Eddie Norfolk

The semi-finals in the senior boys (varsity) City Playoffs for the Toronto District School Board’s outdoor cricket competition are now set for this Friday (June 8th) rather than Monday June 11th. Agincourt CI will go “once more unto the breach, dear friends”, against North Albion CI, after scrambling to a one wicket win on Wednesday against Marc Garneau CI with one ball to spare. Georges Vanier Secondary School will meet Woburn CI in the other semi-final.

These games are scheduled to start at 9am, according to the TDSB’s website, with Eglinton Flats as the venue. One might expect the City final to follow these semi-finals on Friday. Last year bad weather meant there was a lack of outdoor cricket in this competition. Information confirmed on Wednesday when inquiring about the “missing” 2010-2011 TDSB West Region champions on the trophy for that region.

Friday is also, apparently, when Rogers Community Channel is to broadcast a feature on the recent CIMA Mayor’s Schools Cricket Tournament for the CIBC Trophy (of which there were three) at 7pm. The senior boys final was filmed, as were the presentations. Woburn made a mess of batting against Lester B. Pearson in that senior final match, but will be looking to restore pride in Friday’s action at Eglinton Flats.
At present the cricket is not listed in Friday evening’s Rogers Community Channel schedule, which indicates a program on architecture.

But planning, building and even re-building is part of cricket’s needs in this part of Canada, so perhaps the world of architecture might be able to provide some concepts, ideas and pointers for cricket. Or, perhaps we might be able to migrate some outdoor cricket coverage into the on-going TDSB School Sports programs on the Rogers Community Channel? Although I would be guessing that cricket does not gain much publicity on that regular school sports series based on viewings three or more years ago.

However, in order to broaden the publicity for schools cricket in future years, there is a need for the scores to be reliably advised and updated on the central TDSB system, not just by one or two schools, but on an overall basis. Then relationships with some of those in the mainstream, community and ethnic media can be developed as a base for moving forward in publicizing cricket.

The basic approach can then be used as players move on into university, college and club cricket to make the game better known. More youngsters might then be attracted to try the game, so some of the schools who, at present, depend on two or three individuals to produce the wins might, in future, have greater depth. The “support” side of the game also needs some work in terms of attracting some to become umpires and scorers.

Having attracted people as players or in key support roles, it then becomes a need to encourage people to remain interested. Timely starts to matches can be a driving factor in keeping things moving and keeping people happy. It also helps in being able to send out results in good time to give hope that the score might show up in a newspaper or two. An hour or so after Wednesday’s games had ended at Eglinton Flats, thunder, lightening and rain took over from bright sun that dominated the noon start time cricket games. So timely starts helped ensure games were completed as scheduled. Some things can be controlled by those on the playing side of the game; others cannot, but by being in place at a ground in advance of the scheduled start time, there is a better prospect of getting a game going, or in making decisions on factors such as weather conditions.

So the action is now due to resume on Friday in Toronto schools cricket’s efforts to open the doors of cricket for a brighter future.