Barry Critchley
\nGiven that it\u2019s often regarded as the world\u2019s greatest team game and given that it was declared Canada\u2019s national sport at the time of Confederation, it\u2019s great to see that the Canadian banks \u2014 many of whom operate in the countries where the game is played \u2014 are becoming sponsors of cricket.
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\nThe CIBC, which has an extensive operation in the Caribbean through its ownership of CIBC FirstCaribbean \u2014 is the latest bank to throw some dollars at the game. It is a sponsor of the 2011 Corporate Canada Cricket Club\u2019s Mayors\u2019 Cricket Festivals taking place in three Toronto communities this summer. The idea is to promote, showcase and celebrate the game of cricket, a sport that connects diverse communities across Toronto and in other major Canadian cities.<\/p>\n
The matches will be played in Toronto this Saturday, in Brampton in mid-September and in Mississauga one week later.<\/p>\n
CIBC joins a field that is becoming more crowded. For years, the Scotiabank, which also has extensive operations in the Caribbean, has been the Official Bank of West Indies Cricket and the Exclusive Sponsor of Scotiabank Kiddy Cricket, On its web site Scotiabank said that its \u201csupport of cricket helps to promote, develop and celebrate a sport that is an integral part of our Caribbean history, culture, and identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kiddy Cricket Programme has been around since 2000 and is extensive: it provides cricket equipment and coaching to schools and gives children the opportunity to play the game. Scotiabank staff in the Caribbean are also heavily involved.<\/p>\n
The Royal Bank is also a major participant. It has set up RBC Wicket Cricket to offer quality physical education to elementary schools and community centres across Canada. \u201cWith the RBC Wicket Cricket Program, it\u2019s now easier than ever to bring cricket into your own playing field, gymnasium or backyard,\u201d it said on its web site noting that the game \u201cis ideal for fostering leadership, fair play, self-confidence, teamwork and dedication for players and spectators alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Royal, over the past four years, its RBC Wicket Cricket\u2019 in-school program has delivered free cricket equipment and resources to more than 1,100 schools across the country\u201d while the bank has contributed more than $200,000 \u201cto help municipalities, recreation centres and cricket clubs improve their facilities and better service the enormous demand for cricket programming in urban centres.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barry Critchley Given that it\u2019s often regarded as the world\u2019s greatest team game and given that it was declared Canada\u2019s national sport at the time of Confederation, it\u2019s great to see that the Canadian banks \u2014 many of whom operate in the countries where the game is played \u2014 are becoming sponsors of cricket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775"}],"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=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1776,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions\/1776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}