The playoffs in the 2017 Cricket Ontario Under-15 championships are due to be played today (Friday, August 18 2017) at Centennial Park, Etobicoke. Four teams have been playing the round-robin phase of this tournament in recent days so the leading duo of Ontario North U-15, Ontario West U-15, Ontario South U-15 and Ontario West U-15 will meet in the championship game today, and the two lower teams in the standings will compete for third place.
There are some photos on Cricket Ontario’s facebook from the earlier days of the tournament. The computer scoring for the 2017 Ontario U15 tournament states it is being played in T20 format but there do not seem to be any scores posted from the round-robin phase, but the scheduled start time for today’s games does not seem to be disclosed.
The Cricket Ontario Under-17 tournament, admittedly played over 50-over limit per innings, had a start time of noon (12pm) in the round robin phase but the playoff games were scheduled from 11am. It seems the computer scorecards for the Under-17 playoffs are not yet in place, which is a pity. Canadian cricket, including cricket in Ontario, needs to open the doors to broader media coverage which has little prospect of happening if basic information is not disclosed and scores are not disclosed during the course of a tournament such as this Cricket Ontario Under-15 tournament, if only at a summary level.
Broader coverage and awareness that such tournaments and what should be important games could help attract sponsors to Canadian cricket, including international events such as the recent ICC Americas Under-19 World Cup Qualifier. Admittedly the latter tournament had certain contractual restrictions on the use of digital and video during tournament games but the warm-up games involving Canada, Bermuda and the USA might have been better advertised and results disclosed via the Cricket Canada website. It did rain when some of the warm-up games were scheduled but someone could have disclosed the prospects of play via a central social media site, such as the Cricket Canada website.
All kinds of basics seem to be missed by the organizers of certain seemingly important cricket tournaments in the Greater Toronto Area which should be a beacon of light and excellence for Canadian cricket. Many players, families of junior players, friends of players, coaches and operators of indoor cricket facilities put in a lot of effort and money in the hope of seeing Canadian cricket capitalize on some of the development of cricketers in Canada. But a simple example is that the Canadian Cricket Association now re-named as Cricket Canada does not even have a scorer with the Canadian Under-19 squad in St Kitts. On the broader front, what training programs are being offered to develop scorers in the GTA, Ontario and/or across Canada.
Canada’s qualification for the 2018 ICC Under-19 depended upon critical scoring information to determine the number of balls from which Canada Under-19s needed to reach a winning score against USA Under-19s and gain top place in the standings on Net Run Rate. Nobody announced the magic number of balls available for a Canadian leap to the top of the standings before or during the Canadian innings.
During the innings break in Canada’s last game at the first ICC World Cricket League Division One in Kenya in early 2007 the Canadian team manager and one of the players did calculations based on news from other grounds of how many overs and balls, which was not that many, Canada would need to reach a winning total and potentially secure a place in the tournament final. A place in the final would have brought a place in the ICC T20 World Championship and more funds from the ICC.
What do some of the board members of certain leagues, provinces and at the national level do to ensure key scores and basic information about important games and tournaments is disclosed and/or reported in a timely manner to make Canadian cricket better known?
Do they post a message on social media seeking scoring updates from an event where they are one of the seemingly key board members at the helm of domestic cricket’s policies and operations?
Come into my parlour said the fly, silently, to the spider.
Eddie Norfolk