By NOUMAN KHALIL
\nDifferences, no matter what, need to be set aside and everyone must come aboard and work together for promoting cricket in Canada.
\nA wide range of experts from social, political, education and sports circles put their heads together during a one-day cricket conference at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, to find different ways of developing community cricket in Ontario.
\n\u201cOur aim is to promote and develop community cricket,\u201d said Melvin John, coordinator of the Ontario United Cricket Conference, held at the U of T\u2019s Toronto campus recently. \u201cAnd no matter what, we want everyone, above and beyond their affiliation with any group, to get onboard and focus on the development of the game.\u201d
\nGovernment support
\nThe first ever conference of its kind was attended by some 125 educators, sports experts, politicians, law enforcement professionals, community leaders, volunteers, players and students.
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\nNo wonder, the message of unity, harmony and sportsmanship also managed to win support from the provincial government.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very impressed. It\u2019s great to see people coming from across Ontario and sharing ideas. I think it\u2019s a first step forward that has served the purpose,\u201d Kathleen Wynne, MPP Don Valley West and Ontario Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, told Focus after the conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur government supports well run sports opportunities for young people because that\u2019s the way we build our healthy communities and we are very interested in those kinds of initiatives,\u201d said Wynne, without giving an indication of any funding for these programs. \u201cWherever there is an opportunity for sports to grow, everybody needs to come forward and work together.\u201d <\/p>\n
Added John: \u201cFor a long time individual efforts are being made to develop the sport in schools and communities, but we are unable to see enough support. We are all aware of the challenges and barriers\u2026 it would be great if all organizations and associations get united and focus on decisive strategic action plans for the future development of community cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prominent among those who attended the conference were Kathleen Wynne; John Tory, former Ontario PC Party leader and radio host; George Smitherman, former Ontario cabinet minister; Lisa Grogan-Green of Valley Park Go Green Cricket Field Project; Dr Bruce Kidd and Dr Paul Banahene Adjei of U of T; and a number of officials from cricket associations and leagues.<\/p>\n
It was decided at the end that soon a steering committee will be formed that will attempt to bring together members of the public, community representatives, sports enthusiasts and other cricket stakeholders under one roof to consider new ways of improving the sport in the communities, mainly in Ontario as well as in other parts of Canada where needed.<\/p>\n
Workshops on topics like \u201cFunding and marketing for Go Green Cricket Field Project\u201d, \u201cTraining and development of cricket\u201d, \u201cBuilding relationships and bringing communities together\u201d, and \u201cCricket injury prevention\u201d were also held.<\/p>\n
John also sends his best wishes to the Canadian national team for its success in the 2012 ICC Twenty20 World Cup qualifier, which begins in Dubai March 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By NOUMAN KHALIL Differences, no matter what, need to be set aside and everyone must come aboard and work together for promoting cricket in Canada. A wide range of experts from social, political, education and sports circles put their heads together during a one-day cricket conference at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University […]<\/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\/2557"}],"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=2557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2558,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions\/2558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}