Cricket, the quintessential English summer game, has made a comeback at the University of Toronto in recent years. U of T is well aware that the sport is growing, and if progress continues, cricket could be well on its way to achieving varsity team status in the future.
Once so popular that it was declared Canada’s national sport by former Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald in 1867, cricket disappeared from U of T, and from national consciousness in the early 1900s.
Over the last decade or so, however, interest has been revived, and there is possibly nowhere this interest is better represented than in the multicultural populations in colleges and universities across Ontario.
There are very active cricket communities in a number of institutions including all three U of T campuses, York University, Ryerson University, and Queen’s University. University students have been participating in cricket tournaments and leagues in both intramural and extramural formats, encouraging an ever-growing number of enthusiasts to get involved.
While cricket is continuing to gain popularity, it seems there is still a ways to go before it establishes itself as a varsity team sport.
None of U of T’s campuses have the space to host a standard-sized cricket game. A cricket field is oval-shaped and 130 to 150 metres in diameter. All of the cricket games at U of T have been played relatively scaled down, depending on the location and size of the venue they can secure for a given tournament. In the winter, matches are often played indoors at campus gyms.
In the fall season, King City cricket grounds and The Dome downtown are popular venues for teams to rent out for their events. While reserving such venues has proven adequate for the current setup, a field at one of the campuses is more appropriate for the demanding schedule of a varsity sport.
The 2015 Pan American Games are set to take place in Toronto. Such a large and popular event will inevitably call for an update and refurbishment of athletics facilities. Cricket may be one of the sports that benefit from the infrastructures that are planned.
There are also Ontario University Athletics requirements for would-be varsity teams to comply with, including a commitment from a minimum of eight universities, a recognized officiating system, affiliation with the sport’s governing bodies, and participation in the sport from a club or at the high school level.
While there are a still number of boxes to be ticked to get cricket into the varsity sports system, all evidence of progress seems to be pointing forward.
CanUCric, a group composed of university-level cricket players from various Ontario institutions, was established primarily to provide a setup for cricket games to be played on a regular basis through official tournaments.
It also serves as a student-based initiative toward seeing cricket played at the varsity level.
Mahjuj Sourav, a member of CanUCric as well as of York University’s cricket club said that although the process has been a long one, he remains hopeful.
“[CanUCric] came together first and foremost because we love the game. But we’ve been working together on the OUA requirements and have definitely been making progress on them. It takes effort, but hopefully it’s just a matter of time before we’re recognized on that level,” said Sourav.
Although Varsity Blues cricket is still on the back-burner, there is plenty of intramural action to look out for in the meantime.
At St. George, there are a number of intramural cricket teams, which are organized and divided by various faculty areas and colleges.
At UTM, intramural games are a relatively open affair where students can form their own teams. Individuals looking to get in on the action can sign up and be assigned to teams as well.
This school year, UTM will be holding two intramural tournaments, one during the fall term, and one in the winter. UTM will also be involved in extramural games, where a single representative team will be able to compete with teams from other campuses and colleges.
Amrit Bhatia, the UTM cricket coordinator and coach of the extramural team, sees the sport as continuing to grow in terms of both number of participants and quality of play.
“I’ve been involved with cricket at UTM for the past four years and it’s definitely been building. There’s an especially high level of play from our extramural team. These are the best players that I put together from the various intramural teams,” said Bhatia.
The University of Toronto’s first tri-campus intramural league is also set to take off this school year. The tournament, a sort of all-star gathering, will be composed of two teams from St. George, and one team from each U of T Scarborough and UTM.
A 36-team league — three divisions of 12 teams each — to be held on the first week of January 2011, as well as an ongoing Faculty of Physical Education and Health intramural league open to all U of T students, will also be keeping the game alive and busy at the university.
