A sport that left with the last batch of British settlers after the First World War, cricket has found a new address in Mexico. It is in its prisons. Under an initiative by Mexico’s National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport, the game is now being played in four low-to-medium security prisons. The commission’s reasoning was straightforward: cricket, they believed, would instil discipline in the inmates. They had only heard of the sport two years earlier. Mexico City hosted the ICC Americas Women’s T20 regional qualifiers in 2021, and the sports ministry was invited to watch. A few months later, Craig White, secretary of the Mexican Cricket Association, found himself in a presentation with Eduardo Acevedo, chief of the National Commission. Acevedo proposed cricket as part of the prisons’ physical activity programme on the spot. Within a week, MCA volunteers were inside the prison compounds — explaining rules, teaching technique, telling inmates to respect the umpire “like their warden.” Basketball courts became makeshift pitches. Barren land was turned into small grounds. Inmates began looking forward …