Key Points
- Football taking off in Pakistani-Australian community, especially among girls
- The FIFA World Cup 2022 kicks off in Qatar on 21 November
- The T20 World Cup of cricket concludes in Australia on 13 November
The T20 Cricket World Cup may be entering its final stages in Australia, but Hiba Zeeshan can’t wait for the men’s football version to kick off in Qatar.
The twelve-year-old comes from a sports-loving Pakistani-Australian household in which cricket and football are obsessed over in equal measure.
But for Hiba there was only one choice.
"I like football more because it offers more choices. In cricket, you need a lot of patience to wait for your turn to bat or bowl. But in football, you stay engaged all the time," she tells SBS Urdu.
Hiba, who is also interested in art, says she likes watching cricket with her father, but feels football is much more fun to play.
She usually plays as an attacker and says that nothing compares to the feeling of finding the back of the net.
"I practise three days a week. Each training session lasts an hour, but if it is an elite session, we practise for 1.5 hours."
Hibba Zeeshan practices her dribbling during her weekly football drills. Credit: Zeeshan Asad
If her team, Argentina, wins the tournament, she plans on celebrating it over dinner with family and friends.
Growing game
Hiba’s dad, Zeeshan Asad, runs training programs popular with kids from the Indian subcontinent as part of the Football Star Academy.
He says girls make up around 30 per cent of the children enrolled in his academy – and that number is growing.
I make special arrangements that include free training sessions for girls and their parents to encourage female involvement in the sport.Zeeshan Asad
"I believe children from the South Asian diaspora have great potential, and my academy runs regular and elite squads, as well as sends players to Manchester United and Liverpool for training purposes.”
Zeeshan says that while cricket is an established sport in Australia’s South Asian community, football is emerging.
He argues that it is a case of many migrants from the subcontinent simply having grown up without exposure to football.
“But when they arrive in Australia and observe the facilities and opportunities for football, they start engaging with it. Both Pakistan and India have already won cricket world cups and that’s why the popularity of cricket is greater than football."
Zeeshan’s own start in football came outside Pakistan.
Junior football players receive certificates after an academy match in Sydney.
When it comes to his daughter Hiba and son, 14-year-old Haziq, Zeeshan says he has never forced his love of football on them.
"My children watch both cricket and football. I introduced them to the fundamentals of both games, but it was up to them to decide which game they wanted to keep playing. They decided on football," he says.
His son, Haziq, says cricket is a game of nerves, but soccer is all about dedication and taking inspiration from the best.
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Hibba Zeeshan and her family after a football session in Sydney.
Zeeshan and his family are flying to Qatar to watch the FIFA World Cup final in December.
In the lead-up to the tournament, he says his academy is planning lots of activities to stir up excitement among the kids.
Family affair
Hiba’s teammate, Fatima Ismail, also 12, is a midfielder who takes pride in connecting her team’s defensive and offensive lines.
Fatima’s father offered her opportunities to pursue both cricket and football, but she eventually decided in favour of the latter.
"I did practice cricket for some time, but my heart is in football, so I continued with it."
Fatima, who is also a swimmer and debater, believes sport gives her a chance to own her mistakes and learn from them.
I play in a team and sometimes we win, other times we lose, and sometimes it is a tie. Whatever the outcome, we learn from our mistakes and try not to repeat them again in the next match.Fatima Ismail
"We really enjoy it when we win a game and celebrate. We gather in a circle, spray water bottles, scream at the top of our lungs, and laugh loudly. We are stars in our own eyes after a win, so we clap for ourselves too," says Fatima.
With the World Cup looming, Fatima is looking forward to Brazil, Argentina and France’s matches.
She particularly likes Messi, Neymar and Harry Kane, and has a message for these global superstars: "I would tell them that they have inspired many people and should keep doing what they are doing. Because of them, many people have started taking up football as a career."
Fatima’s father, Muhammad Salman Ismail, works as a banker in Sydney.
He says his earliest childhood memories are of staying up with his cousins to watch football matches in the middle of the night in Pakistan.
He wanted to pass on his passion for football to his children, so started taking his son and daughter to nearby academies.
"Children need constant encouragement to succeed in sports, and this is where parents come in," says Salman.
"Parents have to ensure that their kids are present for practise and games, get them to grounds on time."
"We are working parents and it is important to divide tasks. For example, when Fatima goes for winter soccer games, my wife takes her there, then I drop her off at her academy on Saturday morning sessions.
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Fatima Ismail with her family at a wedding in Sydney.
This sport is all about discipline, for parents and children.Muhammad Salman Ismail
Both Hiba and Fatima have already planned out their World Cup routines. They will be staying up late on weekends to watch live games, but on weekends they will watch recordings of the previous night’s matches.
Fatima says, "I have to balance my schedule and follow that routine. If you love this sport, then you can manage it."
Fatima Ismail during a football practice session. Credit: Zeeshan Asad
"My mother cooks very tasty biryani and haleem," says Hiba.
