Stumps at dawn

Death threats, hunger strikes, court cases, exit-control at the airport, disparaging remarks from Imran Khan, and a bitter dispute between two cricket organisations. Add to these the cultural barriers of a traditional Muslim society and you could understand why Shaiza Khan, captain of the Pakistan women's cricket team, has more pressure on her shoulders than the average cricketer.

While the highly successful, diplomatically groundbreaking Indian tour of Pakistan was taking place, the West Indies women's team were playing a series of seven one-day internationals and a Test match in Karachi. Thirty-five-year-old Shaiza may have nothing near like the multi-million dollar sponsorship and TV deals of the men's series to talk about, but she is delighted with her achievements all the same.

"The biggest victory was getting the Windies team over," she said in her office at the huge family home in Karachi. Its walls are adorned with team photographs and those of the good and the great in world cricket. There are letters of support from the likes of Queen Elizabeth, British ex-Prime Minister John Major, and from MCC when she and her sister were invited to join - the first overseas women to do so.

"Of course I'm sorry we lost the series, but it was a great personal achievement to get them here. We receive no outside sponsorship so everything has to be privately funded, like going on tour and hosting visiting teams. But I live and breathe cricket and can't imagine life without it. I will do anything to make the women's game in Pakistan go higher than the men's."

Her side had just lost the one-day series 5-2 and the Test match was drawn - despite three landmark performances by the Pakistanis: In the Test, Kiran Baloch, the 26-year-old vice-captain, scored 242, a new world record; Shaiza herself took 13 wickets (which included a hat-trick); and wicketkeeper Batool Fatima Naqvi equalled the one-day international record with six dismissals (two catches, four stumpings).

Their private funding comes courtesy Shaiza's father Mohammed Syed Khan, 68, the wealthy owner of United Carpets which has factories throughout Pakistan and England, who has bankrolled the team from the beginning.

"My two daughters love cricket and this was their only opportunity to play, so I am happy to sponsor them," he said as he watched their match at the plush Karachi Gymkhana. He also converted two huge rooms in his mansion into dormitories for both teams to stay in throughout the series; their back garden was used for practice.

Like many women in the subcontinent, Shaiza and her younger sister Sharmeen played cricket with their brother in the nearby gallis when they were kids. But cricket was unavailable for girls in Pakistan's schools, so her next chance came when she was studying for A levels in England, where she played for the school team.

"I was really inspired by the women's cricket scene in England, and returned to Karachi in 1988 to start a team here. I was enthusiastic but illogical when I tried to organise a high-profile match against a team of ex-Test players, including people like Zaheer Abbas. I thought this was the match that would launch us."

Rather than the launch she envisaged, it propelled her into hot water. Death threats from an Islamic group came by phone to her father's office. The police commissioner of Karachi warned her of riots and, 24 hours before the first over was due to be bowled, told her to call it off.

Several years later she returned to England for a PhD at Leeds, becoming the university's first overseas cricket captain. Around this time she approached the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC), which told her to form a board, and said she must be a resident in Pakistan for a year.

With sights set on the next World Cup, Shaiza ditched the PhD and returned to her native Karachi, going door to door to drum up interest among budding female players, and advertising training camps in the newspapers. She and Sharmeen formed the Pakistan Women's Cricket Control Association (PWCCA).

In order to receive membership of the IWCC, it had to be proved that there was no other women's cricket organisation in the country. The IWCC checked and wrote to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the national sports authority, both of whom said that yes, the PWCCA was the only one in Pakistan and therefore eligible to represent the country.

On 30 September 1996 the long-awaited letter came from the IWCC, granting them membership, although the 1997 World Cup held in India was not a great debut: Pakistan lost every match - no surprise given that their team had only been formed several weeks earlier.

There wasn't exactly a flurry of well-wishers at first. Majid Khan was quoted as saying that "women have no place in sport and should not move outside the four walls of their home." When Shaiza went to see Imran Khan in his office to get his support, "he sat with his feet up on the desk, and asked me why I'm bothering forming a women's team, as they will never be as good as the men's. I walked out."

"Women's cricket is not taken seriously enough in Pakistan," says Farah, a cricket fan who studies at dentistry college in Karachi. "These women are all playing really well, but they need sponsors, support and publicity. There isn't any proper infrastructure although there's slightly more awareness now."

In the major cities there has been some progress, although many girls face the problem of convincing their more traditional parents. Four years ago, 12-year-old Sajjida Shah became the world's youngest international cricketer when she was selected to tour Holland. Her parents wouldn't allow her to travel but the strong-willed girl went on hunger strike until they relented. She proved to be a match-winner.

Shabana Latif comes from the tribal area of Peshawar and has to travel to Karachi for training, and it was tough going to persuade her parents to allow it. On the other hand, Hunza Butt, only five years old, has the full backing of her father to attend a coaching clinic, and her ambition is to be the national captain one day.

Inspirational tales indeed, but the very public infighting, jealousy and bureaucratic hurdles have hampered progress. Crying foul is the Pakistan Women's Cricket Association (PWCA), which claims that the 'Shaiza group', as the PWCCA is disparagingly referred to, has no right to represent the country. "This so-called PWCCA only came into being in 1996, but we are the basis, the founders of women's cricket in Pakistan when we started informally in 1972," says Aazra Parveen of the PWCA indignantly. According to her, she has organised the national Quaid-e-Azam women's cricket trophy annually since 1978, when she helped form the PWCA. She also claims that Shaiza provided false documents and lied to get membership of the IWCC.

In 1997 Aazra sent documents and records of all their officials, tournaments and photographs to the IWCC, disputing the PWCCA's right to participate in international tournaments. IWCC president Mary Britto expressed her horror at news of court cases and battles to establish supremacy, and told them plainly that she couldn't get involved in their fights and that they should consider the good of the game.

The exasperated general manager of cricket operations at the PCB, Zakir Khan, claims that his organisation has done its best to resolve the dispute. Apparently when he encouraged the two rival groups to meet and make peace, the personal insults and mud-slinging that ensued would have sent most running for cover.

Yet it was the PCB, in a move headed by Khan, that tried to prevent the official PWCCA-led national team from playing in a World Cup qualifying tournament in Holland last year, by putting Shaiza and Baloch on an exit-control list so they would be unable to fly out of the country. "We felt the team was not fairly selected, and not democratic," Khan says. The team made it to Holland, lost every game, and failed to qualify; some of the blame for their failure must go to the stress of their situation.

It seems tragic that while cricket has helped build bridges between India and Pakistan during their recent series, the domestic scene is still divided and chaotic. It is a battle which, unless everyone can gather around a peace-making table with no insults or egomania, no one can win.