The Ontario Cricket Association (OCA), the governing body of cricket in Ontario, has appointed the former Canadian captain Umar Bhatti as its head coach. He is a left-handed batsman and a left-arm medium-pace bowler.
Umar Bhatti first played for Canadian in the Under-19s World Cup of 2004, where he finished 30 not out in his debut World Cup performance, batting at number seven. He played in six games in the World Cup, generally batting in the lower-middle order. He later performed for his country in the 2005 ICC Trophy, which saw Canada finish in fourth place in the tournament, which took place in Ireland. In the final of the2006 ICC Intercontinental Cup, a match which actually took place in May 2007, Bhatti took four wickets in five balls against Ireland, including a hat-trick that was made up entirely of lbw decisions.
Bhatti will work very closely with all the OCA member leagues for the players and coaches development. Umar will also work very closely with the OCA’s schools program to develop players at the grassroots level. A more detailed coaching plan will be developed in the next few weeks.
OCA is extremely happy that Umar has accepted this challenge and will play a big role in the development of cricket in Ontario. OCA is proud of the fact that Umar is a product of the Canadian junior development system. He is well aware of the challenges that we face and is the right candidate for this challenge.