Nova Scotia wins Canada?s Atlantic T20 Cricket Championship ? A perspective

(Eddie Norfolk, July 9th, 2012)
Nova Scotia, a one-time powerhouse of Canadian cricket lead by a strong military presence, emerged this weekend as champions in the Canadian Atlantic T20 cricket championship played on Prince Edward Island. Cricket had struggled along against the tide for several years in ?New Scotland?, but the win by an emerging group of cricket and sports enthusiasts is a step towards a broader revival in that province and in the maritime provinces.

There are similar groups working in Prince Edward Island, the hosts of this weekend?s tournament, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador of cricket enthusiasts, some longstanding but others relatively new to the domestic Canadian cricket scene. Most of the crop of talent and triers this weekend have a cricketing heritage who wish to see their sport (a) exist, then (b) grow. But some have a sporting background and find skills learned in baseball can be applied in cricket. Some of the interest comes from people, not just South Asians or West Indians, who have seen the short version of cricket through the Indian Premier League (IPL).

During a Saturday night (July 7th) get-together for all teams and officials at the tournament?s base camp for visitors, the Best Western Hotel in Charlottetown, thanks were given for the presence of the Quebec Cricket Federation Inc (La Federation Quebecoise du Cricket, Inc) in this tournament. Quebec won the 2011 Atlantic T20 tournament played on The Commons in Halifax, Nova Scotia with a record of four wins from four games.

But one year later, Quebec had already lost one game earlier in the day to Nova Scotia at the newly upgraded cricket facility in Tea Hill Park, Stratford, PEI. Things were ticking along quite nicely with Quebec but after one tyre punctured with the fall of the second wicket, the wheel and axle broke and the batting engine virtually stopped. The tide had come in across the Northumberland Strait and as the tide crested and turned, Nova Scotia?s hopes rose and the Quebec innings spluttered to 101 all out [*].
One of the visiting contingent from Montreal had ventured away from the ground and returned to wonder what tragi-comedy had taken place as his guys had ?lost nine wickets for thirteen runs.? By contrast, I had taken a short walk to the beach beyond the new cricket pavilion, walked past a few families enjoying the afternoon sun, walked past a few dead trees and seen looked back to see a lighthouse beyond the mini-headland beyond the cricket pavilion. A walk aimed at achieving a couple of tourist achievements of seeing the nearby golf course and getting a closer look at a shooting range on a headland in the opposite direction to the lighthouse.

A different perspective, or angle, if not a different light, existed in the cricket as Quebec had lost five wickets during this brief five to ten minute stroll along the beach. The innings quickly concluded, then Nova Scotia?s batsmen then seized the opportunity and won a famous victory in domestic Canadian cricket history. Quebec 101 all out; Nova Scotia 104 for three wickets. La victoire a Nouvelle Ecosse par sept guichets [ou, ?sept elimines?] ? Nova Scotia won by seven wickets. [My French text, minus, with due apologies, the French accents, follows the ICC Development Guide ?C?est Quoi le Cricket?, which carries the baseball notion of ?outs? in ?elmines?, or wickets, through ?guichets?.]

Nova Scotia ended the day with a record of three wins. A 72 run win against New Brunswick on Friday had been followed by a ten wicket win against host Prince Edward Island in mist, fog and with some thunder in the background early on Saturday morning. But the three witches did not seem to appear, even though the brindled cat had mewed more than thrice (three times, for non-readers of Shakespeare?s ?Scottish Play?, MacBeth). It apparently belted down with rain on a different part of the island, but not in Stratford. The fog came, retreated, re-emerged, stuck around with supporting thunder and a couple of spots of rain, but the sun eventually broke through.

Around the scheduled 8am start it was hard to pick out the Nova Scotia players, clad in dark blue, through the fog against the backdrop of trees behind the pavilion. The nearby red sandy beach on Northumberland Strait, and the distant coast of New Brunswick were vague memories from Friday at this early hour.

Amit Joshi lead the batting charge with 63 not out as Nova Scotia rattled along to 83 for no wicket in 7.3 overs to overhaul PEI?s 80 all out in 18.1 overs. New Brunswick made a reasonable tally of 136 for seven wickets against Quebec, who won by three wickets with four overs to spare. Deepak Pabla, a Canadian Under-19 international, struck 53 and Dalip Kirpaul holed out for 47, with scores level in the Quebec innings. But New Brunswick had made a few more runs against Quebec than on Friday against Nova Scotia, which was a sign of progress both in terms of this tournament, and in general for the New Brunswick cause.

The last match on Saturday saw a twist in the emerging order as Ashwin Gupta took four wickets for ten runs as New Brunswick struggled to 82 all out in 18.5 overs against Newfoundland and Labrador. Sentill Selvamani then scored 43 not out and captain Rakesh Negi made 23 as Newfoundland hit the victory mark in the eleventh over. A score of 84 for two wickets meant Newfoundland had recorded two wins in two matches, after an opening day victory against host PEI. A win that had matched N&L?s achievements in 2011.

Sunday morning arrived with clear skies and some pretty white clouds. A picture postcard of and peace and quiet to start a new week, although the regular taxi driving needs around PEI?s capital of Charlottetown were stretched by trips from the Best Western hotel to Tea Hill Park. A park in Stratford, across the Hillsborough River bridge. This impacted the independent traveller (me!) and some parcels that needed pick-up at the Charlottetown airport.

But local taxi capacity did not impact Ashwin Gupta?s spin, nor Nick Baxter?s left-arm fastish medium pace as Newfoundland?s opening bowler. Deepak Kirpaul scored 29 for Quebec, but wickets had fallen by the time I arrived (via the airport at no extra charge, but I doubt it will be a free ride to the airport early on Tuesday morning). But this trek to the ground saw Quebec struggle to 92 all out in 19.1 overs. Left-arm spinner Ashwin Gupta took four wickets for 15 runs in his four overs. Terre-Neuve ? new earth/new ground/Newfoundland ? might be on the move up the cricketing ranks was the thought as I left for a visit to downtown Charlottetown.

I had not envisaged a 30 to 45 minute early morning trip to Tea Hill involving seeing Quebec, nor any side, being tumbled out. On my return, Nova Scotia?s innings against Newfoundland was concluding with Amit Joshi reaching 93 not out and his team registering 169 for five wickets in 20 overs. During my absence, Newfoundland captain Rakesh Negi had lead the reply to Quebec?s 92 all out with 47 not out in a winning score of 93 for two wickets in 13.4 overs.

Was this the start of a sea change in domestic Canadian cricket? Nova Scotia 3 wins from 3 games was playing Newfoundland and Labrador who also had 3 wins from 3 games. N & L made a bright start against the Nova Scotia pace attack ? 35 for no wicket in three overs, if my notes are correct ? but the breakthrough came. Then further breakthrough. Nova Scotia was happy to use two slips and a gulley, sometimes three slips for their opening bowlers in each match. A positive approach on a fast outfield. Negi made 29 at the top of the order, but N & L hopes seemed to have faded, if not sunk, when Ashwin Gupta joined Kathir.

These two produced a tremendous rally, but in the end Nova Scotia retained the upper hand, due to the wicket taking earlier in the innings, to win by eight runs. Gupta made 32 runs from 14 balls and Kathir 26 runs from 18 balls. Nova Scotia 169 for five wickets, just too much in this instance for Newfoundland and Labrador?s 161 for eight wickets.

Travel arrangements for the return of the Newfoundland and Labrador squad had resulted in this event remaining a round-robin competition. So the crowning of the new champions ? Nova Scotia and the runner-up Newfoundland and Labrador took place after this match. A new burst of life will be needed before the winners of individual match awards are typed up this morning ? each game having separate best batsman, best bowler and overall MVP awards (publication of the associated 30-odd presentation photos has already been outsourced to local interests in PEI and Nova Scotia for these: custody over my photos went out yesterday afternoon). Amit Joshi took the award for the best individual score; his 93 not out for Nova Scotia against Newfoundland and Labrador.

The last game of the tournament saw Quebec revive with a much more respectable 161 for eight wickets in 20 overs against Prince Edward Island (PEI for short, breaking the usual standing of disclosing an abbreviation in the first reference). Inderjit Singh top-scored with 48 not out. A real revival was on the cards as PEI lost two wickets and then a third with hardly a run on the board, but in the development and improvement cycle, Someshwar Singh scored 42 for the hosts who rallied to 103 all out in 18.3 overs.

It was a very busy three days for all concerned (or two and a bit days for some of the Quebec squad who flew in on Friday night). There was some great cooperation between the teams and ipod scoring took over from manual records during the first day. A six by Quebec?s Deepak Pabla registered somewhere else, but was spotted by the scorer (diagnosis to follow after a return to Nova Scotia). So in a day or two there might be a couple of slight corrections or adjustments to scores published so far.

I had taken over 1,000 ?still? photos (which include action shots) by the time the camera battery ran out of life on Friday, but it was re-charged at the ground and re-emerged during the last game of the day. Some others used ?fancy? cameras at various times and various other still photos will be on various facebook pages. Not to mention the disclosure of DVD footage, some of which had been downloaded so it could run on a small laptop during Saturday night?s get-together. Day 1 downloading took place in the early hours of Saturday, followed by cross-checks of the copying so space could be cleared for the next matches.

But some of the photographic ?magic? or potential for promoting the game using local players and provincial games in and around the maritimes is attributable to the facilities at Tea Hill Park. These reflect planning and effort by the Prince Edward Island cricket board, who have worked with all levels of government (Federal, Provincial and municipal), as well as corporate sponsors. So a growing town of 8,000 ? people like to be on the waterfront according to one of my taxi drivers ? has some cricket facilities that are better than what I have seen elsewhere in Canada, so far. But I have not been to British Columbia, Alberta or Saskatchewan for cricket. The Maritime presence this weekend means I am aware of what exists, or does not exist in the other maritime provinces at present.

The competitive spirit in the Maritimes to improve on the field, can now extend off the field. It might be fitting to end this item with a picture of some dead trees on the beach at Stratford, in amongst living ones, or to publish the photo of Abdool Samad on the ground in the opening over of the Scotland-Canada game in the inaugural Global League Division 1 in Nairobi. The ICC gave Canada a video camera, some analysis software and some training. But it has, to date, been too much trouble to buy extra cameras, wiring or install power supplies around grounds, such as King City.

One ex-President of Canadian cricket was present for a couple of days this weekend. I forgot to ask him what was the outcome of the National T20 finals in 2011. Ontario and British Columbia were due to play in King City. One of the Quebec youngsters confirmed Quebec (as winners of the 2011 Atlantic T20 did play Ontario in an Eastern championship). The Western championships took place in Edmonton, Alberta, where I now realize some extra grounds and a grass wicket or two were developed as someone was alert to Canada?s action plan that had sponsorship funds for those who submitted some kind of reasonably written request.

The ICC provisionally gave the nod for Canada to host an Under-19 Cricket World Cup back in April or May of 2006. The ICC issued a media release about it, but the ostrich element did not allow the release to be posted on the official CCA website. Host a U-19 Global World Cup qualifier first, then host an actual U-19 Cricket World Cup. There were a couple of phone calls and emails ? great that our proposal has been successful. But I was told the CCA had not made any such proposal. The ICC reckoned the Canadian Cricket Association had provided details of a proposal. It was a few years before I checked with someone at the ICC on this issue.

The floods have lifted up their voice in auld Scotland, and in new Scotland. It might be time for some fresh Ayr. Well the old ice rink in Ayr was replaced, in the end. It certainly was not a large European ice rink. The roof was not much higher than the level of the gold seats at Maple Leaf Gardens (it might have reached part-way up the next level, the red seats). But, one day, the Brighton Tigers will roar again on the Sussex coast. Some form of them was probably revived.
PEI was the first place where two individual centuries were scored in a Canadian domestic cricket match back in 1879. Amit Joshi did pretty well with 93 not out and 63 not out (limited scope for a century as the target was only 81 runs) in this tournament. If other grounds develop in similar manner to Tea Hill Park, then overseas club teams would surely find the Maritimes an attractive place for an overseas tour. Later this week I am due to visit a ground or two in Canada where I have not previously seen cricket. It could be interesting. Perhaps I might return to parts east for the one of the Maritimes Provincial 50-over games.

There is more to ?hosting? an international cricket match, or a domestic tournament than just providing some logistics. It involved proper promotion and relationship building. Not too many people around here thought the sun was shining during the mist and fog on Saturday morning at the Tea Hill cricket ground. But some from the core Canadian cricket scene might have had a different perspective and opinion, if they had been at the ground. Apparently the thunder was accompanied by rain somewhere else on Prince Edward Island. Perhaps I should take a look around today, but a shopping trip is needed.

Thankfully I am staying near a major shopping centre, so it should be easy to pick up some extra bits and pieces. Then the Cricket PEI folks will have a complete set of whatever photos and videos were created by my efforts, or more precisely the standing video camera this weekend. Perhaps video streaming will be in place for whatever games take place next weekend, or certainly in time for the ?Great PEI Thwack-a-thon? on Saturday, July 21st at Tea Hill Park!

The flyer (advert, to non-North Americans) for the event says: ?You don?t have to be batty to love cricket?. More information is available via the PEI Cricket Association facebook page, or through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Prince Edward Island (www.bbbspei.ca). The Islanders will meet the Cricketers from Away. A re-birth from the 1850?s onwards cricket scene on PEI.

But some i?s need dotting and some t?s need crossing before I leave early on Tuesday morning. It may not be possible to complete all I would like to do, but that is not really my issue. Surely the board of the national governing body of cricket in Canada has overall responsibility for events it runs and sanctions. Was that a statement, or a question, or a concept yet to be realized? Just like the ?potential? of Canadian cricket.

Source: http://www.canadacricket.com/?p=3349

troy miracle andy whitfield kennedy demi moore roy oswalt kevin martin