West Indies batting legend Desmond Haynes was in Mississauga on Monday (August 24, 2015) where Team B won the inaugural Mississauga Ramblers Under-19 Desmond Haynes Cup. Desmond Haynes (light blue shirt) is seen presenting the Cup to Team B captain Hamza Khan. Former Canadian international Farooq Kirmani, active in Canada’s junior cricket scene, is also in this presentation scene.

Desmond Haynes was delighted to see a Canadian cricket ground with a proper grass (turf) wicket where the outfield grass was not up to his knees. He hopes Canadian cricket can move forward as young players develop with support from those within Canadian cricket’s administration and clubs, such as the Ramblers.

Desmond Haynes had been invited to add his name to the trophy in what is to become an annual event. The seed for the tournament have sprung from relationships built in recent years of Canadian teams playing in the Sir Garfield Sobers International Tournament in Barbados. Indeed this first tournament for the Desmond Haynes Cup was hatched in recent weeks when he was approached by Mr. Fayyaz Jamkhandi, presumably during Oakville Cricket Academy’s participation in this years Garry Sobers (West Indian spelling – “Gary” tend to be used in England) tournament.

So in what seems just a few weeks there has been no end of Canadian cricket activity at international senior and junior levels plus junior tournaments and the recent Niagara Cricket & Bhangra Festival that, realistically, deserve and need much broader media coverage and sponsorship….but getting the message out that cricket exists in Canada does not, in my view, have any adequate supporting infrastructure at the national level, within the traditional trio of major Canadian cricketing provinces or from cricket’s leading leagues in the Toronto and Ontario heartland.

Thanks to Mr. Jamkhandi’s efforts and the assistance of the Cricket Council of Ontario, many leading Ontario junior cricketers participated in the four team 2015 Under-19 Desmond Haynes Cup. The benefits of gaining cricket experience outside of Canada in places such as India, the West Indies and England were noted by Desmond Haynes in a speech that will, in due course, be available via social media channels.

How long “in due course” will be is unknown in terms of days or weeks as the tasks are many and the workers few, at present; and there are some upcoming tournaments and junior playoffs that could do with broader coverage in the media. But at least there is video of the final, the closing ceremonies and part of the third place playoff game that can, at some stage, be used to, hopefully, create some useful insights into the potential, as yet to be realized since the September 1844 international cricket match between Canada and the USA, in Canada and in the USA.

But Canada’s Under-19 will be carrying the flag for Canadian cricket at the 2016 ICC Under-19 World Cup Cricket tournament in Bangladesh. A place won via the ICC Americas Regional Under-19 Division One Championship. A success that also resulted in Canada’s Under-19 team participating in this summer’s West Indies Cricket Board’s Regional Under-19 50-over championship.

The broader Canadian public may not be aware that an Ontario Under-16 championship took place “a few weeks ago” or about the National Interprovincial Under-16 that was hosted by the Manitoba Cricket Association earlier this month.

Presumably, it will soon be time for the annual junior playoff weekend in Canada’s largest cricket league; the Toronto and District Cricket Association. An event that, by recent tradition (if not longer) takes place during the Labour Day weekend. Meanwhile the 2015 Canadian College Cricket championships are being hosted at Maple Leaf Cricket Club, King City, Ontario this week. The semi-finals and final are scheduled for Friday (August 28, 2015) and are due to include internet video-streaming.

Eddie Norfolk