Filipino domestic helpers form cricket team and vow to become Hong Kong champions
The SCC Divas team comprise 26 players, many of whom were brought up on baseball, and play in the local development league
Josie Arimas was brought up with baseball and softball in her blood. Having learned the game from her father at 11, she thrived at junior and high-school levels. She wanted to pursue sports at university level but knew her parents could not afford the fees. So with absolute faith in her sporting abilities, she tried out for a softball scholarship at the University of Negros Occidental Recoletos in her native Philippines – and was accepted.
She continued to play baseball after arriving in Hong Kong as a domestic helper in 2005. And it was because of her skills around the diamond that she was asked to join the Hong Kong Cricket Club’s women’s cricket team in 2015.
Arimas, 49, then set out on a mission to promote cricket among Hong Kong’s large community of Filipino domestic helpers – and the result is the 26-strong SCC Divas all-Filipino cricket team who are vying for inclusion in the domestic women’s elite league.
Arimas recruited most of the cricketers from her baseball and softball circles who were eager to try out cricket. They continue to play all these sports.
“One afternoon in Hong Kong, I met two umpires and we chatted about cricket. They showed me cricket on TV and then I watched some actual games at Mission Road, which is right next to the softball ground,” said Arimas, who played for HKCC Willow Wielders for three years before forming Divas.