Written by Victoria Alarcon Sports & Health Editor
Mahjuj Sourav enjoys every part of cricket, whether he is playing in the parking lot of York University with his friends or in Florida, vying for a chance to win the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship.
Sourav, a York alumnus and captain of the Cricket Club at York University, has found a way to incorporate cricket into his everyday life, despite the fact the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) have yet to start up a cricket varsity league. By playing in leagues and numerous tournaments, the team has gone a long way in making their name known throughout Canada and United States.
In particular, their championship win in last spring’s American College Cricket Spring Break Championship and their ability to soar past 19 teams, including defending champions Montgomery College, earned them the reputation of a team that any university would want.

“The bottom line is it’s a very passionate sport. You can already tell that nothing holds us back from playing cricket,” said Sourav, who is part of one of the top ranked teams in the Brampton-Etobicoke District Cricket League, one of the 17 cricket leagues found in Canada.
The team’s talent, however, has very little influence over the cost of such tournaments. Funding has become a constant problem for the team as players have little support when it comes to paying the total expenses for entering a tournament. Each player paid around $650 each to participate in the 2010 American College Cricket Championship, receiving little financial support.
Cricket Canada, the York Federation of Students and Vanier College has pitched in to help the team out in the past, but after the OUA left them empty-handed, Jai Patel, a York student and the team’s MVP, questioned why York’s athletics department will not help them.
“I don’t know why they don’t support us, but I think it might be that they just don’t support cricket that much,” said Patel. “They think that players won’t show up to games or practices, but that’s not the case.”
According to the Cricket Canada website, cricket is one of the oldest sports played in Canada, dating back to 1785. We didn’t see our first club, however, until 1827, when the Toronto Cricket Club was born. There are now around 60 organized social cricket clubs across Canada.
‘It’s a very passionate sport. You can already tell that nothing holds us back from playing cricket’
— Mahjuj Sourav

And it continues to grow today, though York University’s team, “Cricket Club @ York University,” was one of the only Canadian teams to both participate in the American College Cricket tournament and win. Their accomplishment stood as a huge landmark for Canadian sports.
Many of the players on the team hope to one day become part of the Canadian national cricket team and make a career out of the sport, yet their one obstacle revolves around the very people who should be helping them.
Fourth-year professional writing student Christopher Rush could not agree more about the lack of support from the university for the team.
“I think that [York University] should definitely include every sport that people are interested in,” said Rush. “Cricket is played in many parts of the world.”
Many York students can’t help but wonder what could be holding OUA back from funding cricket.
“We’ve got a large Indian population here at York and I know a lot of students who would be willing to go to the games and play the sport,” emphasized Anvesh Shetty, a fourth-year economics and accounting student.
When I asked them if they would support the sport, York students were unanimously in favour; many admitted to being cricket fans themselves.
A look through the OUA website reveals that some of the more unfamiliar sports have already found their way in a university league, sports such as fencing and squash. Both sports have grown in the number
of schools that participate every year in the league.
As for Patel and Sourav, the two are positive that cricket can bring out fans at York; they’ve repeatedly drawn crowds during tournaments and suspenseful matches in the past.
In the meantime, the two are getting ready for one of their biggest tournaments yet, the Canadian Inter-University-College Cricket Championship where universities like Waterloo, McMaster and Queen’s will also be competing. The two are happy to represent York in this upcoming championship, and show off a university that is made of winners.
With a new school year looming and no word from the OUA yet, Sourav and Patel are patient. “We are doing as much as we can right now, and now we are waiting for them.”