Bowled over: Big crowds attend annual Asian cricket festival

PLAY: The annual T20 Hull Asian Cup cricket tournament and Mela Festival under way at Hull Sports Centre in Chanterlands Avenue

By Angus Young

Heard the one about a social club with no place to call home?

That’s the issue facing a volunteer-run group from Hull’s Asian community.

The Bengal Brothers’ Social Club was formed in 2017 with the aim of bringing the city’s Asian community together through sport.

President Habib Rahman explained: “At first we just concentrated on cricket but over the last couple of years we have gradually added other sports like football and badminton.

DEDICATED: Volunteers from the Bengal Boys’ Social Club

“There is nothing like sport to get people from all walks of life together to enjoy themselves.

“Then, in 2019, we had the idea of staging a big annual cricket tournament with teams representing their home countries.”

The annual T20 Hull Asian Cup was born but Covid would disrupt things for the next two years.

Habib added: “After a two-year break we returned last year and decided to extend it into a wider festival for the family with food stalls and a bouncy castle for children and it was very popular.”

‘HULL’S FIRST HALAL CUPCAKE QUEEN’: Hazera Khatun

Earlier this week the third annual tournament returned to the Hull Sports Centre in Chanterlands Avenue, with cricket teams representing Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan taking part. Over 400 people flocked through the gates during the all-day event, some possibly attracted by the presence of a guest Test batsman in the Afghan line-up.

In true T20 style, every major moment in each game was also greeted with bursts of music from a resident DJ.

A delighted Habib said; “It’s definitely been the best one so far both in terms of the number of people attending and the support we have received from stallholders, the Asian business community and our main sponsor KWL.

“Everyone in the club is a volunteer and we’ve been preparing for this since January. It seems like forever!

“At the moment we use places like this and Little Monkeys to play but ideally we would like to have our own venue to meet and stage more events. Finding the right place is our next priority and we are looking in the HU5 area because that’s where most of the community live.

“The club has an open membership with no age restrictions. It’s all about getting people together and looking after each other in a healthy way through sport and other activities.

“We also make sure we keep an eye on anyone who might be starting to get into trouble in life. It’s a good way of keeping kids off the street and getting them occupied with sport.”

At this week’s festival, Hazera Khatun was tempting tastebuds with her homemade cupcakes on one of the many food stalls.

She launched her home-based bakery business in Kingswood after becoming a first-time mum just over two years ago, naming it after her son Musa.

She said: “Before having Musa, I worked as a mortgage advisor but I found that I loved being at home and baking so I decided to give it a go, discovered the joys of buttercream and it’s really taken off.

“I’ve just got a five-star hygiene rating for my kitchen from environmental health so I’m over the moon with that. I regularly make cupcakes for a football team in Kingswood and now I’m here for the cricket.

“I’m thinking of calling myself Hull’s first Halal cupcake queen, unless someone has already got there first!”