Understanding the Sahara Cup:
The Political History of Cricket in Canada
by Ahmad Saidullah

The early history of cricket in Canada is that of military battles, the founding of garrison towns, of imperialism and colonialism, of conquests and subjugation. The diffusion of cricket in Canada did not result accidentally or simply from the establishment of Canadian National rail routes, as Deb Das seems to imply in his book on cricket and baseball, but from their use as the means of transfer of armed forces, goods and supplies necessary for the entrenchment of English imperial power in the land. It is not a coincidence that the first recorded cricket match in Canada takes place on the battlefields of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec during a lull in the fighting between the armies of generals Wolfe and Montcalm.

Cricket in Canada, unlike the West Indies, never deviated from its role as an important instrument of ideology of the British imperialist project. While cricket later became the ludic site of resistance for West Indian intellectuals and politicians against colonial powers in the Caribbean, its primary political use in Canadian society before Confederation was to ensure the allegiance of the bourgeoisie to the Crown and to thwart the growing influence of the republicanism and resistance to the English imperial presence south of the border. A recent study of retired half-pay British officers in Woodstock, Ontario explains the ideological force of cricket held in Canada as a means of suppressing republican impulses and local struggles for autonomy that were emerging in America as threats to colonial rule.

Much of the production of this ideology, value and mythology about cricket was situated in such gentrified private schools as Upper Canada College and its elite "graduate" institution, the Toronto Cricket, Curling and Skating Club where the recent Sahara Cup series was played. The idea of cricket as a tool for indoctrinating allegiance to king and country was clearly articulated in July 1863 by the local paper The Patriot reporting on a match between the college and Toronto Cricket Club:

"British feelings cannot flow into our breasts of our Canadian boys thro' a more delightful or untainted channel than that of British sports. A cricketer as a matter of course detests democracy and is staunch in his allegiance to his king." Not uncommon in this time on both sides of the border were essays and editorials that extolled the civilizing Christian, manly and quintessentially British ideals of cricket as the dominant norm that baseball and other unacceptable indigenous sporting traditions transgressed. Similarly, an obviously loyalist New York Times editorial of the age accused baseball players of treasonous acts and disloyalty to the king. (The very English ritual drinking of tea during cricket breaks in Canada finds a counterpoint in the defiant act of Americans dumping English tea chests into Boston harbour.)

Cricket's role in ensuring English dominance by defining the other as inferior, different or deviant has had a long history in Canada, especially when two historical periods are compared. Against the background of violence and atrocities committed against Chinese, Sikhs and other Indian labourers in British Columbia when he is alleged to have declared cricket to be the national sport of Canada, the Prime Minister of Canada could with equanimity inveigh against Asian immigration by claiming that the Chinese were an inferior peoples who would pollute the Aryan race were they allowed to live in Canada. For a sports historian, a society that changes largely through heterogeneous immigration as Canada has over the years, and which ends up challenging dominant cultural norms provides an interesting terrain for a study of the issues outlined above.

The pressures of open immigration and of the growing crisis of xenophobia on the dominant ideology of cricket as a tool of imperial hegemony celebrating the English way of life are next examined through the governance of cricket in Canada after World War II. Andra Thakur, an academic in Nanaimo, British Columbia, emerged with the provocative thesis that Canada adopted an open immigration policy in a secret deal with the English after the backlash closed South Asian and West Indian immigration to its shores. According to Thakur, Britain's open-door phase resulted in an increase in English emigration to Canada of people who were unhappy with the immigration to their homeland. This influenced the character of cricket's growth in Canada and describes most of its present-day tensions.

Donald King, an Englishman who claimed to have been born in Canada (his birthplace was England), reestablished the Canadian Cricket Association after it had relapsed and ruled it with an iron fist for thirty years. At a time when West Indian immigration to Canada had begun to increase and affect the composition of local teams, King formed a social cricket club which was limited to "Canadian-born" players. (Very few outsiders have been able to access the Donald King archives which are controlled by a Toronto Cricket Club member who is also a governor of Upper Canada College.)

Pakistan led by Imtiaz Ahmed on its 1958 tour of Canada were scheduled to play Canada at the Toronto Cricket Club grounds, but members were upset enough to refuse the visitors permission to play at Armour Heights. (The game was later removed to Varsity Stadium at the University of Toronto.) A national team of what would have been primarily West Indian Canadians was clearly unacceptable to the CCA. So, a team of "Canadian-born" players was fielded against the Pakistanis. (Incidentally, there have only ever been two all-Canadian-born teams in the history of Canadian cricket so the question of who is an immigrant or should be allowed to represent Canada is moot.) There is a curious irony in staging the Pakistan-India series at Armour Heights given the history of the 1958 Pakistan visit.

Has there been a change in the governing philosophy of the club and was Donald King's period a hiccup in an otherwise inoffensive history of the Toronto Cricket Club and its hold over the Canadian Cricket Association?

Unfortunately, this does not seem so. Toronto Cricket Club members formed the backbone of the Canadian Cricket Association (CCA). Canadian cricket was effectively run by the club through a form of privileged entitlement, much like the Marylebone Cricket and English cricket. Besides King, a number of Toronto Cricket Club members were associated with the Canadian Cricket Association, including Lew Gunn who lived near the club.

The leadership profile of CCA has changed over the years, specifically during former president Jack Kyle's reign who broke the Toronto Cricket Club's stranglehold on power. "I have heard fears about Toronto Cricket Club taking over the Canadian Cricket Association for the last forty years," said Kyle. It is only now, for the first time, that a Black male, Dr. Geoff Edwards, presides over Canadian cricket which is overwhelmingly supported by people of colour, mostly West Indians and South Asians. But as late as 1994, one CCA dinosaur complained about the changes to the CCA. "Canadian cricket should always be headed by a White man," he wheezed.

Despite the changes in the CCA, one national portfolio that still remains in the club's control is the treasury. There seems to be an unbroken line of succession of Toronto Cricket Club members, some of whom are Upper Canada College old boys, to the position of treasurer. Equally mysterious is the office of the financial advisor held now by Mr. Edward Bracht of the club, who is also the curator of the Donald King archives.

In my years with the Canadian Cricket Association, I do not recall seeing a report from the advisor or any form of election to the position. One of the advisor's and treasurer's charges seems to be the administration of a rather mysterious fund. It is unclear what this "fund" is used for. Before my time, an ad on a Canadian Cricket Association letterhead was published in The Canadian Cricketer, the official publication of the Canadian Cricket Association, seeking to raise funds for a clubhouse at Upper Canada College at a time when rumours were circulating about a school team that had toured apartheid-run South Africa in violation of international covenants on sporting contacts.

Perhaps, the Toronto Cricket Club's most recent play for control of the national cricket agenda was visible in the Sahara Cup deal. Originally conceived as a payoff by India and Pakistan for Canada's support for their world cup bid, the Friendship Cup (as it was initially known) was negotiated by the former Canadian Cricket Association vice-president Ali Hasanie.