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By Ron Fanfair
The retirement of John Davison and the exclusion of Ian Billcliff from the national World Cup squad mark the end of an era in Canadian cricket.
Though residents of Australia and New Zealand respectively, the British Columbia-born players were integral parts of the national side making important contributions when called upon.
Davison, Canada’s most productive player [...]
Norman Da Costa
Canada is cautiously optimistic it could still compete in the next World Cup to be hosted by Australia and New Zealand in 2015.
The International Cricket Council has come under withering criticism for its recent decision to boot out the minnow nations and limit the next tournament to the 10 Test-playing nations.
After being bombarded by letters, emails and insults from the 95 associate and affiliate countries and fans, ICC president Sharad Pawar says his council will revisit the decision at its next meeting in Hong Kong in June.
“It is obvious the ICC was forced to review its decision following the (negative) responses they received,” said Chandra Gocool, Cricket Canada’s CEO. “But having said that I am skeptical to some extent as it could be a smokescreen to placate the non-playing Test countries until the storm dies out.
Continue reading Canada still with World Cup chance (Toronto Sun)
Calgary & District has a new website – www.cricketcalgary.com – all the latest news of the [...]
The Ontario Cricket Association (OCA), the governing body of cricket in Ontario, has appointed the former Canadian captain Umar Bhatti as its head coach. He is a left-handed batsman and a left-arm medium-pace bowler.
Umar Bhatti first played for Canadian in the Under-19s World Cup of 2004, where he finished 30 not out in his debut [...]
The ICC’s executive board will discuss again the composition of the 2015 World Cup during the ICC ‘s annual conference in Hong Kong in end-June. This follows a request from the president Sharad Pawar, in response to strong and widespread criticism of the ICC’s decision to drop the Associate members from the 2015 tournament.
“I have given this matter further serious thought and will request the Board to consider this topic once more,” Pawar said. “I can understand the views of the Associates and Affiliates and the ICC will seek to deal with this issue in the best way possible.”
Over the past few days, the Associate members had met and discussed among themselves how best to handle the decision; those discussions resulted in a letter being sent to the ICC.
“We’ve done a great deal of research over the last week, particularly Warren Deutrom of Ireland, we’ve had a lot of letters of support, we’ve also had some experienced sports lawyers contacting us offering us help,” Richard Cox, CEO of the Netherlands board, told ESPNcricinfo. “On that basis we felt we were at least able to contest the decision around qualification and the opportunity to qualify which is what we’ve done.”
Continue reading ICC to re-consider World Cup format (CricInfo)
Faraz Sarwat
“Canada were not an embarrassment at the World Cup and improved as the tournament went on. Had Canada selected a stronger team and done away with the appeasement of political forces within its board, things could have turned out even better”
The ICC’s decision to limit the 2015 World Cup to only the Full Members has left the Associates in a pickle. What do they now do with themselves for the next few years? Is there any point in even playing 50-overs cricket anymore? The Associates have, after all, been conditioned to function around the World Cup, in a four-year cycle. First they gear up for World Cup qualification, then having qualified, they spend two years preparing for the World Cup, after which comes the fruit of hard labour – actually getting to play in the World Cup. After which the whole process then starts anew.
Continue reading What next for Canada? (CricInfo)
Canada’s coach Pubudu Dassanayake has chosen not to renew his contract once it expires at the end of the month after three years in the job.
Dassanayake, who played 11 Tests for Sri Lanka, took up the position in 2007 but has decided not to extend his contract. Canada had a disappointing World Cup recently in Asia, where they won just a single match, but Dassanayake has overseen an improvement in the infrastructure in Canadian cricket.
“I would like to thank the organization and the cricket community in Canada for the warm support our team has received over the past three years,” he said. “I would also like to express my sincere appreciation for those of you who supported me personally over the years and those who gave their time and efforts to help the team achieve so much in such a short time.”
Continue reading Dassanayake quits as Canada coach (Cricinfo)
The Access and Diversity Unit of Parks, Forestry and Recreation cordially invites you to the Sharing Sports: Canadian National Cricket Team-World Cup 2011 Recognition.
Date: Monday, April 18
Time [...]
Peter roebuck exposes the incompetence behind international cricket administration on CricInfo. He concludes as follows:-
“Now the same disreputable board has ditched the idea of letting the top 10 teams play in the next World Cup. It was inevitable. A lot of money was at stake. And those pointing out that Ireland and company might get the [...]
Bikram Vohra
Four funerals were held simultaneously in Ireland, Kenya, Canada and The Netherlands. A cricket bat and a white cricket ball were dispatched to ashes and an eulogy to greed read out the ceremony.
The tragic circumstances which surround these funerals are bedrocked in the false camouflage that the World Cup, which takes place every four years is too long with 14 teams so four lesser endowed teams have been struck dead. As an eloquent testimony to the dereliction of duty in promoting the sport, a priority encompassed by the role of the ICC as the custodian of cricket, the decision is difficult to beat. It speaks volumes for their desire to promote cricket. Compare that to the 32 teams taking part in the soccer World Cup for a much longer period and you realise that the keepers of the faith, like Brutus, are also knifing the very game that allows them their lavish lifestyle and their inflated importance.
Instead these four nations, instead of celebrating their mature performances have now been robbed of all incentive to spend the next four years getting even better. They will automatically deteriorate and shrivel into nothingness. Against
the backdrop of the associate teams battling it out in the UAE at the moment of writing, the incredible decision to dump these four is like a death sentence to all those at tier two who might want to come up and be someone.
Continue reading Four funerals and a death (Khaleej Times)
Cathal Kelly
If we’re being honest about it, Canada isn’t really great at too many things.
Hockey, sure. Women’s soccer. A variety of niche, winter athletics and a few summer ones, as well.
We can ill afford to take sporting possibilities off the board. It’s especially galling when someone else does it for us.
A blockheaded decision by the International Cricket Council this week has eliminated Canada and many other nations from that sport’s showcase event.
Continue reading ICC’s decision to cut countries from Cricket World Cup a shame (Toronto Star)
It should be noted that
1. The prime argument put forward by the ICC is that the 2011 World Cup was too long because of the presence of the Associates.
2. If the ICC proceed with their ten team tournament, with each team playing nine games in qualifying, plus two semi finals, and one final, the 2015 “world [...]
Cricket Canada is disheartened to learn the International Cricket Council has elected to not allow Associate cricket nations such as Canada into the 2015 Cricket World Cup. While it is apparent that the push for a 10 team tournament supports the needs of the sponsors and broadcasters who ultimately fund much of our programs, we were very disappointed to learn that there would be no qualification process for the 2015 Cricket World Cup.
From the results of the recently completed 2011 Cricket World Cup in the subcontinent, it is apparent that Associate nations are able to compete at the international level and need more encouragement to develop their high performance teams against the full member nations. Canadian players turned out strong performances in this world cup and the decision will surely mark
the end of world cup careers for several of our players in the prime of their careers.
An additional disappointment will be for players who gained experience at this world cup like Hiral Patel. Hiral, who hit a blistering half century against defending champions Australia, will be closer to the end of his career by the time he gets a chance to compete in the game’s marquee event again. We have had significant interest and profile generated in Canadian cricket as a result of our participation in the world cup, and this increase in our sport would surely wane if we are not allowed to participate in the world cup for at eight years or more.
Continue reading Cricket Canada statement on ICC Decision
Jarrod Kimber on his highly entertaining blog “Cricket with Balls” lays into the ICC in his latest post “The ICC takes the world out of the World Cup”. He writes “I’m not about to sit around while cricket turns itself back into an incestuous fascist dictatorship run by a bunch of semi professional failed wannabe politicians. [...]
Comment from Canada Cricket Online
Following the conclusion of what most think was one of the more successful World Cups of all, the ICC formally announced that it was suspending the competition for 8 years. It will instead replace it with a competition of its own devising, an invitational event where invites are extended only to those who belong to its own elite club- the ICC full members.
And those who voted on this proposal were of course exactly those who now receive an automatic invitation to the event. In doing so they demonstrate their prime interest is simply money, not the development of the game. Any pretence that these are the top ten teams in the world can be dispelled by a quick look at the ICC’s own rankings- where Ireland- quite rightly – are ranked ahead of Zimbabwe. By 2015 Ireland could be the 5th ranked team in the world- but still will not get a chance to qualify for the “World Cup”.
The ICC may try to keep the “World Cup” branding but to do so should lead to charges of misleading advertising.
Continue reading International Cricket Council cancels World Cup until 2019
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