By Peter Della Penna
Canadian national team player Zubin Surkari top scored with 40 to lead Toronto Cricket Club’s chase of 117 as they defeated Sarasota International Cricket Club by seven wickets on Sunday at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in the final of the 19th annual Philadelphia International Cricket Festival. Sarasota’s first innings total of 116 for 7 in 20 overs was never going to be enough against the batting firepower of Toronto, who reached the target in 15.1 overs.
“We have a lot of good players that came this year,” said Toronto CC captain Hassan Choghtai. “The Canadian captain Ashish Bagai and Zubin Surkari, who just played in the World Cup, a couple of former Canadian players and Under-19 players. We had a pretty strong team so that was the reason for the success.”
“We play with full intensity and we play to win. Although it’s a festival game, we just come here to play hard, play good cricket and win it so it’s more fun.”
Choghtai accepted the winner’s trophy from former Indian Test cricketer Sunil Joshi, this year’s VIP guest. Choghtai says it’s the great facilities on offer in Philadelphia, in addition to the chance to mingle with players like Joshi, that make it an easy choice to keep on coming back each year.
“I don’t know if there’s grounds like this or clubhouses like this anywhere in North America,” said Choghtai. “It’s great grounds, the wickets are a little tricky, but all the grounds have good outfields. You get value for your shots. Good people, you get to meet the VIP every year which is a pretty awesome thing.”
Joshi was delighted with the experience he had at the festival on many levels.
“This is the 19th year the organizers have conducted this sports festival and being the first Indian to have been invited to grace the occasion makes me feel very proud and privileged because if you look at the players who have come here as a guest of honor, my childhood hero Garry Sobers, I couldn’t have refused this great event to come over here and grace the occasion,” said Joshi.
Players like Mark Boucher and Jonty Rhodes established a tradition of playing alongside the members of many of the clubs, particularly the Philadelphia area teams. Joshi played in four matches this year and was excited by the mix of talent on offer, particularly the fact that there were more than a few Americans in the teams.
“There are quite a few Americans,” said Joshi. “I had seen the Under-19 guy Kalim [Ahmed]. I played alongside him yesterday with the British Officers Club. He’s a young upcoming left arm seamer. I was very happy to see someone being an American playing cricket. It was great.” Among others, ICC Americas Under-19 tournament MVP Cameron Mirza also played in the tournament for Indoor Cricket Rising Stars. Current Canada Under-19 player Kyle Edghill also played for the champion Toronto CC squad along with former Canada 2010 Under-19 World Cup squad member Arsalan Qadir.
“The standard is fantastic,” said Joshi. “You look at the players who have been playing for the Canadian team. A couple of players who took part in the 2011 World Cup, they’ve been playing for the [Toronto] team.”
“Before I came into the ground to look at these teams playing, I had my own reservations on these sorts of wickets, but the enthusiasm the cricketers have shown for the last three days, it’s amazing. It’s great to see these players playing and there’s so many Americans, English, the Asians, the expats. It’s a great event.”