Royal Bank and cricket -- Posted Friday, February 29 2008
"Royal Bank of Canada has a proud history of supporting amateur sport in Canada. When it comes to elementary school students, we believe that sponsoring new, fun and exciting physical activity programs will keep kids healthy and motivated and give them a sense of confidence and belonging."
"To register, and to get a free RBC Wicket Cricket set for your school, simply complete the registration form below. Please note that a maximum of four kits will be sent to each school."
"In addition to the cricket sets, you’ll get access to valuable online teachers’ resources including comprehensive curriculum material, training videos and everything you need to know to teach cricket to kids."
For full details go to:-
http://forms.rbc.com/cricket
http://www.rbc.com/cricket.
Playing cricket - the glue that brings people together -- Posted Thursday, February 28 2008
Waterloo club hosts Toronto women's team for a friendly match to attract a new crop of young players
Cricket has been played in the Kitchener and Waterloo area of Ontario since at least 1905, but it still isn't a woman's game -- here anyway.
The Waterloo Sunrise Cricket Club men's under-19 team played a team from the Toronto Ladies Cricket Association in a friendly match Sunday afternoon on the cricket ground at Waterloo Park. Sunrise won 180-100.
The match wasn't meant to be a battle-of-the-sexes showdown, though. It was billed as having a "special focus on women and children" and was intended to attract local youth, both female and male, to the club and to raise awareness of cricket in the community.
"It's about a healthy community," said Yogesh Shah, club secretary. "It's about encouraging the youth and providing them with physical education."
"Cricket is the sport of many new Canadians," said Shawky Fahel, the club president. "Cricket is the glue that brings people together. This is an attempt to bring girls in."
Waterloo Sunrise Cricket Club has 80 to 100 active members, most with roots in India, Pakistan, the Caribbean or Afghanistan, all areas where cricket is played and often as ferociously supported as soccer is in Europe and Latin America.
"Your support here is great for women's cricket," Toronto captain Mona Persaud said as she accepted a commemorative trophy from Fahel. "I'm hoping next time we come we'll have a women's team to play against here."
Getting both sexes involved in the sport in Waterloo Region may be tough -- like "batting on a sticky wicket," as a cricket player might say. What Fahel called "old moralistic cultural values" may come into play.
In cricket, two teams of 11 players compete on a grass field, at the centre of which is a 20-metre-long area called the pitch. At each end of the pitch is a set of parallel sticks called a wicket, made up of three vertical stakes -- the stumps -- with two loose pieces of wood across the top called bails.
The bowler, a position like baseball's pitcher, hurls a heavy fist-sized ball down the pitch and tries to hit the wicket to knock the bails off, usually bouncing the ball off the ground in the process.
The batter tries to defend the wicket by hitting the ball with a flat wooden bat. If successful, the batter runs to the other end of the pitch while a teammate runs the opposite way.
The team scores one with the exchange. And the scores build up quickly.
"In Indian tradition, the parents don't want their little girl to play cricket," said Mukesh Jeranie, a team manager and umpire. "It's possible, but it's a slim chance for us to see a women's team of 11 play here."
Jeranie said he wouldn't want his own two girls playing cricket. He has been injured a number of times in the sport.
Monali Patel of Kitchener plays with the Toronto Ladies Cricket Association team and with the national women's team.
In about two weeks, she and Persaud will be competing against international-level women's teams from Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina and Bermuda at the Canadian Women's Cricket Tournament in King City.
Patel said the sport first needs more recognition to bring locals, including women, out to play in Kitchener and Waterloo.
She said she used to play on a men's team but heard sexist comments regularly. She now plays in Toronto on an all-female team.
"You've got to feel welcome when you play for a team," she said.
Article written by Will Tremain and published in 'The Record' at Waterloo, Ontario.
Article sourced from:-
http://news.therecord.com/News/CanadaWorld/article/224902
The devlopment of cricket in Canada -- Posted Wednesday, February 27 2008
In 1975 one of the most spectacular of all Australian Touring Cricket Teams was defeated in Toronto en route to England to participate in the inaugural World (Prudential) Cup series. Despite the presence of Chappells, Ian & Creg, Thompson, Lillee, Walters, Gilmour and a host of other wonderfully gifted players the side was overwhelmed by the team of North Americans who were never rated a chance to match the talented Australians..
Some will claim that this noe match heralded the emergence of Canaa as an international cricket nation; some will maintain that the vistory was a rather fortunate one in which the visitos merely lost control of the game.
Whatever the case, Canadain cricket has reached a stage where plans must be made for players to develop their skills and receive the competition they require from overseas cricketing nations.
Whilst some great steps forward are being achieved, with regard to representative colt teams, tours and coaching clinics, it is my belief that a nationally coordinated cricket promotion would greatly assist the elevation of Canadian cricket to full international standard.
During my coaching tour of Canada in June-July 1976, I was most impressed with the enthusiasm and competence of me such as C.C.A. treasurer Ed Bracht in Toronto, Ken Bullock in Brockville, Canadian Junior Coaching Jack Kyle in Vancouver, and in Edmonton Darian Smith and Geoff Williams. Obviously there is much work to be done but if the solid foundation already laid can be developed it would appear that the future of the game is very bright.
It has become apparent to me that problems confronting the game in Canada are very similar to the problems we are experiencing and taking steps to overcome in Australia. Perhaps the most vital factor in any cricket match is the pitch.
Players cannot be expected to develop skill and confidence if games are played on pitches which produce an unpredictable bounce. In Australia most lower level and junior cricket is played on matting over concrete. However, many matting types do have unfavourable characteristics: Coir Matting of the type used in Canada tends to bounce and deviate too much while Kippax Matting (Canvas) does play very easily and encourages front foot commitment by the batsman. Several synthetic alternatives have been developed recently in Australia and are providing players with a more worthwhile surface on which to develop cricket skills.
Whilst concrete wickets are impractical in most of Canada because of the winter freeze, a seasonably portable pitch with which the Nylex Corporation is experimenting could provide great opportunities for developing the game in Canada where unpredictable and slow wickets seem to restrict development.
Provision of equipment has always been a difficulty confronting cricket administrators. Leather balls are costly and have a very limited effective life. Cork balls have been used for some time in lower level cricket but do not provide a satisfactory answer and the plastic coated cork ball produced under several trade names are of great value.
The development and promotion of cricket in the schools is one of the prime objectives. Even in a country like Australia where cricket is a major game there are enormous problems at the school level. It is the aim to overcome problems of teacher ignorance, increased proportion of female school teachers, deficiencies of equipment and facilities in administering cricket at the school level. I believe a similar approach could be introduced in Canada so Physical Education specialist, general teachers and ultimately the students could be introduced to cricket in a meaningful and attractive way.
Currently In Service Teacher Training Courses are being conducted for school teachers in school time to introduce a ne, active approach to Teaching, Coaching and Promoting the game. The use of modified equipment, games and skill practices is stressed so cricket is portrayed as the active game it should be. A program of items discussed at these courses is set out below.
Policy for Sub-Junior Cricket
1. The Role of Cricket in Intra-School and Inter-School Sport.
2. Means of Modifing the Competitive Game.
3. Basic elements of teaching games, with emphasis on Cricket.
4. Teaching and Coaching Cricket Skills - Fundamentals of batting, bowling, fielding, wicketkeping, running between wickets.
5. Purchase and Maintenance of equipment.
6. An approach to cricket in Physical Education.
7. Cricket with a large group.
8. Conducting a Cricket Team Practice.
Information and coaching philosphy is all based on the Rothmans National Coaching Plan which commenced throughout Australia in July 1973. The aim of the plan is to develop 10,000 certified coaches throughout Australia by July 1978, in order to encourage enjoyment of cricket and increase the number of active players. Whereas some similar plans tend to be so prescriptive as to nulify, to some degree, a player's natural ability is moulded around the fundamentals rather than the reverse strategy being applied.
Coaches are urged to base instructions on six fundementals in Batting, Bowling, Fielding, Wicketkeeping and Running between Wickets and are instructed on the use of modified equipment, modified equipment, modified practices where the objective is maximised activiny, group coaching and the use of motivating activities.
At the completion of each course, an assessment of each coach results in his certification at one of three levels. Those coaches passing the coyrse at the top level are eligible to attend the Annual Advanced Coaches Course which was conducted extremely successfully this eason in Brisbane from )ct 4-8.
During my stay in Toronto, seven coaches successfully completed a course under the Australian National Coaching Plan. It would certainly be a sound long-term ain to develop a Canadian National Cricket Coaching Plan. With such planning an Australia versus Canada Test series should then come much cloes to fruition.
Article sourced from THE CANADIAN CRICKETER February 1977 by Peter Spence, Director of Coaching, New South Wales.
Editor's Note:
Peter Spence was invited to visit Toronto in June-July 1976 to provide coaching instruction in that area. His visit was privately sponsored, but his services were made available to a wide range of cricketers. In addition he spent some days in Vancouver on his way to Toronto. 30 years later there has been no ongoing "development program for cricket in Canada". (JH)
Shorter and smaller World Cup proposed -- Posted Tuesday, February 26 2008
The ICC chief executives' committee has recommended the 2011 World Cup in Asia be reduced from 16 to 14 teams and cut down from 47 to 38 days. If approved by the ICC board during its meeting on March 18 the next World Cup would be significantly shorter than the 2007 Caribbean event, which was slammed by players and spectators for being too long.
The suggested new format involves two groups of seven teams with the top four from each group progressing to a knock-out phase that starts with the quarter-finals. In the 2007 World Cup there were four groups of four followed by the Super Eights.
A large number of the Super Eights matches were one-sided because Ireland and Bangladesh progressed from their groups and the new format should ensure less chance of an early upset - such as Ireland beating Pakistan - having a major impact on the tournament. The cut to 14 teams means that two of the Associate slots would be lost.
The committee also unanimously approved a proposal prepared by ICC management on the greater use of technology in decision-making. This proposal, which was drawn up following directions from the ICC cricket committee, suggests the trialling of an "umpire decision review system" during a Test series.
MCC has already offered the England-South Africa Test at Lord's in July as an opportunity for a test of the technology. If the trial is given the go-ahead detailed playing conditions will be developed in consultation with the ICC Cricket Committee.
During the meeting in Kuala Lumpur it was also agreed the ICC will take a zero-tolerance approach to inappropriate public comment and abusive behaviour by players, team officials and individual board members. The ICC's code of conduct already outlaws "public criticism of, or inappropriate comment on a match-related incident or match official" and also "using language that is obscene, offensive or of a seriously insulting nature to another player, umpire, referee, team official or spectator".
Article sourced from:-
http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/story/338069.html
Winter cricket in Winnipeg -- Posted Monday, February 25 2008
LATEST GAME REPORT
Taverners v Sisler
Feb 17 2008
No idea who won the toss but Taverners were in the field to start the game. This was a team stacked with good bowlers and there was some tight, accurate bowling to keep the Sisler batsmen in check. David Hakes had an excellent spell - 4 overs, 5 for 19. All his wickets were taken in the space of 2 overs. Mr Roberts started off with a hiss and a roar with a wicket maiden, but despite his entreaties to the skipper to take him off then so he could stack his average, he was forced to bowl his complement of overs and finished with 3 for 17. Mr Anderson was not in the form he displayed last game (could this be due to the fact that these were not grade school players??) and finished with 2 for 28. Sam Toulson was a little wayward and ended up with 1 for 35 off his 4 overs and Mr Toulson Snr had 2 overs, 1 for 15. The wicketkeeping was, again, in the safe hands of Mr James. At the end of the allotted 18 overs Sisler had compiled a total of 85 runs.
The Taverner batting got off to a great start with the opening pair of Roberts (44) and Anderson (9) + extras. This laid the foundation for a big total given the batting lineup to follow - or did it? James (12) and Hakes (15) with some injudicious running with the resultant run outs put on 27 + extras and then the Toulson twins followed.
Toulson Snr (7) & Toulson Jr (12) + extras ended the batting with a paltry 19 + extras against a limited but reasonable bowling attack. It was unfortunate that our batsmen didn't/couldn't follow up on the great start provided. I don't know if it is the 'Canadian way' of not wanting to beat someone too badly because their psyche may be hurt or just that players were either a) trying to pad their stats or b) incompetent this day that caused this display. But a win is a win and we won so that makes Taverners winners again.
At the post match drinks a couple of interesting things of note were mentioned.
1) that the Captain (who had selected himself originally) pulled out at the last minute due to the fact that his daughters social was on SATURDAY so he couldn't play. The game was on SUNDAY so what f****** excuse is that????!!!! The captain has a responsibility to lead by example but if this is the example set it is not a good one.
2) the captain selected as his replacement a player who had not attended the last practice (instead preferring to go to a hockey game) but who had attended the captains daughters social (so rumour has it) while 2 attendees of Wednesdays practice sat on the sidelines. What gives? This smacks of favoritism to this intrepid reporter. Poor old WPM turns up for practice, top scores with his partner and is neglected!!!
3) Despite letting off the Sisler bowlers with a tepid batting display it was stated by more than one Taverner player that 120 was a good score. In this case it was not...with our batting line up and the first pair getting 60 runs there is no excuse for the other pairs not getting 40 runs a piece = 140 runs. We CANNOT & MUST NOT SETTLE FOR MEDIOCRITY! Play for pride and to lay a licking on the opposition - not for personal stats, to take it easy...if we have them down - let's KICK 'EM and have them leave the gym with their ego's and spirit battered & bruised!!! Let 'em know they played the Taverners & lost - COMPREHENSIVELY
Here endth the rant for today. Have a good week gentlemen!
Mr Munro-Smith
Report sourced from:-
http://www.tavernerscc.com
B.C. develop junior clinics -- Posted Friday, February 22 2008
We are pleased to inform that Shaun Miller - ECB Level 3 Coach (the only ONE in BC with that credential), has agreed to run our junior clinics to develop the youth in the game of cricket. He will also hold sessions for senior cricketers to develop and improve their game. Shaun Miller is also a Deputy National Coach for team Canada.
The junior program will consist of:
- Development of youth
- Creation of school league in lower mainland
- Preparing younger cricketers for Canada Under - 19
- Preparing younger cricketers for Canada Under - 23
- Hold cricket clinics for beginners
- Hold tournaments with other provinces in Under-19 & Under-23 category
- Saturday morning Junior Cricket League
- Training session to be held by MRF Pace Foundation
In addition to the above, Shaun Miller will work with seniors as well, with respect to improving their game so potential players can represent team Canada in future.
Article sourced from:-
http://www.bcmcl.org/index.jsp
The Story of 100 Years of Cricket in Manitoba -- Posted Thursday, February 21 2008
Cricket, a traditionally English game that is played widely and held in popular esteem in many countries where typically British institutions prevail, is, paradoxically, virtually an unknown sport in Manitoba to-day. Where, at the turn of the century, the game was played in towns and villages all across the province, it is now all but extinct, and survives only in an enclave in Winnipeg, in a cultural environment that, if not actively inimical to the game’s survival, is certainly indifferent to its fate. Were it not, indeed, for the exuberance and enthusiasm of a small group of migrants from the sunny islands of the Caribbean, the game here would, in all probability, be as dead as the dodo.
Yet the game of cricket has a long and honourable history in Manitoba, having been played in these parts continuously for over a hundred years. Assiduous research has failed to reveal precisely when the game was first introduced into this area, but an educated guess would suggest that it arrived with the earliest British military garrisons who manned the out-posts of empire along the Red River. Certainly, a number of photographs of cricket teams, undated but of considerable antiquity, are to be seen in the old log church at St. Andrews on the Red River. The game definitely antedates the incorporation of the City of Winnipeg, for the earliest allusion to the formation of a cricket club is to be found in Joseph James Hargrave’s book, Red River, published in 1871. This was the North-West Cricket Club, founded in 1864, with the Governor of Rupertsland as its first president.
As may be readily imagined, the cricket played in these pioneer days was of a rather haphazard, not to say rudimentary, character. The early accounts of the game emphasize such interesting peculiarities as the players’ predilection for the consumption of copious quantities of alcoholic beverages during the course of the game. On one occasion recounted by Hargrave in his book, retired chief factor Thomas Sinclair of the North-West Fur Trading Company showed his appreciation of the game by giving the teams a gift of “a gallon of sherry, procured and drunk upon the field.” Hargrave goes on to add that, “before he left the field, the old gentleman very nearly had reason to regret his liberality.” It seems that a ball, presumably struck with more vigor than skill by an inebriated cricketer, “passed so swiftly and so close to his spectacles that he did not see it until a taller friend standing close beside him dropped to the ground with horrible groans and discoloured face, consequent on having received the missile in the ribs.”
If the cricket then tended to be of a somewhat rough-and-ready variety, the surprising thing is, not that it was an unsophisticated form of a highly sophisticated game, but that, in the prevailing conditions, it was played at all. To put the matter in perspective, it is only necessary to remember how recently the area had been settled by British immigrants. The inhabited area of the Colony of Assiniboia, as the settlement was then called, stretched from the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers a distance of some fifty miles west and forty miles north, but at no point extended more than two miles from the riverbanks. The settlement was accessible from the east only by way of the United States and down the Red River from St. Paul. In 1865 a large number of destitute Indians were in an encampment on the outskirts of the town, a source, at once, of acute embarrassment and potential danger to the settlers.
To have found time to play cricket in these conditions was no small achievement, and it says a great deal for the intrepid character of these pioneer settlers that they had no sooner hewn from a hostile wilderness a home and a livelihood than they introduced the traditional game of their homeland into the fabric of their fragile society. As one of the few diversions to relieve the rigors of their spartan existence, the game was evidently welcomed both for the opportunities it afforded for athletic recreation and for its convivial atmosphere of social intercourse.
The first cricket match of which a record is extant was played on July 16, 1870 at Victoria Park in the St. Andrews district of the Settlement, about half way between Winnipeg and Lockport. Three years later the record shows the game also played in Selkirk, and the score book lists teams fielded by the military battalion and the civil service.
From about 1874 on, the game enjoyed widespread popular appeal in Manitoba, and rarely a summer week-end went by without a cricket match to report. The old back numbers of The Winnipeg Free Press, preserved for posterity on microfilm in the newspaper’s archives, contain interesting and colourful accounts of the cricket activity of these years, together with detailed score cards of many of the cricket matches played in that era. Prominent amongst the team members listed are the names of several illustrious personages, like the Hon. A. G. B. Bannatyne and J. H. McTavish, better known for their activities in the arenas of politics and commerce. The names Osier and McGillivray also appear, attesting to the interest shown in cricket by scions of the old pioneer families of Manitoba.
A strictly amateur, or dilettante, attitude to the game is evident in the casual approach to competition.
Organization was conspicuously absent, and the customary method of arranging a match was by choosing teams arbitrarily and issuing challenges, a method which bears the stamp of hallowed English tradition. These challenge matches seem most often to have been played on high days and holidays, and a good deal of imagination evidently went into the selection and naming of the teams. The newspaper reports show that teams representing the military garrison were prominent, and most frequently successful, and that matches were played between teams comprising bankers and lawyers, but, in addition, there were games played by teams bearing names like All Corners, and Benedicts, the latter evidently a team of bachelors, and led by a clergyman called Beck.
In 1882 a Winnipeg cricket team went east for the first time to play a series of matches in Ontario and Quebec. The tour lasted from July 19 to August 5 and proved a resounding success for the Winnipeggers. They played against Toronto, London, Port Hope, Ottawa, and Montreal, and beat them all convincingly, the margin of victory being quite wide in all matches. The detailed scores appear in J. E. Hall’s and R. O. McCulloch’s monumental work, Sixty Years of Canadian Cricket, first published in 1894 and, although now long out of print, still available in the Winnipeg Public Library.
By the early years of this century, cricket was played in towns and villages from Emerson to Selkirk, and from Winnipeg to Moosomin and Wawanesa. Weekend horse-and-buggy expeditions between neighbouring towns were a common occurrence as rival cricket teams visited each other’s home grounds. The matches were invariably attended by numerous ladies in their summer finery and, if a military team was playing, the match would be made into a gala occasion by the presence and rousing performance of a military band. Military personnel, indeed, played a leading role in the cricket activities of these times, and military establishments were, of course, well equipped to provide suitable grounds and other facilities for the promotion of the game.
Interestingly, too, the spacious and well tended grounds of the hospitals for the mentally ill at Selkirk and Brandon for many years provided ideal cricket fields in pleasant surroundings. This happy connection between cricketers and the Provincial Mental Hospital authorities has, regrettably, been severed in more recent times, although this essayist well remembers having played in the last cricket match held in the grounds of the Brandon Mental Hospital in 1957.
Early in this century, too, wider cricketing horizons began to open up to Winnipeg cricketers. Inter-provincial and international competition became increasingly common after 1908, when a team of C.P.R. employees exchanged visits with a team in Minneapolis. The following year Saskatchewan sent a team to play in Winnipeg, and in 1912 a team came to the city from as far afield as Philadelphia, which was then amongst the most world renowned cricket playing centres. That same year a Winnipeg team challenged Toronto for possession of the John Ross Robertson trophy, then as now emblematic of the club cricket championship of Canada, and won handsomely in Toronto. The first three decades of the twentieth century were marked, too, by the signal successes of the Western Canadian Inter-provincial cricket series. Competing provincial representative teams from the four western provinces met annually for many years, sometimes at such unlikely venues as Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan and Moosomin, Manitoba. This burgeoning was to prove, in fact, the pinnacle of cricketing achievement in the west, a great flowering of the game that has never since been equaled.
In the midst of flowering, decay set in. Times were changing dramatically, and old traditions were being eroded by modern influences. The leisured way of life that had been open to certain fortunate classes in late Victorian and in Edwardian times was disappearing, and the few vestiges of the old, privileged style of life that survived the War of 1914-1918 finally vanished in the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing economic depression that lasted well into the 1930-1940 decade. The institution of cricket in Manitoba was no exception to the general rule of change in society, and, where the game survived at all, it was irreversibly changed. Pockets of resistance remained, of course, and, in one noteworthy tour de force, Winnipeg cricketers raised enough money even in the depths of the depression in 1932 to bring the world famous Australian team to the city that summer. This Australian team, which played matches against both Manitoba and Canada in Winnipeg, included the young Don (now Sir Donald) Bradman, perhaps the world’s most successful cricket player of that or any other era in the game’s long history. These events were exceptional, however, and the general tenor through the long depression years was apathy. The Second World War which followed decimated the ranks of Winnipeg cricketers, and all but annihilated the game here.
There was, it is true, some sporadic activity during the war. Australian and other Commonwealth aviation cadets took time from their flying training to help keep the summer game alive on the prairies but, when the war ended, only three cricket teams still existed in Winnipeg, and none elsewhere in Manitoba. Post-war immigration from Britain, and the re-opening of the flying training schools during the Korean War brought new cricketers to the area and ensured that the game would not become extinct, but cultural assimilation caused many of the newcomers to abandon cricket in favour of more socially acceptable recreations, like golf. Not until the arrival of a new wave of immigrants, this time from the Caribbean islands, in the 1960s, did the game once again begin to enjoy a resurgence of popularity and to attract considerable numbers of participants and greater public interest.
Even during the long doldrums, of course, the game continued to provide ample attractions for an initiated and devoted minority. The long tradition of cricket as an essential feature of the sports curricula of the big private schools in Ontario and British Columbia—the game was introduced at Upper Canada College, for example, as long ago as 1837—has done much to maintain the game in these provinces and has also provided an impetus for its promotion elsewhere across the country. In the past 25 years the game in Winnipeg has received repeated stimuli from a continuing series of inter-provincial competitions, international matches, and a never-ending stream of visiting teams from abroad.
The modern inter-provincial series started in Toronto in 1947, when the game in Winnipeg was strong enough only to send a corporal’s guard of cricketers to carry the Manitoba colours as a contingent of a combined Prairie Provinces team. The following year at Vancouver, however, and again at Edmonton and Calgary in 1949, Winnipeg cricketers appeared in force, and, by 1950, the year of the last disastrous Red River flood, they were able to stage the week-long series at Assiniboine Park. Manitoba cricket was back on the map. The events of these and other competitions of the 1947-1955 era were recounted in Cricket Our Weakness, published by the Manitoba Cricket Association in 1957.
In 1960, the Manitoba Colts, a team of Winnipeg schoolboys ranging in age from 12 to 18, travelled to Vancouver where, although considered underdogs in the competition, they astonished their opponents and, winning five of their six matches, emerged at the end of the week worthy winners of the Canadian Junior cricket championship.
The following year, 1961, Manitoba’s adult cricketers made a brave attempt, at Calgary, to emulate the achievement of their younger counterparts. Capably led by a New Zealand expatriate, the Manitobans finished worthy runners-up in this series.
Amongst the more frequent visitors from abroad during this period, the most popular are the teams of amateur, sheep-country cricketers from Tamworth, New South Wales, who, travelling under the aegis of the Emu Cricket Club, come to Winnipeg every fourth or fifth year. The Marylebone Cricket Club, domiciled at the famous headquarters of world cricket at Lord’s Ground in the heart of London. the club that started the modern game and that is charged with responsibility for carrying England’s colours and reputation abroad whenever a touring, representative team travels, has also several times played in Winnipeg, the most recent occasion being 1959.
The pinnacle of post-war cricket achievement in Winnipeg was, however, reached in 1970 when, to mark the occasion of the centenary of Manitoba’s entry into Canadian Confederation, Assiniboine Park was selected as the site and venue of the annual match between Canada and the United States. It is not commonly known that cricket is widely played in the United States, nor that the Canada-v-U.S.A. cricket match is historically the oldest international sporting event in the world, having commenced in 1844. The entire series has been recorded by John Marder in his book, The International Series, published in 1968.
In the match played here in 1970 the Canadian team possessed a commanding lead at the close of play on the first day, but were foiled by a torrential downpour which occurred on the second day and prevented the match from being played out to a decision.
Although it would be foolhardy to conclude a capsule history like this with a prediction of the future of the game in Winnipeg, it is probably fair to say that the game will survive. The Manitoba Cricket Association is a prosperous, non-profit corporation, incorporated under the Companies Act of Manitoba, and the game has achieved a modest measure of public recognition and support as well as tolerant and genuine, if polite rather than enthusiastic, responses from press, radio, and television. Winnipeg’s two hundred active cricket players look, with some confidence, to an auspicious beginning to the game’s second hundred years in Manitoba.
Article sourced from:-
http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/pageant/20/cricketinmanitoba.shtml
CANADIAN COLTS TOUR - July 1967 -- Posted Wednesday, February 20 2008
The Canadian Colts Centennial Year team on tour in England was a team of which Canada can be justly proud. On the field, they were spirited and fighting cricket team who never quit trying, and who richly deserved the victory that obstinately eleuded them throughout a long, strenuous tour. Off the field, they were a well behaved, friendly, and good humoured group of young men who, by their demeanor and deportment, enhanced their own reputation as well as the reputations of their schools wherever they went.
Although this team scored more runs than any of the five Colts sides who had preceded them to England in the past ten years, they failed to win a single match. In the long view this is unimportant since, the primary objective of the tour, that of providing experience for young cricketers and a of giving them the best available opportunity of improving their cricket abilities, was amplyfulfilled. Nevertheless, to do the boys justice, the reasons for the cipher in the 'win' column of the record out to be briefly stated.
The following observations, it should be emphasized, are not post hoc rationalizations of defeat; they are facts having a bearing upon the tour.
Four teams, St. Edward's, Oxford; Marlborough; King's School, Canterbury and Tonbridge, defeated the Colts by superior cricket ability and performances.
At Highgate, the wicket was unpredictable, and at Wellington, the Colts were twice forced to bat on a green, lifting wicket after rain.
On the generally hard, fast wickets which the teams encountered and which all the batsmen enjoyed, the warm, dry, sunny weather in July created and which all the batsmen enjoye, the warm, dry, sunny wheather in July created conditions in which it often became a virtual impossibility for two teams to dismiss each over in the afternoon's play or even in a full day's cricket. As a result, many runs were scored in drawn matches whick were, nevertheless, invariably made interesting, and often palpitatingly exciting, by the Canadians' refreshingly light-hearted yet determined attitude in playing the game.
The English public school cricketer, professionally coached under ideal conditions, is a sophisticated practitioner of the game who is often adept at the art of unobtsively closing up the game when vistory is no longer in his grasp. The young Canadian, on the other had, tends to take a more enthusiatic approach to the problems of a cricket match. Victory, to him, is never impossible until the ninth wicket is down, and sometimes he is even then reluctant to achnowledge it. This attitude, of course, results in matches lost that might have been saved by less adventurous methods, but it also provides cricket that is vital and unfailingly exciting, with the game hanging in the balance right down to the last ball. This occured at Rugby where the Colts just failed to snatch a victory on the last ball of the match, at Worksop where, chasing a total of 220, the last 80 of them required in 40 minutes batting, they made a great effort and evened the scores off the last ball of the day and again at Canford, Lancing, and Latymer, all games which the Colts might have won and in some cases deserved to win. The important thing is that the cricket was played in the spirit of fun and enterprise that makes the game come alive and stay alive. Everywhere the team went, the Colts' approach to the game was applauded by all who saw them in action.
One other factor which militated against the Colt's search for that elusive victory was the lack of that extra 'yard' of genuine pace which would have crowned the quick bowlers' spiritied efforts with the success that stems from real penetration and would have enabled them to hustle out the tail-enders when the shutters were put up.
The highlights of the tour were Brian Iggulden's thoroughly competent and commanding batting, the glorious straight-driving of Brian Deeks, Hal Gould's precision throwing-in from cover-point, Tom Pandos's brave and audacious 50 at Lancing, Victor Harding's ballet-like footwork and total determination, Robin Hart's charming and graceful stroke play, Brian Tod's furiously unorthodox yet often successful methods of wielding a cricket bat; the quiet efficiency, pertinacity, and workmanship of the opening bowlers, Peter Heap and Russell Webb, the dour, defensive batting of Paul Northgrave, the equally dour but contastingly punitive batting of Ross Dunsmore, the workmanlike wicket-keeping of Fraser Burton, Terry Rapsey, and Paul Northgrave, and Nick Glassow's little gem of an innings at Felsted.
The team's fielding was excellent, and at times superlative, Deeks; Harding, and Gould especially excelling in this department. Despite certain limitations in technique and, with the exception of Brian Iggulden, a total absence of previous experience in the class of cricket which they encountered, each member of the team did all that was expected of hime, and more.
They were a fine cricket team and it was a great privilage to have been associated with them. (Bill Weighton)
Report located in the 1968 Annual of the Canadian Cricket Association.
Cummins takes Under-19 coach role -- Posted Friday, February 15 2008
Pubudu Dassanayake, Canada's coach, has announced a new coaching team who will take charge across the various levels of the game.
Shaun Miller who played minor counties cricket in England will be the deputy national coach and he will be responsible for Western Canada which includes the areas of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. He holds an ECB Level 3 qualification.
Anderson Cummins, the former West Indies and Canada opening bowler, will look after the Under-19s, who have not qualified for the World Cup in Malaysia this month but will definitely take part in the 2012 event as hosts. Farooq Kirmani who represented Canada in the '80s, will be undertaking the future of the juniors, in looking after the Under-15s. George Codrington, who represented Canada at last year's World Cup in the West Indies, will undertake the women's program.
The trio do not, as yet, have formal coaching qualifications, but do have extensive experience of developing players' skills over many years. "All three have played a considerable amount of international cricket - in Anderson's case, at Test level," a Canada spokesperson told Cricinfo. "It is important for Canadian cricket that we maximize this type of expertise which exists within the country."
Geoffrey Crosse will resume his role as technical analyst, team with specific skills in video analysis. "He has formal, college-level qualifications in that area," said the spokesman, "which is becoming increasingly important for us."
There has been a change in the selectors' panel too, as Errol Townshend has tendered his resignation as national selector. Richard Hawes, Chris James, Bhan Deonarine and Arvind Patel will soon be joined on the panel by a replacement Ontario representative. The Ontario Cricket Association will recommend a replacement to the CCA. The CCA will then appoint a replacement who will be formally elected to the position at the next AGM.
Their big job this year will be to select the side they believe will help Canada win the Twenty20 World Cup Qualifiers in Ireland in August. This will be Canada's singular focus for the foreseeable future, with two teams from six going through to the World Cup. Project Stingray, as it has been called, will be led by Dassananayake and moves into high gear immediately.
The efforts will include the following: an expansion of indoor winter training, with indoor nets and indoor games being played three times a week; specific Twenty20 training; much usage of DVD footage; input from qualified sports psychologists; and the inclusion of promising Canadian Under-19s in the process.
Article sourced from:-
http://content-www.cricinfo.com/canada/content/story/337237.html
DID YOU KNOW? -- Posted Thursday, February 14 2008
W.R. Gilbert, once a famous English cricketer in the latter part of the nineteenth century was a first cousin of the redoubtable W.G. Grace and had played as a member of the Unitied South of England XI under the captaincy of W.G.
This team ceased to exist after 1882 and Gilbert, finding it difficult to live as a "pure" amateur (an indication of the fees received by the "amateur" Graces with the U.S.E. XI), turned professional at the start of the 1886 cricket season. He played in a few matches early in the season and was even featured in a special article in the magazine "Cricket". After that there is no mention of him and all references disappear from the records.
It appears he had been caught red-handed, stealing from his fellow players in the team dressing room. In order not to besmirch the name of "Graces", he was shipped out to Canada where hie died in 1924. While in Canada, however, he again resumed the game and made many fine scores.
Article transcibed from 'THE CANADIAN CRICKETER', March 1980, VOL 8 NO 1.
Ottawa Valley Cricket Council - President's Report 2007 -- Posted Tuesday, February 12 2008
The 2007 OVCC season was not only a very successful season but we also instituted many positive changes in the league for the betterment of cricket in Ottawa. We introduced the following changes to the playing conditions:
50 overs per innings were introduced in the
Challenge division.
Introduction of Twenty20 cricket
Coloured uniforms and white balls.
2007 Performance Highlights
Canterbury CC represented OVCC in the JRR and lost a close final to Yorkshire CC of Toronto after having defeated a very strong Adastrians CC from Montreal in the semi-final. In the Challenge division, Canterbury CC won the regular season and also the play offs phase. They also won the Knockout competition. Canterbury CC not only won these competitions but also went undefeated throughout the season in the Challenge division.
In the Citizen Division, Exodus-Belair United SC won the regular season phase of the competition and lost to Defence CC in the playoff championship game.
In the OVCC inaugural Twenty20 competition, Defence CC won the championship. A Canadain cricket record was established in this competition. Karandeep Singh of Defence CC hit six 6's in an over. His twelve consecutively faced deliveries read 6,6,6,6,4,1, wd, 6,6,6,6,6,6.
Kingston CC won the six-a-side competition.
The OVCC representative team won its two away games in Soca and Hamilton and lost three very close games in the home stretch to T&DCA Semiors, T&DCA U-25 and Etobicoke & DCA.
2007 Achievements
We held the inaugral "Celebrate Canada Day" game between OVCC Juniors and the Quebec Juniors, with )VCC emerging as the winners. The following dignitaries attended the game:
Mr. Jim Watson, Minister of health and Fitness Promotion
Mr. Royale Galipeau, Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons
City Councillor Marian Wilkinson (for Mayor Larry O'Brian)
Mr. Harvey Rosen, Mayor of Kingston
His excellency R.L. Narayan, High Commissioner of India
Mr. Mike Kendall, President, Ontario Cricket Association
We inted to continue with this annual function, to be held in Ottawa, by inviting junior teams from different regions on an annual and rotational basis.
We also introduced cricket in area schools. We held several coaching clinics, labs, coach the coaches' sessions. The following area schools are enrolled in our program and we intend to add several more this coming season.
Ridgemont High School Brookfield High School
Rideau High School Lisgar High School
Gloucester High School Cornwall High School
Youth Care Facility of Ottawa
After 20 plus years, we revived the OVCC Campaign Committee for the advancement and promotion of cricket in Ottawa. The Ottawa Cricket Pitch was launched on the local Rogers Cable TV to cover local cricket. All OVCC representative games were covered on Rogers Cable TV with one full game between OVCC and T&D was was broadcastes throughout Ontarion. We are working very closeley with Rogers to promote cricket in the Eastern Ontario region.
Report by Gullu Bajwa.
Ontario Cricket Association - Umpiring Report -- Posted Monday, February 11 2008
In general, the quality of umpiring is improving in Ontario. This is because the leagues and officials are taking the initiative to arrange umpiring seminars.
There are ever changing playing conditions for one day matches at the ICC level. We must follow the changes so that our cricket standard does notfall too far behind.
One area to which I would like to draw to which I would like to draw everbody's attention is the use of the Duckworth/Lewis method in one day matches. Use of this method is slowly spreading in Ontario beyond the Toronto and District League. The Etobicoke and District League is planning to use the D/L Method in their premier League matches in the 2008 season. We must praise and assist the EDCL organization for taking this initiative.
We would like to see all other cricket organizations in Ontario develop a plan to use to use the D/L Method, as soon as possible at least in the top Division of their leagues. This will set a good standard in Ontario.
We can provide assistance to familiarize umpires and players with a working knowledge of the D/L Method by conducting seminars.
The following Umpire Seminars were conducted in Ontario at the request of Leagues.
Ontario, 2007.
Ottawa: Two-day seminar of the Laws. Six candidates took the CCA Level 1 examination.
Toronto: Nine 4-hour seminars on the Laws and the Duckworth/Lewis method. A total of 13 candidates tokk the CCA examination at level, 1, 2 and 3.
Etobicoke: Two-day seminar on the Laws and a 2-hour seminar on the Duckworth/Lewis method. A total of 35 candidates took CCA examinations at Level 1 and 2. Totasl 0f 21 umiries passed the Level 1 exam.
Summary
A total of 54 candidates took the CCA (Cricket Canada) examinations. Perhaps as many again used the seminars to learn and refresh their knowledge. Cricket Canada instructors educated about 100 Ontario umpires in 2007.
Mr. Gwynne Giles traveled to Ottawa Valley to give a two-day Seminar and also taught in the EDCL. Mr. Colin Harvey gave a D/L Method Seminar in Toronto.
I was also involved in conducting umpiring Seminars.
Kantilal Patel
Umpire Coordinator - OCA
An open letter to the Canadian Cricket Association -- Posted Friday, February 8 2008
Calvin Clarke
Secretary, Canadian Cricket Association
Sports Alliance Centre,
1185 Eglinton Avenue East,
Toronto, Ontario
M3C 3C6
February 8, 2008
Dear Calvin,
First of all let me congratulate you on your Lifetime Service to Cricket Award which is richly deserved. You have unselfishly dedicated yourself over many years to the development of the game that we all love. We are all in your debt.
This month marks the 25th year that I have been involved in the administration of the game in Canada, beginning with my service on the Board of Governors of the Toronto & District Cricket Association as Disciplinary Chair under your presidency.
I have decided that this is an appropriate time to end my involvement in the game and pass the torch to a new, younger generation of administrators to take the game forward.
Any organization needs an injection of new blood and fresh ideas from time to time. Canada faces a challenging year ahead as we seek to qualify for the World 20/20 in August in Ireland and the 2011 World Cup in the qualifier in Dubai in just over a year.
It is therefore an appropriate juncture for someone else to assume the onerous task of ensuring that we qualify for these important competitions and preserve our status in the ICC's High Performance Program and the financial benefits that flow from success in these qualifying tournaments.
I am therefore formally tendering my resignation as National Selector, effective February 8, 2008.
I wish to pay tribute to my fellow selectors, Richard Hawes, Chris James, Bhan Deonarine and Arvind Patel for the excellent job they have done over the years that I have served with them.
In closing may I wish both you and your colleagues on the national association and other cricketing bodies best wishes for the future.
Sincerely,
Errol Townshend
Ten ways a batsman can be out -- Posted Friday, February 8 2008
There are ten ways a batsman can be out - five are very common and five very rare.
More often than not a batsman will be caught, bowled, given leg before wicket (lbw), run out or stumped.
The five other ways to lose your wicket range from the uncommon to the almost unseen.
The uncommon methods, but not unheard of, are 'hit wicket' - when a batsman removes his or her own bails - and 'handled the ball' - when he handles the ball without permission from the fielding side.
The almost unseen are 'double hit' - deliberately hitting the ball twice, 'obstructing the field' - preventing fielders from executing a run out and 'timed out', which is when a new batsman takes too long to appear on the field.
It's worth knowing however that for the batsman to be given out, the fielding team have to appeal to the umpire by asking "how's that?"
Information sourced from BBC SPORT at:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport2/hi/cricket/rules_and_equipment/4180344.stm
Canadian Cricket Official wins ICC Award -- Posted Friday, February 1 2008
Calvin Clarke, General Secretary of the Canadian Cricket Association, has won the ICC Americas Regional Award for lifetime services to cricket. It was Canada's only success in the 2007 ICC Development Awards. Canada had three regional winners, two of which went on to become Global winners in the 2006 awards.
Mr. Clarke hails from Trinidad and Tobago where his cricket playing and administrative career began. He moved to Canada in 1967. Hie is a past President of the Toronto and District Cricket Association (1982-5), past 1st Vice-President of the Ontario Cricket Association, has managed and assisted Canada on international tours, served as a qualified umpire and played for Civics Sports Club.
He has two periods as Secretary of the CCA. The first from 1976-8 and resumed in 2000 after retiring from work. He was a member of the organizing committee for the successful 1989 United Way Cricket Match at the SkyDome, which had the largest attendance at a match in the Americas. More recently he has played key roles in the organization of Canada's home international cricket matches.
Away from cricket he helped found the Ontario Netball Association and one of his past employment records includes the installation of the sound system at Wembley Stadium, London, England.
This award recognizes many years of devotion to cricket and Mr. Clarke sustains the true spirit of the game. Many would benefit by following his example of hard work behind the scenes. A key ingredient in the succesful playing and administration of cricket as stated by former West Indies captain Richie Richardson during the public forum "Cricket: Reality, Respect, Reward" at Metro Hall, Toronto in April 2006.
This award brings 'reward' and a fourth 'r', 'recognition' to a fine gentleman and devoted servant of the game. His name goes forward to the ICC's Global Awards selection committee.
Eddie Norfolk