City councillors Adam Vaughan and Doug Ford put their political differences aside to host a city hall event Friday for the 12 youth chosen to represent Toronto in the fourth annual Cricket Across the Pond program.

“This is a program about building leadership in our communities and using cricket as a vehicle to do just that,” said Mr. Vaughan, calling cricket one of the great character-building sports.

The team of 12 known as the CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) Mayor’s Team represent a cross-section of young ambassadors from Toronto’s diverse neighbourhoods. They’ll spend eight days in England developing their skills.

Cricket is the fastest growing game in Toronto and although the Mayor is more of a football guy he, Mr. Vaughan and Doug Ford will be participating in the Mayor’s Cup tournament Saturday along with the young men.

“The funniest thing is going to be watching you and Rob chase each other around with a bat,” said Mr. Ford with a grin for his fellow councillor, a known adversary of the mayor.

Each young player was selected after a city-wide tournament and interview process that involved hundreds of eager hopefuls.

The team’s captain was announced at the event: Michael Walton, from Emery Collegiate Institute. He said he was surprised to even make the team. “I was quite shocked to hear because this would be my second time going so I didn’t expect a call,” he said.

Mr. Walton grew up watching his dad, who is from the Caribbean, play cricket. He’s also a member of the Canadian under 19 cricket team and plans to continue playing while he attends York University next year to study kinesiology.

Adil Askary, vice principal at Weston Collegiate Institute, is the team’s coach. “This is probably the youngest team we’ve taken,” he said. but he’s confident they’ll do well.

The program is a collaborative project with Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation and CIMA Canada.

The team consists of:

In Ho (Gus) Cha, 17, Upper Canada College

Akeel Cheema, 18, Kipling Collegiate Institute

Manav Parikh, 17, Sir Wilfred Laurier Collegiate Institue

Dipenkumar Patel, 21, Ryerson University

Malav Patel, 17, North Albion Collegiate Institute

Parth Patel, 18, Woburn Collegiate Institute

Aashin Patwari, 17, Woburn Collegiate Institute

Neil Ramkissoon, 17, West Hill Collegiate Institute

Yug Rao, 17, Woburn Collegiate Institute

Akshay Shah, 16, George Harvey Collegiate Institue

Talha Shaikh, 17, George Harvey Collegiate Institute

Michael Walton, 18, Emery Collegiate Institute (C)