Cricket Canada Representatives Delighted With Women’s Cricket Development

By Ravi Madholall
Several Cricket Canada representatives expressed great delight with the elevation of women’s cricket so far in a nation that has limited resources to boost its International Cricket Council’s participation.

Last Sunday at Ashtonbee number 1 pitch, the Scarborough Cricket Association (SCA) concluded the Ladies’ T20 final with Kaisoca, engineered by a brilliant 81 from Chuttell Martin, and dethroned Superstars by a facile eight-wicket margin.

At the post-match presentation ceremony that followed shortly, General Manager of Cricket Canada Ingleton Liburd praised the efforts the SCA had made to run off another successful season in 2016 when six teams participated.

Liburd, the former Canadian International skipper, stated that the crowd support was vitally important and what had transpired on Sunday is an indication of the steady growth of the Women’s participation.

He thanked SCA for the outstanding work in getting the ladies out and said his association will definitely continue to work with them for the betterment of Canada’s cricket in general.

Cricket Canada Development Officer Zubin Surkari was also on hand to witness the on-field riveting action and spoke about the ladies’ superb talent.

According Surkari, cricket was obviously the winner despite there would only be one winning team. He urged the women to stay focused and committed and like Liburd shared a similar notion that the females are making sound progress.

The display by the St. Vincent and Grenadines born Martin was certainly captivating as she stroke numerous boundaries while the right-hander shared an attractive 116-run opening stand with Saniyal Zia (35) that drained the enthusiasm out of the oppositions.

In pursuit of 130 for victory from the allotment of 20-overs, Kaisoca raced to 131-2 off 13.2 overs. In Superstars’ innings, the experienced Lorraine Kenton made 25 while Megan Yougnauth scored 24.
In addition to Liburd and Surbari, Praim Persaud, Chief Executive Officer of the Cricket Council of Association in Ontario, appeared vocal too with the exhibition of women’s cricket.

According to Persaud, the women seemed eager and avid to play cricket and that was fantastic. He further rated the performances very outstanding and believes they will continue to make an impact.

“Great job by the SCA to have these strong teams taking part; we see the ladies are anxious to play the game and that is very imperative; we will work in co-operation with SCA for the betterment of the game,” Persaud revealed.

Meanwhile, President of the SCA, Shiv Persaud, echoed the same sentiments from the previous speakers and stated that the SCA members had done a commendable job to keep the game succeeding.

Persaud stated that this is second year in succession for the women’s tournament and with four more teams joined up, is inspiring and encouraging simultaneously.

“Cricket is definitely the winner; I must congratulate the winning side (Kaisoca) and better luck to Superstars; it was a great season and the executives must be recognized for their amazing efforts as well,” Persaud, in his first term as the leader, commented.

Persaud also expressed his gratitude to the main sponsor, Caribbean Wave Restaurant.

Many other speeches were heard that the game was very exciting and well-entertained largely through the knock of the 23-year-old Martin and innings like that can be heartening.

Cricket Canada would be hoping to lift its standard with these excellent performances in order to compete at the ICC World Cup tournament.

The Canada’s women team has not been able to qualify because of poor performances. Since making their debut in 2006, they have only been impressive occasionally, nonetheless.

They won the Americans cup but would not feature again in the 2017 ICC 50-over World Cup tournament which is slated to be held in England with Australia being the defending champion.

Many of the view that Canada cricket has lacked proper preparations and are badly affected by the impeding weather patterns.