The 2013 CIMA Mayor’s RBC-sponsored Cricket Across the Pond touring squad arrived in London, England, on Friday morning (July 19). In the evening there was a cricket practice session at the Chessington Cricket Club.
On Saturday (July 20), the Greater Toronto Area cricket touring party had a guided tour of the Kia Oval (“The Oval”, or the Kennington Oval for traditionalists) on the Surrey side of the River Thames. The tour included visits to the main Pavilion, the long room on the ground floor of the pavilion, the players dressing rooms and the media centre. It was then time to review the pitch preparations for the upcoming Ashes Test at the Oval, scheduled for August 21-25, 2013. The Oval’s Head Groundsman, Lee Fortis, joined the CIMA Mayor’s party for the “pitch inspection” and for a group photograph with the pitch as a surround.
On Sunday (July 21) the RBC CIMA Mayor’s XI open the playing side of the tour with a 30 over game against Guildford Cricket Club in the morning (starting at 10.00 am), with a T20 mathc against Mitcham set for the evening.
Transforming cricketers into community role models
The Cricket Across the Pond program was established as a result of the working partnership between the British Consulate General in Toronto and the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames (Surrey, UK), plus the Toronto area leaders and sponsors. Cricket Across the Pond provides the opportunity for young cricketers from Toronto – and now the Greater Toronto Area -to represent a core part of Canada on tour to the UK and learn leadership skills as well act as ambassadors for the GTA. The aim of the CIMA Mayor’s Touring team is to develop these young ambassadors into role models for their communities upon their return from the tour and into the future years.
The 2013 RBC CIMA Mayor’s Tour Squad
The 2013 tour squad was named at R. V. Burgess Park in East York on July 4, against a background of rain clouds and a touch of drizzle in the air. Mr. Martin Sexton, who recently became the Chair of CIMA Canada, mentioned this was the sixth year the tour has operated.
“Cricket Across the Pond scholarships have inspired young children torwards positive pursuits in life, ” said Mr. Sexton. ” We are truly appreciative of the support from our partners RBC Royal Bank, Tom’s Place and the City of Toronto in this unique Toronto youth initiative.”
RBC Regional Vice-President for the Greater Toronto Area Ms. Zanita Disalle said “We’re proud to be part of helping send these young cricketers to the birthplace of the sport. It’s part of our commitment to build healthy and vibrant communities, where we can pass along cherished traditions to our children,” RBC is the lead financial sponsor for Cricket Across the Pond.
The 2013 playing squad comprises: Abraash Khan (St Marcellinus Secondary School), Aniket Joshi (North Park Secondary School), Bilal Khan (Stephen Lewis Secondary School – Mississauga), Darshil Munshu (Ryerson University), Darshil Patel (Woburn Collegiate Insitute), Gayan Ferdinands (Blessed Cardinal Newman High School), Madvin Shah (Louise Arbour Secondary School), Neil Ramdath (St Francis Xavier Secondary School), Rizwan Saajan Patel (North Albion Collegiate Institute), Sabes Rasanyagam, and Siddhanth Shekhar (Bur Oak Secondary School).
The coach for the 2013 tour is Mr. Phillip Mowlah-Baksh (Staff member- Toronto District School Board: George Harvey Collegiate Institute) and the Tour Manager is Ms. Lisa Antezza (Staff member – Peel District School Board: Stephen Lewis Secondary School).
Two of the tour squad (Aniket Joshi and Abraash Khan) were part of the Canadian Under-19 squad that recently won the ICC Americas Under-19 Division One Championship. A win that takes Canada to the 2014 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. It will be the fourth time Canada has appeared in an ICC Under-19 World Cup, the previous appearances being in 2002, 2004 and 2010.
Two tourists in 2013 Canada Under-19 Americas Championship Squad
Two of the CIMA Mayor’s tourists (Aniket Joshi and Abraash Khan) were part of the Canadian Under-19 squad that recently won the ICC Americas Under-19 Division One Championship, and were not available for the ceremonials surrounding the naming of the tour party. Canada’s win in the Americas championship brings a berth in the 2014 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. It will be the fourth time Canada has appeared in an ICC Under-19 World Cup, the previous appearances being in 2002, 2004 and 2010.
The Canadian men’s side qualified in recent years for the 2003, 2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups. The Canadian women’s side is about to participate in the ICC World Cup Qualifier in Dublin, Ireland that starts next Tuesday (July 23). Interestingly Canada faces Sri Lanka in the opening game of the Women’s qualifier. Back in 1979 Canada and Sri Lanka qualified to participate in the Cricket World Cup as a result of reaching the Final of the 1979 ICC Trophy.
“Future Canadian Test cricketers” in the crowd!
UK Consul General Mr. Jonathan Dart believes he saw some “future Canadian Test cricketers” among those at the naming of the 2013 RBC CIMA Mayor’s Cricket squad. He had first seen cricket being played in Canada the street next to the park when cycling. The cricketers stopped playing, to allow him to safe passage on his bicycle, which demonstrated, to Mr. Dart, how the true spirit of cricket existed in the Thorncliffe neighbourhood.
Mr. Dart has seen great progress in the development and awareness of cricket since he was first posted to Canada. Organizations such as CIMA (the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants), the City of Toronto and RBC were helping to drive cricketing awareness in the Greater Toronto Area and across Canada.
The announcement of the touring party took place not far from the Valley Park Middle School, which has been actively aiming to develop cricketing and sporting fields, as well as coaches. Valley Park has generated support from the community as well as current students and graduates of Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in building cricketing and community involvement in the Go Green Project.
For Canada to move towards test playing status, some of those on the boards of various cricket associations and leagues need to mirror some of the commitment, planning, relationship building and execution that is bringing success for the Valley Park Go Green Project in many other communities across Canada.
But in the short term, our best wishes go with those on the 2013 RBC CIMA Mayor’s Cricket Across the Pond Tour, as well as to the Canadian women in their efforts on the Emerald Isle.
It would certainly be interesting to obtain and contrast video footage of the Toronto Mayor’s XI playing on the cricket fields in Surrey, England, with footage of cricket action on some of the grounds used in and beyond the Greater Toronto Area. But one would need to prepare proper business cases and gain financial support for the capital and maintenance costs to achieve playing field improvements in order to make a dream transform into reality, even for a handful of grounds in each of Canada’s major cities.
Such a cricket infrastructure building program will not be achieved on revenues in the range of $3 to $6 million a year at the national level, unless some of the individual clubs, leagues and provincial governing bodies spark to greater financial awareness and leadership to move Canadian cricket forward.
Someone made a comment about an article in one of the newspaper blogs about the CIMA High Schools cricket tournament that cricket got in the way of playing soccer on the fields in a particular city. I found it a bit of an amazing comment, from one perspective. Certainly it reflected awareness of competition for playing areas as some sports can only be played outdoors during the summer months.
But did the blogger realize the norm that soccer fields are meant to be fairly flat? As are rugby, American/Canadian football fields and even baseball fields (except for the pitching mound and the running diamond between bases; screw in solutions?). A more even playing surface might be a starting point to improve quite a few park sports playing areas, but to reach performance peaks there need to be more quality grounds to facilitate more quality play.
Some funds are needed, in my opinion, to help restore parts of the playing areas at the Maple Leaf Cricket Club. Someone was, apparently, supposed to be working out a case for applying for some level of government funding, according to a recent discussion at the ground, but this year’s deadline was approaching. Timing and application are key skills in batting and in various other walks of life. Canadian cricket has been walking for a long time.
Eddie Norfolk

Eddie Norfolk