How many cricketers in Canada?

Long time advocate for associate and affiliate cricket, Ben Stinga recently shared the following statistics on Facebook. “According to the latest ICC research figures, the top countries, in terms of participation (mainly soft ball or starter programs), outside the full members are as follows:-
1-PNG 180,194, 2-Canada 73,194, 3-China 70,762, 4-Uganda 55,358, 5-UAE 47,214, 6-Scotland 46,226, 7-Ireland 43,838, 8-USA 37,338, 9-Suriname 28,591, 10-Fiji 25,730, 11-Afghanistan 24,792, 12-Nepal 22,802, 13-Malaysia 20,342, 14-Kenya 20,005, 15-Saudi Arabia 19,302, 16-Netherlands 19,188, 17-Vanuatu 19,137, 18-Indonesia 19,001, 19-Namibia 18,207, 20-France 18,126, 21-Samoa 16,385, 22-Germany 15,954, 23-Japan 15,933, 24-Myanmar 14,623, 25-Tanzania 14,591”
The figures provoked mixed reactions- both disbelief, and congratulations. As is often said “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”, and the numbers tell a far more interesting story than simply this listing. The source of this data is the ICC, a census taken to support the global development programme. At first glance, especially for anyone familiar with Canadian cricket, the statistics seem way off – how can Canada be number 2 on this list (and China number 3)? The real story however can be fund be delving into the full data.

Firstly to put Canada’s 70,000 participants into context- even if the number reflected actual numbers of players, it is small. Statistics Canada suggest that close to 1 million adults (14+) participate in soccer, and 42% of children aged 5-14 also play – likely another million or more. The most adult popular participation in Canada is golf- with over 5% of the adult population taking part.

But what does that 70,000 really represent? The ICC numbers for each country are broken into four categories- senior plays, junior players, “modified” players (tapeball etc.), and “other”. “Other” represents numbers exposed to cricket through schools programmes or other activities. Canada’s numbers show 8940 Senior, 3480 Junior, 680 modified and 60,084 other. The 60,000 number likely consists of a generous estimate based on the number of kids cricket sets distributed to schools. even if the number is accurate, are these participants in any meaningful sense of the word? Probably not.

The other numbers may be more accurate – this site lists over 400 teams in its league standings tables, and this is not comprehensive. Thus close to 13,000 actual participants seems like a reasonable number.

The ICC tabulates this data from 2002 to 2013, and show significant change. It suggests the numbers of senior and junior players have doubled since 2002, and the other category leaps from just 4500 in 2002 to 60,000. Even if exaggerated, the huge increase does reflect a major effort by Cricket Canada and the ICC Development programme in at least exposing Canadians to cricket, and likely reflects genuine growth in active participants.

It is to any sports advantage to have many participants if trying to obtain funding or support. It reflects poorly on a sport however if the results at the highest level do not reflect the levels of participation claimed.

Exposing people to cricket is important but only meaningful if any interest sparked can be nurtured and eventually reflected in participation. Delving further into the numbers paints perhaps a more accurate picture of the state of cricket in Canada, particularly when compared to other, more successful Associates.

To go from exposure to participation, there needs to be facilities and infrastructure, both physical and structural. If a child tries cricket at school, and likes it, then they need to have access to cricket organizations- likely clubs – with grounds, coaches, junior programmes, and a solid organizational structure.

According to the ICC data, Canada has 806 active coaches to support its 12,420 Junior and Senior players – one for every 15 players -this seems surprisingly good. Ireland has a ratio of 1:11, and USA a dismal 1:58.

The ratio of senior to junior players is important. Ideally juniors should outnumber seniors. In Canada the senior/ junior ratio is 2.6:1, in Ireland 1:3, Scotland close to 1:1 and Nepal 1:1.2. This suggests that in Canada many senior players do not come through a domestic development/ junior programme, but likely are first generation Canadians who learned their cricket elsewhere. Recruitment into Junior programmes has to be a priority going forward if cricket is to seriously develop in the country.

The last figure of interest is that of grounds. According to the ICC data, Canada has 13 turf grounds, 147 artificial permanent installations and five portable artificial wickets. It is hard to come up with 13 turf wickets in Canada – King City/ Maple Leaf, the Toronto Cricket Club, Inverhaugh, new installations in Alberta and BC doesn’t seem to add up to 13. It is possible the figure includes all those facilities where cricket was played on turf in the ICC Trophy in 2001, but some of those pitches were not maintained. Anyway, taking a total of 165 grounds, that gives us one ground for every 75 active players. It would be hard with this ratio for all 75 to get a 50-overs game in every weekend of the summer. Ireland has 200 grounds (mostly turf), with a similar ratio, the USA 500 grounds at a better ratio (1:58), and Scotland 168 grounds at a ratio of one ground to 58 players.

The long term measure of success is performance at international level, and in the period covered by this data Canadian international cricket has gone into a serious decline, at a time where it appears to be growing domestically.

The interpretation that best fits the figures (if we believe they are accurate) is that there’s been great work in exposing cricket out to the country, that we appear to have adequate grounds (although due to climate considerations few turf wickets) and there are lots of coaches. The missing link is a well-developed organizational structure, that provides a clear path from interest in cricket, to beginners coaching and playing, to junior and club cricket. Cricket canada will argue that they are constrained by resources, but oddly enough, this is the least cost intensive activity. to provide clubs, leagues and provinces with volunteer support, organizational structure, and guidance does not cost a great deal of money.

Without those links being made, however, cricket in Canada will depend on immigration to sustain and grow numbers, and the work being done to expose those 60,000 Canadians to cricket will be wasted.

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)
Tags: