Wake-up Time for Cricket Administrators in Ontario & GTA!

On the surface there is a certain amount of life in Cricket Ontario and at the helm of the Toronto & District Cricket Association as spring moves into June and the summer. “Welcome to 2021 Season – Trust you are all keeping safe and following COVID guidelines.” says the Toronto and District Cricket Association’s invitation for club and team registration on CricHQ.
The new Cricket Ontario website (https://new.cricketontario.ca/) recently posted an invitation for people to sign a “Petition to Premier Doug Ford – Government of Ontario that calls “for the Ontario government to reopen Cricket & outdoor sports. (May 28, 2021).
Now I am likely to confuse some of cricket’s Ontario leaders in stating that I support cricket and a number of other sports being allowed to take place this summer and to open the fields in a short rather than a long timeframe. But I will not sign the petition until some of these leading lights of Ontario cricket wake-up and update their documented standards, especially the “Safe Resumption to Play Cricket In the Context of the COVID-19 (Version 1.4)” that sleeps on the old Cricket Ontario (Cricket Council of Ontario) website.
This Safe Resumption to Play Cricket (Version 1.4) document has a cover page dated June 11, 2020. So it was published before the Government of Ontario opened the doors for non-contact team sports and team sports with modified rules aimed at minimizing contact rules to be played last summer under Ontario’s published regulations “Rules for Areas in Stage 3″ of the “Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020, Chapter 17″ (“The Reopening Ontario Act”).
The Reopening Ontario Act received approval in the Ontario Legislature on or about July 21, 2020 and came to legal life on July 24, 2020. Part of this new Act incorporated provisions under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, the history of which dates back to, and beyond, the 2009 Revised Statutes of Ontario.
The basic penalties under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, which were carried forward into the Reopening Ontario Act, were and are somewhat frightening in my opinion. Individuals who break the provisions of the Reopening Act could face a fine of up to $100,000 and a possible imprisonment for up to 1 year. Directors and officers of a corporation (a potential wake-up call to various “Board members”, perhaps?) who are deemed to have allowed some unauthorized activity to take place could be fined up to $500,000. A corporation might face a fine of up to $10 million.
Such potential sanctions, that could be applied for each day when an offence was deemed to have been committed, made me take a pause for thought last year.
Except about Potential Penalties in the Reopening Ontario Act
Just to underline those potential penalties, here is the core text from the Reopening Ontario Act, that mirrors the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. Kindly keep in mind that a
“continued section 7.0.2 order” in the Reopening Ontario Act is about an order that is in section 7.0.2 of Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, which can create some confusion.
So here is the ”Offences” paragraph that appears at the start of the “Enforcement” of the Reopening Ontario and is still in place today (June 1, 2021).
“Offences
10 (1) Every person who fails to comply with a continued section 7.0.2 order or who interferes with or obstructs any person in the exercise of a power or the performance of a duty conferred by such an order is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction,
(a) in the case of an individual, subject to clause (b), to a fine of not more than $100,000 and for a term of imprisonment of not more than one year;
(b) in the case of an individual who is a director or officer of a corporation, to a fine of not more than $500,000 and for a term of imprisonment of not more than one year; and
(c) in the case of a corporation, to a fine of not more than $10,000,000.
Separate offence
(2) A person is guilty of a separate offence on each day that an offence under subsection (1) occurs or continues.
Increased penalty
(3) Despite the maximum fines set out in subsection (1), the court that convicts a person of an offence may increase a fine imposed on the person by an amount equal to the financial benefit that was acquired by or that accrued to the person as a result of the commission of the offence.”
(End of Excerpt)

Back to and Beyond Reality?
Now there is a certain truth in Cricket Ontario’s claims in the May 28, 2021 post on the new Cricket Ontario website about their actions last year, but – and it is a very big BUT in my opinion – the published version of Cricket Ontario’s “Safe Resumption to Play Cricket” document on the old website is dated June 11, 2020. So it does not incorporate some of the important provisions in Ontario’s July 2020 Rules for Areas in Stage 3 that applied for last year’s cricket season.
After the Ontario Government pulled the plug on recreational team sports before the 2020 Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend, the Ontario Government made changes that introduced colour coded areas, each with specific guidelines within each of the separate Regulations about Areas in Stages 1, 2 and 3. One current challenge for recreational and amateur sport for 2021 is that those Area regulations have yet to be finalized.
Now I would agree that cricket being played as a team sport in and around the Greater Toronto Area in 2020 was both welcome and successful but I think there is a need for improved standards to be documented by Cricket Ontario for use by the cricketing community in Ontario.

Cricket Ontario should, in my opinion, be demonstrating the type of detailed awareness of current regulatory and public health standards that can be seen via the facebook pages of the Niagara Cricket Club.
“We like to let the government know we want to get back to Cricket–a safe, socially distanced outdoor sport!”
One of the provisions of the Rules for Areas in Stage 3 that did not seem to be realized by some on the boards of Cricket Ontario and certain cricket league boards from the time around late July 2020 when cricket as a team sport could be played was tha provision for spectators. In reality, there had been a need for “spectator provision” when practices for team sports were first allowed under the Rules for Areas in Stage 2. This was something the City of Toronto recognized as being important for young sports enthusiasts who might need a parent, guardian or older sibling to take them to wherever a sports practice or training session was to take place.
Now the original provisions for professional sports, such as the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) within Ontario’s Reopening Act and associated regulations, did not allow the presence of spectators. Such sports operated according to specific agreements that had public health approval. If the COVID-19 situation had improved as summer became fall in 2020 then some allowance for spectators could have been agreed and been incorporated into modified NHL and NBA agreements.
So if you were to look at “Schedule 2 Specific Rules” of the July 31, 2020 and move down to paragraph 8 about “Sports and fitness Facilities” you would find paragraph 8.4 which read: 8.
4. The total number of spectators permitted to be at the facility at any one time must be limited to the number that can maintain a physical distance of at least two metres from every other person in the facility, and in any event cannot exceed,
i. 50 spectators, if the spectators will be indoors, or
ii. 100 spectators, if the spectators will be outdoors.
So some specific cricketing regulations should have been created that would address whatever mask wearing and/or separation between players, event officials and parents/spectators was thought appropriate and necessary. Things seemed to work out quite well during games at the Toronto & District Cricket Association’s junior championships.
I believe better guidance is needed regarding for end of game situations, especially when speeches and presentations are made following a final. There is, in my opinion, a related need to ensure photos and videos from sports events and presentations posted on social media give the impression that some social distancing were observed. In order to achieve that goal, there is a need, in my opinion, to document what is required at our cricket matches and tournaments, such as Ontario Regional Championships. The Hamilton and District CA provided some useful examples with team photos of teams from playoffs that only included the players.

Improvements to Ontario’s cricketing COVID-19 guidance might assist at the national and international in seeing a return of inter-provincial and international cricket in Ontario at some time after international travel restrictions are eased. But I think international cricket in Ontario is likely to be a write-off for this year due to matters well beyond the control of Cricket Ontario and Cricket Canada. But that is not an excuse or reason for Cricket Ontario to slumber and sleep when the Cricket Ontario June 2020 resumption of play document needs to be updated.
At minimum both the Toronto and District CA and Cricket Ontario social media include messages of hope that “you are all keeping safe and following COVID guidelines”. Perhaps both organizations, particularly some of the leading board members/directors of each organization, should check to see and ensure their guidance to member clubs and players meet or exceed current Ontario guidelines?
I, for one, cannot support the Cricket Ontario petition with my signature until the cricketing protocols for which Cricket Ontario has responsibility are improved. But I do favour people being allowed to escape from homes where there may be many people stuck indoors for too many hours on too many days.
So I end with barely a mention that as a federally recognized sport by the Canadian government and with recognition by Canada’s Olympic sports body, Cricket Canada could be attempting to host practices for national team players at junior and senior levels on the path to international world cup qualifying events and world cup tournaments themselves. Some of the battles for cricketing administrative supremacy in some of Canadian cricket’s leading provinces likely prevents such progress, which is sad for many talented players.
Eddie Norfolk Toronto
June 1, 2021

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