From the Dec 5, 2014 ICCC Sport Forum
Ben Kavenagh (ICC Americas Regional Development Manager) provided useful insight into the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) role in the development around the globe and in the ICC Americas Region at the recent Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce Sports Forum (December 5, 2014). Kavenagh was the opening speaker of the morning forum about “cricket as an emerging sport in Canada”.

The ICC Americas Region extends from the north pole to the south pole from Alaska and the Great White North down to the tip of South America where Argentina and Chile share a border that has some disputed lines drawn on different versions of the map.
Cricket Canada’s General Manager, Ingleton Liburd, became the second speaker as Cricket Canada President, Vimal Hardat had dropped out of the panel on the eve of the forum. Liburd’s perspective on cricket’s development in Canada in recent years was built around what Ben Kavenagh had said about developing cricket on a global basis.
Ingelton Liburd’s talk began with a very brief outline of the history of Canada in international cricket and moved to the themes of the development, administration and operation of cricket in recent years in Canada. An outline of Ingleton Liburd’s opening address at the cricket forum has been included, but a more detailed account is likely to appear at a later date.
Efforts are being made to create and publish video of the main talks, and some passages from the question and answer passages. Initial verions have been created, which may provide some optimism that they may become accessible via the internet in the not too distant future. Possibly some will be accessible in time to welcome 2015, proclaimed as the Year of Sport in Canada by the Governor General.
A Contrast: West Indies and Canada Development: April 2007 and December 2014
The international cricket family came together recently in the tradition of following the true spirit of cricket as a result of the death of Australia’s Philip Hughes. Ingleton Liburd spoke about cricket development in Canada in the last six years. But let us brielly look back to April 2007, and see where some then Under-15 players now stand in global cricket in December 2014. .
Two of five young Canadian cricketers currently in Barbados with potential to be picked for a Caribbean Premier League team have been selected to play for Canada in ICC World Cricket League Division Two in January 2015. These two players had been selected in 2007 for the ICC Americas Under-15 team that played in the CLICO International Under-15 championships.
These Canadian two players are Nitesh Kumar and Nikhil Dutta. Both played in ICC Americas opening game of the 2007 CLICO tournament against Kenya Under-15s in Barbados. ICC Americas won that game on April 20, 2007. The ICC Americas team’s last game of the tournament was played at the ground in Scarborough, Tobago, where the Canadian women’s team had played a couple of weeks earlier when on a tour of Trinidad and Tobago.
The CLICO tournament began with Kraigg Brathwaite, currently playing for the West Indies in the first test against South Africa, hitting a century for the West Indies U15’s that helped his team to victory against Malaysia U15 at the Kensington Oval. A game played one day before ICC Americas met Kenya.
West Indies current test match is being played on the ground in Centurion, South Africa where John Davison hit a quick World Cup century for Canada in the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup. South Africa scored quite a few runs on the opening day, but when West Indies bat, the two openers are due to be Brathwaite and Devon Smith, a Grenadian who played for Limers Lords in the Elite Division of the Toronto and District Cricket Association during 2014.

A potted history of cricket history and development in Canada
Cricket Canada’s General Manager, Ingleton Liburd, became the second speaker as Cricket Canada President, Vimal Hardat had dropped out of the panel on the eve of the forum. Liburd’s perspective on cricket’s development in Canada in recet years was built around what Ben Kavenagh had said about developing cricket on a global basis. But it began with a very brief outline of the history of Canada in international cricket. .
“A few years ago” Canada played and won the first international cricket match against the USA. (In modern sportsfan thinking “we were number 1″ back in September 1844). Canada played in the first qualifying competition for a Cricket World Cup in 1979. The Canadian team won one of two available qualifying spots in the actual world cup competition, did Sri Lanka. Canada and Sri Lanka were both ICC Associate countries at the time.
Ingelton Liburd’s moved on to note Sri Lanka’s place among the leading cricket nations in the modern era, and contrasted it with Canada’s current status. Canada had failed to quality for the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, after playing in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 tournaments.
Canada’s recent failings on the international field since the last World Cup has seen the national team drop down the international rankings with the related loss of a place in the ICC’s High Performance rankings and the loss of access to the higher funding that High Performance countries receive.
This has happened despite significant growth in the number of players, particularly juniors, and some development programs that have began to take shape in Canada during the last six years or so. Some of the development programs had been created by Cricket Canada working with the ICC and ICC Americas Regional Office.
Ingleton Liburd spoke of a need for those involved in the administration and operation of Canadian domestic cricket to work together. While guests, speakers, members of the Indo- Canadian Chamber of Commerce and some from the media been gathering before the forum
began, some of the cricket panel had talked about not knowing how the various leagues are structured and operate in this country.
ICC’s Global and Regional Roles
Mukesh Narula, moderator of the panel discussions about“cricket as an emerging sport in Canada” , asked Ben Kavengh what wass the ICC’s thinking in developing cricket around the globe and his ideas on why the game was growing so fast around the world. He also asked about the ICC Development group’s role in developing cricket in countries such as Canada.
“I think everybody knows here the move to twenty over cricket ten, twenty years ago or whenever it actually started, has been an absolutely critical thing for cricket to actually grow,” said Ben Kavenagh. “The traditional form of this game as, again, most people in this country are well aware of, is a fantastic thing. But it wasn’t thriving and it wasn’t necessarily a sport that was fantastic in attracting new people. You’ve got to spend days in an outfield and you’ve got to have significant equipment.and all this sort of thing.”
Kavenagh concluded “So, in fact, the move to T20 cricket, I think, has made the game much more accessible to new audiences particularly young people, particularly women. and the colours that go with it, and the excitement is bringing new audiences. So what’s happened is that the IPL (Indian Premier League) in India and the various T20 competitions happening around the world brought colour and glamour to the sport. It’s really attracting new audiences. So that’s massively exciting.”
ICC’s Development Ambitions for Cricket
“What the ICC is trying to do, in my particular area is working with developing cricket countries. So we know there’s the test playing nations (the ten ICC Full Members). That’s separate to the program I’m involved in” said Kavenagh. “ I’m involved in a program that basically involves about 90 other members (the ICC Affiliate and ICC Associate members) From there, I’ve go approximately one fifth of that, which is the Americas Region.”
Just an interesting stat. I think there’s sixteen countries (in the ICC Americas Region). Between Canada and the US eightysix per cent (86%) of the players in the sixteen countries come from those two countries. So clearly our focus is in Canada and the US.”
“To be blunt, there’s also massive commercial interest in these two countries as well. Commercial opportunities, One statistic that most people do not know is that the second biggest TV rights in the world comes out of the USA, which is not even, I suppose, a known cricket country. So there’s massive interest in cricket continuing better here. There’s a lot of benefits to everybody if that happens.”
.” So we’re here (ICC is here) to work with the (national) bodies, but, again, the bodies run cricket in these countries and we (ICC), basically, are a support mechanism to them We like to see the countries set out their plans, set out your budgets, set out your goals, and we can say in what areas can we (ICC) help out in those particular areas. But you guys need to run it (cricket in your country) and you guys have to dictate (where you are going) and we will complement that in areas we think can help you grow the game.”
Kavenagh emphasized, “From my office’s point of view, I’ve got to see grass roots and stuff, We want to see cricket bats with kids who are playing on the streets that the Minister spoke about. We’ve go to see people teaching cricket and administering cricket that are really well educated running good programs so the kids want to keep flowing through that. Obviously there are opportunities for growing TV rights and internet. Potentially touring sides, you mentioned about how top-down exposure flows and could complement this interest that is generated in the game.”
So, attacking it at lots of different angles, which we need to,” concluded Ben Kavenagh, “with Cricket Canada’s guidance this method does work.”
Panel moderator Mukesh Narula thanked Ben Kavenagh for providing this overview on the ICC’s role in helping countries develop cricket. Out of ninety countries, Ben controls about one- fifth of them. Narula then mentioned that “any game could do with a bit of funding and support.”
Earlier, in his the keynote address to the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) Sports Forum, Canada’s Federal Minister of State for Sports. Mr. Bal Gosal, had told the audience that Sport Canada currently has recognized 56 national sports governing bodies Each of these bodies has the potential to file a request for support each year. Sport Canada has managed to retain an annual budget of $200 million in each of the last three years, despite cutbacks in other areas.
Eddie Norfolk (Based on reviewing video of the event) .