Maasai Cricket Warriors
The Maasai Cricket Warriors (MCW) is a Kenyan men's cricket team formed in 2007 by semi-nomadic people from Laikipia County. Consisting of 25 players and a counterpart women's team, it participates in semi-professional tournaments aboard, including in London primarily focused on raising funds and awareness through charity cricket and uses its athletic fame for the promotion of women's rights, campaign against female genital mutilation, child marriage, substance abuse, and spreading awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention in Kenya. Captained by Sonyanga Ole Ngais, it is the only and the first cricket team formed  in the history of Maasai community. The tribe is known for lion hunting, a rite of coming of age. They left hunting after learning cricket. Background. The MCW was originally introduced to cricket by Aliya Bauer, a South African primatologist. Bauer noticed the group when she was conducting research in Il Polei village. She purchased equipments and taught them cricket. The semi-nomadic group found the game interesting after realising it looks similar to their traditional hunting and spear-throwing. In 2012, they moved to Mombasa where they learnt cricket at the Legends Cricket Nursery under the coaching of Steve  Tikolo, Thomas Odoyo, and Jimmy Kamande. Their participation in 2013 Last Man Stands championship, London caught attention of their elders (head of Maasai tribe) that subsequently became a subject of discussion with elders about women's rights in Kenya. In 2017 the MCW also appeared in an awareness campaign for the protection of the northern white rhinoceros after it participated in a charity cricket tournament, Last male Standing Rhino Cup against the British Army Training Unit Kenya cricket team. Clothing and equipments. The MCW players wanted to play cricket wearing their traditional dresses of red colour, bracelets, traditional guard around  the body, and sandals made from recycled tires during their 2012 tour of South Africa for Last Man Stands Championship, Twenty20. Besides wearing pads and batting gloves, players also wear traditional dress of Maasai, red shawls and jewels. Players often wear coloured bead-necklace during matches. Fundraising. The International Cricket Council (ICC) provided financial aid to the team in the late 2010 for World AIDS Day tournament. It also received financial assistance from the British Army Training Unit Kenya, and Cricket Without Boundaries, a UK-based organization affiliated with the ICC for safeguarding cricket. MCW in films. In 2015, a  documentary titled "Warriors" was created by a British film director, Barney Douglas, consisting a detailed account of the team.