Balochistan has never lacked cricketing talent. What it has lacked is a clear path for girls who want to play. Khairun Nisa Baloch is trying to change that.
For Baloch, cricket has been part of her life since childhood. She played for more than seven years, but like many young women in the province, she found that talent and interest were not enough to build a career.
Instead of leaving the game, she found another way to stay involved.
At 26, Baloch is Balochistan’s first woman cricket coach. She began her professional coaching career in 2019 after completing Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) coaching courses. Coaching, she says, gave her a chance to do what she had always wanted: help other girls go further than she could.
“I started cricket in 2012,” she says. “After 2017, the PCB stopped our matches, so cricket here had almost come to an end. There was no proper platform for us.”
Missing Opportunities
The lack of regular matches was especially frustrating. Girls could train, but without competitions and a clear path to higher-level cricket, it was difficult for them to improve and move forward.
Baloch decided to create opportunities herself.
She began coaching girls and visiting schools to encourage more students to take up cricket. Her message to families was simple: their daughters could train under a woman who understood both the game and the concerns that often surround girls playing sport.
Breaking Barriers
The change was clear.
Some girls who had been discouraged from joining academies because the coaches were men were finally allowed to train. Others, who had played cricket casually at school or college, began taking the game more seriously.
For the young players, Baloch is more than a coach. She is also someone they can see themselves becoming.
One of her students says she had loved cricket since childhood but struggled to convince her parents to let her play outside school. She eventually joined the academy after learning that a woman coach had been appointed.
“I have obtained major skills and techniques that I wanted to learn to become a good cricketer,” she says. Her ambition is to represent Pakistan.
Dreaming Big
That ambition is shared by many of the girls Baloch coaches.
Balochistan has produced only one woman cricketer who has represented Pakistan internationally, Quetta-born Nahida Khan. Baloch wants many more girls from the province to follow her.
“There are many talented women cricket players practising under my supervision,” she says. “They have potential and are also paying keen attention to their physical fitness.”
A Bigger Goal
But Baloch knows enthusiasm alone is not enough.
Balochistan needs regular competitions, better facilities, trained coaches and a clear route for promising players to reach higher levels of the game. Without these opportunities, talented girls can easily lose interest or leave cricket altogether.
There have been some encouraging steps. In 2021, the provincial government, with support from Quetta Gladiators, hosted a national women’s cricket tournament. It gave local players a chance to compete alongside established cricketers.
For Baloch, such events matter because they show what is possible. But she believes the province needs regular support rather than occasional opportunities.
The Next Generation
Her own experience has shown her how quickly a promising player can be held back when the system around her is weak. That is why she wants to make the journey easier for the girls coming after her.
She is clear about what she hopes they can achieve.
“I am very much optimistic that they can play for the national team in the future,” she says. “It would be a proud moment for me.”
There is something personal in that hope. Baloch could not take her own playing career as far as she wanted. Now she is trying to make sure the girls she coaches do not face the same limits.
For her, every girl who walks onto the cricket ground is another chance to change the future of women’s cricket in Balochistan.
