Canada Cricket Online

Cricket Across the Pond Launch sparks renewed hope for GTA Cricket -- Posted Wednesday, June 25 2008
Eddie Norfolk

Toronto Mayor David Miller underlined the City’s desire to support cricket no Tuesday when announcing the CIMA Toronto Mayor’s team to visit Chessington, Surrey, England in August. He also reminded those attending the launch of the CIMA Mayor’s Trophy that is at Sunnybrook Park, Toronto this Saturday, June 28 (9am to 6pm).

Miller paid tribute to the efforts of CIMA, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, for support and development of cricket through the CIMA Mayor’s Trophy. He added “Cricket Across the Pond gives Toronto’s youth an opportunity to participate in a sport that is becoming increasingly popular in Toronto, and to travel and gain new experience and knowledge that will be with them for a lifetime.”

Mayor Miller paid tribute to the work of the Access and Diversity Unit of Toronto Parks, Recreation, Forestry and Recreation, who in partnership with key sponsors, RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) and Air Transat have helped create this opportunity for mostly youngsters in some of Toronto’s underprivileged neighbourhoods.

Jennifer Tory, RBC’s Regional Vice-President for the Greater Toronto Area said “RBC is pleased to help connect cricket fans with their heritage and raise the profile of the game by bringing it to people across the country.” The country-wide aspect comes with the launch earlier this year of the RBC Wicket Cricket program that provides cricket equipment and a teacher’s manual to help schools introduce the sport to youngsters. (See www.rbc.com\cricket for details of how teachers and community coaches can apply for this equipment).

Cricket across the Pond has an initial three-year sponsorship from RBC. The Toronto Mayor’s side was announced. It comes after a series of trials for players, who were also required to demonstrate leadership skills and the ability to represent the City of Toronto in a positive light. This came via support from their school, a personal submission why they were interested in participating in the project and interviews.

Team captain Darious D’Souza gave a confident speech, thanking the sponsors and organizers for providing this golden opportunity. He is a CIMA nominee from the University of Toronto. CIMA also nominated one player from the Peel Region and one from Upper Canada College.

The Toronto District Schools Board now has both indoor and outdoor cricket championships for boys. Neighbouring Peel Region (includes Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) has indoor championships for boys and girls, while the Mississauga Ramblers Club ran outdoor events for leading girls and boys schools this year.

There was far more promotional effort for cricket evidenced at this event than last Friday when Cricket Canada was announced as remaining eligible for Federal Government Funding in the new government fiscal year. A status secured in 2007 after efforts that began in 2005. The smiles were genuine ones of hope on Tuesday, not the wry smiles of something needs to be done to get Cricket Canada moving that most, but not some of the current official leaders, felt after an empty meeting.

Two media releases on Tuesday advised the names of the Cricket across the Pond squad. Nothing was available from Cricket Canada. One regular reporter on the Canadian scene told me the squad had not even been posted on the official website.

Mayor Miller also made reference to the national team having done well at Cricket World Cup 2007. He saw the national team as role models and in the background, on two large screens footage of Canada playing the Netherlands in an ODI (One-day international) at Toronto Cricket Club last summer.

The crowd at today’s Cricket across the Pond launch was more than turned out to see the Canadian national team in that match. But the then CCA never advised the start-time and do not spend money advertising the game. It took a lot of effort last week before Cricket Canada posted the actual dates of the upcoming ODIs with Bermuda. And overnight between Thursday and Friday, I received an email stating 10am as the start time.

Advertisements have been running for the CIMA Spirit of Cricket/City of Toronto’s Mayor’s Trophy. Various media sides will be playing at Sunnybrook Park on Saturday. There might be more Bermudian media at the ODI on Saturday than Canadian ones.

But there was a buzz from some key media folks who want to help next year's Cricket Across the Pond attact more trialists. And a couple of people learned a few things and admitted it. Education is an important thing. Mayor Miller re-iterated that today.

CIMA Toronto Mayor’s Team: Darious D’Souza (CIMA University of Toronto), Harsh Desai (Kipling Collegiate Institute), Taron Doodram (Weston C.I.), Lahiru Gallage (Cedarbrae C.I.), Owais Khurshid (Sir Wilfrid Laurier C.I.), Ishaan Kumar (CIMA Upper Canada College nominee), Lakshan Liyanage (CIMA Peel Region nominee), Salman Nazar (North Albion CI), Varun Shah (North Albion CI), Rajiv Sivanesan (Cederbrae CI) and Michael Walton (George Harvey CI).