Scott Fisher
\nA single game can take five days to play. And the players actually stop for afternoon tea. Bizarre by North American standards, for sure. But cricket trails only soccer as the most popular game on the planet. Calgary & District Cricket League secretary Usman Khan says the sport is a passion in many countries.
\n\u201cCricket is the No.-1 sport in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, as well as Australia,\u201d Khan said.
\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s one of the top two or three sports in England, South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies.\u201d
\nWhy, you ask?
\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to explain,\u201d he said. \u201cI would ask you why is hockey so popular in Canada? The weather is conducive, it\u2019s easier to play in the summer. There are a number of variations that you can play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other reason it\u2019s popular is it captured the imagination. Field hockey was big at one time, but cricket got bigger and bigger.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, nobody talks about anything other than cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while a proper cricket game requires a sizeable field, most youngsters fine-tune their game the same way as most Canadians learned how to stickhandle \u2014 on the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a 20-yard stretch, you can play,\u201d said Khan, who used to play in the hallway of his university dormitory with a tennis ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all you need. It\u2019s cheap to play. You just need a ball and a cheap bat, and you\u2019re good to go. I grew up playing with my younger brother. The two of us on our driveway, we used to spend hours balling to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game is also alive and well in Calgary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a significant sport in Calgary,\u201d Khan said .<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have nearly 700 adult members across various formats and skill levels. We have a women\u2019s program and a children\u2019s program.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s growing with more people taking up the sport or more people who play cricket adopting Calgary as home due to the better job economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Founded in 1908, the C&DCL is the largest cricket league between Vancouver and Toronto.<\/p>\n
League matches are played at Riley Park, Inland Athletic Park, Westwinds Drypond and Martindale Cricket Ground.<\/p>\n
But more facilities are needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge we face in our growth is with facilities, or lack of them, and a good, solid junior program,\u201d Khan says. \u201cBut the key for cricket to grow would be to have more facilities with the support from the city and more and more kids who are born and raised here picking up the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say 70% of the people who play here have adopted Canada as home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to change that dynamic and have 70% of the players being locals and 30% being first-generation Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamza Tariq, one of Canada\u2019s top cricket players, agrees that money and facilities are the major roadblocks preventing Canada from becoming a major force on the world stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best way to improve is if we had more support from the government,\u201d the 20-year-old says. \u201cWe need more facilities in Western Canada. We have good grounds and indoor facilities in Toronto, but not out here.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we get that, I think cricket would improve in the next five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tariq was a member of Team Canada that went 1-5 in group play at the recent World Cup won by host India.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we did reasonably well if you compare us to the full nations and the coaching and types of facilities they have,\u201d says Tariq, who played for United Cricket Club in Calgary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put up a good fight against Pakistan. We almost beat them.<\/p>\n
The top 10 cricket powerhouses are considered full members of the International Cricket Council.<\/p>\n
Canada is considered an associate member, and the ICC recently ruled only full members will be invited to future World Cups.<\/p>\n
Cricket facts<\/p>\n
Originated in England in the 16th Century.
\nBy the end of the 18th Century, cricket became England\u2019s national sport.
\nIt is believed the first professional players emerged in the 1660s.
\nBowlers began to pitch the ball instead of rolling it, prompting a change in the bat from the old hockey-stick style.
\nThe British Empire was instrumental in taking the sport to India, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
\nThe first international match took place in 1844 between Canada and the U.S. Canada won all five games in the home-and-home series.
\nThe Indian Premier League (IPL) has the highest salaries, averaging about US$3.84 million for its 45-day season. English county cricket salaries are smaller with a minimum wage of US$33,000.
\nThe IPL\u2019s most valuable franchise is the Mumbai Indians (US$57.13 million).
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Scott Fisher A single game can take five days to play. And the players actually stop for afternoon tea. Bizarre by North American standards, for sure. But cricket trails only soccer as the most popular game on the planet. Calgary & District Cricket League secretary Usman Khan says the sport is a passion in many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611"}],"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=1611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1612,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions\/1612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}