In mid-1997, Jodie Davis got a call that changed her life forever.
Almost a decade on from her stint as an Australian player, the 30-year-old, Canberra-based sports biomechanist was working at the Australian Institute of Sport, juggling various coaching roles.
She was also still playing cricket at a state level and travelling up to Sydney each weekend to represent the Gordon Women’s Cricket Club.
Davis took the call at work and on the other end of the line was Sue Crow, the then executive director of Women’s Cricket Australia (WCA), reaching out to gauge her interest in becoming the very first coach of the Pakistan women’s team.
Pakistan had toured Australia and New Zealand three to four months earlier in a bid to qualify for the upcoming Women’s Cricket World Cup in India and as it happened, Davis had briefly crossed paths with the team when they’d played a practice match against her ACT side at Manuka Oval.
“I picked up the phone, got this incredible offer and said yes straight away,” Davis told the ABC.
“I remember putting the phone down and thinking ‘Oh my gosh, what have I done? I have a mortgage; I have a life and I’ve just committed myself to heading overseas.’
“I’m not a spontaneous person, so it was out of character, but I was young at the time and it was an opportunity to do something unique … The next thing I knew I was in contact with Shaiza Khan, who wanted me to come over right away.”
The early makings of a Pakistan’s women’s cricket team
Shaiza Khan was the inaugural female captain of Pakistan, who, alongside her sister Sharmeen was the driving force behind women’s cricket in their country.
They came from a wealthy background, thanks to their father’s successful carpeting business, and had been introduced to cricket in their pre-teens during their time living as immigrants in England.
The ’80s and ’90s in Pakistan were especially dangerous for women, who for all types of cultural and religious reasons, were discouraged from participating in physical activity outside their homes.
But the Khan sisters loved cricket and they loved their home country, and those passions combined when they came up with the idea of starting their very own Pakistan women’s team.
At the time, there was already a women’s cricketing body in action. The Pakistan Women’s Cricket Association (PWCA) had been founded in 1978 and had been successful in its mission to establish cricket matches at several women’s universities behind closed doors.
But its request to form a national team and tour India in 1980 was denied.
It was also difficult to advocate for women’s sport under the rule of dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and the effectiveness of the PWCA took a turn when some of its influential members broke away and tried to take control of the sport in a new association operating under the same name.
In 1988, Zia died in a plane crash and Benazir Bhutto was democratically elected as the first female prime minister of Pakistan, bringing a wave of hope for change in women’s rights in the country. The Khan sisters, now teenagers (Shaiza, 19, and Sharmeen, 16) moved back to Pakistan with their family in Karachi, set up a women’s side and organised an exhibition match against a team made up of former men’s international players.
These efforts were embraced by some but lobbied against by conservatives, and it led to the family receiving death threats as the local police worried about riots. As a compromise, Shaiza was forced to change the opposition to make it an all-female affair, allowing the match to go ahead without spectators.
Despite the success of this endeavour, their father harboured worries about their safety and he sent his daughters back to England to further their studies, where they could play cricket free of harm.
In 1993, they were invited to train alongside the England’s national side in the team’s preparations to host the upcoming World Cup and this opportunity, along with their experiences spectating at the tournament spurred them on further.
They hunted down the International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) representatives present and let them know of their intentions to become an affiliate of the international body. There was a huge list of requirements, including the need for Shaiza and Sharmeen to move back and live in Pakistan for at least a year, but they went about ticking them off, one-by-one.
Before the PWCA knew it, they’d been beaten to the punch by a couple of strong-minded, ‘Westernised’ sisters that weren’t going to wait in line for an opportunity. They’d set their sights on competing at the next edition of the tournament and the last task they had to complete was to form a team and play a minimum of three international matches.
Leaning on the connections they’d made at WCA and the New Zealand Women’s Cricket Council (NZWCC), as well as their father’s business for sponsorship, they headed down under in early 1997 to face teams both sides of the ditch.
When the tour came to a close, they’d lost all three of their debut ODI matches (New Zealand x 2 and Australia x 1) in pretty significant fashion, but they’d achieved what they’d set out to do – qualify for the World Cup.
Despite this, it was clear they desperately needed a coach to give them some direction and that’s where Jodie Davis came in.
Davis creates history as Pakistan’s coach
Reaching out again to the WCA and NZWCC for assistance, the Khan sisters leant on the leaders of the game to help them find a coach.
Davis had all the coaching qualifications required and had plenty of experience, having guided several ACT representative boys and women’s pathway teams at national championships.
She was also working as one of the Australian women’s satellite coaches during a period where the national team did not yet have a central training hub.
Fast forward to Crow’s phone call to Davis and the rest is history.
In fact, in the years since, the gravity of the appointment has dawned on Davis, who now realises she is likely to have been not only the first Australian to take on a national coaching position abroad but also the first female to officially coach a national cricket side worldwide.
“Back then, we’re talking 25 years ago, that was somewhat of an anomaly to have a woman in a senior position like that,” Davis said.
“Part of the reason it happened is that it was very specifically outlined that because of the Muslim religion in Pakistan, but also the thought of trusting young women to somebody, meant that a female coach was going to be imperative.
“I think if there had been a male coach you would have seen a reluctance from Pakistan families to allow their daughter to be involved and Shaiza had personally gone to the players families and guaranteed their safety in all of their travels.”
As mentioned, the Khan sisters were very keen for Davis to join them in their preparations right away, but with a full-time job to consider, they had to find a compromise and Davis instead agreed to head over to Lahore in early November, six weeks prior to the World Cup.
Challenges of World Cup preparation
Davis came up against many challenges during her time as coach and while many other women’s cricketing teams have faced their fair share of social barriers to play the game they love, Pakistan may have arguably had the hardest trot.
Beyond their funding and resourcing issues (seeing the Khan family bankroll their whole World Cup campaign), there were huge cultural and political obstacles they had to breakthrough.
They received regular death threats, had to train in a barracks under guard watch and made sure their sessions ran early in the mornings to avoid attention.
“When I arrived in Pakistan I was stared at, I remember being the only woman on the plane and being intently stared at the entire way,” Davis said.
“The population over there is like a 5-2, 5-3 male to female ratio and because women don’t hold a lot of the same freedoms as men do, they weren’t out and about … when I was there women couldn’t drive, they weren’t allowed in the front seat of the car, they couldn’t have a job, so they weren’t visible and you largely didn’t see female role models.
“As far as the girls in the team went, half of the team was made up of Westernised girls who were a bit older and their families had made peace with the fact they were forging careers, but some of the others – especially the country girls – were young, they were probably under 21 and they either weren’t yet to be married or their families delayed arranging that and laying out their lives for them so they could go ahead with the hope that cricket would bring them fame, money and adventure.
“A couple of times during the preparation we did get calls from fathers and mothers saying ‘we want our child home’ and we’d have to go into a bit of a negotiation about why we needed to keep them a bit longer because we kind of hadn’t played the World Cup yet.
“But generally, for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds with less privileged families, there was a positivity around having their daughters involved. I didn’t see the more radical fathers and families; they were simply absent because their child wouldn’t have been allowed to be involved.”
Beyond this, there was an obvious lack of experience amongst the team, which featured only a handful of players that had even participated in a game of cricket before.
As someone that had been part of the Australian set-up during the peak of her career and had also been helping ACT-based players prepare in the lead up to her tenure with Pakistan, Davis was aware of where a world class team should be at heading in, and this team was light-years behind.
“One of the biggest challenges was the fact that because women were hidden away, the country girls I had to choose from to build around the current players had never even run; they’d never even been outside and played,” Davis said.
“These girls, the first time I took them to the park, they couldn’t run, they had zero body awareness … they couldn’t brake, they couldn’t accelerate, they had no control of their balance or point of motion.
“In our first training session, I took them for their first lap and they told me they were dying because they got to that breathless point and they’d never experienced that before.
“I had to get them up and drag them around, watching them dodge and change direction was hilarious at first … if they weren’t going to be my players at a World Cup in six weeks, then I would have found it more hilarious.”
There were many other issues that tested Davis beyond the cricket field and could have seen her walk away at any point.
When the two PWCA groups that had been fighting each other for power found out about the Khan sisters’ endeavours, they tried to steal the team’s uniforms and places at the World Cup.
They turned up to venues booked for training, wrote to the IWCC and insisted they were the real Pakistan team and announced their own squad selections to the media.
In the days before the real team left for India, Shaiza found out their names had even been put on a no-flight list out of the country, suspecting more interference from the PWCA, and this forced them to sneak out from Karachi instead of Lahore – a place the Australian government had not authorised Davis to visit.
In the end, it was the captain’s strong connection with the IWCC that kept them ahead and in the hunt to make their first appearance at the World Cup.
A life-changing experience
Despite the extra difficulties, the team made it to the tournament breaking new ground for Pakistan and although they didn’t win a single match, their highlight came against the reigning champions England, where they put up a good fight to bat out the full 50 overs; hitting a couple of sixes against their fast bowlers and losing just three wickets throughout the innings.
As an opener, Sharmeen even made it to 41 runs off 80 deliveries — which ended up being the second-best innings of her international career.
They were seriously under full-strength by this point of the tournament and Davis was forced to take the field as a sub-fielder, but their batting survival felt like a win after they’d overheard one of the overconfident English players tell their bus driver they’d be ready to be picked up by lunch.
Once the group stage was done and Pakistan was eliminated, Davis linked up with the rest of the Australian team, lugging around the two Persian carpets she’d received as payment.
The AIS had funded her way over there, and the Khan family had funded her stay, but there had been no money exchanged for her role in their World Cup campaign.
For Davis, it was never about how much she could gain financially, and instead she left with a better perspective on life. Although she has no ties with the current team, Davis will always be entwined with the history of Pakistan women’s cricket.
“It would have been great to hold up a win but certainly our campaign not only created ripples within Pakistan, but within other IWCC countries,” Davis said.
“All of the information that got out about efforts was spread through newspapers exponentially across the country and so people became aware that not only were women playing sport, but there was a women’s cricket team.
“Every week that we would train, more girls kept turning up, wanting to be included, right up until we left for the World Cup.
“For the girls that made the team with a bit more life experience, it was the highlight of their cricket career. For the others, who probably would’ve otherwise only married and had children, to travel to India and play for their country changed their lives.
“It was more than just cricket. If they’d waited for 11 good players to start a team they would have never got there, they just had to get it going and it all started with the two sisters.”
When the team returned home from the World Cup, there was a lull period because so much energy had gone into their initial campaign, that it was almost like, ‘well what’s next’?
Davis returned to Canberra and her Australian commitments and kept in contact with several of the players via letters she has kept safe to this day.
Meanwhile, Shaiza continued to drive the team forward and in the following couple of years they played their first Test matches and hosted countries such as Sri Lanka and Ireland on Pakistan soil.
She remained captain of the side for roughly nine years before the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) took over the women’s side of the game in 2005 – the same year the IWCC and International Cricket Council (ICC) amalgamated – and took the team in a new direction.
Shaiza’s passion meant she could sometimes be a polarising figure, putting people offside, but Davis believes she is still due a lot more recognition from the PCB.
“She was an unstoppable force, she would be up until two o’clock in the morning doing things when I was over there, she had an endless to-do list and in her mind, there was no such thing as failure,” Davis said.
“Because of Shaiza’s tireless work the resistance to women’s cricket got less and less, and in any other country she would be lauded and held up as a symbol … I have never met anyone like her.
“Now you’re looking at the team where you have a mother as captain with a baby that’s well supported and accepted. You’ve got teams that are well thought of, they’re heralded, they join up with the men. I think if you go back, you’ll see that it all started in the mud of that era.
“Don’t get me wrong, Pakistan still have their fight. It is still a culturally difficult place for women, but some of those barriers have fallen through and it had to start somewhere. I like to think it started with that 1997 team.”
You can read the full history of the Pakistan women’s team in the new book Unveiling Jazbaa, by Aayush Pathran.
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