Cathal Kelly<\/p>\n
If we\u2019re being honest about it, Canada isn\u2019t really great at too many things.
\nHockey, sure. Women\u2019s soccer. A variety of niche, winter athletics and a few summer ones, as well.
\nWe can ill afford to take sporting possibilities off the board. It\u2019s especially galling when someone else does it for us.
\nA blockheaded decision by the International Cricket Council this week has eliminated Canada and many other nations from that sport\u2019s showcase event.
\n
\nThere are 105 cricket playing countries recognized by the ICC. Ten are so-called \u201cfull\u201d members. Canada lies in the second tier of \u201cassociate\u201d nations.<\/p>\n
In the past, those outside the golden circle were afforded the opportunity to play their way in to the quadrennial Cricket World Cup. From this point forward, only those ten powers will participate, regardless of their quality or world ranking.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther sports are expanding their World Cups. Cricket is the only one that\u2019s making theirs more insular,\u201d said Cricket Canada\u2019s understandably frustrated CEO Chandra Gocool. \u201cThe ICC is talking out of both sides of their mouth \u2014 on one hand they talk about globalizing the game, and on the other they are affording protectionism to a small group.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move has drawn even more withering criticism in other nations that suddenly find themselves excluded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next World Cup will be like the American World Series \u2014 you are crowned world champions but the world did not take part,\u201d said Phil Simmons, the Trinidadian coach of Ireland\u2019s cricket team. \u201cCongratulations to India on winning the last real World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
We can talk all day long about youth participation numbers and new infrastructure, but a sport builds its base during marquee events featuring the world\u2019s best players.<\/p>\n
The key component to the growth of soccer as a spectator sport in North America \u2014 and this city in particular \u2014 is down to the frenzied interest shown by immigrant fans during that sport\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
Draw a straight line between 250,000 Italo-Canadians spilling onto St. Clair Ave. after Italy\u2019s World Cup victory in \u201982 and soccer\u2019s central position in the Toronto sports establishment today. Without those five weeks every four years, soccer is still on the periphery.<\/p>\n
Canada is famously bumbling when it comes to men\u2019s soccer. But we\u2019re fairly handy at cricket, qualifiers for the past three World Cups.<\/p>\n
Maybe, like me, the recently completed Cricket World Cup in South Asia was your first concentrated dose of the sport. If you also took the time \u2014 and had the constitution to get up before the cock crowed \u2014 I\u2019m betting that you\u2019re suddenly just a bit enthralled by it.<\/p>\n
Cricket\u2019s critics \u2014 none of whom know anything about cricket \u2014 harp on the length of time it takes to play a game, and its inscrutability. They never mention the relentlessness of play and the constantly shifting tactics. They skip the part about how the pride of nations hangs on a badly placed ball or poorly-timed swing. The game does take hours, but once you\u2019ve bothered to teach yourself just a little, you find it enchantingly reduced to an inexorable series of tension-filled moments.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sport, in short, that deserves and rewards close attention. Now the ICC is doing its level best to block your entry.<\/p>\n
Removing Canada from the equation hurts on many levels. First, funding. The ICC is the major contributor to Canada\u2019s national program, sending $900,000 U.S. our way each year. Gocool fears that amount could drop by a third, putting the entire set-up in danger.<\/p>\n
Second, without hope of a World Cup spot, any future stars developed in this country will surely feel the lure to play elsewhere. We\u2019ve already felt this sting over and over again in soccer.<\/p>\n
Third, it\u2019s antithetical to basic sporting values. The games we play reflect a common human value \u2014 inclusiveness. The idea that no one but a select few may play in a given event is an anti-sport philosophy. Who wants to join a club that won\u2019t have them?<\/p>\n
Never mind that it\u2019s hallucinatory to think that any sport can remain in permanent stasis. Ask the Americans about basketball.<\/p>\n
Mainly, it\u2019s just sad. I was only beginning to appreciate one of the world\u2019s best loved pastimes. Now a few short-sighted bureaucrats have decided that they\u2019d rather I didn\u2019t care after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cathal Kelly If we\u2019re being honest about it, Canada isn\u2019t really great at too many things. Hockey, sure. Women\u2019s soccer. A variety of niche, winter athletics and a few summer ones, as well. We can ill afford to take sporting possibilities off the board. It\u2019s especially galling when someone else does it for us. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1475,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions\/1475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}