Eddie Norfolk
The West Toronto Region has not disappeared from the original Toronto District School Board outdoor cricket championships, contrary to my notes at the weekend, which is good news. Now that the intense CIMA Mayors Trophy qualifiers have been played, the TDSB schedule for the Toronto West Region outdoor season has appeared, as have the dates for the TDSB City quarter-finals (Tuesday June 5th) plus the semi-finals and finals (Wednesday June 6th) .
This goes to show the interest that exists in playing the game at the schools level in Toronto. But demand also exists in other local areas, such as the Peel Region and the York Region. Various private indoor facilities and coaching schemes exist, whilst some of the local area cricket clubs continue to bring in youngsters to enjoy the game of cricket.
The West Region round-robin qualifiers are set for this coming Wednesday and Thursday (May 23 and 24) with semi-finals and the final set for May 30th at Eglinton Flats. The East Region quarter-finals are scheduled for this Thursday with semi-finals on Monday May 28th and the East Region final on May 30th. The City quarter-finals, semi-finals and final are due to be played at Eglinton Flats.
The future of cricket in Canada is dependent upon the upcoming generation of players, both boys and girls, taking up the challenge so that the game can move from all the waffle about “potential”, by some of the games “leaders” in Canada, to being a much more solidly run sport. One that might even welcome spectators to “run-of-the-mill” matches and where what happens on the field becomes more important than some of what happens off the field. Although for the game to advance, there needs to be proper coordination and planning off the field in order to help the sport thrive.
A number of those helping with the CIMA Mayors Schools Trophy games last week bring more to the table than some of the games’ Canadian cricketing leaders. The games moved along pretty well, with some who had experience from the “Cricket Across the Pond” trips to the UK helping with scoring and support roles to keep the games going. A notable contrast from some – but not all – elected to office in Canadian cricket’s administrative spheres who seem to like sitting and waiting for things to happen; which might be alright if such leaders bring along an army of workers to do the work to promote and advance the game. But not too good if an invisible army of ghosts ends up running the game, using funds created by invisible money trees.
Some of the ethnic media English language newspapers in the Greater Toronto area found time to lead with stories on the recent International XI v Asia XI game held recently. At least three lead with stories with headlines such as: “No PAYMENT to play cricket in Canada” (South Asian MidWeek News Weekly, May 15, 2012); “No pay for cricketers in Toronto T20 game” (India Journal, May 18, 2012); and “Not Cricket at All” (The Weekly Voice, May 19, 2012). All three reports seem to conclude, quite correctly, that the sanctioning body, Cricket Canada, surely had certain responsibilities about what happened and what failed to happen. What due diligence was done before the green light was given to the organizers, who did not seem to know too much about the recent history of cricket in Canada?
There are certainly a wide range of issues on a bigger scale in the real world of governing bodies and regulatory bodies that fail to provide management and leadership in area where such bodies are supposed to be providing oversight and some level of supervision. Missing seeing major issues is a different type of oversight. It is easier to spot in the context of the recent Asia XI v International XI cricket match, but those who filled in the gaps in the line-up produced a reasonable game. But the line-ups did not reflect what was supposed to be going to take place. So the players saved the day, and perhaps, one day, somewhere over the rainbow, they will be paid for their efforts.
Quite a lot of work has been done on the outfields at both Sunnybrook Park and at Eglinton Flats since Canada hosted the ICC Trophy back in 2001. A lot of clean-up has taken place beyond the boundary lines at Eglinton Flats. But some real funds are needed to achieve further improvements – levelling the land, better quality grass on the outfields and setting up some nets (or better nets) – not just at these two grounds in Toronto, but at a range of other grounds across the country.