Yorkshire Ramadan Cup celebration brings community together in Wakefield

The award-winning Foundation hosted the Yorkshire Ramadan Cup 2022 – with people in the community given the opportunity to pray together, play cricket together and eat together at Wakefield Football Centre.

The Tapeball Cup competition used a shortened format of 30 balls an innings and featured two teams from Sheffield, Bradford and Leeds plus one from Dewsbury and Huddersfield.

Soyeb Kayat, core cities development officer for Yorkshire Cricket Board (YCB), one of the organisers of the event, said: “This community event has brought the four teams together from across Yorkshire.

"It’s important because it’s brought a lot of communities together, it’s brought a lot of cohesion to us. It’s given the opportunity to meet lots of different people and learn new things.”

This year’s final saw an experienced Dewsbury Tapeball team beat a Sheffield side.

The West Yorkshire side batted first and defended an impressive 89 off just five overs.

Northern Diamonds cricketer Beth Langston presented the trophies as well as taking part on the day, including helping with umpiring.

Beth said: “It’s been good to see the different communities coming together and playing the game in the right way, everybody looked like they were really enjoying it and having a great time.

“You could see so much passion from all the players and the cricket has been really exciting.”

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During the community event there was the opportunity for participants and members of the community to pray together before and after match play and take part in an Iftar meal.

In the month of Ramadan, Muslims do not eat or drink between dawn and evening, with a meal known as iftar taken directly after sunset.

Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. The overall purpose of the fast is to gain Taqwa (which means to gain piety or God-consciousness). This is achieved through an increase in prayers, reading the Qur’an, self-reflection and self-discipline.

Sohail Raz, the YCF’s diverse communities manager helped to organise the competition and said: “There was a really nice community feel with members of the community fasting, playing, praying and breaking their fasts together to create a real family atmosphere.”

The Yorkshire Ramadan Cup event was just one of the initiatives Yorkshire Cricket is showcasing this month to highlight and support Ramadan 2022.

Yorkshire’s professional squad, academy, Northern Diamonds and staff shared a meal for Iftar recently with Muslim colleagues at Headingley currently observing Ramadan. The evening was led by Imam Qari Asim, from Makkah Mosque, in Headingley, who spoke with staff about the significance of Ramadan in the Muslim faith.