By Ravendra Madholall
The Ontario Cricket Association (OCA) will be sending a team to Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago mid-next month for several limited over matches as part of its High Performance Programme.
According to president of the association, Mike Kendall, it is the continuous efforts to improve the performance of the association’s players and young prospects on the tour which is labelled as the “Goodwill Tour”.
“The board [is] investing heavily in the future of these deserving players, who are the flag bearers of the future of cricket in Canada and this tour will allow the players to play against the best players coming out of Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago over the next three weeks,” Kendall related during a press conference in Toronto recently.
OCA is the oldest cricketing body in the North American hemisphere that was established in the late 1870s and formally registered in 1977. Currently, there is a 10-member league operating from North Bay, Sudbury and from Windsor to Ottawa, including many in the Greater Toronto area.
Cricket is part of Canada’s heritage and OCA has played an extremely important role in nurturing that heritage, proudly carrying on that tradition for some time.
“We will continue to make Ontario and Canada proud of our heritage by making a sincere and positive contribution to the game of cricket; the Board of Directors of the OCA are also very thankful to a number of sponsors who are supporting our boys in making this tour possible and we are especially delighted and appreciative of the major sponsorship from the Scotia Bank in particular as it carries with it, enormous importance for cricket in Ontario as well as Canada,” Kendall commented.
He further stated that the experience and exposure in the two traditionally-rich cricketing countries will boost the youngsters’ confidence to play the game on a regular basis and with greater inspiration.
“We strongly feel that the invaluable experience gained by our players by playing against some of the greatest Club teams in these countries, that have produced many past and present legends of WI Cricket, will go a long way towards raising their own level of performance; we have no doubt that by the end of this tour, players will gain tremendous insight into the game, make unprecedented stride towards reaching their full potential and will be full of confidence,” the OCA boss revealed.
The team will have a number of players from the two countries: Royston Crandon, Trevon Garraway, Garvin Singh, among others.
Meanwhile, manager of the touring squad Bisham Mohammed stated that the team is excited to make the inaugural trip and this will benefit the players tremendously.
He also mentioned that players were selected based on their performances in the annual competition.
The team will participate in two T20s against Everest and DCC while they play 40-over games against GCC and Albion and two 40-over matches in Trinidad and Tobago.
The touring team reads: Adnan Suleman, Rajiv Bhatia, Aiyub Ahmadzai, Dheeraj Kumar, Nabiullah Nawabi, Muhammad Akber Hussain, Mustafa Popalzai, Sarabjot Singh, Azhad Amidon, Ajmal Chughai, Allan DeSouza, Neeraj Bharadwaj and Priyam Thaker. Bisham Mohammed (manager).
