© AP

On Canadian website sportsnet, Nigel Reed is less than impressed with the way Canada have played so far in the Caribbean Twenty20. Despite bright starts in both their Group A games in Antigua, the momentum deserted them at crucial times resulting in heavy defeats to both the Windward and Leeward Islands.

Taking a chance is one thing. Poor choice of shot or execution is quite another. Sadly a fair few Canadian batsmen have fallen in the latter category. I lost count of the number of players who threw away their wickets because of bad shots rather than being beaten by the skill of a bowler.

It didn't have to be like this. Technically Canada does not rank among the best in the world but I would like to think there are enough decent players on duty to at least be competitive in the Caribbean. The fact is if you choose to bat and fail the game is virtually over as a contest before the run chase begins

Canada must improve or the ramifications could be costly. Ian Bishop, the former West Indies fast bowler, openly questioned Canada's participation following a second thumping defeat. At the same time Bishop recognizes Canada has to play better teams more frequently to get better. Is that a chicken or an egg I hear?

As many as 22 former and current Members of Parliament and seven senators have written letters of endorsement to induct Frederick Heather into the 2012 Canada Sports Hall of Fame. Heather, who played a major role in the growth and development of cricket in Canada, moved to the country from England in 1921 and died in Toronto in 1976. Heather is being nominated in the Builder’s category for the Sports Hall of Fame – the category recognises “outstanding contribution to Canadian sport as a leader, administrator, official, coach, business leader, and media or in other roles.”

Upon retiring as a player, Heather took to umpiring and also became an administrator, as a secretary for two clubs, a founding member and first secretary-treasurer of the Toronto District Cricket Umpire’s Association and the first secretary of the Canadian Umpire’s Control Board. He began umpiring in 1929 and was Canada’s longest-serving umpire when he retired. He was also appointed to several international assignments, including the inaugural first-class match in Canada held against the MCC. Heather also started a school for cricket umpires and started a junior cricket league in Toronto, which led to the formation of 18 junior clubs that included more than 300 players.

“The support and praise for Heather’s contributions as a builder of Canadian cricket have been overwhelming with a total of 43 written endorsements,” a press release stated. “There are Olympic medalists, CEOs, mayors, and authors who have joined the effort to have cricket recognised in Canada. Heather’s contributions to cricket can be read on the Cricket Canada website. Unfortunately, Canada does not have a cricket hall of fame, although Heather was inducted into the US Cricket Hall of Fame in 2010.

“Our Members of Parliament promote that 2012 be the year Canadians are inspired by Heather’s outstanding achievements, through his inclusion to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.”

Around the world, cricket is learned in the street, on the savannah, in schools, at clubs, on the beach. But regardless of the backdrop, the common denominator is youth. The first exposure to cricket is usually the province of the young, the pre-teens and teens.

As ever, things can be a little different in the New World.

Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club has a long history of cricket stretching back well over a century. But a different angle now emerges. As the name implies, TCSCC is more than just cricket (some would say far more), and the multi-sport backdrop has led to the “late-learning”.

For years, squash players, curlers, tennis players and rugby players have watched - often with varying degrees of bemusement - as cricket was played. There was always a passing interest. Little by little, the dormant interest was awakened. And, driven by a small group of committed organizers, an “Associates League” (read: non-cricketers) formed itself.

30-year-old nationally ranked squash players, 40 (50?) year old curlers. Golfers and rugby players. Ex-baseballers who know a thing or two about hitting ball with bat. All were welcomed. All welcomed the challenge. And all took to it, helped by one or two with accent strange enough to self-qualify as experts as well as ex-pats.

To the more trained eye, there’s often a baseball slant to things. But never mind the niceties, the ball still disappears with regularity through - and over - legside fields which were claimed to have been astutely set. Anyway, there’s always the ongoing encouragement to use all 360 degrees now available.

Running between the wickets? Judging semi-quick singles can present problems, but we all know it’s not only the inexperienced who have that particular problem. Backing up by the non-striker? “Got it. It’s like taking a lead-off at first base. Right!”

Field placing? It only takes a few games to understand one of the big differences with baseball: you’re not necessarily always in one position – the equivalent of left field, right field or shortstop. Fluidity replaces almost-static. Wicket keeping? Those with baseball catching experience adjust quickly – even if unfairly challenged by what some would consider to be too many wides. And the fitness addicts from the squash world can get their fix out on the boundary. Who ever heard of people actually wanting to run around in the outfield? And where did all that sliding stuff come from?

Keenness shows in attendance at nets – and heaven forbid that the “coaches” instill too much correctness into those with excellent eye/hand from other sporting fields. Experience at a high level in other sports means that many learn very quickly what’s needed. They readily absorb and adapt - especially after grasping what it feels like to sit for 19.2 overs watching everybody else bat!

Everything is all very social and the after-the-match scene is suitably well lubricated. Social, that is, until the play-offs come around when discussions abound about the numbers of fielders inside and outside the circle and about whether Person A’s arm is straight enough at delivery to be allowed in the cricketing context. But always the greater good wins out.

Toronto probably isn’t alone on the late-learning front. But there can’t be many other places where you can see 30, 40, 50 year-olds learning the game, generally having a ball and (yes!) improving.

And rumour has the next stop on the journey is a UK tour! Should be interesting. Steve Ferley

Michael Dighton, the former Tasmania batsman, has been named Canada's new coach. Dighton replaces ex-Sri Lanka wicketkeeper Pubudu Dassanayake, who took over as Nepal's coach on October 1.

A handy batsman, Dighton, 35, has played 71 first-class matches, including some on the English domestic circuit for Derbyshire and Hampshire. He has also played the Clydesdale Bank 40 (England's domestic 40-over tournament) for Netherlands, as an overseas signing. He assisted the Netherlands squad during the 2011 World Cup, and has previously worked as head coach of Cricket Australia's National Emerging Talent Rookie Squad and batting coach of the Tasmania Under-23 side.

Vimal Hardat, Cricket Canada's vice-president, said the board were pleased to have Dighton heading the national team. "We are thrilled to have someone of Michael's background on board to direct our drive to the 2015 Cricket World Cup and restore our position as one of the top Associate Cricket Nations," he said. "Michaels drive and determination to succeed will be a welcome addition to our programmes."

Dighton said he would initially focus on the basics. "I will place much emphasis on physical preparation [fitness] and fielding, the two areas that we can control and always improve on," he said. "I will encourage an attacking and dynamic brand of cricket, combined with smart decision making."

Chandra Gocool has stepped down after two years as Cricket Canada’s chief executive after the board decided not to renew his contract.

The board has been blighted by constant internal bickering in recent times, and it is uncertain when a replacement will be identified.

“My contract with Cricket Canada has ended,” Gocool said. “It’s now over to the Cricket Canada's leadership to take the steps they feel might be necessary to move the various opportunities forward.”

This means that both Cricket Canada and the USA Cricket Association, two of the biggest Associates, are now without chief executives. Don Lockerbie, the USACA’s high-profile CEO, was removed at the start of the year and no steps appear to have been taken to try to replace him.

Canada captain Jimmy Hansra hammers a six on his way to his century © Getty Images

Canada won the Auty Cup with a 34-run victory over USA in Toronto, but the visitors battled back after a poor opening day to ensure the game remained competitive, even if the seemingly narrow winning margin was slightly deceptive.

In a bid to prevent negative play in the two-day match, it was agreed the first innings would be limited to 45 overs a side and the second to 40 overs. The result of this was that Canada's first-innings lead of 73 meant that barring a second-day collapse, they were always likely to be able to post too many runs for the USA to chase.

Click here for the full report and scorecard

Canada have drawn into Zone B at the upcoming Caribbean Twenty20 tournament that gets underway on January 8 in Barbados and Antigua. Canada have been placed into a group with Barbados, Trinidad, Leeward Islands and Hampshire.

Cricket Canada and Bermuda Cricket Board have agreed to cancel the last two games of the Cricket Canada Summer Festival between Canada and Bermuda.

Bermuda will leave Toronto on Thursday in advance of Hurricane Igor reaching the island.

Reggie Pearman, the BCB president, said: "Due to the threat of Hurricane Igor the Bermuda Cricket Board has cancelled the remainder of the Canada tour to ensure that the squad can return to Bermuda to be with their family prior to the weekend. We are sorry to miss the games but family matters take priority when a storm of this significance and proximity threatens the island."

The ongoing infighting inside Canadian cricket rumbles on with news the Ontario Cricket Association has suspended six players - Cecil Pervez, Durrand Sorraine, Junaid Siddiqui, Rustam Bhatti, Zameer Zahir and Khusroo Wadia

“The above players have been suspended for failing to respond to a show-cause notice sent to them by the OCA requestiong an explanation for their conduct in the recently held National Championships in Ontario,” a statement from the OCA said. “The suspension of the above players makes them ineligible to represent Ontario. The above players having failed to respond to the show-cause notice, will however have the opportunity to appeal their suspensions.”

The OCA ran into trouble with the Canadian board (CC) when its nominated team for the national interprovincial tournament was not accepted because of a dispute between factions within the OCA. CC picked a representative side instead.

The OCA in turn is refusing to recognise the CC board. “We don’t recognise the committee,” OCA chief Mike Kendall said. “They have no jurisdiction to put Ontario cricket through an inquiry and have us respond to their charges. You can’t 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.”

The infighting within Canadian cricket was again in evidence on the day the Ontario Cricket Association began legal action against Cricket Canada over team selection.

The Interprovincial tournament match between Ontario and Manitoba was switched at short notice from Malton to Inverhaugh after officials ruled the original venue was unplayable.

However, another game between Alberta and Quebec not far away from Malton was able to proceed with no difficulties, so why the issues with the original venue?

An eyewitness told Cricinfo the reasons might have more to do with a planned protest at Malton where Ontario CA members were preparing to demonstrate. They were left bemused when the last-gasp venue change was made.

The ICC World Cricket League Division 1 tournament began in Netherlands with Ireland aiming to defend their title, but Afghanistan sensing another trophy.

Scotland prevailed in a nerve-wracking contest against hosts Netherlands, winning off the penultimate ball with one wicket in hand in Amstelveen. Their chase of 235 had been dealt a serious blow when the first six wickets fell for 121, but the lower order set about pulling things back.

Afghanistan put in an admirable batting display to overcome a challenging target of 258 set by Canada in Voorburg. Captain Nawroz Mangal led the charge with an unbeaten 70, off just 58 balls, and the innings was also supported by half-centuries from opener Noor Ali and Mohammad Shahzad. Noor and Shahzad were involved in a 87-run stand, though both fell in quick succession. Afghanistan recovered quickly from those jolts, thanks to an attacking knock from their captain, who ensured victory was achieved with eight balls to spare.

A collective bowling effort and a solid opening performance from Paul Stirling kicked off defending champions Ireland's campaign on a successful note against Kenya in Rotterdam.

The Americas Division One tournament starts in Bermuda on Friday, with four of the six countries going into the event possibly with one eye on upcoming World Cricket League (WCL) commitments.

Canada are taking part in the WCL Division One tournament in early July in the Netherlands, while Argentina, Cayman Islands and United States are playing in WCL Division Four in Italy, possibly in August.

Canada have rested captain Ashish Bagai and its Australasian-based contingent from the competition in Bermuda. Bagai is expected to play in Division Four although whether John Davison and Ian Billcliff will make that trip is as yet unknown.

The Cayman Islands have rested their premier batsman, Pearson Best, for this tournament, but coach Theo Cuffy told Cricinfo he will play in WCL Division Four.

There are six changes from the United States squad which won Division Five in Nepal in January. Four of the squad - wicketkeeper Azhar Mehdi and medium-pacers Imtiaz Moazzam, Adrian Gordon and Mohammad Khan - are making their debuts while offspinning allrounder Mohammad Ghous and batsman Azurdeen Mohammed played in the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand earlier this year. Steve Massiah is again the captain of a USA squad which, as is typical, has no American-born players.

Argentina has a new coach in former Northamptonshire player, Toby Bailey, following the return of Hamish Barton to New Zealand. Match fitness may not be a huge issue for Argentina, this tournament coming not long after the close of their domestic season although the team has not played together as a unit since WCL Division Three in January 2009.

Aside from playing in front of home crowds, the other feature for Bermuda will be the first hit-out under new coach, Australian David Moore, who is thought to be something of a disciplinarian. The captain is the vastly experienced David Hemp.

Bahamas return to Division One and are looking to consolidate their place in the top flight of cricket in the region. For the first time, a three-day Twenty20 event has been added.

Cricket Canada has announced its squad for the upcoming tour of Jamaica. The tour starts on 8 April with a match against Jamaica and concludes on 13 April with a ODI against the West Indies.

Parth Desai makes his first appearance in a Canadian senior squad, while Henry Osinde returns to the side after serving out his suspension due to disciplinary reasons.

Canada squad Ashish Bagai (Captain), Rizwan Cheema -(Vice Captain), Harvir Baidwan, Trevin Bastiampillai, Umar Bhatti, Khurram Chohan, Jawad Dawood, Parth Desai, Sunil Dhaniram, Nitish Kumar, Usman Limbada, Henry Osinde, Hiral Patel, Zubin Surkari

Canada 178 for 6 (Bagai 52, Nabi 2-23) beat Afghanistan 177 (Nabi 62, Chohan 4-43) by four wickets

Scorecard

Afghanistan's fairytale run of success finally crashed down to earth with a chastening four-wicket defeat to Canada in the second match of the series in Sharjah. They never recovered from a disastrous start that saw Khurram Chohan destroy the top order, leaving Afghanistan floundering at 4 for 3 by the third over, on his way to match-winning figures of 4 for 43.

It was due reward for Chohan who's four wickets in the opening fixture so nearly took Canada to victory. He started the day by claiming Shafiqullah Shafiq and last game's centurion Mohammad Shahzad in his first over, before following it up with Nowroz Mangal and debutant Shabir Noori to leave Afghanistan 38 for 5 and in utter disarray.

He was well supported by Rizwan Cheema and Umar Bhatti, who took two wickets each with their nagging seamers. It was only a 51-run sixth-wicket stand and Mohammad Nabi's well-constructed 62 that gave Afghanistan any semblance of respectability. Nabi played in the way he does best, belting five sixes and three fours during his 57-ball stay. Dominating a last-wicket stand with Aftab Alam, the pair added 49 to take Afghanistan to 177.

It didn't look enough and despite being reduced to 35 for 2 after 10 overs Canada were careful not to undo their good work. Sandeep Jyoti and captain Ashish Bagai, who richly deserved a win after making an unbeaten 91 in the first game, worked the ball around nicely during an 82-run stand that all but sealed the game. Jyoti made a patient 38 before he fell to Aftab Alam, while Bagai continued his good form striking five boundaries during his 59-ball 52.

Nabi threatened to cause a late scare when he took two wickets in the 35th over, reducing Canada to 144 for 6, still 34 runs short of the target, but Jawad Dawood came out and immediately arrested the momentum and any hopes of a fightback. He crashed 25 from 19 balls to give Canada their first win of the series.

Afghanistan 289 for 6 (Shahzad 118, Ali 114, Chohan 4-39) beat Canada 288 for 8 (Bagai 91, Cheema 61, Shenwari 4-31) by one run

Scorecard

Afghanistan needed a dramatic last-ball run out to edge a thriller against Canada after Ashish Bagai almost carried the underdogs to victory. The packed crowd of Afghanistan supporters, still in full voice following the team's triumph in the World Twenty20 qualifiers, were treated to a fluctuating spectacle of 50-over cricket at its clammy-palmed best as a spirited Canada side came within a whisker of causing an upset.

Chasing an unlikely 289 to win, Canada had timed the chase superbly, needing 38 from the final six overs with captain Ashish Bagai well set on 70, four wickets intact and a Powerplay still in hand. They took full advantage of the first over of fielding restrictions, with Bagai clubbing Shapoor Zadran for two fours and a two to take the equation to 25 from 30 balls.

But the 46th over proved a dramatic turning point as Samiullah Shenwari targeted the tail-ender Umar Bhati and pulled off a crucial maiden, conceding just two leg byes. Karim Sadiq and Mohammad Nabi restricted the next three overs to just 15 to leave a tantalising eight required from the final six balls.

Khurram Chohan managed to get Bagai on strike with a single from the first ball, but Nabi held his nerve and conceded just three of the next four. With four runs needed for victory from the last ball Chohan managed to force it away and scamper two but Bagai was run out by attempting a match-levelling single in a thrilling climax to the game.

It was a cruel end for Bagai who made 91 and, alongside fifties from Rizwan Cheema and Sunil Dhaniram, threatened to carry Canada to victory. Bagai only hit five boundaries as he instead worked the ball around cleverly and ran hard during his 99-ball stay. It was in sharp contrast to Cheema who launched the run chase with a series of boundaries. He butchered Afghanistan's opening bowlers, blazing 11 fours and two sixes on his way to 65 from just 35 balls.

His dashing half-century arrested the momentum which looked firmly Afghanistan's after Noor Ali, the hero from the crucial qualifying game against UAE, and Mohammad Shahzad made rapid hundreds to set up the game for Afghanistan.Shahzad followed up his sterling performance in the final of the World Twenty20 Qualifier with a Man-of-the-Match-earning 118, batting at No. 3 after Sadiq was defeated by Chohan in the third over for a duck.

Together with Ali the pair added 205 in 36 overs as they punished the Canada bowlers. Ali ended up with 114, and in contrasting style to some of his more stodgy knocks in the Twenty20, he was in full flow, stroking two sixes and 11 fours in his 127-ball stay. Chohan was the only Canada bowler to end with any real credit finishing with 4 for 39 from his 10 overs.

Afghanistan, it seems, are irrepressible at the moment but Canada will take great heart from this performance going into the next game on February 18.

Kenya 141 for (Obanda 79, Tikolo 50) beat Canada 138 for 9 (Bagai 36, Odhiambo 3-16) by nine wickets

Scorecard

Alex Obanda butchered 79 from 48 balls to lead Kenya to a resounding victory over Canada in the World Twenty20 Qualifiers in Dubai.

Following their disappointing defeat to minnows UAE in their opening game, where their conservative approach strangled hopes of chasing 165, Kenya came out firing in pursuit of a modest total from Canada. Obanda dominated a 126-run opening stand with Steve Tikolo, which came from only 76 balls.

The pair were severe on the generous serving of short balls dished up from the Canada bowlers, who were clearly wilting in the heat of the Kenyan attack. From the first over Obanda unfurled an array of rasping cuts and pulls, taking 13 off Umar Bhatti's opening over, as he raced to his fifty from just 23 balls.

The pair reached 64 inside the five overs and, while Tikolo didn't get much of the strike, he was no less aggressive when he did. His 50, from 36 balls, included five fours and a six, enough to reminded everyone that, even at the age of 38, he remains one of the most gifted batsmen outside Test cricket.

It made made a mockery of the target Canada scrapped together earlier in the day. They were inserted by Maurice Ouma and lost John Davidson in the first over of the game, bowled by Hiren Varaiya for a duck. Rizwan Cheema, the Canada captain, opening with Davidson tried to arrest the early momentum with a couple of big shots, but things didn't improve for his side as Hiral Patel fell for four in the fifth over, pulling a short ball from Jimmy Kamande straight to Tikolo at square leg.

The bulk of the runs came through contributions from Cheema (32), Geoff Barnett (30) and a run-a-ball 36 from Ashish Bagai. Despite these useful starts, none of the batsmen could get away. Kamande's nagging offspinners choked the middle order and his dismissal of Cheema, with a doosra, was one to remember. The batsman had no clue as it spun away from him and clipped the edge through the wicketkeeper Ouma.

Medium-pacer Nehemiah Odhiambo, who was the pick of the bowlers in Kenya's opening match, was again in the wickets today, as he bowled a devastating 'death' over of yorkers to collect three wickets and give away just four runs.

It set the momentum which Obanda and Tikolo lifted to another level to revive Kenya's hopes of progressing in the tournament.

Netherlands 146 for 4 (Zuiderent 43*, Kervezee 39) beat Canada 142 for 7 (Billcliff 37, Seelaar 2-18) by six wickets

Scorecard

Netherlands began their campaign at the World Twenty20 Qualifiers with a six-wicket win over Canada at the Dubai International stadium. Netherland's batting echoed their strong allround bowling performance, as Bas Zuiderent built on a solid 57-run opening partnership to guide his side home in the 20th over with an unbeaten 43.

Canada soon had reason to rue their decision to bat first this afternoon, as John Davison drove Edgar Schiferli uppishly and into the hands of a diving Tom de Grooth at cover in the first over. Rizwan Cheema then edged Mudassar Bukhari onto his own helmet attempting a pull and was forced to retire injured.

After these early setbacks, Hiral Patel - the 18-year-old batsman whose unbeaten 88 powered Canada's win over Ireland in the Associates T20 Series prior to this tournament - combined well with Geoff Barnett, adding 60 in quick time to steady the Canadian innings. Barnett, who was particularly strong off the front foot today, opened his innings with three fours off Schiferli and dominated the partnership with some aggressive strokeplay.

Barnett was unafraid to loft anything pitched up to him over the off side, but ultimately paid the price for his confidence as he picked out de Grooth on the cover boundary off the left-arm spin of Pieter Seelaar. Patel fell in the very next over to a stunning catch by Daan van Bunge off his own bowling, but Ian Billcliff carried on the momentum with a belligerent 37 on Twenty20 debut. Canada's innings fizzled out after his dismissal, and they will have been disappointed to have scored only 142 after an enterprising effort from their middle order.

Alexei Kervezee and Eric Szwarczynski smashed six boundaries between them in the first 13 balls of Netherlands' chase, and had raced to 50 in the first five overs before Khurram Chohan clung on to a chance at mid off to get rid of Szwarczynski. Kervezee then failed to pick up John Davison's doosra and was neatly stumped by Bagai, but with the required run rate under a run-a-ball, Zuiderent and Peter Borren had time to play themselves in.

After Borren's run out, Ryan ten Doeschate gave Zuiderent admirable support with a breezy 17, and though he fell off the final ball of the penultimate over, Zuiderent sealed the win by lofting a full toss from Chohan to the long off boundary. After a day of upsets in which USA and UAE prevailed in their games against more experienced opposition, the result here was the expected one and Netherlands will take some confidence into their fixture tomorrow.

Ranjit Saini, Cricket Canada's interim president, has told Cricinfo the real solution to developing Associate countries was to get their sides to play against high-profile opposition.

"Sponsors want to be seen and we didn't have enough domestic TV and newspaper coverage to offer that. From our perspective, how do we get a Shahid Afridi or Sachin Tendulkar to Canada?"

In almost three years since the 2007 World Cup, Canada have only met a Full Member twice, both games coming against West Indies in August 2008.

Saini feels, given the competition with other countries as well, it's the responsibility of the ICC to ensure Associates get attractive fixtures. "Every country wants India to play, every country wants big players to play against them, but if the ICC and the Full Member nations sees value and want cricket in the smaller countries then a solution will have to be reached.

"If we don't get full member nations to play against us then we will continue to struggle."

The squads for the World Twenty20 Qualifier tournament in Dubai and Abu Dubai between February 9 and 15 have been announced.

The tournament will see 17 matches take place in the five days, played Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium and the Dubai International Cricket Stadium at Dubai Sports City, where the final will be staged.

At stake are two places in the World Twenty20 which takes places in the West Indies from April 30 to May16. The winner of the UAE event will join South Africa and India in Group C while the losing finalist will join Group D which includes the West Indies and England.

All eyes will be on Afghanistan, who's stellar performances over the last ten months have reverberated around the cricketing world and beyond. While they narrowly missed qualification for the 50-over World Cup 2011 in April, they have been in good form at the Intercontinental Cup. Most recently they displayed flair and resilience to defeat defending champions Ireland, and also recorded a come-from-behind, one-wicket victory over the Netherlands in August 2009.

Ireland, who have been pushing for full-member status, remain one of the strongest associate sides and their squad includes 13 players from the 2009 World Twenty20 in England, where they defeated Bangladesh by six wickets and qualified for the Super Eights.

The Netherlands, who caused the major upset of the 2009 tournament when they defeated England in the opening match, will be without captain Jeroen Smith's this time round but will still be looking to impress.

Afghanistan Dawlat Ahmadzai, Hameed Hasan, Karim Khan Sadiq, Mohammad Asghar Stanikzai, Mohamamd Shahzad Mohammadi, Mohammad Nabi Eisakhil, Merwais Ashraf, Nawroz Khan Mangal, Noor Ali Noori, Obaidullah Konary, Raees Ahmadzai, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Shahpoor Zardan and Samiullah Shinwari.

Canada Harvir Baidwan, Ashish Bagai, Geoff Barnett, Umar Bhatti, Ian Billcliff, Rizwan Cheema, Khurram Chohan, John Davison, Sunil Dhaniram, Shaheed Keshvani, Usman Limbada, Henry Osinde, Abdool Samad and Saad Bin Zafar.

Ireland Andre Botha, Alex Cusack, Peter Connell, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Gary Kidd, John Mooney, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien, William Porterfield, Boyd Rankin, Paul Striling, Andrew White and Gary Wilson.

Kenya James Kamande, Lameck Ngoche, Nehemiah Ngoche, Shem Ngoche, Alex Obanda, Collins Obuya, David Obuya, Nelson Odhiambo, Otieno Ondik, Elijah Otieno, Maurice Ouma, Rakep Patel, Steve Tikolo and Hiren Varaiya.

Netherlands Peter Borren, Mudassar Bukhari, Daan van Bunge, Ryan ten Doeschate, Tom de Grooth, Mark Jonkman, Muhammad Kashif, Alexei Kervezee, Atse Buurman, Timothy Gruijters, Edgar Schiferli, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Szwarczynski and Bas Zuiderent.

Scotland Richie Berrington,, Kyle Coezter, Gordon Drummond, Gordon Goudie, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Ross Lyons, Neil McCallum, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Simon Smith, Jan Stander, Ryan Watson and Fraser Watts.

UAE Fayyaz Ahmed, Saqib Ali, Arfan Haider, Mohamed Iqbal, Amjad Javed, Khurram Khan, Mois Shahid Malik, Naeemuddin, Qadar Nawaz, Ahmed Raza, Abdul Rehman, Shoaib Sarwar, Mohammad Tauqir and Qassim Zubair.

USA Timroy Allen, Imran Awan, Orlando Baker, Lennox Cush, Kevin Darlington, Sudesh Dhaniram, Glenmore Hall, Rashard Marshall, Steve Massiah, Sushil Nadkarni, Usman Shuja, Aditya Thyagarajan and Saurabh Verma Carl Wright.

We have all become used to the hyperbole of most press releases, but Cricket Canada's interim president Ranjit Saini raised the bar to a new level with a message to the media surrounding the streaming of a Twenty20 match between Canada and Sri Lanka A.

"We at Cricket Canada are now getting ready to move forward and take the leap of faith and welcome the entire cricket world to land and help us grow. We have created a complete world in itself. Canada is a global community and each one of you will feel at home."

And from there Saini really warmed to his task.

"We are a humble and confident society. Innovation and determination are our natural traits. We are a noble nation and a perfect society. We made the first supersonic aircraft of the world, invented insulin and are leaders in robotics. A natural resource rich country that leads peace missions around the globe."

With the Under-19 World Cup reaching its climax, Ranjit Saini, Cricket Canada's interim president, has insisted his country will be ready to host the 2012 edition, despite concerns the country does not have the necessary 12 grounds demanded by the ICC.

In 2009 Kenya were controversially stripped of hosting rights to the 2010 Under-19 World Cup after the ICC claimed its grounds would not be ready in time. The decision caused anger in Kenya and claims the move owed more to commercial pressures than logistical ones.

At the moment Canada could face similar treatment, but Saini said that redevelopment will take place in time. "We have the necessary 12 grounds, but some need upgrading and we will be approaching the government for a grant. This will deliver the infrastructure upgrade that Canadian cricket needs. The city of Toronto has accepted it so we're confident. I think we have a good chance."

Cricket Canada has outlined ambitious plans to become a centre for staging international matches as part of a bid to raise the profile of the game, and a scheme for an indoor event features highly.

"We are working on investment in our infrastructure, money from government, and in addition we want some good international fixtures," Ranjit Saini, Cricket Canada's interim president, told Cricinfo. "We want to create a unique Canadian cricket event that people can look forward to every year.

"Annually we could have an event in the SkyDome [the Rogers Centre in Toronto], trying to create a mix of entertainment and cricket, that cricket lovers throughout the world can look forward to.

"It could be a sixes tournament like Hong Kong or could be Twenty20 as well, but we want to bring in an entertainment angle to it - perhaps with audience participation in some respect - but it's very early planning so that's all I'd want to say at this stage."

Canada has a difficult task attracting international cricket, not least because of the long winters when the country is covered in snow, but Saini felt that this could work to their advantage.

"We'd want something for the coming year. There are two proposals, one for summer and one for winter. My preference is for winter, because we're covered under snow and there could be real excitement with an indoor event, recognised throughout the world as a unique fixture."

Despite the ambitious idea, Saini is yet to make approaches to potential partners. "We haven't spoken to formally to any cricket board or TV company as yet, but we had an initial meeting with some interested parties in India on December 16."

Canada lost their opening match of their stay in Sri Lanka, going down by six wickets to a Sri Lanka A team who cruised to their target of 180 with almost 18 overs to spare.

Canada managed 175 for 9 in their 50 overs, and even that represented a recovery from 75 for 5. The Sri Lankans started briskly and never let up, Gihan Rupasinghe leading the way with an unbeaten 74.

USA’s preparations for the ICC Under-19 World Cup came unstuck as they were beaten by Hong Kong in a warm-up match. Afgahnistan, who beat Hong Kong earlier in the week, lost to a Canterbury A team, while Canada lost to an Auckland XI.

USA only managed 182 for 9 after they chose to bat, their efforts not aided by three run outs. Hong Kong raced to 186 for 4 in 32.2 overs with captain Jamie Atkinson blasting 100 off 86 deliveries. He added 156 at almost a run-a-ball with Ashish Gadhia (59).

Afghanistan went down to a five-wicket loss to Canterbury A, being bowled out for 169 after a promising start. Canterbury eased to victory in 32.2 overs, opener Kereyn Ambler leading the way with 70 off 77 balls.

Auckland XI made 171 for 6 in a match reduced to 33 overs-a-side by rain. Canada struggled to keep on top of a stiff asking rate and finished on 148 for 7, although a fifty from Ruvindu Gunasekara gave them some cause for optimism.

This was the last round of unofficial warm-ups as the teams all head to Christchurch for the tournament’s official opening on Sunday. Two days of official warm-ups follow before the first batch of proper games on Friday, January 15.

Struggling Cricket Canada has been dealt a major blow with the news that Scotiabank, its main sponsor, has terminated its three-year contract early because of what it claims is “unsatisfactory performance” by the board.

The deal is coming to the end of its first year and while on the field Canada’s performances have been improving, the conduct of the board continues to cause concern. A letter from Scotiabank to recently-appointed CEO Chandra Gocool did not deal in specifics, merely stating that the decision had been made “after careful review and analysis of the cost/benefit, the various program deliverables” and also a review of the board’s “internal/public challenges, and its future direction”.

Although Scotiabank will honour the first year of the contract in full, the second and third years were worth around US$500,000. Given the withdrawal of such a high-profile sponsor and the well-documented problems within Canadian cricket’s administration, it will prove hard to find a replacement, certainly in the short term.

One source was quoted in the media as warning the loss of Scotiabank would seriously impact on all levels of cricket, from the national team right through to the grass-roots game.

The ICC has confirmed the groups for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Canada and Kenya will play in Group A where they will face Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, while Ireland and Netherlands are drawn alongside India, South Africa, England, West Indies and Bangladesh in what on current rankings has to be the easier group.

The most talented young players in Associate and Affiliate cricket gather in Toronto this week in an attempt to qualify for the 2010 Under-19 World Cup, staged in New Zealand.

While the opportunity of competing against the best young squads from larger nations, such as Australia and India, is at the forefront of the players' ambitions, the tournament gives them a chance to impress and perhaps even press for a place in the senior team. Ireland's Paul Stirling, a highly regarded left-hander, turns 19 September 3 and displayed his potential during his senior side's three-run defeat to England on Thursday, cracking 30 from 26.

Click here for the full story.

Canada and Kenya will both be seeking their first victories of their Intercontinental Cup campaigns when the tournament resumes in King City on Friday. Kenya are currently bottom of the table after a draw against Ireland, while Canada are in fourth having lost and drawn their first two matches.

Click here for the full preview.

The summer season of Associate cricket continues to take shape with various announcements about games being arranged.

Afghanistan's first foray into mainstream competition starts in the rather unlikely setting of Mutare where they take on Zimbabwe in a four-day Intercontinental Cup tie starting on August 16. From there the Afghans head to Europe where they meet Netherlands in the same competition starting on August 24 and follow that with their first two stand-alone ODIs on August 30 and September 1.

Kenya, meanwhile, head to Toronto where their Intercontinental Cup tie against Canada starts on August 7 and is followed by three ODIs on August 12, 14 and 16.

On August 17 Scotland's game with Ireland starts, and that is followed by an ODI weekend as two matches are held on August 22 and 23 ahead of Ireland's ODI against England on August 27 and Scotland's against Australia on August 28.

In the new Intercontinental Shield, Bermuda host Uganda in a four-day match starting on August 17 and the two then play a brace of one-day games on August 22 and 23 with a one-off Twenty20 clash on August 24

Ranjit Saini has been appointed as interim president of Cricket Canada pending a permanent appointment in the coming months. He succeeds Ben Sennik, who retired on June 30.

“I am excited to take on the new challenges and we have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks and months,” he said. “Sennik has left us a good platform from which to build on and we must do our utmost to ensure Cricket Canada continues to forge ahead”

In the aftermath of the ICC’s decision to strip Kenya of hosting rights for the 2010 Under-19 World Cup, Cricket Canada, who are due to stage the following tournament in 2012, is believed to have expressed serious doubts about its abilities to act as hosts.

Officially, Kenya lost out because of a report stating the grounds would not be ready in time, although it is increasingly looking as if the decision was made some time ago, possibly for commercial reasons.

In light of that, Canada has flagged that it might struggle to meet ICC requirements which sources claim have become much stricter in recent months.

Canada have confirmed details of their European tour which will include four ODIs and the opening two games in the 2009-10 Intercontinental Cup.

The trip will start with the Intercontinental Cup tie against Scotland (July 2 to 5) and that will be followed by two ODIs, also against Scotland, on July 7 and 8.

From there the team fly to the Netherlands where they play two more ODIs (July 11 and 12), finishing off with their second Intercontinental Cup match between July 15 and 18.

Ben Sennik has announced that he will stand down as president of Cricket Canada at the end of June after five years at the helm. His last role will be to attend the ICC's centenary celebrations in London.

"This was not an easy decision," said Sennick. "However, after reviewing what we have been able to jointly achieve, and recognizing what lies ahead for all of us on the cricket scene, I believe the time is now right for me to pass the responsibility as president to other hands."

"I believe Cricket Canada is now at an important crossroads. In the past five years we have revived the organization and we now stand on firm financial footing. We operate as a viable business and all financial undertakings are fully transparent. We have balanced our budget and creating a responsible economic environment to attract new partners and new opportunities."

"I fully appreciate the time and commitment that Ben Sennik has put into building the game in Canada," said Richard Done, the ICC's high performance manager. "Under his leadership Canada has developed from its voluntary base to start a new professional era both on and off the field. The national team has qualified for its third successive World Cup, the number of schools playing the game is growing, financially the sport is on a sound footing and Cricket Canada has again successfully hosted events involving a number of Full Members during 2008."

While Canada has progressed during Sennik's time at the helm, he has been a controversial figure, and only last month he faced moves to file a no-confidence vote against him. This has been withdrawn in the wake of his retirement.

Pubudu Dassanayake, coach of the Canadian national cricket team sat down with Faraz Sarwat in Toronto recently to talk about Canada’s performance at the World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa, the controversial training trip to Sri Lanka that preceded the tournament and the 2011 World Cup itself. Excerpts:

Q: From your point of view what are the areas to focus on now that the team has qualified for the World Cup?

A: If you analyze Canadian cricket going back even a year and a half ago, the average age of the team was 30 or 31 years old and there’s a reason behind that. We have young, talented players but there’s no proper structure where we can develop them within the country to the required standard. So players need a lot of time, playing year after year to gain that experience. So we don’t have options and we need to pick older players. Now if you take the fitness levels and the fielding levels, even in this tournament (the World Cup Qualifiers) we were way below standard. That’s one area where we need to improve. We need to get young players into the system and if the local system is not helping us, then we need to identify who we can develop for the World Cup and the 2013 Qualifiers and get them into the squad. We can send them to academies and to other countries to play in their local cricket. That is the major plan from now on, but we can’t do it right away. We have a time period where we use the senior players and at the same time we get the youngsters ready for the squad. Before the World Cup Qualifiers we couldn’t do anything because we didn’t want to play around too much and we needed experience for the tournament.

Q: Are there any young players that you’ve already identified?

A: We’ve already identified about seven or eight players and two of them actually went with the team to Sri Lanka (to train before the World Cup Qualifiers). There are a couple of other youngsters, one is sixteen years old, not ready to play for the national team, but if you really analyze his game, I haven’t seen that much talent in Sri Lanka at that age group. But what full-member countries have is that by the time their cricketers are 19 years old, they have played so much cricket and have so much cricket knowledge, that if they’re good enough, they can just walk into the national side. So we need to get that kind of experience by sending our players to other places.

Q: Who are some of these players that you think can come along in the next couple of years?

A: The first one is Hiral Patel. He came with us to Sri Lanka and in the five warm-up games that he played, he got three fifties. He’ll be ready for us this season.

Q: You must be proud that Canada finished runners-up in the Qualifiers, but are there any players that you’re especially pleased with?

A: The five fast bowlers. From the first day of training in Sri Lanka, all five of them gave me everything that they had and worked really hard. People like Henry Osinde, Umar Bhatti and Khurram Chohan, they really gave everything and after a long time we won matches because of our bowling instead of just our batting.

Q: There was a lot of criticism about the trip to Sri Lanka where Cricket Canada sent eight players, five of which were bowlers to train with former Sri Lankan batsman, Marvan Atapattu. What did you think about all of that?

A: The selectors selected fifteen players for the tournament. I had four players coming from the outside, John Davison, Ian Billcliff, Geoff Barnett and Ashish Bagai. They were not available for Sri Lanka, but only when the tournament started. The other players at home could not get time off from their jobs. We were left with eight of our fifteen and we didn’t want to spend money on sending players to Sri Lanka who would not be in our squad of fifteen. The youngsters who joined us in Sri Lanka paid their own way. Now, we knew that our players based overseas have played at the highest level, and they’ve been training on their own. Davison was going to open and the other three would be in the middle order. I had no choice but to expect them to score. My concern became the other guys, how I could get the best out of them, to support the core guys. I figured that if Sandeep Jyoti and the tail, Bhatti, Harvir Baidwan and Chohan can contribute something from the bottom, we’re going to be okay. So the eight players batted every day under Marvan’s supervision. Marvan also worked with the team on basic things like running between the wickets and calling, things that the guys were not up to the standard. We managed to improve those things in Sri Lanka. The bowlers got enough batting and improved tremendously.

Q: Do you think you got the most out of Marvan Atapattu’s appointment as batting coach, when your top order batsmen were missing in Sri Lanka and of the three batsmen that you did have, Qaiser Ali didn’t play a single game, Cheema came to camp late and Jyoti played most of the tournament down at number seven?

A: Given the circumstances, I got the best. If you look at the professional guys we had in the team like Davison, Billcliff and Barnett, they’ve played first-class level and they’re very serious about their cricket. When they come into the team and they see that the other guys are not up to standard, they get frustrated and we’ve had issues within the team. But then you can’t blame anybody, because in the past the local guys only practiced two or three hours a week and didn’t do any training. That wasn’t a good mix because the professional guys would get frustrated when the others couldn’t do something. But how can you blame players who couldn’t train because of their jobs? What happened here was our local guys had raised their standards. The professional players were surprised to see these guys being up to standard and performing. It made the team into a unit. Whenever we needed runs at the bottom, there was a player who scored. Whenever we needed a wicket from our fast bowlers, we got it.

Q: Is the criticism of the trip to Sri Lanka unfair?

A: There was a lot of criticism that we shouldn’t have gone to Sri Lanka, but I think it was the main reason we did well in this tournament. Our players lived and breathed cricket in Sri Lanka and the people there gave them the respect of a national cricket team, whether they were at the hotel, at the ground or outside somewhere. This was new for our players. Our players didn’t know their value, but they got confidence by being treated so well and started to act like professional players too.

Q: How was it to finally have John Davison and Rizwan Cheema together as openers?

A: Initially in South Africa Cheema struggled with the bounce, with the ball coming higher than it does in Toronto or Sri Lanka. John is also an experienced coach now working for the Queensland High Performance center. When he saw the way Rizwan was batting, he said “I’ll adjust my game, let him play how he wants”. That worked really well. We then told Rizwan to play his natural game. John opened with Rizwan and let him have the strike and we saw that John ended up batting more overs too, which worked well for us.

Q: After Davison was injured you called up reserve player Ashif Mulla and put him into the playing eleven ahead of batsmen selected in the squad of fifteen. Why did Mulla play ahead of Qaiser Ali?

A: The reason Mulla walked into the team was because the middle-order had been doing so well and we didn’t want to disturb that. The option was to promote Jyoti up the order and insert Qaiser Ali or Arvind Kandappah at seven. But then we thought it best to bring in an opener. Even if a wicket falls early we would still have our settled middle-order. It wasn’t about comparing Mulla with Ali and Kandappah.

Q: One of the criticisms of this team is that even the bench players that get selected tend to be older and not as fit as they could be. Someone like Arvind Kandappah is a decent batsman, but if he’s not going to play much, doesn’t it make more sense to give that spot to a younger player like a Trevin Bastiampillai who could benefit from just being in the team?

A: I totally agree. I always like to get young players into the team even if they don’t get to play. But this tournament, Ashish Bagai and I gave our ideas about the team to the selectors about what we had in mind for the batting order. Positions 3-5 were set and we saw Dhaniram at No.6. At No.7 you need someone experienced to rebuild the innings if you lose a bunch of wickets at once, or to score runs fast at the end. Sandeep Jyoti was our number one option and we also had Qaiser Ali with the squad. We then looked at getting the best available player for that position. Yes, someone like Trevin is fitter, but Arvind is the only one who has scored runs at this level. If we played Trevin he would need to come in around number three not at seven. We needed someone who could bat at that particular position.

Q: Some of our best players are not part of the Canadian cricket scene on a day to day basis, so when the national team is selected should we still pick our best players, the proven performers like Davison and Bagai, or should only those players be in the team that the selectors have actually seen and whose form and fitness is known?

A: Even when you talk about locally based players, how often do the selectors get a chance to see them? We need to have a proper system where the selectors see every player or every game. At this point though, the selectors depend on the coach and captain a lot to aid them in the final selection. I’m not saying they agree with us all the time, but for certain players they have to depend on us. The question arises, why did we do well in this tournament but didn’t last summer? Then we used something like 32 players. Critics blame the selectors or the coach, but we had eight major injuries, and we had players who had to skip tournaments because they wouldn’t be available for every game. Even for me as coach that is difficult because I train a player and the next day he’s not available and I have to train somebody else for that spot. In November we contracted eight players full-time and I started working with them five days a week, five or six hours a day. And we know that the guys coming from outside are capable. They know where they’re going to bat and what their role is. I communicated with them and even before arriving in South Africa they knew what their role was going to be. The training and the consistency in the team made the difference. Going forward we need to keep this core of players.

Q: Do you expect most of the players from this tournament to be available for the 2011 World Cup?

A: I expect one or two changes. In 2011, Davison will be over 40 year old, but he’s much fitter than many of the guys in the game. Players like Dhaniram and Billcliff certainly have the ability and playing the World Cup is in their hands. We have the luxury of two years to build up players, but it’s up to them if they want to play the World Cup, they’ll need to raise their fitness levels. I would like to go there with our fittest side and be one of the best fielding teams in the tournament. That is achievable and something within our control. Our plans are there and it’s up to them to fit into that. If they’re willing to work hard and get to that level, we’re happy to have them.

Faraz Sarwat is the cricket columnist for the Toronto Star and the author of The Cricket World Cup: History, Highlights, Facts and Figures.

Canada will host the ICC Under-19 World Cup Global Qualifier in September 2009, which Will see 10 Associate and Affiliate teams (two from each of the ICC’s five regions) battle for five places in the 2010 U-19 World Cup in Kenya.

The announcement is subject to the finalisation of logistical and budgetary arrangements with the prospective hosts.

Canada were well beaten by Zimbabwe A in their final warm-up match ahead of next week’s ICC World Cup Qualifiers. After winning the toss, Canada slipped to 35 for 4 after 15 overs and even though Sandeep Jyoti (32) helped them stumble past a hundred, their eventual total of 142 from 48.1 overs was never likely to be enough. Zimbabwe A, fresh from a successful tour of Namibia, lost wickets steadily, but an unbeaten 61 from Mbekezeli Mabuza steered them to a six-wicket win.

Ben Sennik faces some tough questions after the resignation of Mike Kendall as the board’s first vice-president.

Ben Sennik, the chairman, had brushed aside suggestions that Ahuja’s departure came about because of fundamental differences between the two of them, but in a brief statement Kendall made clear that was at the root of his decision.

In a one-paragraph letter to Sennik, he wrote: “Due to consistently substantial difference of opinion, on important policy matters and the direction of Cricket Canada under your leadership, I am hereby resigning … effective immediately.”

Whereas Ahuja has kept below the radar since he left, probably because of contractual obligations, Kendall, who was in a non-paid role, will have no such restrictions, and Sennik now faces some tough questions as to what is really going on behind the scenes.

Eight of the Canadian squad will train in Sri Lanka in the lead up to the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier.

The group will attend the high performance camps run by the ICC and arranged by Pubudu Dassanayke between February 10 and mid March before joining the remainder of the squad in Zimbabwe.

Canada are set to play their first major overseas series against a Full Member country when they tour Zimbabwe for four ODIs in March. The matches form part of their preparations for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in April.

The games, which are likely to all be played in Harare, will take place between March 18 and 26.

The original plan had been for Canada to play against a Zimbabwe A side, but after discussions between the two boards, the itinerary was changed to accommodate the ODIs.

The teams last met in a Twenty20 tournament in Toronto last October when Canada tied with Zimbabwe in the first match before losing a bowl off.

Cricket Canada has been thrown into confusion after the announcement that chief executive Atul Ahuja had been replaced on an interim basis by Ingleton Liburd, the cricket development officer and a former national captain.

Rumours had been circulating for two days that Ahuja had been dismissed following a major falling out with Ben Sennick, the board’s chairman. Other than a terse statement which made almost no reference to Ahuja other than to say he was being replaced, nobody from Cricket Canada was available for comment.

Liburd does not appear to be a long-term option for a board which still harbours ambitions of expanding the game internally and becoming a major player among the Associates internationally. Prior to joining Cricket Canada in 2008, he served as president of the St. Kitts Cricket Association and as a territorial development officer for the West Indies Cricket Board.

"Ingleton has a tremendous knowledge of the game of cricket and has demonstrated his leadership skills throughout his association with the game”, Sennik said. “On behalf of the Cricket Canada board of directors, we are pleased to have Ingleton as a key part of our team as we continue to enhance cricket’s appeal across Canada at the professional and community levels.”

Tony Munro

Canada intend to field their best possible team at the World Cup Qualifiers in April, according to Cricket Canada CEO Atul Ahuja. Canada were without their overseas-based players during the recent Americas Championship and finished third on run-rate, behind the United States and Bermuda.

"We're not pretending that was anything like our best team in Florida, it wasn't even our A team or B team. But when the World Cup Qualifiers come around we will be looking to have our best team on the field," Ahuja told Cricinfo.

Canada were without Australia-based players, former captain John Davison and opener Geoff Barnett, amongst others. There had been conjecture that Canada were leaning towards relying on home-based players.

"As we aspire to put the best players on the field, we consider costs, tournament length, availability [of players] to train with the team ahead of the tournament etc. as key factors in addition to playing ability," said Ahuja.

"We were given to understand that for a five-day tournament, there were a few factors in the mix I just mentioned that were just not in favor of John making the squad."

Ahuja said that didn't mean Davison was not going to be part of Canada's plans for South Africa. "I think John will be in the reckoning for our World Cup Qualifier Squad."

Results went according to the script on the second day of the ICC Americas Division 1 tournament as USA, Bermuda and Canada registered comfortable victories

At Brian Piccolo Park another fine innings from Hamish Barton steered Argentina to a respectable 200 for 9 against USA, but that was put into perspective by Sushil Nadkarni, who struck his second century in two days. Nadkarni hit 109 off 116 balls as USA cantered home with 12 overs to spare. Argentina's day didn't improve when Barton picked up an ankle injury and he is in doubt for the next match against Cayman Islands.

"We played well against determined opposition and did the job we set out to do," Imran Khan, the USA manager, said. "While our batting - and especially Sushil - is looking good, we have work to do on being more disciplined in the field, and especially not gifting the opposition with bowling extras."

Canada had a less stressful match than yesterday, when they almost slipped up against Argentina, easing to a 206-run victory against Cayman Islands. At Central Broward Regional Park, they racked up an impressive 298 for 9. Opener Sandeep Jyoti top-scored with a stylish 88 off 129 balls, while further half-centuries came from Zubin Surkari and Qaiser Ali.

Cayman Islands' chase began poorly when they lost a wicket first ball and the innings never recovered, eventually folding for 92 in under 33 overs. Khurram Chohan took 3 for 34 and Zahid Hussain claimed 3 for 11

"We set ourselves goals today and I believe we achieved almost all of them," Canada captain, Umar Bhatti, said. "The team performed tremendously well today, all three departments were up to scratch, and it was a huge improvement from yesterday."

On the main stadium field at Central Broward Regional Park, Bermuda were predictably too strong for Suriname and notched a commanding 224-run win. Lionel Cann's 97-ball 101 led Bermuda to 290 for 3 and he was helped by Stephen Outerbridge's 62, plus a half century from captain Irving Romaine.

In reply, left-arm spinner Delyone Borden proved too much the Suriname batsmen, taking 6 for 17 from his 10 overs as the minnows were bundled out for 66, having been skittled for 60 in their opening match.

Bermuda's coach, Gus Logie, was pleased with how his team are progressing. "Today was all about building on yesterday's effort, and we did that strongly," he said. "It was also good to continue building confidence for the tough games ahead. We are constantly looking for self-improvement and today we got that, also our attitude and approach towards the game was very business-like, which was important."

Although matches between any of the six leading Associates are officially classified as full ODIs and included in career and team records, the ICC has ruled that the game between Bermuda and Canada during the ICC Americas Division 1 event in Florida starting on November 24 will not be counted as such.

The reason for the decision is that the venue has not been approved by the ICC to stage full ODIs, although it is hoped that an inspection in the near future could enable it to become the USA's first accredited international ground.

Canada and USA have been invited to take part in the as yet unsponsored West Indies domestic one-day tournament which starts on November 13 in Guyana.

The ICC Americas Division One tournament will be staged in Florida from November 24 to December 1, with the new Broward County stadium hosting some of the matches.

Argentina, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Suriname and USA will take part.

In the last competition in 2006 in Canada, Bermuda beat USA in the final.

The Americas Region Division I is now confirmed to take place in Florida, November 24
December 1. Five matches will be played in the new stadium built for cricket in Broward County.
–
Six countries, Argentina, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Suriname and the USA will
compete for the title. For Suriname, an affiliate, it will be their first appearance in Division I. The team earned the right to compete having won Division 2.

Zubin Surkari has been handed a two-game suspension and fined by the Canadian Cricket Association for conduct and behaviour-related charges.

Tony Munro

	Trevin Bastiampillai will spend the winter playing cricket during the Australian summer © Eddie Norfolk

One member each from Canadian men's and women's national teams will each spend the northern hemisphere winter playing club cricket in Sydney.

Trevin Bastiampillai, the Sri Lankan-born batsman,who has played six first-class matches and five ODIs for Canada, will play with Blacktown in the Sydney Grade competition.

Nineteen-year-old Monali Patel, from Tranzac CC in the Toronto & District league, will play for St George-Sutherland in the Sydney women's competition.

Tony Munro

	John Davison: "I have never retired from Canadian cricket in any form" © ICC

This article on Cricinfo on Sunday referred to Canada's use of overseas-based players and in particular, John Davison, the former captain. BTTW asked John, now 38, about his career with Canada, and his reaction to that article:

Are you still available for selection in Canada's squads for three- or four-day matches, ODIs and Twenty20s?

John Davison: I have never retired from Canadian cricket in any form. A falling out with selectors and commitments to my work and young family have restricted my involvement in recent times, but I would really enjoy being involved in helping Canada qualify for their third straight World Cup. I am trying to keep in shape with that as my motivation.

When did you last play the Toronto domestic season?

JD: I think it was about 2002, the season before the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. It has been a while.

Are you playing any competitive cricket this Australian summer?

JD: I am captain of Mosman CC in Sydney and am also performing a coaching role for the club. I am looking forward to it. We start on September 27.

Did you see the article on Cricinfo? Are there any surprises in that?

JD: I hadn't seen it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. There were plenty of surprises in that ... plenty that I shouldn't really comment on.

I find it strange that overseas-based players would be so disruptive. The only guys that train together would be the Toronto-based players. Is it disruptive when players from other provinces are selected? The Canadian team have played their best cricket when they play in the big tournaments.

I will tell you why this is: the best players make sure they are available (take leave from work), and high-profile coaches want to be involved in events like the World Cup. The team spends quality time playing together and prepares well over an extended period of time.

Why does it have to be Cheema for Davison ... surely you could squeeze both into the current line-up?

It would be great if the Canadian team was made up of home-grown players and they were competitive, but it would be naive for Cricket Canada to turn their backs on quality overseas-based players when other Associates are embracing them. You can expect Dirk Nannes to make a big impact when he gets the opportunity to play for Holland.

Have you spoken to [Cricket Canada chief executive] Atul [Ahuja] or Cricket Canada about your role within the national team set-up recently?

JD: I have been in contact with Atul ... and it is my understanding that he is keen to have me playing.

Ireland's rain-affected match against Canada was frustratingly cut short with no play possible on the fourth and final day, but Ireland have closed the gap on an already tightly packed top four in the Intercontinental Cup table

Click here for more.

Canada have won the Under-15 Americas Cricket Championship in Bermuda after completing the tournament with an unbeaten record.

Canada were run closest by Bermuda who reduced them to 85 for 6 chasing 168 in their penultimate match, but an unbeaten 44 from Bryan Henry ensured they squeezed home with three balls in hand.

“Grassroots development through talent identification and development programs instituted in the winter of 2007-2008, helped put together a strong team which has taken Canada to this pinnacle and promises to be an indicator of things to come for Canadian cricket,” Atul Ahuja, Cricket Canada’s chief executive, told Cricinfo.

“Cricket Canada has a stated goal to win the Under-19 World Cup that Canada will host in 2012. Many players that were part of the winning team today could well be part of that squad. Programs are being put in place to develop this talent pool to help Canada achieve this goal.”

The World Twenty20 Qualifers get underway at Belfast tomorrow. Have a read of our preview of this important event.

The ICC has announced a revised schedule for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in Belfast next month.

The tournament, involving the six leading Associate teams - Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands and Scotland - will now take place from August 2 to 5, with a fourth day included to allow room for a third and fourth-place play-off.

Click here for the full story

Organisers have confirmed a four-nation Twenty20 tournament in Toronto involving hosts Canada, Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies in August.

Click here for the full story

Next week's ICC annual get-together promises to have more than its fair share of politicking, posturing and controversy. But, unless there is a major about-turn, it should also be a watershed for the Associates and Affiliates.

In 2009, income from the ICC's six-year media deal with ESPN-Star, worth over US$1 billion, kicks in, and while the game's big boys will still keep the lion's share, the rest will see substantial increases in their incomes.

Although the ICC draws considerable flak on many fronts, it is quietly committed to promoting the game in as many countries as possible, and it does that by means of a myriad of competitions and initiatives. Most do not warrant much media attention, but they are there and they work.

Until now, the gripe of the smaller countries, and especially those bubbling just underneath the top flight, has been about the inequality of the way in which the game is financed. That was never more apparent than when it came to earnings from last year's World Cup.

Ireland got a flat fee of US$125,000 a year for four years for taking part, and on top of that they received another $50,000 for reaching the Super Eights. However, because of the extra costs involved in their progression, not least because their players are not professional cricketers and their absences from their full-time jobs had to be underwritten, Ireland's success actually left the board out of pocket.

Zimbabwe, on the other hand, turned up, tied with Ireland and never threatened to progress after being thumped by Pakistan and West Indies. For those three matches, Zimbabwe Cricket received US$11 million, their share of the pot as a Full Member.

The top six Associates receive no more than US$500,000 a year - some substantially less - to fund their entire operations. Out of that they have to pay all their cricketing and administration costs. Only those with a low cost of living, such as Kenya, can hope to maintain a professional squad on that kind of money.

The gulf between the haves and have-nots is further widened by the limited sums Associates can earn from sponsorship and media contracts. Zimbabwe can exploit home series against, say, India to carve out lucrative TV deals worth millions, and on the back of that, attract shirt- and other corporate sponsorship. As highlighted by Scotland's failure to secure any TV deal for their forthcoming ODI against England, the Associates struggle to get such income streams.

The new deals will provide a substantial increase for Associates, especially for the countries who are pressing for space at the top table. Until now the share has been roughly equal, rewarding Netherlands and Kenya on par with Thailand and Fiji. The new system will see more demarcation between the top Associates and the rest.

The leading ten could earn as much as US$1.5 million a year from 2009. There will then be an onus on them to professionalise their administrations, but several of them are already well down that route. They will also be more accountable - the ICC does not want a repeat of the mess that came following a spike in Kenya's funding earlier in the decade.

The second-string Associates will also get more - around US$160,000 as a base figure - but then again the demands on them are less. Even Affiliates will receive US$15,000, with the opportunity for more should they make a good enough case. There will also be more cash in the pot for participating and hosting competitions.

There have never been more opportunities for development outside the Full Member countries, but there remain some nagging worries.

The main one is how to bridge the gap between semi and full-blown professionalism. Almost all the Associates rely on dedicated amateurs, both on and off the field. As the number of ICC competitions has increased - and they have to be welcomed - the pressure has begun to tell. Scotland and Ireland particularly have already found players cannot meet all their commitments, and even the increased income will not allow them to employ a full-time squad.

"So much of putting players on full-time retainers depends on how many fixtures we can command," Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland's chief executive, said. "At the moment, all we can promise the squad in 2009 is a World Cup qualifying campaign, eight FP Trophy matches, an England game, and probably some Intercontinental Cup matches. Of course, we hope to have more, but can't be sure at the moment.

"Our top players are already plying their trade in county cricket, while others have full-time jobs which they may not wish to give up. The actual number of players that the coach will want to put on a full-time contract, or else the number that even want to have one, may not be that many."

The other quandary is how to get them fixtures. Kenya, widely regarded as the leading Associate, have found it almost impossible to get Full Member countries to visit or host them. As a result they invariably play other Associates. Good for the win-loss ratio, not so clever in providing the kind of experience that no amount of money can buy.

These issues will need to be addressed, but for now the future has never looked so promising beyond the Test world.

Uganda allrounder Kenneth Kamyuka has been signed by the Toronto District Cricket Association champions Brampton Masters. Kamyuka, 26, left for Canada last week.

“I last played professional cricket a couple of years ago and this is definitely going to be a whole new challenge for me. I’m enjoying good form and I’m ready for the challenge as a professional."

Click here for more from Uganda's Monitor newspaper.

Ireland will host the inaugural World Twenty20 Qualifiers between August 2 and 4, with the top six Associates vying for the two places available to them in next year's ICC World Twenty20 in England.

Click here for more and the itinerary.

The Asian Television Network (ATN) has announced an agreement to televise games from the
English County Championship and the Tests between England and New Zealand, and England and South Africa. Games will be carried on the network’s CBN channel.

Meanwhile in Quebec, students at Carlyle School in Mount Royal are now enjoying a game of cricket at lunch break after putting pressure on school officials to start a school team. It all started when students brought a cricket bat to school one day and now the sport is part of the school’s physical education program.

These items from the ICC Americas newsletter

Michael Young, Australia's fielding coach, is spending time with Bermuda and Canada to lend his extensive experience to the two Associate countries. But, in an in-depth interview for The Royal Gazette, he reveals how he doesn't think he could work with amateurs on a full-time basis.

"Justin Langer was not the most talented player, but he was committed to perfect practice, and that's one of the things I have talked to these guys about.

"Practice doesn't make perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect. And those are the things that they need to understand. There needs to be an accountability, every job is the same. You can do it half-arsed, and you're going to get half-arsed results. Or you can do the extra and try to get more, that's how you get to the other levels."

Getting the extra has been problematic in recent weeks, and while Young is happy to contribute some of his time, he doubts he could do it on a regualr basis.

"These guys all have jobs, so the mentality is different, there is a different approach," he said. "I don't know how long I could do this (working with teams such as Bermuda). I'll be honest, I don't know how long I could do it because I believe in commitment and it would be hard for me to work with amateur players."

Read the full story at the Royal Gazette.

West Indies All-Stars defeated the Canada All-Star Team by 38 runs in the MAQ T20 International Cricket Tournament Championship Match at Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida. West Indies made 128 for 4 in 18 overs and Canada managed only 90 in reply.

“I'm very proud of my team. They all contributed to the victory," said West Indies captain Richie Richardson after the match. Courtney Browne was voted the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament, scoring the second most runs (67) as well as taking three catches and stumpings.

Thousands of fans who braved rain to watch former international players including Javed Miandad (Pakistan), Richardson and Browne (West Indies) and Mohammad Azharuddin (India).

By Eddie Norfolk

St Joseph's girls won the inaugural Annual Hazel McCallion Trophy at what proved the appropriately named Iceland Cricket Oval on Thursday, May 22. A stiff wind blew across the ground on a cool day, but this outdoor girls’ tournament, named in honour of Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, went ahead, following the spirit of cricket.

St Joseph's beat Rick Hansen in the third game of the day, after beating Port Credit in the day's opening match. Rick Hansen edged out Port Credit by just one run in the second game.

The match was hosted by the Mississauga Ramblers Cricket, Sports and Cultural Club in partnership with the Region of Peel Secondary School Athletic Association, the City of Mississauga and the Mississauga Sports Council.

Mayor McCallion has supported sports, especially girls and women's sports for many years. It is hoped to be the first of many such tournaments that will grow bigger and better.

Canada’s first Twenty20 version of the national championships has been deemed a success despite unseasonably cold and wet conditions. Cricket Canada said they were “certain” to repeat the format in the future, after the final was even covered on Rogers, a local television channel.

Ontario B defeated Quebec by 16 runs in a final reduced to 15 overs by rain.

Eight teams played out a total of 12 matches in two days with British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario A and Ontario B reaching the last four. The semis were five overs, also because of the rain.

Eleven women players from Argentina, Bermuda and Canada will depart for Trinidad this month as part of an ICC Americas development programme. The academy will take place at the Sir Frank Worrell Development Centre in Trinidad and Tobago from May 18-29. The program will be run by Ann Browne-John – the ICC Women’s Committee Representative, former West Indies Captain and Level 2 WICB Coach – who is assisted by former international players and qualified coaches Stephanie Power and Jasmine Sammy. The girls will have 10 days of intensive training, education, game situations and will be trying out for the WICB tournament to be held in Jamaica in July.

An interesting article in Canada’s Globe & Mail reports that the popularity of the game among immigrants is being stalled by the lack of pitches.

There are more players than the cricket grounds in Surrey can hold, forcing some Sunday matches to be held in school playgrounds … [it] has two cricket grounds and there is a growing demand for more. Hundreds of cricketers cannot play because of the shortage of grounds.
And the son of one immigrant reveals that his son has now taken up the game.

Ethnically South Asian, the junior Kumar was born and raised in Canada. He started playing cricket this year. He says the game is fun, but it also helps him connect to his Indian culture. "If I leave my own culture, the culture [will] die out," he said.

Canada have joined the Twenty20 bandwagon and will host their first tournament in Toronto on May 17 and 18. Eight teams from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia will compete.

"In the light of what is happening in the IPL in India at the moment, what we are undertaking in Canada is a major step to restore this sport to its former glory which it enjoyed till ice hockey replaced it," the board's CEO Atul Ahuja said.

Ahuja was present at the launch of the IPL in Bangalore last month and said that the owners of the franchises had indicated a willingness to send teams to Canada. "All of them ... promised to send Twenty20 teams to Canada in the summer to help us groom players. We have a huge talent from the South Asian and Caribbean communities in Canada."

However, if they do, the sides are unlikely to bear much resemblance to those playing in the IPL at the moment and most of the high-profile players will be on international duty elsewhere.

Canada’s women finished their tour of Trinidad & Tobago with a third heavy defeat, losing by eight wickets to the Under-21 side in a match reduced by rain to 35 overs a side. Canada managed 98 for 8 and in reply the U-21s cruised home with 15.3 overs to spare.

The Trinidad & Tobago Development XI thrashed Canada's women by 151 runs at the National Cricket Centre. The home side eased to 203 for 7, with Amanda Samaroo (60) and Jerveena Pollocksingh (49) leading the way. Canada were as good as down and out as they limped to 6 for 4, and although they extended their innings to the 33rd over they only scraped 52.

Trinidad & Tobago’s Under-21 women’s side thumped the Canada national side by 144 runs at the University of the West Indies. A half century from Sharda Basrop helped Trinidad & Tobago to 215 for 9 in their 50 overs, Vadeo Sproxton took 5 for 29 in six overs, although her colleague were not nearly as disciplined as they shipped 40 wides. In reply, Canada limped to 71 in 34.2 overs, with only Monali Patel (12) reaching double figures.

There are many cricket fans and supporters, both from the Caribbean and the rest of the world, who would have been surprised to learn of the participation of a team from the Americas [Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Bahamas] in the forthcoming International Under-15 Cricket Championships, scheduled for April 16- May 4

In a competition that is virtually regarded as the U-15 World Cup, the cricketing world would have expected teams from only the top cricket nations to be the participants. Indeed, in the last event of this kind, staged in England some eight years ago, the teams included England, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Netherlands, South Africa and the West Indies, who defeated Pakistan by two wickets in a thrilling final at Lord’s.

Four years earlier in 1996, in the inaugural event held in England, all the Test-playing nations of the time, except New Zealand - Australia, England, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe - competed in the Championships. Canada and the Netherlands took the numbers up to ten countries. In 2000, the number of teams had dropped to eight, as both Australia and New Zealand were unable to participate.

The ICC has since seen the need to develop cricket programmes in other areas in the world, resulting in the appearance of a team from the Americas at this upcoming U15 Tournament. The little-known truth is that the cricketing tradition in both Canada and Bermuda goes back as far as the 1930s, with keen competition between the two countries since 1958. In more recent times Canada and Bermuda have continued their rivalry in the Americas Region I Cup and the Americas Cricket Championship in which the top three finishers get direct entry into the ICC Trophy competition.

At the U-15 level Bermuda has established an excellent tradition and has won the ICC Americas Regional U15 Championship, involving Canada, the U.S.A., Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Bahamas, in both 2002 and 2004. Involvement of the Americas’ Region teams in WICB TCL U-19 competitions has provided players with valuable experience.

In 2005 the ICC introduced the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifying Series, Division 2 with eight nations competing [Cayman Islands, Fiji, Italy, Kuwait, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Qatar and Zambia] and the winner clinching a place in the ICC Trophy competition. There has also been a resurgence in junior cricket in the USA with cricket academies, schools competitions and leagues springing up in California, New Jersey and New York. This has resulted in a USA team participating in the ICC U-15 Americas Tournament in 2006.

So what are the prospects for the Americas team in the International U-15 Cricket Championships? Well they face Kenya in the first round of the knock-out matches and an unlikely victory would pit them against the home team in the semi-finals. Could the Americas team prove to be giant killers? Only time will tell.

Canadian Cricket Association has finally had its name officially changed to Cricket Canada. The board announced the move last year, but has now received approval from the Minister of Industry and the Director, Corporations Canada.

The Canadian Cricket Association will hold the 2008 National Championship from May 17 to 19 at the Maple Leaf Cricket Club near Toronto. Held on a rotational basis, this year the Ontario Cricket Association will host teams from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and the National Cricket Academy.

Click here for full itinerary.

As widely expected, the ICC executive board approved proposals to reduce the number of Associates participating at the 2011 World Cup from six to four.

This was done, so the ICC claimed, to reduce the length of an event which many considered to be too bloated in 2007 from 47 days to 38.

The ICC's 10 Full Members automatically qualify and they will be joined by the top four teams from next years World Cup Qualifiers in Dubai. As thing stands, this means that Ireland have to qualify for a tournament they reached the Super Sixes at last time, while Zimbabwe, who are below them in the official ICC One-Day Rankings, do not.

Alternative proposals, including one which would have involved a pre-qualifying tournament featuring the top six Associates as well as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, were earlier rejected by the ICC's chief executives committee.

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

Click here for the full story.

The National Coach, Pubudu Dassanayake, has announced the other members of his coaching team consisting of national level coaches. Shaun Miller who played in England at a very high level is the Deputy National Coach responsible for Western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan); Anderson Cummins, former West Indies and Canada opening bowler, will be spearheading the U19s; Farooq Kirmani who represented Canada in both the 1982 and 1986 Associates WC Qualifier in England, will be undertaking the U15s; George Codrington who played for Barbados U19 and recently represented Canada at CWC in the West Indies, will undertake the women’s program; and Geoffrey Crosse will resume his role as Technical Analyst.

Tony Cozier is, rightly, one of the most respected journalists in the game. His work to cover and promote cricket in the Caribbean has been unstinting for almost four decades. And yet even the best writers have off days, and his attack on the way that the ICC funds the Intercontinental Cup, the first-class competition for the Associates, is one of those.

Cozier's outburst in his Caribbean-syndicated column at the weekend in effect concluded that rather than waste money on Associate tournaments it would be better spent on aiding West Indies, a “well-established member with a great tradition presently fallen on hard times”.

Cozier attacked the ICC for doling out "heaven knows how much cash every year" to run the Intercontinental Cup. The overall annual cost of the tournament is actually around $400,000 on top of which the participants contribute another $120,000 between them. For that, the leading eight Associate countries get to play in a prestigious (for them) competition, to meet a variety of opponents across the world and to improve.

Yes, it has its faults and there are mismatches, but the same could be said for any competition or series involving the Full Members. When was the last time Bangladesh or Zimbabwe or, dare it be said, West Indies played in a gripping contest as opposed to occasional one-off successes. As seen at the World Cup, the gulf between the have and have-nots on the field may be large but it is nothing like as vast as the chasm between their respective funding.

The leading Associates survive on grants of under half a million dollars a year; some, such as Kenya and Scotland, earn more through winning tournaments such as the World Cricket League which entitles them to ICC World Twenty20 participation money. The Full Members receive twenty times more. Zimbabwe, for example, coined in almost $11 million from the World Cup, and yet they struggle to hold their own with several Associates. What is more, the Full Members almost all have bloated payrolls; the Associates rely almost entirely on goodwill of hard-working administrators who often end up digging deep into their own pockets to keep things ticking over.

What Cozier seems to overlook is that the ICC should not be about looking after the big boys and forget the rest, although as the major boards become more money-obsessed by the month it may go that way. It has a responsibility to nurture and support the game in areas away from the traditional bedrocks. That is done through a myriad of tournaments, coaching clinics and advice. The total sum spent on Associates is under 25% of the ICC's overall budget. To scrap that would be akin to pulling up the drawbridge, hoping that the game survives among the existing ten Full Members, and hang the rest. No other sport would consider such a short-sighted policy, and neither should cricket.

Then there is the additional income that Full Members can earn through the very fact they play each other so often. Sponsorship and TV deals bring in tens of millions on top of the ICC funding. Although the WICB has never revealed the value of the original deal with Digicel, it is believed to be worth more than $20 million for five years. The England board's four-year TV deal with BSkyB was worth in excess of $400 million, the Indian board's own deals even more. They should be awash with cash.

Associates cannot attract funding worth even 5% of that as they play precious few big matches, a fact not helped by the continuing reluctance of most Full Members to play them. The big boys prefer to pack their schedules with ever longer one-day series against the same old - more lucrative - opposition. Television and sponsorship deals for Associates, if they ever get them, are for peanuts.

Cozier also argues that the Intercontinental Cup is not worthwhile as sides cannot always field their full sides as players cannot get time off work. It is a problem, and one everyone is aware of. But that ignores the fact that the bulk of players are prepared to make remarkable sacrifices to represent their countries. With more funding, and not with less, those players can be rewarded for their cricket skills and so availability will improve. As an aside, it is worth remembering West Indies couldn't find 15 players to represent their A team in Zimbabwe last July.

To argue that the woes of the West Indies could be cured by diverting cash from Associates to the Caribbean simply doesn't add up. Those who have witnessed the antics of a succession of West Indies boards might counter that to pour money into the region would be akin to chucking it onto a bonfire. In the last decade the WICB has run up debts running into tens of millions of dollars. It has failed to handle sponsors or players remotely adequately and needed the income from a (poorly run) World Cup to bail it out. That the game in the Caribbean is in need of help is beyond question. But it is in even more need of some broad-minded and competent leadership. Julian Hunte, the new WICB chairman, might be such a man but he has a daunting job ahead of him.

This is not a call for more money to be poured into Associate cricket, but there has to be some kind of reality check before those looking to establish and build the game are asked to tighten their belts even more because a Full Member is down to its last few dozen administrators.

Tony Cozier, the veteran Caribbean journalist and broadcaster, has launched a scathing attack on the way the ICC funds global cricket outside the Test-playing countries.

Writing in his column which is syndicated throughout the Caribbean, Cozier was angry at the way that established regions, such as West Indies, were not allocated more money instead of so much being spent by the ICC on Associate competitions.

“Certainly there is no ICC venture more illogical or costly than the one dubbed the Inter-Continental Cup,” he wrote. “It is an annual tournament, described by the ICC as its ‘flagship first-class competition’, comprising round-robin, four-day matches between its second tier members, those one below Test status. These are countries where the game has always been based on amateur, weekend, one-day club cricket. They play no four-day domestic matches and almost certainly never will.

“Yet the ICC doles out heaven knows how much cash every year to fly them, and their own entourage of officials, across the world and to house and feed them at venues as scattered as Aberdeen, Dublin, Namibia, Toronto, Sharjah and Windhoek.

“Canada were unable to raise their strongest team for the African tour because many of their best players simply could not get time off from their jobs. The same problem affects others, rendering the tournament even less relevant.”

The ICC maintains that the competition enables players from Associate countries to gain more experience in the longer form of the game.

Namibia have beaten Canada by eight wickets in their Intercontinental Cup match at Windhoek. Click here for the bulletin and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Canada's recently appointed chief executive, Atul Ahuja, will be taking inspiration from his country's high profile sports such as ice hockey in a bid to increase the level of professionalism of cricket.

Ahuja, an Indian-born Canadian citizen with extensive business experience, takes up the role on November 1 and is confident that the shorter format of the game, in particular Twenty20, will prove popular in Canada.

"Cricket holds a huge potential in Canada that needs to be tapped," he told The Economic Times in India. "Typically, for the North American demographics the five-day test match version of the game is somewhat boring. Canada and the US are largely non-cricket playing nations and the psyche of sports lovers is not attuned to a game that goes on for five days."

Read the full story at Cricinfo.

By Eddie Norfolk

Heartlake Cricket Club won the Etobicoke and District League's Premier Division with a five-wicket win against Elmbank. Elmbank won the toss and decided to bat, but the innings never got into gear. A few defiant shots near the end took the total to 122, with Enos Charles taking 3 for 28.

Brampton-based Heartlake's innings was based on a solid 50 from opening batsman Eddie Williams and victory came with 23 overs to spare.

Young Titans beat Cosmos on the adjacent field at Etobicoke's Centennial Park to win the First Division.

By Eddie Norfolk

Adastrians retained the Quebec Cricket Federation Championship on Saturday by beating Pak-Can by 98 runs at Raymond Park, La Salle, Montreal.

Adastrians batted first but lost early wickets, struggling to 44 for 4. But they recovered to make a potentially assailable 227, but Pak-Can came up way short, dismissed for 129.

Canadian international Qaiser Ali starred with a century, mostly made during a pivotal fifth-wicket partnership of 136 runs with Ahmer Sultan. Sultan was bowled one short of a half-century. Vinod Takar pitched in with a useful unbeaten 34.

Pak-Can's innings began brightly with attacking shots from both openers but their 35-run stand eventually proved to be the pinnacle of the team's batting fortunes. The side at least showed promise against an experienced side that had been in devastating form with the bat as the Quebec season concluded.

Howard Petrook has resigned as the vice-president of the Canadian cricket Association and the high performance manager with effect from the end of September for personal reasons.

By Eddie Norfolk

Brampton Masters captured the Toronto and District Cricket Association Premier Championship with a powerful 164-run win over Toronto CC.  Opening batsman Albert Gopie (5), Brent Lezama (53) and their Canadian international Henry Osinde (5 wickets for 21 runs) spearheaded this success. 
 

Cowichan strode to the Victoria and District Cricket Association (Vancouver Island, British Columbia) title with a seven-wicket win over Albion. Daniel Vann hit an undefeated 127 in the play-off final, after making 79 not out in the semi-final against Colts. Vann’s innings included 17 fours and eight sixes.

Millwoods took the Edmonton and District Cricket League (Alberta) Premier Play-off final with a 108-run win against regular-season leaders Victoria Park.

All three finals took place on Sunday September 16, after semi-finals the previous day. Cricket action continues in several leagues and associations across the country this coming weekend.

The Cowichan-Meraloma Tomlin Cup match to decide the British Columbia provincial cricket champions, originally due for this Saturday, September 22 has been postponed to May 2008.

Toronto CC and Brampton Masters will contest the Premier Championship of the Toronto and District Cricket Association on Sunday (September 16) at Maple Leaf Cricket Club, King City. In Saturday's semi-final matches, played on a cold and blustery day in King City, Toronto beat Yorkshire CC by 35 runs and Masters beat Vikings by six wickets.

Kenya have two players in the running for the ICC Associate ODI Player of the Year award. Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo have been shortlisted for the new category. Canada's Ashish Bagai and Ryan ten Doeschate, of Netherlands, are the other players vying for the prize.

The talented Tikolo was in consistent form – his highlight a fifty against England in the World Cup - while Odoyo delivered with both bat and ball.
 
Ten Doeschate hit an unbeaten century in the World Cricket League, and added a hatful of wickets. At the World Cup which followed he struck two fifties in three matches including one against South Africa.

Bagai was a member of Canada's World Cup teams in 2003 and 2007. He came to prominence this winter with two centuries at the World Cricket League, where he was named Player of the Tournament, ahead of the World Cup.

The first ICC Awards were held four years ago, but this is the first time there will be an Associate Player of the Year. The winner will be named in Johannesburg, South Africa, on September 10 as teams gather for the initial ICC World Twenty20 championship.

Click here for the shortlists for all of the awards.

	Trinidad and Tobago's explosive talent, Amanda Samaroo © ICC

Canada’s women have given their country some joy, with victory in the first ICC Americas Women’s Championship, held in Canada. They overhauled Bermuda by five wickets in the deciding victory.

Bermuda, though, have the consolation of a place at the World Cup qualifiers in Lahore in November. Argentina sank to three defeats in three, but will take some positives – and have two players competing for a place in the ICC Americas XI who take on Trinidad & Tobago Under-17 on Friday.

T&T have been the outstanding side of this tournament – their latest victory a huge victory against Argentina – but they were not eligible for the title. Nevertheless, it has been excellent experience for them. And they appear to have a rising star in their ranks – the batsman Amanda Samaroo, whose highlight was a superb unbeaten 128, off only 125 balls.

Click here for more.

Openers Ruvindu Gunasekera and Terryn Fray stroked centuries of contrasting styles and offspinner Pratik Patel captured a remarkable 7 for 3 as Canada and Bermuda maintained their winning streak in the five-team round-robin Americas Under-19 World Cup Qualifier in Toronto on Wednesday.

Canada and Bermuda lived up to their pre-tournament favourites' tag by scoring convincing victories in their Americas Under-19 Qualifiers in Toronto on Tuesday. Canada beat Argentina by nine wickets while Bermuda won their second match in a row by beating Cayman Islands by seven wickets.

Click here for the full report ...

Barry Ganese hit the cricketing maximum on Friday (August 10), powering his was to six sixes in one over of six balls. Ganese was playing for Toronto and District Premier club Overseas against the touring Trinidad and Tobago club side Powergen at Maple Leaf CC, King City, Ontario. He continued to score freely and took his side to victory with an individual score of 80 runs not out from a mere 30 balls.

“I've had close encounters before with four and five sixes in an over, but this was the first time for six sixes,” he said. “It was a big thrill out there. It was especially good to have family and friends - a lot of friends - around to see it.” He admitted that a few of his ten sixes were mishits.

Canada face a stiff challenge from Bermuda in their bid to return to the Under-19 World Cup when the five-team round-robin Americas U-19 Qualifier begins at Mapleleaf CC, King City in Toronto on Monday (August 13).

Argentina, Caymans Islands and debutants Bahamas are the other teams taking part in the week-long competition. The winner will join the ICC’s 10 Full Members, hosts Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Ireland (who recently qualified from the East-Asia Pacific and European Regions respectively) at the 16-team U-19 World Cup to be played in Malaysia next February. Canada missed the 2006 event in Sri Lanka but participated in the 2002 and 2004 tournaments.

Familiar home conditions, an improving infrastructure and more international exposure helps Canada to start as firm favourites and coach Courtney Gonsalves is optimistic that his players are ready for the event. “All the players attended the elite programme we started last October in which we set up talent hunt and training camps throughout Canada,” he said. “Our goal is to qualify for next year’s U-19 World Cup and I am sure that the combination of this elite programme along with exposure in the premier division will help us achieve our target.”

However, Canada are likely to be tested by Bermuda who have been bolstered by the inclusion of allrounders Malachi Jones and Stefan Kelly, who played in the recent full World Cup, while the youngsters' captain Rodney Trott narrowly missed the event. The trio will rejoin the senior Bermuda team for the match against Ireland in the ICC Intercontinental Cup after completing the Toronto assignment.

Bermuda coach Arnold Manders believes his team’s hopes of earning a finals berth are better than ever. “I think our chances of winning are greater than previous years because we have played more matches as a team and the players are confident in their individual roles.”

Bermuda prepared for the tournament by playing eight domestic 50-overs-a-side competition matches between May and June besides participating in the Sir Garfield Sobers Cricket Tournament in Barbados which was also used as a training camp for the Americas U-19 Qualifier.

“We have worked tirelessly on the team concept, and the individual discipline of the players have really improved. Our team this year is mentally stronger [than previously] and combined with the intense training the players received from the coaches, this should result in a good team combination. The players have the knowledge and now they need to produce.”

For Argentina, it will be their first appearance in this event as an ICC Associate Member. They have previously struggled at the junior level but it would be dangerous to discount them, particularly after the senior team’s heroics in Darwin in June where they earned promotion to the World Cricket League Division 2 by qualifying for the final of the Division 3 tournament.

Middle-order batsman Pedro Bruno, left-arm seam bowler Santiago Irigoyen and allrounders Ignacio Redruello and Tomas Birnie were part of that successful campaign in Darwin, but instead of making big predictions, coach Hamish Barton has set his sights on winning at least once in Toronto. “Basically our main goal is to win one game. We feel this is a realistic goal for the Argentine team considering the team’s past performances and the stage of its development.”

Barton said the sport is still in the embryonic stage in Argentina and the team has prepared as best it can in the tough winter season. “The players are very much in the development stage and we are aiming to do the basics right and achieve our specific goals for each skill area, the experience and exposure to international cricket.

“The team has prepared as best it could as it is winter in Argentina at the moment and training has been extremely difficult at times. But the team has trained well and the development of the players over the last three months has been very pleasing.”

Caymans Islands have always been very competitive at youth level and nobody is expecting them to be far behind this time. Captain Ramon Sealy, along with top-order batsman Darren Cato and bowler Kervin Ebanks, have played in the Caymans Islands domestic Division 1 tournament for the last two years.

Sealy sees batting as his team’s strength. “I think the team has a good chance of winning because we have a strong batting line-up which is not only capable of setting high totals but chasing them as well.”

Bahamas are the only Affiliate Member in the group and are fielding a team for the first time. The senior team will participate in next year’s ICC World Cricket League Division 5 to be played in Jersey in May.

Bahamas captain Gregory Taylor hopes that the Americas U-19 Qualifier will help his country’s bid towards earning ICC’s Associate Membership. He said: “We hope to achieve recognition as an Affiliate power house and to show the ICC and the world that we are ready to become an Associate Member of the ICC. Two years ago we did not have a full U-19 team, but we worked hard under the guidance of coach John Welch to achieve this. Jonathan Barry, Jeremy Jesubatham, Rodrick Mitchel and I came up in the U-15 program from 2001 and have played a lot of cricket with the seniors.”

The United States of America, who took part in their first U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2006 are missing this time as the USA Cricket Association is currently suspended as an ICC Member.

Argentina Juan Tomas Birnie (capt), Alejo Tissera, Augusto Mustafa, Facundo Duggan, Hernan Fennell, Horacio Esperon, Ignacio Fermani, Ignacio Redruello, Juan Pablo Bordacahar, Pablo Siracusa, Pedro Bruno, Ramiro Rodriguez Delgado, Santiago Iritxity Irigoyen, Santiago Paez Nicoletti.

Bahamas Gregory Taylor (capt), Adrian Dean, Ambry Moss, Anwar Sawyer, Corie Frazer, Franz Taylor, Fritz Stubbs, Jeremy Jesubatham, Jermaine Adderley, Jonathan Barry, LaSalle Thompson, Marc Taylor, Rodrick Mitchel, Rudolph Fox.

Bermuda Rodney Trott (capt), Christopher Douglas, Dennico Hollis, Greg Maybury, Hodsoll Kyle, Jordan De Silva, Khiry Furbert, Lamar Richardson, Malachi Jones, Marico Bassett, Stefan Kelly, Steven Bremar Jr, Tamauri Tucker, Terryne Fray.

Canada Abishek Krisnamoorthy (capt), Chris Monohar (vice-captain), Arsalan Qadir, Asif Manjra, Hasan Raza Zaidi, Jaskeerat Singh Kalon, Kevin James, Khushal Gangopadhyay, Majid Usman, Pratik Patel, Riayzkhan Pathan, Rustum Bhatti, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Usman Iqubal.

Cayman Islands Ramon Sealy (capt), Corey Cato, Dale Parker, Darado Thompson, Darren Cato, Earl Hart, Kervin Ebanks, Patrick McConvey, Robert Hewitt, Sacha DeAlwis, Shane Cato, Vincent Ebanks, Zachary McLaughlin.

Canada cricket comes under fire in the Toronto Star. Faraz Sawat considers the way forward for the board, which is at a crossroads, and turns his attentions to the CEO, Ben Sennik.

Sennik aims high – maybe too high. The CCA president has invited scepticism by among other things, his oft-repeated objective of Canada acquiring Test status in 10 years. Leaving aside matters of inadequate infrastructure, this is quite rich coming from a governing body that is dirt poor and struggles to pay its players or secure sponsorship.

By Eddie Norfolk

Irfan Rabbani scored 304 from a 50-over total of 438 for 5 to help his Appolo team romped to a 227-run win over United XI in Toronto's First Division last weekend. This is the highest individual score in Canadian domestic cricket, overhauling the 280 scored by Canadian international player Don Maxwell when with York University.

Rabbani hit 48 boundaries and six sixes. He took part in stands of 120 for the second wicket, 155 for the third and 118 for the fourth. Naveed Tariq was next highest scorer with 57 runs. Rabbani was eventually bowled by Khayan Raja.

This feat is timely, as the fallen record comes on the eve of the second Canadian Colleges and Universities cricket tournament. This year's event has a 20/20 format and includes ten teams, who will be playing at Maple Leaf CC, King City, Ontario between Monday July 16 and Friday July 20.

Guyan visited Scarborough, in Ontario, last Sunday to play a team of Canadian Guyanese in the Celebrity Cricket match. The game, won by Guyana, was part of the Guyana Festival weekend to celebrate Guyanese independence.

The Canadian side made 143 for 8. Aftab Shamshuddeem, who is in the Canada squad to face UAE next month, topscored with 32 as the Canadians put on 143 for 8. Two more Canadian internationals, Sunil Dhaniram and Abdool Samad, also played for the side.

Guyana won easily, by seven wickets, with Sewnarine Chattergoon making 30 and wicketkeeper Darwin Christian 38 before both retired. The Guyanese Consul General to Canada presented the main trophy.

Canada have announced their home fixtures this summer. They have two Intercontinental Cup matches. Firstly, they will face Netherlands from June 28 to July 1, then UAE in a a game starting on July 6.

Two ODIs against Netherlands will be held in between, on July 3 and 4, the same dates as when Canada A are playing UAE in two warm-up ODIs. It’s not ideal to have both Canada A and the full team are playing over the long weekend, but this was somewhat unavoidable, as the UAE having to change their schedule to cope with other ODI requirements. Those changes caused a conflict in Canada with the games which had already been scheduled with Holland.

Ontario will then play UAE in a one-dayer on July 11.

If you are in Leicester this week, then head down to Grace Road to catch the Intercontinental Cup final – for free. That’s right. It’s your chance to see Canada (including John Davison) take on the reigning champions and World Cup heroes Ireland. The four-day match kicks off on Tuesday 22.

Canada will head to England on Tuesday to prepare for the ICC Intercontinental Cup Final against Ireland, at Grace Road, Leicester. The four-day match starts on May 22. The Canadians, many of whom have not played for nearly two months since their last World Cup match on March 22, will have a warm-up against an England select XI at Loughborough Town. That two-day game takes place on Thursday and Friday this week.

In Canada itself, the domestic cricket season started on May 12 for two of the leagues in Greater Toronto. Premier Divisions of both the Etobicoke and District League, and the Canadian Commonwealth Cricket Association of Toronto had their first matches, but the largest league kicks off this Saturday.

The Toronto and District Cricket Association gets underway this week, while players in the Scarborough Cricket Association will have to wait for their first matches on May 26.

- The City of Toronto's exhibition "A view from the Pavilion: South Asian Contributions to the World of Cricket" is at Toronto City Hall this week. Later it will move to Etobicoke Civic Centre (June 4-6), North York Civic Centre (June 11-13) and finally Scarborough Civic Centre (June 18-22).

Ian Billcliff has become the second Canada player to withdraw from the Intercontinental Cup final against Ireland. He was unable to obtain leave from his job, and will be replaced by Sundeep Jyoti for the tie at Grace Road, Leicesteshire, which starts on May 22.

His absence is a blow – he scored a century in the the group matches. Ashish Patel also had to withdraw through work commitments and was replaced by Henry Osinde.

The fixtures for the first half of the 2007-08 Intercontinental Cup have been released by the ICC.

The tournament undergoes a change of format once again, with the group stages scrapped and a round-robin system introduced. This will mean that the eight participants play seven matches after the two-year span of the competition.

The event kicks off on June 28 when Canada, who meet Ireland in the final of the 2006-07 tournament at Leicester between May 22 and 25, meet Netherlands in Toronto.

Scotland play back-to-back matches against Ireland and Netherlands at the start of August, while Bermuda will be in Europe to take on the same opponents at the end of the month.

The schedule shows that Bermuda are the busiest country in 2007 with four matches, all away from home. In addition to their European trip, they play Kenya in Nairobi at the start of November and from there go straight to the meet UAE.

Namibia, on the other hand, have only one game inked in, while Kenya have two.

Henry Osinde will replace Ashish Patel in Canada's squad for the Intercontinental Cup final against Ireland next month. Patel could not get time off work according to the CCA website.

The ICC has announced that the final of the Intercontinental Cup between Canada and Ireland will be held at Grace Road, Leicester between May 22 and 25.

The County Ground at Chelmsford had originally been earmarked to stage the game, but negotiations between Essex and the ICC broke down earlier in the month.

Martin Williamson has written an article which highlights the pressures players for Associate countries face as they compete with the budgets of the Full Members.

In expanding the game, the ICC has, rightly, offered more matches to the Associates. On top of any ODIs they can persuade Full Member countries to give them, as well as tournaments they arrange among themselves, they participate in the Intercontinental Cup, the World Cricket League and the four-yearly ICC Trophy. But that expansion has not taken into account that the players remain amateur.

The flaw in the ICC's plan is that the increased demands have not been backed by additional funding. In the year ending April 30, 2007, Scotland were scheduled to play 46 days of cricket (including warm-ups for tournaments) as a national side; the numbers for the other Associates are similar - Bermuda 45, Canada 43, Ireland 42, Kenya 37, Netherlands 24. That does include time spent preparing, travelling and acclimatising.

The direct funding they receive for that from the ICC amounts to US$215,000, of which $125,000 is not actually handed over to the boards but is retained by the ICC and used to offset other costs, such as paying for coaches and hosting training camps. Compare that with the lowest-ranked Full Member, Zimbabwe, who will receive around US$10 million with no requirement to account for how it is spent. In the same period, they had 37 days cricket scheduled. That really puts into perspective Ireland's achievement in Jamaica.

The Canadian Cricket Association has announced that both George Codrington and Anderson Cummins have announced their retirement from international cricket following the World Cup.

	Going easy on the minnows? © Getty Images

Robert Craddock, writing in The Australian, thinks he knows why.

It is understood commentators have been told by Global Cricket Corp producers that it frowns on them denigrating the minnows. However, it is deemed acceptable for commentators to call an event a mismatch but not to say some of the nations do not deserve to be in the tournament.

Some commentators who agree with the directive and feel the minnows are a necessary part of global expansion are happy to abide by it. Others, who feel the tournament has been devalued by their presence, would rather speak their mind.

And Craddock concluded by saying that some of the players themselves are aware of the real picture.

The widespread feeling that the minnows are enjoying every moment of their matches against the big boys is wide of the mark. Several Dutch players privately conceded they feel embarrassed by their team's efforts.

Keep your eyes and ears open and see if what you are watching tallies with what you are being told.

Scotland have underlined their position at the top of the ICC Associate ODI rankings after good performances in the World Cricket League in Nairobi. Kenya, who beat Scotland in the final, are not included as they are part of the main rankings until 2009.

Scotland beta Netherlands, Canada and Ireland in the tournament, giving them a 69% win rate against other Associates, well clear of Netherlands in second place. Ireland ate third after a disappointing event, Canada are fourth and Bermuda fifth.

It won't get many column inches in the mainstream cricket press, but the World Cricket League, which started in Nairobi yesterday and continues into next week, features the best of the rest, the six sides just under the ten Test-playing countries. For the two finalists, the rewards are bountiful - a place among the big boys in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa this September, along with $250,000. For countries used to surviving on annual handouts from the ICC of less than $200,000, that's big money.

With the exception of Bermuda, cricket is not a mainstream sport in any of the participants. And yet it survives, and in some instances thrives, despite the lack of attention and a relatively small number of enthusiasts.

The ICC, who do sterling work in supporting the game's second and third tiers, will rightly use the event to highlight that cricket is not just about the Indians and Australias of the world.

But there remains a nagging worry. The ICC boasts that the game is spreading across the world. But is that right? Is it taking root or is it surviving because more people from its hotbed - south-east Asia - are emigrating and keeping it alive for the duration of their careers?

In last year's Wisden Almanack, Matthew Engel raised this very issue. "Overwhelmingly, the game in non-traditional countries is played by expatriates, mostly South Asian. Journalists were kidded into believing that cricket was about to burst on China, on the basis of some warm comments by civil servants and a couple of coaching courses. I have seen not one shred of evidence to back this up. Are the kids playing with tapeballs on the streets of Shanghai? Are they heck!"

Take Canada. Of the squad in Nairobi at the moment, only three were born in the country, and two of those are over 35. Of the rest, five come from the Caribbean, four from India and each from Pakistan and Uganda. Whereas other Associates have a smattering of expats, Canada are utterly reliant on them.

Engel's comment attracted fierce criticism from those who either argued that England had more than their share of "imports" or that the game only spread in Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Caribbean through expats playing it in the first place.

The worry in some countries is that rather the game is not being continued by the second and third generations but is only being maintained by a steady flow of new immigrants

The worry in some countries - and again I come back to Canada - is that rather the game is not being continued by the second and third generations but is only being maintained by a steady flow of new immigrants. Canada's cricket heritage is rich but there is little sign that it has been built on. This is best underlined by the selection of former West Indies international Anderson Cummins. Forty years old and without a major match to his name since 1995-96, he made his debut in Mombasa last week. What message does that send out about the strength in depth of cricket in Canada?

It's not just Canada. Look at the USA, whose 2004 Champions Trophy side was a collection of ageing expats whose performances verged on the disgraceful. And the UAE, which is almost entirely dependant on its ex-pat workforce to keep the game alive.

Cricket's expansion should not be about filling teams with expats and expecting the locals to get excited about it. The only way cricket can gain a foothold in emerging countries is by actually getting the indigenous population to embrace the game, and two excellent examples where this is happening are Nepal and Uganda.

Anderson Cummins of Barbados, West Inbies ... and now Canada © Eddie Norfolk

Cricket is in trouble in its traditional homes in Africa - Zimbabwe are hell-bent on destruction and South Africa seems to be falling out of love with the game. So efforts should be made in Uganda . And in Asia, which everyone accepts is the game's stronghold, a side like Nepal should really be given the leg up. It's about targeting rather than a scattergun approach.

In fairness to the ICC, they have a tough time and a lot of countries scrambling for a share of the spoils. It's about weeding out the weak and really looking to grow the game in areas where it has the best chance of taking root. It's an almost impossible ask. Look at the repeated failure of American Football to crack Europe ... and if football itself still battles for acceptance outside expats and schools in the USA, then the size of the ICC's task becomes clear.

Of course expats have a key role to play in expansion. But if the game is basically played by them, is it the game spreading or is it more about diehards clinging to the traditions of their homelands? In the UK there are baseball and American football sides, but they are almost all expat Americans and so few would seriously claim the games have taken hold. However, basketball and ice hockey are widely played by locals, boosted by some imported players and expats, and, crucially, the national side can stand on its own two feet. That's the difference.

A very interesting article in Kenya’s Standard about Henry Osinde. Born and raised in Uganda, he is back in neighbouring Kenya this week to play in the World Cricket League. But he has turned his back on Uganda and is now a member of the multinational Canadian side.

Without a touch of irony, he said that "Uganda cricket has a good development programme, but the problem is to get it to next level." He added, with another turn of the knife, that he had no plans to visit to offer any support.

Contrary to reports at the weekend, it is highly unlikely that a planned one-day series between India and Australia in North America will be able to include matches in the USA. At present, there are no venues in the country approved by the ICC to host a one-day international. In fact, there are none even close to being recognised.

While Canada might conceivably host a few games at the quaintly named Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, the failure of Project USA - which was intended to develop the US market - has set the game back in the continent at least until 2008.

A new deal between the largely dysfunctional USA Cricket Association, whose utter inability to run the game led to its suspension by the ICC, and a marketing company called Centrex should give cricket in the USA a commercial stability hitherto absent. But it won't happen in time for this series.

To many - mainly the marketing men who so dominate the way cricket is run - the USA remains the untapped Holy Grail. Crack that, so the thinking goes, and the rewards are almost unlimited. Millions of dollars of income - up to $6 million per game for up to seven matches - was touted as a likely reward for the venture. Up to 10 million first-generation Asians make for a lucrative market, even if the average American doesn't care one jot for the game.

There are three main centres in the USA - New York , Florida and California. The speculation over the Australia-India series centred on New York, but there is not a venue there that could host a match. There was talk that an NFL stadium might be used, but that shows the lack of credibility of the reports. The major NFL stadiums are astroturf, and even if the organisers laid an artificial wicket, such a surface would not be approved for an ODI. There is one other minor detail. NFL pitches are far too narrow.

That leaves baseball grounds, and only one - the Mets' Shea Stadium - could conceivably be used. However, the cricket season in New York runs slap bang in the middle of the baseball season, so that's not an option. And drop-in-pitches are not a short-term solution as there are strict rules about transportation of soil and grass across state lines. The raw materials available in New York are just not good enough.

With that in mind, California has been earmarked as the ideal centre for the game, with the right climate and good soil. In the short-term, the venue at Burbank is the nearest to being ready. There are two grounds in Florida - at Fort Lauderdale and Broward County - but neither has pitches nearly good enough for international matches. The grass pitches they have crumble too easily. One expert told Cricinfo that soil with the right amount of clay needed to be imported, probably from Georgia, and that meant a mountain of red tape to be overcome before the project could even start.

When Andy Atkinson, the ICC's pitches guru, was consulted by the bosses of Project USA, he estimated that with the right soil and the will, a pitch could be laid and ready in around eight or nine months. Australia and India's commitments mean that the only spare dates for a North American series is June, and there is no way on earth that any grounds in the USA could be ready by then. As the flamboyant boxing promoter Don King loves to say: "it's got two chances ... slim and none, and slim just left town."

That leaves the one ICC-approved venue in Toronto, which hosted several one-day series in the late 1990s. It offers a foothold on North American soil, but a long series there would have limited appeal, and it's the USA not Canada that whets the two boards' appetites. In terms of TV coverage, they might as well play in some more established neutral centres such as Kuala Lumpur or Sharjah.

An interesting article in the Montreal Gazette on immigrants in Canada who are spreading the cricket gospel. But this raises a bigger question … if the game is played predominantly by first-generation expats, can it be said that game is growing?

Since beating higher-ranked Bangladesh at the last World Cup in South Africa in 2003, Canada has stepped up recruitment of immigrants like him, as well as Canadians living abroad, to play on the team.

And with organizers spending more money on the sport - paying for cricket classes in high schools and colleges, building indoor arenas in Ontario and investing in such specialized training equipment as automatic bowling machines - the future of Canadian cricket looks bright.

Martin Williamson looks at what message is being sent to the Associates by the ICC deciding to appoint Darrell Hair to officiate in their tournament ... and do the ICC even know where they stand.

So Darrell Hair has been appointed to stand in the triangular one-day series in Mombasa next week, the first time he will don the white coat since that gloomy Sunday afternoon at The Oval in August when his world turned on its head.

The announcement - which caught the ICC on the hop as it only intended to release the news on Sunday - caused, inevitably, a flurry of media comment. Some were surprised that Hair was still an umpire, so intense was the criticism of him between the Oval Test and the ICC's decision to bar him from standing in major matches which followed in November.

There are two sides to this. The first is that this is actually a really good move. Hair, for all his stubbornness, was, up to four months ago, one of the top officials in the game, a fact underlined by the ICC's own internal rankings which placed him second only to Simon Taufel. There is no doubt that in Kenya his presence will benefit sides who will for the first time play in a game with such a senior official.

Hair himself will receive a warm welcome. Mombasa Sports Club, which is the home ground of Samir Inamdar, Cricket Kenya's chairman, is a delightful venue and the people there go out of their way to make all visitors feel at home. A few overseas reporters may make their way to the coastal town, but by and large he should enjoy his trip.

But there have to be questions asked of senior ICC officials as to what has changed in the last two months? In November, Percy Sonn, the ICC's president who has a habit of speaking before necessarily thinking, said that the ICC executive board had "come to the conclusion that they've lost confidence in Mr Hair". While Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, has always said he hoped to find a way to keep Hair in the game, he too admitted that the decision was right. Most of those close to the decision-making process left Dubai believing that Hair would not stand in any international match again.

As an umpire, Hair clearly is good enough. So why can he stand here and not in more important matches?
If Hair was not deemed fit by the ICC to umpire then - and the key here is that nobody questioned his decision-making ability - what has changed? The ICC have spent today vociferously stressing that the ban was for Full Member matches only. But surely, either he is fit or he is not.

Perhaps even they don't actually know what they agreed or the best way forward. When Sonn was asked at the November meeting to clarify details regarding Hair's future, he refused, and when pressed snapped at reporters: "You are free to leave if you want. We are not giving any more details." Perhaps Percy was not exactly on message, or perhaps he was as confused as the rest of us.

The Mombasa tournament involves three of the six leading Associates, all of whom will be playing in the World Cup. These are among the best of the rest, and the matches are accorded full ODI status by the ICC. In effect, there is a danger that people will interpret this as the ICC saying that they have no faith in Hair but that the Associates aren't really that important.

This is a unique situation. The ICC could argue with any other official - including Hair's two colleagues also standing in Mombasa - that they were not quite good enough to make the transition from this level to the Elite. But that's not an issue or an excuse here. As an umpire, Hair clearly is good enough. So why can he stand here and not in more important matches? As with every aspect of this sorry episode, the ICC has failed to be clear or transparent in its handling and once more we can expect more smokescreens and sidestepping.

And so, while the Associates ponder just how important they are to the ICC, Hair, who arrives in Mombasa on Monday, is left yet again to face the media on his own. It's something he has become used to in recent months.

Should Canada reach the final of the World Cricket League - to be held in Nairobi at the end of this month - thus qualifying them for the Twenty 20 World Cup in September, each player will receive a bonus of USD$5,000. More info can be found at their web site.

In an open letter to Cricinfo, Ben Sennik, the president of the Canadian Cricket Association, has hit back at recent critcisms of the board and him personally.

would imagine in common with most national cricketing bodies operating under the ICC umbrella, the Canadian Cricket Association (CCA) prefers to avoid conducting its business via the media. In the case of the CCA, we avoid doing so simply out of a desire not to bore cricket fans around the globe with the myriad of background situations and challenges which confront any national cricket organization.

However, due to the litany of aggressive commentary appearing on the Cricinfo website in recent months about the CCA, I feel compelled to offer some defence. I do so not out of any need for personal gratification, but rather as recognition of the on-going support of Canada's Provincial Cricket Associations and the thousands of players across the country.

I refer specifically to four articles:

i) Commentary about the CCA president being "eccentric" and the CCA "shooting itself in the foot" for severing the relationship with a person appointed to the portfolio of Marketing and Communication. The article was written by that same person.

ii) Criticism of the CCA's marketing, merchandising and promotional activities.

iii) Criticism of the CCA's selection procedures.

iv) Article entitled "The blinkered world of the Canadian Cricket Association".

Cricinfo has done a stellar job as one of the primary sources for cricket information internationally (including, I believe, winning internet media industry awards). The CCA respects Cricinfo's right as a media vehicle to present its views and opinions. However, we believe that that right is accompanied by a responsibility to ensure unbiased content.

Despite the fact that the four articles have a common thread, I will spare your readers a tiresome (but easy) point-by-point rebuttal. Instead, I concentrate on what the CCA has achieved in recent years.

1. Financial
In the 2005-2006 financial year, and for the first time in over a decade, the CCA has succeeded in recording a small operating surplus. It has also substantially reduced the debt load inherited from a previous administration. For the third year in succession, the CCA has completed a Canadian finance industry-approved audit. We are pleased to have joined the select group of national cricket bodies operating within ICC which can claim such a sound financial standing. We are confident that ICC, and other cricketing nations, appreciate such fiscal prudence.

2. Facilities
The CCA has recently succeeded in adding a second ICC-approved ODI ground (Maple Leaf CC, near Toronto). As such, Canada is the only country in the Americas with such facilities. We take only small pride in that latter point: we would like to work with other recognised cricket bodies in the Americas to lift their facilities to similar levels.

3. Sponsorship
Cricket is far from being a major sport in Canadian sponsorship circles. Nevertheless, the rapidly changing demographics in the country are making it more attractive to companies which are committed to an ethnic marketing approach. The CCA has recently attracted five corporate sponsors and has had lengthy discussions with companies in areas such as financial services, the automotive sector and both print and electronic media. Canada is far from alone among ICC Associate Member countries in facing sponsorship challenges. However, we continue to confront those challenges - with some successes.

4. Government Support
Governments represent a further - and important - area of financial support (a measure of that importance is the favourable situation for Bermudan cricket with the recent injection of US$11 million from the national government).

The CCA was pleased to work with the provincial Ontario government to help secure a recent grant of Can $1 million for cricket in Ontario, Canada's largest cricketing region. We are also in discussions with the Canadian federal government to secure long-term support for the sport. Quite rightly, the government requires the sport's organizing body to be on a sound financial footing (now proven). It also requires the CCA to offer support to all groups including recent and previous immigrants, Canadians of aboriginal descent and to both female and male cricketers (all, either done or in the process of being done).

5. The Playing Side
Canada remains the only Associate Member country to have qualified for three World Cups. The ICC High Performance Program is ensuring that the top stratum of Associate Member cricket is becoming more and more competitive. We are dedicated to maintaining Canada's position in that stratum. This is evidenced by the fact that Canada will be playing in the Intercontinental Cup final in 2007, following victories in four-day games over Kenya and Bermuda.

6. More On The Playing Side
The availability of two ICC-approved grounds in Toronto is attracting the attention of the Boards of Control of ICC Full Member countries. We have had extensive discussions with several countries about playing bilateral or tri-series in Toronto, both in the 50-over format and Twenty20 (as an aside, the Twenty20 form may well prove particularly suited to the North American market which is accustomed to three-hour baseball games). Again, it would be imprudent to make public such discussions prior to their finalisation.

All of these points which I outline were made formally at the 2006 CCA AGM - a meeting which was open to, and attended by, representatives of the media.

If all of the above represents "eccentricity" and "a blinkered world", then I as CCA president and the CCA as a body stand guilty. I would respectfully suggest, however, that this is far from being the case.

Canada lost a warm-up one-day match against TUCS (the University of Pretoria) by seven wickets. Canada batted first and made 228 for 6. Openers Desmond Chumney (19) and Sandeep Jyoti (17) got the innings off to a reasonable start but the main scoring came in a fifth-wicket stand between Ashish Bagai (80 not out) and Abdool Samad (100).

Canada used several bowlers in this practice match but went down to solid batting from TUCS opener Phil Haupt (67 and No. 3 batsman Gert Lotries, who starred with 146 not out.

Canada, Bermuda and the Netherlands meet in a series of official ODI matches over the next week. Canada will then close their trip to South Africa with the final match in their ICC Intercontinental Cup group.

Eddie Norfolk

In April 2006, Eddie Norfolk joined the Canadian Cricket Association as their marketing and communication manager. A little more than two months later he was effectively ousted without reference to the main board.

It was obvious from the moment he arrived that Norfolk would be a breath of fresh air in a previously semi-secret organization. Before his arrival the CCA provided almost no information on the game, had no functioning media department, and at times even seemed hostile to attempts to give the game there a higher profile. Within weeks that had changed.

However, it seemed that Norfolk quickly rubbed senior CCA figures up the wrong way. Looking in from the outside, it is hard to see just what he did wrong. But it seems that some within the CCA would have preferred to retain a cloak of anonymity. There is also a clear suspicion that people were jealous that Norfolk was becoming more identifiable as the voice of Canadian cricket than they were.

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Victoria and District Cricket Association

The Victoria and District Cricket (VDCA) 2006 regular season comprised two pools of five teams, arranged in equal strength groups. Every team played other teams in its group twice and then once against the teams in the other group. This meant a maximum of 13 league games. Colts came top of Pool A, followed by Incogs. In Pool B Albion 1 finished top, followed by Cowichan.

The season season finished with playoff games between the top two teams from each Pool in the regular season. The play-offs were one-game semi-finals and a one game final. The top team in each pool played the second placed team from the other pool.

In one semi-final, Cowichan bowled out Colts for 89. Tanzil Rehman, with 43 runs, provided the main resistance to Cowichan’s Luke Watson who took 6 wickets for 33 runs. Rick Fletcher made 35 not out and Steve Jesperson 25 runs as Cowichan reached 90 runs for the loss of 3 wickets, to win by 7 wickets.

Incogs beat Albion I in the other semi-final which was also low scoring. Albion was all out for 93. K. Cheema 21 provided the main resistance to the highly effective bowling of Adam Price (3 for 16), Jim Wenman (3 for 20) and Mark Ely (3 for 36). Incogs were made to struggle for their runs but had the one man to make a score on the day: David White who made 45 not out. Kulvir Sidhu with 4 for 15 was the pick of the Albion bowlers.

The final was a competitive battle with the bowlers well on top. Cowichan made 102 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in their 45 overs .Dan Ferguson, 18 runs, and Steve Mayall, 16 runs, were the leading scorers. Adam Price (Incogs) took 3 wickets for 36 runs and Roger Zwicky 2 for 12. Price then made the highest individual score of the day, 27 runs as Incogs reached their winning target in 28 overs. Matt Wenman was 17 not out in Incogs total of 104 runs for 5 wickets. Luke Watson (Cowichan) had to settle for 2 wickets for 27 runs. I am told that “Incogs were good value for their win”, which comes from Howard Martin whose affiliation is with Cowichan.

A separate knock-out competition was played, won by Cowichan. They reached the final by beating Carico and Albion 1 beat Metchosin. Sadly, the final was not actually played. Albion 1 defaulted to Cowichan.

Tony Cordle, the former Glamorgan stalwart in the County Championship, is assisting the VDCA with coaching.

A couple of noteworthy achievements have been brought to my attention. Marshall Travis (Alcos) lead the Island’s batting with an average of 85. Steve Jesperson (Cowichan), bowling against Oak Bay, had figures of .9 overs, 3 maidens, 11 runs, 7 wickets. This included two hat-tricks. One came in his fourth over, the other in the sixth. Remarkably five of the six hat-trick victims were bowled. Ah, the values of bowling line and length; easy to say, harder to do.

Eddie Norfolk

British Columbia Mainland Cricket League

Salim Akbar won the playoff championships for the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League in 2006, beating Meraloma in the final. This was a reversal of the regular season positions where Meraloma topped the 7-team Premier Division and Salim Akbar second. Richmond came third and Pakcan fourth. Seattle (Washington, USA) placed last in the regular season standings.

Canadian national team players Geoff Barnett, 47 runs, and Kevin Sandher, 36 runs, were the top individual scorers for Meraloma in the Final. Bilal Khan took 4 wickets for 40 runs as Meraloma was all out for 151 runs in the 50th over.

Salim Akbar’s success was built on a number of steady contributions with the bat. They reached the winning target with almost 4 overs to spare. Jawad Dawood made 34 runs and Hasan Ali Pashar 33 runs. Haninder Dhillon, the Canadian international, was unbeaten on 32.

Eddie Norfolk

Tomalin Cup 2006
The Tomalin Cup is played annually between the champions of the British Columbia Mainland League (BCML) and the winners of the Victoria and District Cricket Association. In 2006, the Cup was played at Beacon Hill, Victoria. Salim Akbar (BCML) had a comfortable eight-wicket win over Incogs.

Andrew Maxwell provided the main resistance when a depleted Incogs side batted. Vilal took 2 for 3 and Imran finished with figures of 2 for 15. Salim Akbar reached the winning target for the loss of just two wickets.

Salim Akbar included Haninder Dhillon, the Canadian international, and players such as Manoj David and Shazad Afzul, who both played for a Canada XI against MCC in 2005. David was recently named winner of the 2006 Cliff Cox Medal, a prestigious award given to the 'best and fairest player' in the BC Mainland Cricket League. The award is decided by the votes of the umpires.

Eddie Norfolk

The Canadian Cricket Association national selectors have named their 30-man winter training squad. This pool will be used to select the playing squads for the tours to South Africa, later this year, and Kenya, early next year. These tours set the stage for next year’s Cricket World Cup in the West Indies. Accordingly, the tours focus on One-Day International matches.

The players will undergo fitness and training programs that have been prepared by National Coach Andy Pick. The nucleus of the squad is from Ontario but includes players from British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta. There is a base of veteran players and others who made their mark with the national team this summer. Six others come into the squad.

The veteran base includes players such as John Davison, Ian Billcliff and George Codrington. It also has the opening bowling pairing of Henry Osinde and Umar Bhatti, commonly regarded as the best opening bowing pair within the ICC Associates. Geoff Barnett, Abdool Samad and Jyoti.

The highlight of the Kenyan trip is the inaugural ICC World Cricket League Division 1. The participants are Kenya, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Bermuda and The Netherlands.
The South African trip includes the 4-day ICC Intercontinental Cup match with the Netherlands. Canada has an excellent chance of winning their group, which would see the team reach the final.

This announcement of the winter training squad came on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Those in the Canadian Cricket community can give thanks for Canada’s long cricketing history, but, more importantly, let’s look forward in the hope the game can realize it’s potential in this country.

Scratching the surface of the 30 man squad reveals heritage relationships with Australia, Barbados, India, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, New Zealand, Pakistan, St. Kitts, Sri Lanka and Uganda.

There is the need to ensure the rich global and sporting heritages of cricket are engendered into our youth. They, hopefully, will flower and in turn pass the candle to future generations.

Further potential exists to broaden the cultural base of Canadian cricket with initiatives to attract. During a cricket promotional event at Downsview Park on Canada Day people of many backgrounds tried out the sport. Some had English and French heritage with current sporting interests in hockey, baseball, American and Canadian Football and hockey. Bring them back to the fold!

It was easy to attract the interest of those with West Indian and Indian subcontinent heritage to join in. Possibly the highlight of the day was a lady from Bangladesh bowling to a female Korean teenager. Other participants included people of Chinese, Russian and Austrian blood. A couple from Japan, now working in Toronto, went to the Kenya Intercontinental Cup match at King City.

Young and old, men and women. Cricket – Canadian cricket - can attract them all….but it must have the will and make the effort. It needs visibility and transparency. Not just on the playing fields, but ‘Beyond the Boundary’. There’s a lot of interest and potential goodwill out there for cricket.

The future of Canadian cricket depends on the blending of well thought out, and approved, strategies and plans together with the resources to implement, or exceed, those plans. Hopes must be blended with realism.

The infrastructure of the game needs to develop. This is turn is dependent upon resources and commitment. Resource needs include both human capital and obtaining the necessary financing and sponsorships to achieve and sustain development.

Can Canadian cricket pull together and capitalize on the goodwill? I know I am not alone in hoping it can. Hope springs eternal. Realism? Time will tell.

Eddie Norfolk

Squad Desmond Chumney, Sandeep Jyoti, Pubudu Dassanayake, George Codrington , Sunil Dhaniram, Abdool Samad, Trevin Bastiampillai, Surendra Seeraj, Durand Soraine , Brian Rajadurai, Asif Mulla, Ashish Bagai, Don Maxwell, Austin Codrington, Umar Bhatti, Henry Osinde, Sanjay Thuraisingham, Anderson Cummins, Geoff Barnett, Ian Bilcliff , Haninder Dhillon, John Davison, Kevin Sandher, Steve Welsh, Qaiser Ali, Khrunalbai Patel, Naresh Patel, Abdul Jabbar Chaudrey, Orson Greaves.

Young Malton 255 (48.5 overs; Enos McDonald 90, Balaji Rao 44; Akbar Hussain 4-48) beat Canterbury 120 (33.4 overs; Tauseef Shamid 30; Puvendran Ravishankar 4-25) by 135 runs

Young Malton (Etobicoke & District League champions) beat Canterbury CC (Ottawa Valley champions) by 135 runs on Sunday October 1 in the final of the OCA Championship. The match was played at Maple Leaf CC, King City.

The Young Malton side got off to a flying start, making 97 before losing their first wicket. Enos McDonald was top scorer with 90 (6x6; 8x4) and his opening partner, Belaji Rao made 44 (3x6, 3x4). Canterbury missed several catches and probably paid dearly as the opening barrage may have ended before the score reached 30.

Azeemul Haniff (32) and Nadim Khan (33) helped keep the innings flowing. Akber Hussain took the last four Young Malton wickets; the innings ending on 255 all out in the 49th over of a possible 50.

Young Malton bowled tidily and took two early wickets but no one really dominated for Canterbury. There was a promising stand of 49 runs for their fifth wicket but the innings quickly folded after Akber Hussain was out for 25 with the score on 112.

Six runs later they lost Tauseef Shamid for 30 and the innings crumbled to 120 all out. Puvendran Ravishankar was brought on to bowl the 34th over and closed the proceedings with a hat-trick. He had Khurshad leg-before, then a brilliant left-handed catch and a stumping from wicketkeeper Pubbudu Dassanayake completed the 1-2-3.

Play-offs before the final

The championship involved the winning teams from each of the five cricket associations affiliated to the OCA taking place in a series of play-off matches.. To reach the final, Young Malton beat Yorkshire CC (Toronto & District Champions) by five wickets at Centennial Park, Etobicoke on Saturday (Sept 30). Yorkshire batted first and were all out for 163, Asif Mulla top scoring with 55. Young Malton scored 164 for 5, with Idris Gangatt making 43.

Canterbury CC beat Crescent CC (Hamilton & District Champions) and Sunrise Browne CC (Southern Ontario Champions) to reach the final in matches played in the Kitchener-Waterloo area on the previous weekend.

The Shaw Festival beat the Stratford Festival by 102 runs at Veterans Memorial Park, Niagara-on-the-Lake on Monday August 29. Jeff Irving was the star for the Shaw side, scoring 49 out of a total of 152, and then taking 4 for 13 as Stratford were bowled out for 50. Andrew Bunker also took 4 for 13, bowling throughout the Stratford innings.

The Shaw score was also indebted to Ryan de Souza (34) and Julian Mainprize (26). Stratford Festival bowlers Cubby Sadoon took 5 for 38 and Jean-Michel Legard 3 for 6.

The two festivals have been playing cricket against each other for 31 years. The match was originally going to be played on a matting wicket, but the ball did not bounce well. A strip was then mown on one of the soccer fields, used for this day as the ground and the wicket was rolled.

The scoreboard used for this game rather sadly is a leftover from the days of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Cricket Club. Scott Whitham used to be a driving force with that club but moved to the bright lights of Toronto. He told how cricket was originally played a short distance from the field used on Monday back in 1832. The minutes of the founding meeting can be traced to copies of local newspapers. Mr. Whittam would love to see the return of a permanent cricket ground on the adjacent common.

He had been present at some of the recent Canadian national team cricket internationals, particularly at Maple Leaf CC. The theatrical contingent turned out in strong numbers and gave solid support to the players.

A string quartet played during the tea interval. Details of theatrical and musical events associated with these two festivals can be found at www.shawfest.com and www.stratfordfestival.com.

The pitch was duly available by 5.30pm for the evening soccer match.

Eddie Norfolk

Bermuda won the World Cricket League Americas Division 1 Championship for the first time. Canada has two previous wins and the USA won once. Bermuda took the title thank's to Canada's ten-wicket win over the USA last Saturday. The Cayman Islands beat Argentina on Saturday and this ensured they qualify for the Global Division 3 section of the World Cricket League in 2007.

Bermuda and Canada had already qualified for the Global World Cricket League (WCL) Division 1 as a result of their rankings in the 2005 ICC Trophy in Ireland. WCL Division 1 is in Kenya in January 2007. The USA will be in WCL Global Division 3.

Bermuda ended the Americas championship with three wins and one no-result for a total of 14 points. USA were second (two wins, one loss, one no result for 10 points). Canada came third edging out Cayman Islands on net run-rate (difference betwen rate of a team scoring runs when batting, and conceding runs when bowling). Both teams had two wins and two losses. Argentina came last with five losses.

The player of the tournament was US captain Steve Massiah, who also won the batting award for his 283 runs in 4 matches. Ronald Ebanks (Cayman) took the bowling award for 10 wickets. Bermuda took the fielding prizes with Stephen Outerbridge (fielder) and Kwame Tucker (wicketkeeper) getting the honours. Regular Bermuda wicketkeeper Dean Minors had to return home due to an illness in the family.

Bermuda's batsmen can expect a touch examination of their technique in the first game of their tour of Canada, in tomorrow's ICC Intercontinental Cup match in Toronto.

After observing the pitch for himself, Bermuda skipper Irving Romaine said he believed the pitch would be fast.

“The groundsman (Lewis) said it would be very fast and I think Canada’s plan will be to attack us with pace,” Romaine said.

Tomorrow will mark the Island’s first-time involvement in an international four-day match. And in order to reap success, Romaine said his team-mates would have to quickly adjust to meet the challenges.

“Basically this is a new step for everybody and so we will really have to occupy the wicket and not make any rash shots or anything like that,” Romaine said.

“This is going to be a change of mindset for everybody because before our preparations were geared towards the 20/20 (Stanford 20/20 Tournament) which is the shortest form of the game. Yet now we are here preparing ourselves for the longest version of the game.

“We have gone through two extremes in a matter of weeks, and so we will really have to be tough mentally and dig in.”

More at the Royal Gazette

There's a fascinating article with Anderson Cummins, the former West Indies allrounder who now lives in Canada. While cricket in Canada is booming, Cummins is aware of the need to market it to the local people and not simply rely on immigrants from cricket-playing nations.

"It's important to market it appropriately so it doesn't remain something that is played primarily by the immigrant population," he said.

One rare homegrown cricketer is Zubin Surkari. His father came here in the '70s from India and Surkari, 26, got involved with the game through programs at the Toronto Cricket Club at an early age. He's been on the senior national team since he was 19.

"It's hard to get homegrown players to play at a level that is good enough, when there are people coming in from other countries where they play cricket all the time," he said. He scoffs at the notion that cricket is a slow or boring game.

More at the Toronto Sun

As Canada prepare to face Bermuda and Zimbabwe in the ICC's tri-nation tournament in Trinidad, the president of the Canadian Cricket Association has admitted to being rather jealous of the cash-rich Bermudans. And Ben Sennik has set out his vision for Canada being a Test-playing nation within a decade.

To do that, he accepts that players will need to go professional:

"We are looking at the (pro) possibility as soon as a financial base has been established. We have to get salaried players. To get to the objectives we want we have to have professional players. The first thing we have to do is set up a strong financial base."

Canada will be travelling to the Caribbean for the World Cup next year, but it will be a home from home for quite a few of a squad built aroiund ex-pats. The Stabroek News in Guyana reports on how five locals have been named in the 40-man squad.

"Thirteen of the players on the current Canadian squad were born in the West Indies and moved to Canada, or were born in Canada to West Indian parents, the Canadian team's Trinidad-born manager and senior coordinator Mike Henry pointed out. They originated in Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, and St Kitts-Nevis. At least five are from Guyana, or have a Guyanese parent."

The ICC winter training camp in South Africa is producing results ... and taunts that Canada are reliant on John Davison will be a thing of the past:

But thanks to the work put in by the four Canada players attending the 11-week residential course in Pretoria - Qaiser Ali, Umar Bhatti, Kenneth Carto and Henry Osinde - it is an accusation that could soon be put to bed for good.

Umar Bhatti, Kenneth Carto, Henry Osinde and Qaiser Ali are the four players benefiting.

Grim news at the AGM of the Canadian Cricket Association where only two members of the public turned out to watch.

What was revealed is the disconcerting impression that the Canadian Cricket Association is being directed by the ICC and it's policies, which appear to be driven by avarice and not the love of the game. (Note that the ICC has hidden away its headquarters in a 'tax haven', or should that be a tax heaven.) ... blindly following the path directed by the ICC will not necessarily mean that the average Canadian club cricketer will benefit. Without a perceived benefit, will the grass roots be interested and supportive?

Given Canada's disappointing exit from this year's Intercontinental Cup, it has been a poor few months for them.