Valley Park Middle School beat Smithfield Middle School in a high-scoring Toronto division Boys Middle Schools CIBC Trophy final on Friday (May 17) at Sunnybrook Park, Toronto. Smithfield, winners of the inaugural CIMA Mayor’s Middle Schools championship, scored 72 for four wickets from eight overs early on Friday morning. Rakshit Patel made 14, Abdullah Abdullah 13 and there were a lot of wides.
Opener Hamza Talal lead the Valley Park response with an innings of 46 not out that included four sixes and four fours. This innings plus quite a few wides took Valley Park to victory by nine wickets after seven overs. Omar made 11 before being caught and bowled by Bharga Patel. Valley Park tallied 77 for one wicket.

Catch-up on the East Toronto Middle Schools Qualifier
Valley Park had won the East Toronto phase of the Boys Middle School on Tuesday at Sunnybrook Park as a result of winning all three group matches. A 53-run wins against Charles Gordon Senior Public School and a five wicket win against Dr. Marion Hilliard S.P.S. were mentioned in a previous report. In the “missing” group game, Valley Park limited Bowmore to 31 for seven from eight overs, then thumped 32 for no wicket off just 1.1 overs. To be more precise, it was the bat of Hamza Talal that brought the win as he quickly struck four sixes in reaching 25 not out.
Hamza Talal leads the Middle Schools individual batting with 178 runs from four innings. Hamza’s highest score was 88 – a score that matched the shirt-number of former National Hockey League (NHL) first overall draft pick Eric Lindros. He made the runs within Valley Park’s 106 for four wickets against Charles Gordon S.P.S. on Tuesday.

Canadian Cricket’s Future Prospects Recalled from the Recent Past
Some of the still youthful cricketers who were with the Toronto Cricket Academy may recall a speech by a past President of Canadian cricket’s national governing body at the lauch of the film “Cricket and the Meaning of Life” that indicated cricket would become Canada’s number one sport within ten or so years. A speech delivered in December 2005, if memory serves, although this projection was subsequently modified to cricket becoming one of the top five sports in Canada within a similar timeframe. The latter speech came at the launch of an all star cricket match between India and Pakistan international cricketers that eventually took place at the Rogers Centre around the time of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Well, Canadian cricket is still developing and evolving. Indeed, the infrastructure of the west pitch at Sunnybrook Park, which is artificial, was being renewed on Friday, and it looked like Canada’s Lord’s now has a couple of new matting wickets. The grass has been also growing on the restored grass wickets at G. Ross Lord Park. Grass wickets which owe their original existence to the 2001 ICC Trophy that was hosted by Canada in the Greater Toronto Area, and where Canada beat Scotland in a play-off for third place that took Canada into the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Perhaps some of those playing in this present CIMA Mayor’s School Cricket Tournament may one day play for Canada in an ICC Cricket World Cup. But for 2013 into 2014, Canada’s men’s national team looks forward to the return of Ashish Bagai, who is a former Toronto Cricket Academy player.
It should not be forgotten that May is observed in Toronto as both Asian Heritage Month and as South Asian Heritage month.
　
　
Eddie Norfolk