Maryam Omar facts for kids

Maryam Osama Khalil Omar, born on March 8, 1993, is an amazing engineer and cricketer from Kuwait. She plays for the Kuwait women's national cricket team. Maryam is a right-handed batter and also bowls, making her an all-rounder (someone good at both batting and bowling). She has even been the captain of her national team! Maryam grew up in Kuwait and also studied in Melbourne, Australia, where she lives now.

Maryam's Early Life and Education

Growing Up in Kuwait

Maryam was born in Kuwait to her parents, Salwa and Osama. She has three sisters named Amal, Zuhoor, and Budoor. From a young age, Maryam loved sports. She tried many different activities like basketball, gymnastics, judo, martial arts, and swimming. She often says she doesn't remember if her first steps were on land or in water because she loved swimming so much! Her father's passion for swimming really inspired her. Maryam even competed in swimming tournaments for clubs. She also mentioned that her mother helped her become strong and tough. Maryam earned a black belt in karate, thanks to her mom's encouragement.

In 2010, when Maryam was 17, she discovered cricket at her Pakistani school in Kuwait. The national cricket board was visiting schools to find girls who wanted to play. Maryam told a newspaper, The National, in 2022, "My sports teacher told me that Kuwait Cricket was looking for girls for the Under-19 Asia Cup, and I said, 'What is cricket?'" Her mother encouraged her, suggesting she might even make the national team. Maryam went to try out and was the only Arab girl there. She thought learning the game might be hard, but her coaches were very supportive. Soon, she fell in love with cricket and focused only on it.

When Maryam started playing cricket, her first name, Maryam, caused a small problem. Many other players had the same name! When someone called "Maryam," seven people would turn around, which was confusing. So, Maryam decided to get a special nickname. She chose "MOKO," which comes from the first letters of her full name. Her favorite shirt number is 25, which she believes is her lucky number.

Cricket was not well-known in the Arab world when Maryam started. Even though many people from cricket-playing countries live in Kuwait, her parents had never heard of the game. Maryam herself didn't fully understand the rules or how popular cricket was. But her coaches, Tariq Rasool and Tahir Khan, taught her everything. They even told her to watch cricket on TV to learn more. Maryam trained for at least three hours every day. She also took courses in umpiring and coaching from Cricket Kuwait. She watched videos of matches and admired AB de Villiers, a famous South African player. Her parents saw how hard she worked and became very supportive, even if they still didn't fully understand the game.

Another challenge Maryam faced was that playing competitive sports is not a common path for women in the Middle East. Maryam says it's hard for girls from her region to follow a sports dream. Her sisters, for example, enjoy cooking, fashion, and socializing, which are more traditional activities. They even call Maryam a "tomboy" because she loves sports. At first, Maryam's father found it difficult to accept her passion for sports, especially if it meant she would be away from the family. He eventually agreed, but he told her she had to stop if it affected her studies. He also set a strict curfew of 9:00 pm, as it's not common for girls in Arab culture to be out late. Maryam believes having a strict dad helped her learn to manage her time and push herself.

After finishing school in 2010, Maryam studied civil and structural engineering at the Australian College of Kuwait (ACK). She did very well, getting top grades, and finished her degree in 2014. Then, she worked as a structural engineer in Kuwait for two years. During this time, she saw women playing in a professional cricket league for the first time. She was visiting a cricket shop in Kuwait and saw a match from Australia's WBBL on TV. This made her dream of playing for a WBBL team herself.

Moving to Australia

Maryam's coaches in Kuwait, who were from Pakistan and India, had told her that Australia was a top place for cricket. To chase her WBBL dream, she applied for a special scholarship from ACK to study at CQUniversity in Australia. She won the scholarship! She was first supposed to go to Rockhampton, Queensland, but she specifically asked to study in Melbourne. She said it was "the home of cricket."

Maryam arrived in Melbourne in 2016 and started her master's degree in civil engineering. The university helped her connect with local cricket clubs. She began playing for Essendon Maribyrnong in the 2016/17 season. While studying, she had more time to train for cricket. She also worked with Cricket Victoria to help more girls play cricket. After finishing her master's degree in 2018, she continued to live in Melbourne.

Maryam's Cricket Journey

Playing in Kuwait

On October 19, 2013, Maryam was the captain of Kuwait Blue, one of three teams in a women's cricket tournament in Kuwait. She led her team to win against Kuwait Red and Kuwait Green in the early matches. In the final, Kuwait Blue lost to Kuwait Red. Maryam shared the award for the best batter of the tournament with Amna Sharif.

Playing in Australia

Maryam played her first two cricket seasons in Melbourne (2016/17 and 2017/18) for Essendon Maribyrnong Park Ladies Cricket Club. This is the oldest women's cricket club in the world! She played for both the main team and the reserve team. In the main team, she played alongside future Australian players like Molly Strano and Georgia Wareham. She also played for Port Melbourne in some men's cricket games.

When Maryam first arrived in Australia, she felt "completely out of her comfort zone." Everything was new: the country, the culture, and even public transport. The way cricket was played was very different, and the players were very skilled. Her best performance for Essendon Maribyrnong's main team was scoring 24 runs in a T20 match against Box Hill. She was also part of the team that won the One Day championship. Her performance improved a lot in her second season.

Before the 2018/19 season, Maryam joined Dandenong. They wanted an experienced player for their young team. This move also gave Maryam more chances to play in the main competitions. To get to training after work, she would drive to Dandenong early in the morning and then take a train to work in Melbourne. At the end of her first season with Dandenong, her team won the Firsts T20 grand final! She played with famous players like Sophie Molineux and Kim Garth. In her three seasons at Dandenong, she consistently scored high in One Day matches, with scores of 42, 49, and 44 not out.

Maryam then moved to the Carlton team for the 2021/22 season. Carlton also wanted an experienced player for their new team. Her first season there was a bit less successful, with a highest score of 34 runs in a One Day match. She also continued to play some men's matches for Port Melbourne.

Maryam's International Career

Early Years (2010–2019)

Maryam was first chosen for the Kuwait national team in 2010, the same year she started playing cricket. The team traveled to Singapore for a tournament, which meant she missed the first two weeks of her college semester. Her father was not happy about that! Maryam was still very new to the game. She later said, "I played for two years for the Kuwaiti side without understanding the rules much. I was really just an expert fielder, like, 'See ball, catch ball.'"

In 2013, Maryam was made captain of the team for the ACC U19 Championship in Thailand. Even though she felt her cricket knowledge wasn't perfect yet, she had hoped to be captain when she was ready. During that tournament, she scored her first international half-century (50 runs) and remained not out.

In 2014, Maryam was named player of the tournament at the GCC Women's T20 Championship in Oman, where Kuwait finished second. In 2015, she was again player of the tournament and led her team to their first-ever tournament win at the Chiang Mai 3rd ladies championship in Thailand. By mid-2016, she was considered one of the best female cricketers in the Gulf region. In December 2016, after moving to Melbourne, she was named the best batter at the UAE International Women's T20 tournament in Sharjah.

WT20I Career (2019–Present)

On February 18, 2019, Maryam made her official Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) debut for Kuwait. She also captained the team against Malaysia in Thailand. This was Kuwait's first-ever WT20I match. Malaysia won the game. Maryam's best performance in that tournament was on February 27, 2019, against Nepal. She scored 29 runs and took 2 wickets. However, Kuwait lost all its matches in the tournament.

In January 2020, Kuwait won the Qatar Women's T20I Triangular Series, but Maryam was not part of that team. Amna Tariq captained the Kuwait squad instead.

In November 2021, Maryam returned to the team for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier in Dubai. Amna Tariq remained the captain. Maryam played in all five of Kuwait's matches and was the top scorer for her team with 107 runs. However, the team again lost all its matches.

Kuwait's next WT20I matches were during the 2022 GCC Women's Gulf Cup in Muscat, Oman, in March 2022. Kuwait finished fourth in this tournament, winning against Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Maryam played in all five matches and was again the top scorer for her team with 145 runs. Her best all-around performance was on March 22, 2022, against Qatar. She took 4 wickets for only 14 runs and scored 40 runs. She was named player of the match. Kuwait won that game. Three days later, against Bahrain, Maryam scored her highest T20I score to date, with 54 runs, even though Kuwait lost the match.

FairBreak Cricket

In May 2022, Maryam played in a special cricket tournament called the 2022 FairBreak Invitational T20 in Dubai. This was a private tournament, and she played for the Sapphires team.

Maryam's Playing Style

Maryam is a right-handed all-rounder. This means she is good at both batting and bowling. She prefers to bat at number four in the batting order. When she bowls, she uses an off-spin style. Maryam sees herself as an aggressive player, but she also tries to play smartly depending on the game situation. In Kuwait, where she learned cricket, women only play the T20 format. So, she was trained to start batting strongly to take advantage of the power play rules.

When she moved to Melbourne, women played both T20 and 50-over matches. It took her some time to get used to the longer 50-over format.

For religious reasons, Maryam wears a Muslim head-covering, called a hijab, both on and off the cricket field. She decided to wear a hijab when she was 15 years old. Before playing cricket, she puts on a special fast-wicking sports hijab. She says, "For sport, I like the hijab a little tighter so I can run and dive around, and do all that cool stuff."

Other Activities

Since finishing her master's degree, Maryam has continued to work for pitt&sherry, an engineering company. She started as a structural engineer, working on a big project called the West Gate Tunnel. From 2019 to 2021, she was a civil/structural engineer, and since 2021, she has focused mainly on civil engineering.

See also

• List of Kuwait women Twenty20 International cricketers