Hassam Munir writes for the Excalibur
The York Lions’ cricket club are champions, believe it or not. They won the first ever Chartered Institute of Management Accountants University Cricket Championship this past summer, but they continue to struggle to win the support they need from the Lions to achieve their long-term goals.
The cricket club is one of more than 20 competitive clubs affiliated with the York Lions. These clubs generally play sports that are not played in the Ontario University Athletics and Canadian Interuniversity Sport, such as archery, badminton, and water polo. All players in these competitive clubs must be students at York, yet the Lions provide a limited amount of funding and support for clubs, leaving management to the clubs themselves.
President Hassan Jamil says that the York Lions’ have been increasingly unsupportive in recent years, specifically noting funding in regards to clubs attending major tournaments. The tournament he has in mind is the American College Cricket Championship, held annually in the United States. York’s cricket club has participated in the tournament in the past. In 2010, York’s team won the championship in a series that attracted viewers from as far away as Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates. York also achieved second place in the two years that followed.
The American College Cricket Championship was most recently held in February 2015, in which three Canadian universities participated, including Ryerson, McGill, and the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. York has been unable to participate since 2012, according to Jamil, because of the unsupportive stance from the Lions. He says the cricket club is not affiliated with the Lions this year, in protest.
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