An Interview With Argentina Captain Esteban MacDermott
Argentina is perhaps cricket’s most mysterious outpost. This is a country that speaks Spanish but has a slight majority of citizens with Italian heritage. Famous for it’s barbecued meats, tango, passionate people, the Avenida 9 de Julio, soccer, suburbs named after generals and wonderful architecture.
It is said that Argentines have their eyes pointed at Europe and their feet planted firmly in South America. Certainly Buenos Aires is a city with the flavour of the very best Europe has to offer. Having said that, Argentines are proudly South American with a culture and heritage that is individual and ever evolving.
Surprisingly, Argentina has an estimated 100,000 people with British ancestry, many of whom arrived in the 19th century in search of a better way of life or work opportunities. Four Argentine Presidents, Ignacio Alvarez Thomas, Arturo Rawson, Edelmiro Julian Farrell and Roberto Levingston, were apparently of British or Irish descent. Until quite recently Buenos Aires housed the only Harrods department store apart from the famous London icon. Old British style red phone boxes, pubs and grandiose houses still exist to this day. As does the English language Buenos Aires Herald newspaper and there are literally hundreds of streets named after Anglo-Argentine men and women.
Argentina has mastered Britain’s most quintessential sports.
Soccer, rugby union, tennis, polo and field hockey are part of the culture yet cricket has remained on the fringes, surviving for sure but never capturing the imagination of the public quite like the other sports. Historians, particularly those who view everything old with an unhealthy admiration may point to the 1900’s and 1930’s as Argentine cricket’s best period but that would be underscoring the current squad which is now ranked 22nd in the world and within touching distance of a World Cricket League Division 1 appearance.
So things are looking up for cricket in Argentina. It seemed further investigation was required into this elusive cricketing land, which was, until the recent acceptance of Brazil and Chile into the ICC fraternity, the lone purveyor of the sport in the region. What better way to find out more about Argentine cricket than to sit down and discuss the game over a hot gourd of mate tea with national captain and development manager Esteban MacDermott. Well actually, the interview was conducted by e-mail but no one needs to know that do they?
Global Cricket
I thought it was about time I started my own blog. I have followed associate and affiliate cricket since 1998. Tony Munro’s BTTW column was a great inspiration. Global Cricket will specifically focus on the non-test playing cricket nations of the world. At present there are 91 countries that have associate or affiliate membership of The International Cricket Council. Most of these nations aspire to play at the highest level. How are they bridging the gap in standards? Do they have good facilities, strong development programs and sound administrative practices in place? There is a need for cricket to embrace a more diverse cultural outlook if it is to prosper in the future. The ICC’s global development program was first initiated in 1997 and began to really take shape after the 2001 ICC Trophy in Toronto, Canada. Although a new cricketing powerhouse is yet to emerge, it is clear that standards are improving dramatically and in time more nations will be able to compete with the 10 full members. I will be featuring newspaper articles of interest, opinion pieces and articles written by myself and some ideas about expanding the game. Please feel free to comment.-Ben Stinga
-
Recent Comments
