By NOUMAN KHALIL
\nhttp:\/\/www.southasianfocus.ca\/community\/article\/88634
\nCanada pulled out of hosting the 2011 ICC Under-19 World Cup due to shortage of funds for infrastructure related costs, says Ranjit Saini, chief of the apex body of cricket in Canada.
\nJustifying the decision in a statement issued in Toronto early this week, Saini said Cricket Canada approached the federal government for funding for the project but the request was turned down because “cricket is still not a part of the multi-sport events such as Olympics”.
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\nCricket Canada has been facing tremendous criticism since it pulled of hosting the World Cup allegedly without taking all the stakeholders into confidence.<\/p>\n
Despite numerous calls for not to embark on, Basdeo Maharaj, president of Maple Leaf Cricket Club, has at the time of going to press been on hunger strike since last week to register his protest against the Cricket Canada’s pullout decision as well as all other wrongdoings that are damaging the sport across the country.<\/p>\n
Saini said ICC’s invitation of hosting the World Cup was accepted at the 2007 AGM, in which delegates passed a resolution to carry out a feasibility study and to proceed with it only after arranging sufficient resources.<\/p>\n
He said the AGM’s concern was based on the past experience of the 2001 ICC Trophy during which Cricket Canada suffered massive losses due to high infrastructure costs.<\/p>\n
‘Cricket has suffered’<\/p>\n
“Canadian cricket has suffered immensely due to this debt as it has hampered development and progress,” said Saini.<\/p>\n
He said the cost of turf wickets was paid by Cricket Canada and ICC didn’t support the building of grounds and pavilions.<\/p>\n
Saini said Cricket Canada had done its best and pursued several options of funding the world cup including discussions with municipalities and governments, but couldn’t succeed.<\/p>\n
In reaction, former CEO of Cricket Canada termed it as an ‘excuse’.<\/p>\n
“‘The ratio of results to excuses plays a big role in the success of any organization,” said Atul Ahuja.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Saini mentioned that the time between the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 season was very critical for the outfields repair and clarified that re-levelling would require de-commissioning of the grounds – being used by the Toronto&District Cricket Association (TDCA) – for a minimum of one year if sod was to be used, and two years if it was to be seeded.<\/p>\n
“Cricket Canada included funding for the pitches in the new grounds that would have to be created in order to deal with this challenge.<\/p>\n
“Without providing alternate grounds to TDCA, this work couldn’t have been completed as this would have effectively shut down the largest cricket league in North America,” said Saini.<\/p>\n
He said Cricket Canada also approached the federal government for funding for the project but the request was turned down because “cricket is still not a part of the multi-sport events such as Olympics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By NOUMAN KHALIL http:\/\/www.southasianfocus.ca\/community\/article\/88634 Canada pulled out of hosting the 2011 ICC Under-19 World Cup due to shortage of funds for infrastructure related costs, says Ranjit Saini, chief of the apex body of cricket in Canada. Justifying the decision in a statement issued in Toronto early this week, Saini said Cricket Canada approached the federal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49"}],"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=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}