– Shameela Mosweu, Botswana FairBreaker 

The team greet Shameelah on arrival at Bradman Oval

Now that everything has calmed down, I can finally post.

So, as some of you might have seen, I was originally denied a visa to go play cricket for FairBreak Global in Australia. A little background on FairBreak – this is an organisation that promotes gender equality and ladies from different countries get invited to play in the global XI squad. My visa got denied because the Australian government thought I was a “flight risk”.

This story ended up in the papers both in Australia and Botswana, which was crazy for me to process. Due to the backlash from the public, my visa got overturned and I was immediately flown to Australia.

I managed to play in a historic game which is a major privilege for me as a female cricketer.

I just want to take this moment to thank everyone for the messages and the support. I don’t know how I would have handled all of this without all of you. I also want to thank the media for writing up about this, one of the reasons the visa got overturned.

But a special thank you to the FairBreak team; from management to the players for all your support, fighting for me, believing in me and my cricket abilities and also inviting me on the tour (my 2nd tour for FairBreak). This has all been a crazy experience but an experience I’ll never forget.

I can not thank everyone enough.

Cricket was played hard and memories for a lifetime were made, and I look forward to what the future holds for FairBreak and myself.

Once again, a massive thank you to everyone for everything. I really appreciate it and will forever be thankful for this amazing opportunity.

Once a FairBreaker, always a FairBreaker.

#fairbreaker #genderequality #fortheloveofthegame

Shameelah Mosweu, Botswana – FairBreak player #9