The last two games in the 2015 Toronto and District Cricket Association’s (TDCA) Under-19 regular season are due to be played today (September 3,
2015). Qasra Cricket Academy U19s are due to play Australasia Cricket Academy at Brampton’s Teramotto Park and Oakville Cricket Academy U19s should face Cricket Club of Canada (CCC) U19s at Wildwood Park, Malton.

The Malton ground hosted several matches in the 2001 ICC Trophy. A tournament won by the Netherlands, who beat Namibia in a dramatic last ball finish at
Toronto CSCC, aka “Armour Heights” in some historic Canadian cricket records.
Canada’s win against Scotland in the third-place playoff gained Canada a place in the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Several TDCA U19 junior games have been played in the last 8-10 days as what is normally the league’s traditional junior playoff weekend – the Labour
Day Holiday Weekend -approaches. This has been a busy summer for many of the Greater Toronto Area’s (GTA’s) junior players, as well as for others from beyond the GTA. Canada U19s won the ICC Americas Division One championship in Bermuda then participated in the West Indies Cricket Board’s Regional U19 50-over championship. Some players visited Sri Lanka as part of the CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) Toronto Mayor’s XI under the highly sponsored “Cricket Across the Pond” program.

Under-19 practices and trials took place at Wildwood Park ahead of the ICC
Americas U19 tournament. Alberta and British Columbia junior teams now tend
to have games scheduled early in the season in Vancouver, B.C. The Cricket
Council of Ontario hosted an Under-16 tournament and selected players for two
Ontario squads that subsequently played in the National Under-16 championship
hosted by the Manitoba Cricket Association in Winnipeg.
Some leading junior players took part in the recent Totally Cricket Canadian
College Nationals at Maple Leaf Cricket Club. Some played in the CIMA
Universities Invitational Cricket tournament and some in the 3 game Twenty20
series between Canadian College Cricket and American College Cricket. Many of
Ontario’s leading juniors based in the GTA played in the Mississauga Ramblers
Under-19 Desmond Haynes Cup.
It has been a very busy time for the mostly volunteer coaches and operational
administrators supporting junior cricket in Canada, the players themselves and
the parents. The publicity gained from these various events has been somewhat
limited – some of these junior cricket activities clashed with the senior
national team’s involvement in the ICC Americas Twenty20 championship and the
ICC Twenty20 World Cup Qualifier where Canada made a disappointing showing.
It is, sadly, rare that scoring information from various events is available on
a timely, complete and reliable basis from several, if not the majority of
these junior and development cricket events. The exceptions tend to be where
the ICC at the global or regional level provides scoring services. Similarly,
the West Indies Cricket Board similarly provided timely news from the WICB
Regional Under-19 tournament.
Team captains, team members, team officials (if any) from both teams need to
take responsibility in these situations for ensuring scoring information is as
accurate as possible in what can be difficult circumstances if two scorers are
not available for any particular game or tournament. In some ways it is
irrelevant whether manual or computer-orientated scoring is used: the basic
need is to get the scoring details as correct as possible. It should not be
difficult for each team captain to provide a list of players nominated for each
game; reality may differ from this proposition, which means reality fails to
meet the laws of the game. Questions can be raised with umpires (or the
umpire) and team captains, as necessary.
So the relatively few involved in so many of our junior games, events and
tournaments must realize the need to work together, team captains need to be
aware of a cricket captain’s responsibilities and the overall interests of the
game of cricket, including observation of the laws and spirit of cricket, need
to be respected above personal self-interest on and off the field.
Sometimes live video-streaming of specific games helps ensure attention is
paid to providing lists of players nominated to play in a particular game
and may provide reliable scoring detail for featured games. Sometimes it may
produce some improvements. but those watching the internet streaming may know
more about a game than those watching at the actual ground.
Some pictorial coverage of cricket aims to support reports of what happened on
the field. But what value are any pictures or video excerpts if the basic
scores of the game are not available on a timely, complete and accurate
basis?
Distribution of such scoring information certainly has some problems in the
absence of power supplies and copying facilities at ground chosen to host
games, events and tournaments.
I recently came across a copy of the Questionnaire the ICC circulated for media
attending the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup to complete. As almost nothing on the
lists would be provided locally at a tournament in the world of Canadian
cricket, I felt it would not be appropriate for me to make any observations.
ICC Americas in the past has made attempts to inspire thinking about
what could be done to make a cricket tournament look like there is interest
in having spectators present…or even to have the presence of the
participating players. Support for the sponsors is most important and ought
to be provided throughout an event or tournament. Not as a passing mention
during some event or tournament closing set of speeches and presentations.
Live internet streaming of Premier division cricket matches was said to be
coming soon (if not sooner) not too many years back by some league officials
in the GTA. Some “Premier” divisions were subsequently elevated to become
“Elite” divisions but the video streaming does not seem to have arrived on a
weekly basis, if at all. However, as I have various other interests
and must do a number of things beyond cricket’s boundaries. I may have failed
to spot some of these league games being shown live on the internet. Although
little evidence existed at the 2015 TDCA Elite Division Playoff Final that the
game was being streamed live over the internet to the population of this
earth. Perhaps a seemingly invisible crew from the planet Mars covered the
game?
Eddie Norfolk