was a sporty little girl living in Poços de Caldas. Growing up in a country where football is king, she knew nothing about the wider world of cricket. But she was the best Taco player in her neighbourhood.
Now she is a professional cricketer and captain of the Brazilian Women’s team.
Poços de Caldas is a city of around 180,000 people in the southeast of Brazil, most famous for its therapeutic hot springs and the statue of Christ the Redeemer that stands on a mountain above the city, arms spread wide.
It’s also the location of a quiet but remarkable revolution in the cricket world.
Matt Featherstone moved from England to Brazil in 2000 with his Brazilian wife. A keen cricketer, he quickly saw an opportunity for the sport to flourish in a country where there were few preconceptions, particularly around female participation, and a surprising foundation in the street game of Taco.
“It just happened the ICC, at the same time, were looking to expand cricket worldwide”, explained Featherstone, speaking on a video link from Poco de Caldos. “They were looking at their 100th anniversary in 2009 and then started actively looking for new members for new associates and affiliates in 2005, 2006 and we fell perfectly into that.
“We'd started a Cricket Association, in 2001, which was just an expat association and then as we became part of the ICC we needed to fulfil various membership criteria. So we then decided we’d look for small community projects that would maybe embrace cricket, and it started there really we started at an orphanage with 26 kids in 2009, officially.”
There are now 5,000 kids playing cricket in 50 schools in Paco de Caldos and at least half of them are girls. Featherstone says the number would be far higher but the cricket association has struggled to meet the growing demand for coaches. Conscious that the key to growing the game was to engage locals, rather than relying on expats, Brazil Cricket now has a number of University programs dedicated to producing a generation of home grown coaches who were also fully qualified PE teachers coaching a new generation in schools as part of the sports curriculum.
"The real reality came when Brazilians that lived in the same suburb in the same district or community were saying, this is the best game in the world"
“The main thing for us was we wanted to make it a sport for Brazilians,” said Featherstone. “We've got 220 million Brazilians here so we've got fairly big capture zones to work with. I was very conscious that we didn't want to be just an expat sport for expats. We have a system where they come out of of university, go to schools, work with us as a fully qualified PE teacher therefore we can then grow the system. The real reality came when Brazilians that lived in the same suburb in the same district or community were saying, this is the best game in the world and with this game you can go to university, you can maybe represent the town, you could maybe represent the state, or even play for cricket Brazil.
Those who go through the university programmes are known as the ‘black t-shirt’ coaches thanks to their distinctive uniforms. Many have come from poor areas, projects and orphanages. Most are the first in their families to ever attend university.
THE EMERGENCE OF BIG MOM
Moretti was an athletic child who excelled in a range of sports. After spending seven years working in England, she returned to Brazil with her husband and played competitive golf. But she soon turned to cricket, drawing on her childhood experience of Taco. Eight years later, at the age of 35, she’s a leading figure of the sport and has earned the nickname ‘Big Mom’ in the Brazilian team.
“All the players from my region come from social projects, so we start teaching them when they are 12, 13, 14, a little bit younger, sometimes a little bit older, and I started when I was 28,” said Moretti. “So I was much older than girls. So, with time, I'm travelling with all these girls, and sometimes telling them a little bit off sometimes showing them what to do. I was like their mom.
“I was actually able to take care of them, help them out through this age or the lessons which are creating so many values and learning so many things about life. It was good to be a role model from from them, now they're 20, 22, they are playing with me in the national team So, I don't feel like I want to be called the Big Mom anymore!”
“Cricket overall for me has been a big learning curve because I came from individual sports, the more you train, the more you put into it, it benefits my thing and I always used to do my own thing all the time. In cricket it’s different, you have to grow with your team, you put your work in but you your team grows together with you. You have to make sure that people are believing themselves as much as you believe in yourself. So I think this collective feeling of cricket brings all this family environment to it. We call ourselves family.”
LEADING THE WAY
At a time when other traditional cricket nations still struggle with gender parity, Cricket Brazil stands out. In January 2020, Moretti and 13 teammates raised eyebrows around the world when they were awarded central contracts that allows them to play professionally, a move that was recently recognised by the ICC when it awarded Cricket Brazil the 100% Cricket Female Initiative of the Year. It is the first Associate country to award female players central contracts before men.
The players train five days a week, in addition to four gym sessions. They also take part in community programmes.
“This new pathway for girls, you see that girls are starting now to look at us, to say I want to play in the yellow shirt, I want to be like us, I want to be a cricket professional. It shows how much we can actually get girls into the sport and get cricket growing into showing that everyone can play it and everyone is welcome to be around as of any time.”
A NEW TWIST ON AN OLD CLASSIC
Freed from the constraints of traditionalism, cricket in Brazil has developed its own colourful flavour. Singing is a huge part of the sport; not only are there team songs, there are songs for different parts of the game and each player has their own individual song, joyfully belted out when they take a wicket or a catch or reach a milestone.
Then there is the Brazilian shot; a kind of fluid, twirling switch hit where the batter, starting from a traditional stance, pivots 180 degrees towards the stumps and meets the ball with power in a reversed stance.
“That's the thing in Brazil, we’re starting from scratch,” said Moretti. “This first time [I saw it] I thought it’s not a cricket shot but, if you can hit it, why not hit it like that? So you can get a little bit out of the classic shots that we learned, during the cover driver, you know the cut, but why not hit it? We grew up in cricket seeing that shot, so it’s something that is normal for us, until you start watching games and see that nobody else does that, it is something that is from us.”
THE HOME OF BRAZILIAN CRICKET
Sérgio Azevedo, the Mayor of Poços de Caldos, approached Featherstone as cricket was beginning to flourish in the city.
“All I hear all day is people talking about cricket. What is it?” When he found out about the sport’s growing popularity in the schools and projects, he jumped on board, providing the first ground in the city’s south, and then land for the high-performance centre.
He is now often seen walking about town in a Cricket Brazil shirt and begins every speech by proudly announcing, "I'm the mayor of Poços de Caldas, the Brazilian city where more kids play cricket than football.”
But while there’s local support the need for more equipment and facilities, including a community centre, means Cricket Brazil relies on crowdfunding and the generosity of organisations such as the Lord’s Taverners, who have sent containers filled with bats and pads.
The Lord’s Taverners also sent playing kit, including hand-me-down shirts from the England and Australian teams along with discarded county club uniforms. Now the mayor is not the only local who sports cricket gear.
“You see so many people walking down the streets, kids with even James Tredwell, who I used to play with at Kent, I've seen his shirt walking around my town,” laughed Featherstone. “Someone wearing Stuart Broad’s shirt walking down the street. These people don't actually know who a lot of them are because sometimes the kids who play cricket have taken them home and their parents just put that top on. The father, the mother, walking around town with a shirt with Heather Knight on the back.
Liam Cook our head coach, who's from the UK, when he came over here we sat in a coffee shop and he couldn't believe it. Craig Overton, who plays in the county he’s from, he saw his shirt walking past and he’s having a cup of coffee.”
BIG AMBITIONS
The Covid-19 pandemic hit Brazil harder than most and meant a pause in the game’s expansion. But future plans are ambitious. More local coaches are now qualified thanks to the university programme and, as soon as recovery allows, Cricket Brazil is ready to sign up 33,000 new players throughout schools and communities in other cities near Paço de Caldos.
Developing a strong domestic structure is a high priority. So is climbing the international rankings. Brazil Women, ranked 27 in the world, have won four out of the past five South American Championship and will play in the T20 World Cup regional qualification tournament in September. They are aiming to crack the top 20 in the next 12 months and Featherstone believes Brazil will qualify for a T20 World Cup within six to eight years.
“I actually think a lot of people are going to be very surprised at what they're going to see from Brazil,” said Featherstone. “I think what they've got in their mind about Brazil before the central contracts and what they’re going to see from Brazil after this year and a half after the central contracts, I'm hoping there's going to be a little bit of a shock, maybe shake the system up a little bit. So we're quietly optimistic.”
The players look to the example of Thailand, who qualified for the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia, and impressed many with their skills and athleticism in the field. And for a sport that has at times been a little stuffy, constrained by tradition and treated women’s cricket as an afterthought, the Brazilian shot, joyful singing and a Taco-inspired approach may prove to be inspiration for other developing countries.
“We do believe that the work we're putting in is to become the next Thailand to break these barriers and show how a non-traditional cricket country, with the right structure, the right development, right people, can can grow into a team that can play the World Cup,” said Moretti. “So they definitely inspire us and that's what we're looking forward to in the next few years.”
