The Western John Ross Robertson Tournament, to be held this weekend, has been cancelled following the very late withdrawal of teams from BC and Alberta. Ray Ramrattan, president of the hosts Cosmos club posted on Facebook as follows:-
“Cosmos and the Manitoba Cricket Association put in a lot of time and energy into preparing for this tournament. For the visitors to pull out a mere two days before the start is a slap in the face, blatant disregard for common decency, selfish and a tragedy towards a long standing tradition. Sincerely hope that the break lasts only this year.”
Full post follows..

“The John Ross Robertson Tournament started in 1910 and for over a century has been the highest level of cricket that clubs in Canada can compete in. In fact, it is the only provincial competition for cricket clubs. This tournament is not for provincial teams, but is for the best clubs of their respective provinces.

For 105 years, other than rained out matches, there has only been 3 breaks when the tournament was not contested. The first break was 1915-1919 due to World War I, the second break was because of World War II 1939-1944. The third no-contest period was 1965-1967, the reason is unknown at this time. The tournament endured the challenges of travelling across the country by train, car and bus to eventually the convenience of the airliner. The tournament was organized via telegram, letters by post, the telephone and now email and instant messaging. The means of travel across Canada has greatly improved since 1910 as well as the means of communications, both are now faster and cheaper.

Although all the teams that qualified for this year’s tournament were known since September 2015 and the tournament date was agreed upon since March 2016, BC and Alberta found it upon themselves to pull of this tournament two days before the tournament was scheduled to start. The team from Saskatchewan, who previously committed, then followed BC and Alberta and also pulled out, leaving the host stranded. Stranded with a lot of disappointed players, fans and organizers. Stranded with a lot of plans for what would have been an excited weekend of cricket. The Manitoba team, Cosmos which travelled to Vancouver in 2014 and to Calgary in 2015, have now been robbed of the opportunity to play at home in front of their supporters.

Two world wars are pretty good reasons for a cricket tournament to be stopped, but the tournament was so important to Canadian Cricket that they promptly resumed. To date, no reason was given by the BC and Alberta teams for abandoning the 2016 tournament in Winnipeg. What we got was ‘sorry’ and ‘good luck’…both meaningless rhetoric, especially with two days’ notice. Your act of pulling out of the tournament has killed the tournament and then saying good luck is insulting.

Today cricket participation in Canada is the highest it has ever been since the sport was first played here in the 1800s. British Columbia and Alberta are powerhouses in Western Canadian Cricket with their numbers being the highest ever. These two provinces have grown so much that tournaments are organized with large sums of money up for grabs. There is no money in the John Ross Robertson Tournament, perhaps that is why a 105 year old tradition can be cast aside so easily.

Cosmos and the Manitoba Cricket Association put in a lot of time and energy into preparing for this tournament. For the visitors to pull out a mere two days before the start is a slap in the face, blatant disregard for common decency, selfish and a tragedy towards a long standing tradition. Sincerely hope that the break lasts only this year.”