Eddie Norfolk
Ingleton Liburd mentioned at the All Star T20 media launch on Thursday that the Canadian squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup qualifier in the UAE are due to take flight this Saturday (February 18th). The Canadian players and support personnel are bound for Sri Lanka to prepare for the T20 qualifier. Best wishes go to the squad for a safe series of flights, good flight for the spinners during the games, good flight, or good grounding, for shots by Canadian batsmen (sometimes good to play the ball along the ground), good health and fitness, and best wishes for a successful tournament.

A wish from those involved with Canada Cricket Online, and a wish from old and new followers of Canadian cricket from sea to shining sea, which includes the northern parts where the sun might shine for an hour or two over the ice and snow.

We won’t mention that Ingleton, a former Canadian international, played at The Rogers Centre, when it was the SkyDome, in a major international United Way cricket event, because they might give the impression the upcoming T20 All Star Game is not the first such international game to be held in Toronto.

A bit like disclosing that the 2011 Mayors Inter-schools Toronto outdoor cricket championships were not the first such events. A statement or suggestion that might give the impression the Canadian Federal Finance minister was not correct in something he wrote for the CIMA Spirit of Cricket program in 2011.

Now those school events were the first to carry, somewhere along the line, the CIMA banner. And on the All Star front, the 1989 and two subsequent years international games at the SkyDome were 50 overs per side and not 20 overs. But in a world of sweeping generalizations, where some play the sweep stroke gracefully and others knock their own stumps out of the ground, these little differences matter little. Except when they matter a lot, or far too much.

So best wishes to the Canadians for preparations in Sri Lanka and then the UAE T20 qualifier. And don’t forget the All Star T20 cricket due for May 12th at the Rogers Centre. And if the T20 qualifier now has a pretty Pepsi title, then we can sort that out at a future date. Potentially when noting the names of the Canadian playing squad.
But for now, to the Tasmanian devil with a couple of the bits of hoop-la. Good luck, eh, guys! Bon chance!