Southside-based youth sports club, Active Life Club (ALC) beat a team of police officers from Strathclyde Police for the second time in a row in the annual Community Challenge Cricket Trophy 2007 match, last month.

ALC made 138 runs, while the police had 109 runs, which was a close game.

Around 500 spectators attended the match hosted at Clydesdale Cricket Club.

However, this was not your average match, because the aim was to breakdown the barriers that exist between the police and the ethnic minority communities.

This was a joint initiative between ALC, a volunteer run diversionary based club, which is based at Holyrood Sports Centre;  Strathclyde Police; Supporting Ethnic Minority Police staff for Equality in Race (SEMPER Scotland); Radio Awaz and Culture and Sport, Glasgow among other partners.

The day itself felt like a mini Mela with the sun shining and music provided by DJs from Radio Awaz, information stalls, face painting, food and drink.

On the pitch, ALC started batting and all 11 were out for 138. They were captained by Raza Sadiq. The team’s ages ranged from 16 to 25.

When the police started batting, they lost a lot of wickets early on. It was down to the last few batsmen who managed scrape some runs in the dying moments. Their captain was PC Shazad Rafiq, from Ayr. He won the ‘Man of the Match’ title. Ages in this team ranged from 22 to 40.

The ‘Best Bowler’ went to Imran Ashraf  from ALC and the ‘Best Batsmen’ went to Taqi Mahmood, from ALC.

In attendance were elected councillors, MSPs and police officers.

Nicola Strugeon, Deputy First Minister, attended. She told the LOCAL NEWS, ‘Despite not knowing anything about cricket, hopefully I’ll learn something today. I am also happy to support this worthwhile project which is here to improve the cohesion between the different communities.’

Assistant Chief Constable, John Neilson, Community Safety said, ‘As well as hoping to win the cricket match we want to bridge the gap of misunderstanding that has arisen regarding the police.’

Councillor Irfan Rabbani, (Pollokshields) said, ‘Today is an excellent day, with a good mixture of people. I am happy to support this important event where everyone is trying to earn the trust of the youths.’

Police team Captain, Shazad, said, ‘Although we are very disappointed to have lost again, it has been a really great day. We’ve had time to get to know the other team members, who played very well.’

ALC Captain, Raza, said, ‘It’s been another great achievement for ALC. Come next year, we intend to make it three in a row. More importantly, this has brought the young black and ethnic communities closer to the police and they are becoming more open to them which is really good.’

AND DINNER TO FOLLOW…

After Active Life Club (ALC) had recovered from winning TWENTY: 20 Community Challenge Cricket Trophy 2007, against the team of Strathclyde Police officers, they held a special ‘thank-you’ meeting and dinner at Daisy Street Community Centre, last month.

After the match there was not enough food for all the players and many had to leave quickly anyhow. So as a thank-you to everybody who played and who helped with the organisation, the dinner was held.

Around 30 people attended including ALC Chairperson Raza Sadiq; all the ALC board members; Glasgow’s first Muslim MSP, Bashir Ahmed; South Central Councillor, Anne Marie Millar; senior police officers and - not to forget - the two teams!

All the guests praised the hard work done by ALC in organising the cricket match. They also said how important the ALC work is and some offered their help and support. This was followed by a discussion on how to progress further.

Once the business was out of the way, everybody tucked into the lovely food.