Sanjay Talreja\u2019s film \u201cCricket and the Meaning of Life\u201d is due to be shown twice during the 2012 Asian Heritage Film Festival in Toronto Public Libraries. May is celebrated as both Asian History Month, and as South Asian History month. The film is scheduled for 10am on Wednesday May 16th at Black Creek library and for 2pm on Wednesday May 23rd at Goldhawk Park library. <\/p>\n
The film contrasts the discovery by Professor Talreja of cricket being played in a Toronto Park, mostly by immigrants and those from immigrant heritage, mostly South Asians and West Indians. It is a contrast with the buzz surrounding cricket in India, especially the extremes of emotion arising from international matches between Indian and Pakistan. <\/p>\n
But there is enthusiasm and commitment in the Toronto cricketing community. This is illustrated through on- and off-field aspects of a cricketing tour to Trinidad and Tobago by a group of youngsters from the Toronto Cricket Academy. Some of those tourists have gone on to play for Canada in junior internationals and some have played for the national team, including some appearances in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup on the Indian subcontinent.
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\nCricket, to traditionalists, means a sense of fair play and the good qualities in life, but the game has a number of squabbles and disputes, as has life. Canadian cricket is still not the most well known sport in Canada. Various ground improvements (often starting with the need for better quality grass and flat outfields) ,as well as needs for additional outdoor playing fields and indoor facilities to allow player development during the winter exist. Especially with increased international commitments for the Canadian national team that involve overseas tournaments and matches outside the Canadian summer season. <\/p>\n
There are sometimes advertising boards at the Canadian team\u2019s home games, but not always. Some sponsorships have come and gone at the national level, and at local levels in recent years. The concept of providing payback for sponsorships does not seem to be properly realized by some of Canadian cricket\u2019s leaders. Various leagues in the Greater Toronto area are \u201cgoing concerns\u201d, and have been for a number of years, but there seems little desire to publicize the upper tiers of these leagues. <\/p>\n
How much publicity, for example, was given to the TJT National 20 over league that lasted one season by the league that supplied most of the players? Hardly the stuff that would attract significant sponsorship for the main league, which I am certain could do with a major injection of funds for infrastructure development. <\/p>\n
At the end of an ODI between Canada and the Netherlands, someone pulled a banner out of their brief case. The banner was then put up for the duration of the Man-of-the-Match award ceremony at the Toronto Cricket club. It was one more banner than otherwise existed, but there was no official assigned to ensure this ceremony was given proper coverage. Just like the lack of any team photo from Canada\u2019s first home ODI game against Kenya in 2006. <\/p>\n
A few copies of \u201cCricket and the Meaning of Life\u201d were given to some of the coaches or managers of Canada\u2019s opponents in the 2006-2007 period. The film was well received and someone mentioned it was shown to a group of youngsters in one of the other ICC Associate countries. Building relationships can be part of developing cricket. Preferably by doing good deeds, not by some administrator or individual saying what a great job they are doing. <\/p>\n
The Satyam Man of the Match award presentation photo did go out to a few contacts, at some stage, but not overnight. It was worthy at the time of a feature on the missing aspects of Canadian cricket promotion, which contrasted greatly with what some of the game\u2019s local leaders seemed to think others might do for them. And I mean \u201cthem\u201d, rather than the game of cricket in Canada (part of which on the international field involves providing help on the publicity trail from games in Canada for the visitor\u2019s publicity market. A market that might have different key cutoff times for mainstream publicity). <\/p>\n
The message on the Satyam banner \u201cWhat business demands\u201d has some interesting meanings in the light of what happened to Satyam, who had a big hole in their financial records. The global economy took a few hits with some significant issues in the USA and Europe, but these issues had been bubbling along in the background for a number of years. But some of the business leaders, and some of those in the professional services fields – not to mention various political leaders – believed only what they wanted to.<\/p>\n
Some of what those at Satyam produced will have served their clients in terms of reasonable computer programs and systems, but the bigger picture proved to be a big hole. Nationalistic elements (and deficiencies) occur in the financial regulatory world, as I discovered over many years. Oddly enough, the first time I came to Canada was to look at an investment banking system that was supposed to be the be-all-and-end-all for trading and support operations. A couple of things I noticed would not have met certain regulatory needs very efficiently in Europe back in 1984. <\/p>\n
But the foreign exchange trading module had potential issues, one of which would cause problems in valuations one currency became more valuable than another (e.g if a Canadian dollar became more valuable than a US dollar). But I could not persuade the system\u2019s US-based leaders and developers to make a change. Nor could a couple of others, but the magic of democracy meant those in favour of this new system had the votes. <\/p>\n
Some day, you may be proved right, but if you have feelings, it might not make you happy. Especially for some of the decent people who work hard but lose their jobs in a crisis. And for those who tried to point out the problems and issues that needed to be sorted out at an earlier time. What business demands – a big hole in the accounts. I beg to differ. Cricket and the Meaning of Life. Well worth a look. Life on many levels. <\/p>\n
Toronto Public Library locations for \u201cCricket and the Meaning of Life: Black Creek library is at the North York Sheridan Mall, 1700 Wilson Avenue (near the intersection of Wilson Ave and Jane Street). Goldhawk Park library is at 295 Alton Towers Circle in northern Scarborough (South of Steeles Avenue East, west of McCowan Road. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sanjay Talreja\u2019s film \u201cCricket and the Meaning of Life\u201d is due to be shown twice during the 2012 Asian Heritage Film Festival in Toronto Public Libraries. May is celebrated as both Asian History Month, and as South Asian History month. The film is scheduled for 10am on Wednesday May 16th at Black Creek library and […]<\/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\/2994"}],"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=2994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2995,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2994\/revisions\/2995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}