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Under review by Eddie Norfolk: “Coaching Youth Cricket” by Ian Pont (Human Kinetics, 2010, approx $21 Canadian, plus taxes) This is one book in the ‘Coaching Youth Sport’ series.
Ian Pont’s book, “Coaching Youth Cricket”, should not be viewed as a run of the mill book on coaching. For one thing, it is aimed at coaches, or those who want or, indeed, serve as coaches, to youth cricketers. It contains a mixture of a proper English upbringing, with practical visions of reality and it makes demands of those who wish to coach youth. Demands young players would be able to read and understand as they mature in life’s education, as well, hopefully, in cricket.
Continue reading Coaching youth cricket with enthusiasm, skill and humour
By Eddie Norfolk
The people of Toronto have spoken and retiring Mayor David Miller will be replaced by Mayor-elect Rob Ford in a few weeks. Mr. Ford promises to bring council spending under control. His success is based on support from both people who traditionally might not want to pay much in taxes at whatever level, and many who have been badly hit by the global financial crisis, so cannot afford to pay much in taxes. Ford’s plans will depend on decisions made by the overall council. The mayor just holding one vote. But one cannot expect spending on cricket to advance, indeed it might contract in certain situations. Initiatives that include summer cricket camps and sessions for kids might be something that comes under pressure. It is hard to envisage capital expenditure on cricket facilities advancing, at least in the short-term.
Continue reading Cricket and the changing Toronto political scene
This summer, I have acquired three new cricket coaching books from bookstores in downtown Toronto. Some may be of interest to cricket enthusiasts. Some have certain chapters that provide valuable guidance on management, communications and accountability as on cricket. Advice provided comes at well below the cost of similar topics in academic books in at least a couple of the books. The cricketing advice is similarly practical.
Continue reading Cricket books on Toronto shelves (Eddie Norfolk)
The rapidly growing cricket scene in St. John’s was recently covered by CBC radio. Check the [...]
Ron Saywack (http://anysportanytime.ca/)
Nine years ago, two of the most ardent cricket aficionados in Alberta, Chris James and Ravin Moorthy, were elected to the Executive of the Calgary and District Cricket League (C&DCL). Chris became president and Ravin, secretary. It was at a time when Alberta cricket had hit a glass ceiling with minimal growth locally and little or no recognition at the national level. The duo set about to change all that through vigorous proactive measures. They embarked on an ambitious ternary futurological goal to acquire new facilities for the growing sport, to improve funding for the leagues in Alberta and to get Alberta players recognized and represented on Team Canada. At that time, most of the national players selected to represent Canada came from Ontario and British Colombia, with only a smattering from the other provinces, the bank account was bare and Riley Park (RP) was the only facility available for cricket in Calgary. Chris and Ravin began to set the wheels of change in motion. But there were many obstacles to overcome.
Continue reading Two Alberta visionaries reap the fruits of their labor at national level (AnySportAnyTime)
Martin Williamson
The recent announcement of a restructuring of the bloated international calendar by the ICC was an opportunity to restore sanity to the world game. Instead, all it has confirmed is that the battle within the ICC between the money men and those with a genuine interest in the world game is over. As expected, the bean counters have won. The 2015 World Cup will have 10 teams, and while ICC officials say that no final decision has been taken on how these teams will be selected and that there might be still be a chance for Associate members to participate through a qualifying tournament, there is little likelihood of this materialising.
Continue reading ICC avarice dooms Associates to the wilderness (CricInfo)
By Ron Fanfair
Canada’s World Cup cricket hopefuls must participate in at least the last five matches and pass a rigorous fitness test at the end of next month’s three-week training camp in Sri Lanka that also includes 10 one-day contests. A squad of 18 players leaves here on November 1 for Colombo where they will hopefully be joined by overseas-based players John Davison, Geoff Barnett and Ian Billcliff for the last week of the camp.
Davison, a former Canadian captain, is the spin bowling coach at Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane while Barnett, a left-handed opener, and Billcliff, a middle-order batsman, are based in New Zealand.
“If you want to be eligible to play for Canada in the World Cup, you have to be in Sri Lanka and you have to pass a fitness test,” said Cricket Canada’s senior selection committee chair, Chris James. “Candidates will also have to play in at least five matches and that’s why we have requested the presence of the overseas-based players. Basically, the World Cup team will select itself after the Sri Lanka camp.”
James expects the team to be announced by mid-December.
Continue reading Fitness key to participation in World Cup cricket (Share News)
By Nouman Khalil
Three weeks after the expulsion of Ontario Cricket Association (OCA) from Cricket Canada, the much-expected Cricket Council of Ontario (CCO) has come into existence as the province’s new governing body. According to a press release issued to Focus by a CCO representative, Cricket Canada has recognized CCO as the regulatory body for cricket in [...]
Tariq Engineer
Chandra Gocool, Cricket Canada’s chief executive, has questioned the ICC’s thinking on developing cricket around the world following the decision to shrink the 2015 World Cup to 10 teams, but expand the World Twenty20 to 16 teams.
“Being an Associate Member country that has moved past T20 being the ‘lightning rod’ to our development, as we play the other two forms of the game currently, it begs the question – what do we aspire to?” Gocool told ESPNcricinfo.
The ICC has asked its governing council to examine the issue of qualification for ICC global events and make recommendations to the board, but Gocool says a 10-team event makes the likelihood of an Associate Member playing in the World Cup a challenging prospect. “Much depends on what the qualification process will look like for Associates to grow and be able to be part of this event in future.”
Continue reading Canada unhappy with reduced World Cup (Cricinfo)
Dave Liverman – a commentary for Canada Cricket Online
The 2015 World Cup now looks as though it will be a World Cup in name only, after the ICC decision to restrict entry to 10 teams. They did not explicitly state that those teams will be the 10 full member nations, but the absence of an announcement of a clear qualification path causes great concern. To provide a means for the Associates or Affiliates to qualify requires the goodwill of the full members- and it seems very unlikely that Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, West Indies or even Pakistan would open themselves up to the possibility of having to fight through any qualification round. Restricting entry to the top ten (although Zimbabwe is currently actually ranked eleventh by the ICC) assures them of a tidy pay-check without the onerous responsibility of actually playing well.
All four of those full members lost to Associates at the World Cup, and in the process provided some of the most memorable moments of recent events. The ICC decision is in part a knee-jerk reaction to the negative perceptions of the last World Cup, yet for most, the most exciting moments of that ill-starred event were provided by the Irish. The only innings I can remember from the 2003 South Africa World Cup was Canada’s John Davidson’s stunning century against the West Indies (who did win that Cup anyway?). Go back even further, and recall how great performances from Sri Lanka and Zimabwe paved the way to full member status. The wonderful match between Zimabwe and India at Tunbridge Wells in 1983 had Kapil Dev’s 175 rescuing India from 17/5 – but Zimbabwe only lost by 31 runs.
Continue reading A World Cup in name only
Rod Lyall of Cricket Europe comments…
“So as the door is definitively slammed on the aspirations of the vast majority to reach the pinnacle of world cricket, and the top Associates and Affiliates are effectively informed that they’ve been wasting their time for the past ten years; untold sums are probably to be thrown at the ICC’s [...]
The ICC has moved to clarify “sensationalist and emotional”reports in the media that the future of the Intercontinental Cup was in doubt. Comments attributed to Richard Done, the ICC’s high performance manager, suggesting there were serious question marks over the tournament were “taken out of context” a spokesman told Cricinfo. “There has not been a discussion [...]
The 2015 World Cup will be competed for by just 10 teams, the ICC has announced. CricInfo report:-
“The 2011 World Cup, to be held in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, will include 14 countries and run from February 19 to April 2. The lengthy tournament is itself a smaller version than the 2007 event, which [...]
Angela Domingo
Cricket, the quintessential English summer game, has made a comeback at the University of Toronto in recent years. U of T is well aware that the sport is growing, and if progress continues, cricket could be well on its way to achieving varsity team status in the future. Once so popular that it was declared Canada’s national sport by former Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald in 1867, cricket disappeared from U of T, and from national consciousness in the early 1900s. Over the last decade or so, however, interest has been revived, and there is possibly nowhere this interest is better represented than in the multicultural populations in colleges and universities across Ontario. There are very active cricket communities in a number of institutions including all three U of T campuses, York University, Ryerson University, and Queen’s University. University students have been participating in cricket tournaments and leagues in both intramural and extramural formats, encouraging an ever-growing number of enthusiasts to get involved.
Continue reading Varsity Blues Cricket? (Varsity)
The following statement is being published at the request of Ranjit Saini.
Statement:
I have taken the note of the auditor’s report that is being circulated and commented upon by few parties. Please be advised that at no point, I was consulted or approached by the honourable auditor or anyone associated with MLCC to provide information or support documents to assists with the task assigned to the auditor by the MLCC management. I have therefore sought intervention from the Institute of the Chartered Accountants of Ontario to deal with the matter to see if standards were followed in the preparation of the report. The report covers two partial financial years (Jan 14, 2008 thru July 12, 2008.). MLCC financial year is from October to September.
Continue reading Statement from Ranjit Saini
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