Canadian cricket appears to be progressively disappearing from the global cricket scene, at least if its presence in the 2017 edition of Wisden’s Cricketers Almanack is any indication. As noted in our 2016 yearly review, CricInfo’s annual review of Associates cricket had no mention of Canada, and this is now matched by Wisden’s coverage. Wisden’s annual publication provides a comprehensive review of global cricket, and for the last few years (perhaps decades, I don’t have access to my collection for another couple of weeks) a brief summary of cricket in Canada. In 2016 Faraz Sarwat provided a blunt assessment of the state of the game in Canada. The 2017 edition provides page length or longer reviews of the game in the major associates – Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland, UAE, Oman, PNG, and Hong Kong, plus brief reviews of “Cricket Round the World in 2016” including amongst others Bolivia, Costa Rica, Malawi, Mongolia, and Turkey – but not a line on Canada.
Our neighbours to the south, the USA, merit a full page as well, but in part for the wrong reasons, the major crisis in governance they have been facing. As noted by Peter Della Penna in the review, the USA also has been benefiting from favoured status by the ICC, despite its internal problems – he reports a rumour that the head of an associate member at the ICC’s annual conference to volunteer suspension of his own board if the ICC would provide similar increases in support and investment (one would like to think this was Cricket Canada’s president).
Without a comprehensive read of the 1536 page volume it is hard to definitively say that Canada is ignored completely this year but traces are hard to find. As Canada has slipped down the international ladder, they are not included in the brief coverage of the InterContinental Cup, or the ICC World Cricket League – because they no longer qualify for the higher levels of competition. There is a brief mention of Canadian participation in the ICC Americas team in the West Indies in the USA review. Canadian captain Nitish Kumar’s name appears for his 59 for Loughborough MCCU against Northamptonshire. Delving deeper, in the records section, Ross Mackenzie remains where he’s been for over a century, in second place in the throwing the cricket ball listing, with his 140 yards 9 inches mark set in Toronto in 1872. Canada is included in the listing of one day international records- 77 matches, won 17; and retains 2nd place in the listing of lowest ODI totals for its 36 in the 2002-03 World Cup. John Davison’s name appears for his 17 wickets in the Intercontinental Cup match against USA in 2004.
Wisden of course is not the be all and end all of global cricket coverage, but Canada’s disappearance from its pages is one further indicator of the sad decline of cricket in Canada over the last few years. To regain its prominence, the first task for Canada is to regain at least ICC Division 2 status by qualifying from the upcoming ICC Division 3 tournament in Uganda – or perhaps unearthing a javelin thrower who can propel a cricket ball 150 yards!
Dave Liverman