On a concrete playground in a poor hillside neighborhood in Brazil, ecstatic children are chasing a ball at top speed. But in an unusual scene for the football-mad country, they are indifferent to the goalposts nearby, instead swinging cricket bats and fielding drives. Welcome to Pocos de Caldas, a city of 170,000 people that is the capital of a lovably quirky quest to turn the land of Pele and Neymar into a passionate cricketing nation. Defying stereotypes, Brazil is emerging as a force to be reckoned with in cricket, especially the women’s national team, who were given professional contracts in 2020 — making the country the first in the world to take its women’s team pro before the men’s.
