Gordon Anderson
\nGetting people to attend an early fall cricket festival in the GTA seems a tough job.
\nBut don\u2019t tell Cricket Canada president Ranjit Saini that.
\n\u201c[The tournament] was received very well [by the public],\u201d Saini said after the conclusion of the 10-day Cricket Canada Summer Festival. \u201cThe turnout was very good, I\u2019ve never seen so many people [at a match in Canada].\u201d
\nBermuda, West Indies (High Performance Squad) and Canada got together in Malton for a friendly tune up this week before the 2011 Cricket World Cup, hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
\nThe attendance at the event [150-200 people for a weekday game, and up to 400 on one of the weekend days] doesn\u2019t seem that large but Saini thought the tourney was a positive step in the growth of the game in the GTA and across the country.
\n\u201cThere is momentum in terms of numbers in general,\u201d Saini said. \u201cI see a definite upsurge in the numbers of people following Canadian cricket.\u201d
\n
\nTelevision is the key
\nThose low numbers must be taking into context when analyzing attendance at a sporting event in Canada, but CBC apparently thinks the game is going in the right direction.
\nThe national broadcaster provided a live web stream of the 2010 Cricket World Cup and Saini said the viewing numbers, while not fantastic, were an indication that some people are tuning in to watch the games.
\n\u201cAt the T20 [Twenty20 cricket tournament this summer] in the Caribbean, the webcasts on CBC were getting 4,000 plus hits when Canada was playing,\u201d said Saini. \u201cThe Caribbean games never went higher than 1,200 people.\u201d
\n\u201cIt shows that people [in this country] want to watch Canadian cricket and the CBC is showing interest in making that happen.\u201d
\nThe president sees CBC as the ground floor to cricket\u2019s rise in this country because, \u201cwe have a product that we can present to sponsors for future growth.\u201d
\nTo add further grist for the mill, Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion is floating the idea of a 10,000 seat multi-purpose stadium where cricket could flourish along with other sports.
\nMoving forward Saini sees nothing but positives for the festival and the sport.
\n\u201cI\u2019m very excited about the future [of cricket in this country],\u201d he said. \u201cThis event will become the premiere event in Canada and a key international event going forward.\u201d
\nWhile there were a lot of positive vibes coming from Saini, the action on the field is what drew people to the event.
\nThe on-field action
\nCanada lost two 50 overs matches against the West Indies, with their only victory coming by a 10-wicket margin over winless Bermuda.
\nEven still, national team head coach Pubudu Dassanayake thought the overall effort of the club was satisfactory.
\n\u201cWe performed well,\u201d Dassanayake said. \u201cIt was a very good test for us and I was happy with the way things turned out.\u201d
\nThe coach suggested the team was a bit below average in terms of fielding, but hitting was the biggest obstacle.
\n\u201cOur fielding was slightly behind [in the tournament] but batting was our biggest problem, it\u2019s been that way all year.\u201d Dassanayake said.
\n\u201c[The] players are talented and capable but they don\u2019t play against quality bowling all the time. \u201c
\nTwo Canadian games were cancelled when Team Bermuda returned home Thursday morning in advance of Hurricane Igor reaching the island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gordon Anderson Getting people to attend an early fall cricket festival in the GTA seems a tough job. But don\u2019t tell Cricket Canada president Ranjit Saini that. \u201c[The tournament] was received very well [by the public],\u201d Saini said after the conclusion of the 10-day Cricket Canada Summer Festival. \u201cThe turnout was very good, I\u2019ve never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824"}],"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=824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":825,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions\/825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}