Following the conclusion of Ramadan last week, we are taking the chance to look back on the events and initiatives that we ran and participated in to mark the holy month this year.
At Headingley we were delighted to host a second annual special Iftar meal, which brought together members of Yorkshire’s professional squad, the Northern Diamonds, staff, and Muslim colleagues who were observing Ramadan. During the event a panel discussion followed by a Q&A session – led by Yorkshire CCC Chief Executive Stephen Vaughan – also took place with Maroof Khan, the Director of Business Development, Maryam Ali, the Dream Big Ambassador for the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation and Nasa Hussain, the groundsman at Park Avenue Bradford.
The evening opened with a Quran Recitation led by Zain ul abdin, and Imam Qari Asim from Makkah Mosque in Headingley spoke with staff about the significance of Ramadan in the Muslim faith. Chris Edmondson, Yorkshire CCC’s Club Chaplin, also spoke about parallels between the Christian and Muslim faiths and the significance of Easter in the Christian faith.
Pictured, a second annual special Iftar meal hosted by Yorkshire Cricket takes place, bringing together members of Yorkshire’s professional squad, the Northern Diamonds, staff, and Muslim colleagues who were observing Ramadan.
Humaira Aslam from Islamic Relief, who has worked in the NHS for the past two years, was in attendance at the Iftar event, and shared her experiences about what Ramadan means to her:
“For me it’s a month of reflection and an opportunity to really reflect on what is important in your life, what your priorities are and to just try and better yourself as a person.
“The celebration here at Yorkshire Cricket has been so special. It’s given the opportunity to speak to non-Muslims in particular and I know for me growing up in Chester with a lot of non-Muslims it’s just a lot of people are very inquisitive and curious and they just want an open platform, somewhere the can ask questions and learn more about Ramadan and the religion and I think this is such a beautiful, comfortable space for people to do that.”
Mo Hussain, the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, said at the event: “It has been a really special evening, particularly hearing about people’s journeys. Within the panel we had people with backgrounds from South Asia, we had young professionals and we had people who are second and third generation Muslims who have grown up here in the 70s and 80s so to have that mix of experiences shared at Yorkshire and that is truly representative of who we are as a community as an organisation.
“It’s been a great example of what Ramadan means to me – it’s about sharing, community, culture, and developing relationships. ”
Across the month, the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation – the charity arm of the Club – has also run a number of events through its Core Cities program including the Yorkshire Ramadan Cup at Wakefield Football Centre. Run in partnership with the ‘Check-in With Your Mate’ campaign, the event provided the opportunity for people in the community to pray, play cricket, and eat together.
Pictured, participants take part in the Ramadan Cup, hosted by the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation.
Recognising that many participating in the game across the county would be marking Eid-ul-Fitr last Friday, the Yorkshire Cricket Board – which oversees the recreational game and supports more than 850 grassroots clubs and schools playing the game every week in the summer, equating to more than 125,000 recreational players – encouraged all league clubs to be mindful of those marking the occasion to offer greater flexibility in terms of re-arrangement of fixtures. This made Yorkshire the first county to allow games to be rescheduled without points deductions in the instance of postponements when Clubs were unable to field a team during Eid.
Next month, we are looking forward to an Eid Milan event at Headingley, bringing people back together for a final celebration to mark the end of Ramadan 2023.
