By Faraz Sarwat
\nFor the first time since 2005, Canada\u2019s 50 overs national cricket championship is underway in Ontario. But unfortunately the tournament is taking place amid yet another controversy. The participating teams are Alberta, B.C., Prairies, Eastern (Quebec and Maritimes) and a team called the Ontario Representative XI. It is the composition of the Ontario team that has the Ontario Cricket Association at loggerheads with Cricket Canada. Cricket Canada would not accept the squad named by OCA president Mike Kendall for the tournament and instead selected its own Ontario team. All other teams were named by the provincial governing bodies.
\nThe problem centres on a second group, disgruntled with the OCA, claiming control of Ontario cricket. CC president Ranjit Saini said until the dispute is resolved, accepting a team named by the OCA would be tantamount to giving legitimacy to one faction over the other.
\n\u201cWe do not want to select the Ontario team. . . . (But) we see no party that has effective control of cricket in Ontario.\u201d
\n
\nAfter receiving complaints from some of the OCA\u2019s member leagues, Saini said CC formed a committee to look into the Ontario situation. A copy of the subsequent report was sent to Kendall seeking his reaction to the findings.<\/p>\n
Kendall admits that he has not responded to Cricket Canada\u2019s report. \u201cWe don\u2019t recognize the committee. They have no jurisdiction to put Ontario cricket through an inquiry and have us respond to their charges. You can\u2019t just slap together a few allegations and on that basis come in and take over our jurisdiction, which is what has happened with the selection of the Ontario team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kendall said he is exasperated at the notion of there being another party claiming control of the OCA. \u201cFive people getting together in a room declaring themselves to be the OCA does not make them so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karun Jethi, who the OCA appointed as captain, was distraught to see that when CC named their own Ontario squad, he was left out of the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Monday when I showed up at the ground in Malton for the match, there were only two other players there. The match was moved to Guelph and I wasn\u2019t even told. It was really disappointing. Family had come from far and wide to watch the match, people took time off work.\u201d<\/p>\n
As ever, it is the players who bear the brunt of the incessant bickering that continues to plague Canadian cricket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Faraz Sarwat For the first time since 2005, Canada\u2019s 50 overs national cricket championship is underway in Ontario. But unfortunately the tournament is taking place amid yet another controversy. The participating teams are Alberta, B.C., Prairies, Eastern (Quebec and Maritimes) and a team called the Ontario Representative XI. It is the composition of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,13,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496"}],"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=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":497,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions\/497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}