Over the last 15 years, Salma has devoted her time to making grassroots sport, in particular cricket, a more inclusive place.

Salma was born in Pakistan and moved to the UK at the age of 4. Growing up, she faced cultural and family resistance to women playing sport – something that she was determined to tackle.

Drawing on her own experiences as a young girl who just wanted to play sport, Salma has encouraged over 1,000 local girls to get involved in grassroots sports – and that just scratches the surface of Salma’s admirable achievements.

Salma also captained the first all Asian Futsal Team in Birmingham and founded the first all Asian women’s cricket team. She went on to become one of the few female Asian umpires in the UK, as well as being a senior cricket coach and a director of a sports company.

She has also played at county level for Worcestershire, Northamptonshire and the MCC.

And if that wasn’t enough, when she’s not championing grassroots sport, Salma is a full-time haemodialysis nurse at a Birmingham hospital, providing care for acute and chronic patients with kidney failure.

It’s not surprising that in 2020, Salma was awarded a British Empire Medal in the New Year’s Honours for her services to cricket and diversity in sport.