By Janelle Joseph
Dr. Janelle Joseph is a Research Fellow at the School of Physical Education, University of Otago, in New Zealand.
The Malvern Cricket Club (MCC) based out of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada is about to begin their 30th season. Some MCC members have been playing together in Canada since the 1970s. Their days of competitive cricket are over, but they continue to play ‘friendlies,’ with and against fellows from nearby cricket clubs in Pickering and Markham – and of course, no summer would be complete without a friendly competition with the Toronto Police Team.
Malvern’s regular season lasts from chilly May Saturdays and Sundays, through the blazing heat of July and August weekends, right into the cool breezes that wrap up September. Rain or shine, ageing players and their supporters are out at cricket grounds in the Greater Toronto Area. On a particularly nice day there could be over a hundred people in attendance, only twenty-two men donning their white gear. The grounds have become known as meeting places for Caribbean men and women from many different territories for socializing, business transactions, purchasing foods and baked goods, and eating dinner. A delicious spread of chicken, salad, and rice is provided after almost every game. Players and their supporters come “to experience the same ting we do home. Lime and chat and drink in the sunshine” says long-time club member, Pauline Hutson.
The biggest game of the summer is the Memorial Match, held in honour of fallen Barbadian Police Officer Percival Cummins who worked for the Royal Barbados Police Force before emigrating to Canada. He was hired by the Toronto Police and worked as a constable for eleven years until his death in the line of duty on September 23, 1981. From 1994-1997 the Toronto Police Domino Club operated with a trophy donated in Cummins’ name. In 1998 they decided to start an annual Memorial Match: Toronto Police Cricket Team vs. Barbados Ex-Police officers to celebrate the life of Constable Cummins, his passion for the sport of cricket, and the unity of the Bajan and broader Caribbean communities in Toronto. This event is much more than just a cricket match. Typically held the first Saturday of every July it is a festival for people of Caribbean descent from near and far. Visitors from Montreal and New York, locals of all ages, and reporters from Toronto’s Caribbean newspaper, Share, descend on the cricket grounds in Scarborough to take in (and generate) the entertainment.
MCC does not have a clubhouse, so club members must arrive at the grounds well prepared for a day in the sun. Women who come to support their husbands and boyfriends bring umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun, canvas chairs for comfortable seating and coolers full of snacks, wine, soda pop and beer. They sit at a distance from the boundary, gossiping with each other, catching up on what transpired during the week with their children and grandchildren, and chatting with the men stopping by to say hello. You’d better not come to the ground and forget to pass by their chairs, or you will get a tongue lashing: “Ah what is dis ‘tall? How long you been at dis groun’ an’ only now you come an say hello?! Shame!” Some women arrive directly from church on a Sunday in their fine clothes, broad hats, and gold jewellery. They don’t allow their attire to stop them from relaxing for a few hours.
There are three main groups of men at the ground. First, there are the plumbers, financial analysts, teachers, nurses, and factory workers who all find an area to congregate. Some are former players and others are cricket lovers. All hover close to deep mid wicket, watching the game with their big bellies protruding through their colourful shirts, memorabilia from international test matches and club trips they have enjoyed. Their commentary fluidly shifts between the accomplishments and failures of the old men playing before them and the young men of the West Indies team.
Some men stand at a distance from the field of play, engaged in a fierce dominoes game. This second group has done away with the need to transport chairs to the ground. They stand around a table-top, specifically designed to fit on top of the city’s one-metre-tall garbage or recycling bins, slapping down their dominoes, heckling each other and sharing jokes and stories. Every once in a while they may attend to what has transpired on the cricket field, but they have mainly come to the cricket ground to socialize.
Third, one can always find a group of men gathered around the trunks of their cars, filling plastic cups with a caramel liquid, telling jokes and talking aggressively. Topics of conversation run the gamut from politics (Canadian, Caribbean, and U.S), sports, women, cars, a new restaurant they tried, the best remedy for sore joints and so on. There are also men in the parking lot with plates or bowls full of rotis, blood pudding, patties, souse, or pone that someone has sold from the back of their van. Car stereos emit calypso or reggae tunes and sounds of laughter in combination with dominoes slapping fill the air. This is the scene all before the game has even begun.
Some players wait until they arrive at the ground to get into uniform, using the area around the boundary as their change room with no apparent concern for modesty. They brace themselves on a tree, sit on the grass, and apply their ointments, bandages, braces, and ‘blood thinners,’ in preparation for the game, which never starts at the scheduled time, anyway. Nigel Griffith, a 23-year veteran of the team, explains “blood thinners,” also known as “pre-game spirits,” or “funny juice” is necessary “at our age. You’ve got to keep the blood flowing, the joints working, plus it makes playing a whole lot more fun.” He and his peers, who are mainly in their fifties and sixties seem to enjoy the drinking as much as the cricket.
Once they’ve had a few drinks the men are able to be a little more free in the field, they can bend over for a few more balls that are headed towards the boundary rather than trying to stop them with their feet. This type of geriatric play typically elicits shouts and laughter from the crowd: “You don’t know this aint football?!” “Bend dung an’ pick up de ball ne man?!” “Look he deh, back bruck-up!” as the runs continue to accumulate.
Win or lose, everyone lines up for food, prepared by Alinda, who runs her own catering company with her daughters. Women and children eat first as the players’ cricket pads lay out in the sun to dry, symbols of the days’ efforts.
Former players and ardent supporters, such as Cameron “Cammie” Lyte are eager to point out that this is not merely a cricket club. Rather, it is a cricket and social club that focuses on parties, karaoke, banquets, and Mother’s day brunches. They even put together a friendly cricket game with their female members last June, and engaged in fundraising initiatives for a local Women’s Shelter and the Ontario Sickle Cell Association. Cammie is partial to the club’s goals: “to have fun and support our local communities.” He speaks in the plural because the communities he refers to can be found in London, England; Montreal, Quebec; and U.S. cities such as Toledo, Ohio; Boston, Massachusetts; and Hartford, Connecticut, not to mention the many villages from where the players originated. Two-week tours or long-weekend tournaments with teams from abroad are a highlight of the summer.
Unfortunately, as they age, more and more players retire from the field to the area around the boundary and there is no second generation of Caribbean cricket aficionados to replace them. When in need, Malvern can amalgamate with teams such as Pickering Cricket Club or borrow players from teams across the GTA such as those in Brampton and Markham. So many players complain of injuries but when asked, ‘how do you know when to throw in the towel?’ Michael Phillips, president of the MCC, said “Yeah we are like dinosaurs, but we’ll have to be extinct before we cancel the season.” He paused contemplatively, “If you miss me one weekend I must be dead!” The reality is that in the next twenty years or less they will have to start reducing the number of fixtures and there will not be enough cricket-able bodies to put on the field, but this fact perhaps provides only more motivation for Malvern Cricket Club members to remain fervently devoted to creating a convivial Caribbean atmosphere every weekend of the protracted summer.
At the cricket grounds you can easily find rice and chicken, reggae and calypso, dominoes and cricket. Every weekend, men and women now living throughout the Greater Toronto Area, the Caribbean, and the diaspora are recreating a sense of home.