Centurions and Brampton Masters Tranzac are scheduled to meet for the second time in the 2013 Toronto and District Cricket Association’s Elite Division Playoffs today (Saturday, October 5), this time as the Championship Final. Centurions, the Elite Division Conference 2 winners, beat Masters, the Elite Conference 1 winners, a couple of weeks ago in the first round of the playoffs. Masters then pulled off a win in the last over of a game against Toronto Cricket Club last Sunday to qualify for the championship final.
Some of the players likely to appear in today’s final, such as Rizwan Cheema and Usman Limbada, were at Commerce Court on Friday as part of Cricket Canada’s Fan Day. Possibly not all were aware of Friday’s event which did not seem to warrant a mention on the home page of the Cricket Canada website, unless my eyes failed me. Presumably some folk probably received a Cricket Canada Newswire e-mail about the event on Thursday afternoon. If you did not read the e-mail on Thursday, then the event has taken place, but the venue in the shopping and food court area of Commerce Court, which houses officers of Cricket Canada sponsors CIBC meant various people passed by the event.
Some will have picked up 2014 calendars, Cricket Canada clothing, met players and coaches, others may have learned a little about cricket, so something of a step to make contact with a broader audience was achieved. There have been some attempts to put Canadian cricket into the public arena in the past, some organized at the different City halls within Toronto in 2007 or 2008, and a forum was held in May 2006 in Toronto’s Metro Hall. One of the questions asked during that gathering was about Canada’s chances of winning the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.
One could have gone out to bat for Cricket Canada on Friday by buying a ticket or two for the dinner in late November, or by making a donation. Some might remember a couple of dinners in the 2006-2007 era. During August 2006, the then Ontario Prime Minister announced a $1 million grant had been awarded to the Ontario Cricket Association in between Canada hosting international matches against Kenya and Bermuda. Then came a speech at a dinner about Canada playing in the World Cup in St Lucia where it was suggested the Federal Government should give 20 times the amount of money that the Province of Ontario had given to the OCA to assist the Canadian Cricket Association.
Significant funding for playing facility infrastructure remains an important issue for cricket at the league, provincial and federal levels within Canadian cricket, in my opinion. On Friday there was an announcement via CNW that shovels are about to go into the ground to push the Valley Park Middle School’s cricket field ahead. But in between popping along to Commerce Court around the 10am start of the Fan Day and returning for a while around the 1pm mark, other things not directly related to cricket needed some attention.
Canadian cricketing journalist and broadcaster Faraz Sarwat was on hand when I returned to Commerce Court during the lunchtime peak flow of pedestrians in the food court and shopping zone. Canadian captain Ashish Bagai, National Coach Gus Logie, Domestic Development officer and former Canadian captain Ingleton Liburd were among those meeting the public at Fan Day. Nitish Kumar, who captained Repton School in England in 2013, and Harvir Baidwan were on hand in addition to Bagai and the coaching and development leaders when I first visited Friday’s event. During my second visit, more Canadian senior internationals were on hand, including Rizwan Cheema, Henry Osinde and Usman Limbada.
News of the Canadian squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup qualifier should emerge in the course of the next week or two. Beyond that comes the 50-over version of the World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand early next year, and the Canadian Under-19’s involvement in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. Afghanistan beat Kenya in the last match of the 2011-2013 Pepsi ICC World Cricket League on Friday to take second place and the second automatic qualifying spot in the next ICC World Cup. Ireland had already qualified and won this World Cricket League event.
Afghanistan and Kenya meet in the last round-robin game of the 2011-2013 ICC Intercontinental Cup over the next few days. If Kenya do not pick up any points from the game, then Canada’s maximum points win against the Netherlands will keep Canada ahead of Kenya in the final standings.
One weather forecast indicates cloudy conditions for King City today and a peak temperature for the day of 17C. So hopefully the TDCA Elite Division final will go ahead as scheduled.
　
Eddie Norfolk