Four Teams ‘Rearing To Go’ At Inaugural Cricket Ontario Women T20 Cup

By Ravi Madholall in Toronto
A proliferation of national cricketers from USA and Canada will be exhibiting their skills and talents from Saturday at Ross Lord Park in Toronto where Cricket Ontario will be inaugurating the annual T20 four-team women’s cricket tournament that will run for three consecutive days.

Competing teams are Ontario Reds, Ontario Greens, Alberta Strikers Cricket Club and JAJA Jaguars from the USA and they will be looking to hoist a trophy when the championship game takes place from 09:00hrs Monday (National Holiday).

According to the president of Cricket Ontario Praim Persaud this is a very important three-day competition which is mainly to help rebuild the ladies’ game to be great competitor and ultimately to play professionally at the international level.

Persaud further stated that they have been working feverishly hard to make it happens and now the aspiring women cricketers from both the USA and Canada have a golden opportunity to showcase their talent and simultaneously Cricket Ontario has a role of providing these quality female cricketers. Persaud. Who is a Cricket Director of Canada Cricket, has expressed delight to see Women’s cricket could rise back to the top in this Province and subsequently in Canada.

Each team will play one another once before the top two sides confronting each other in the final while there will be a third-place play-off contest just after the completion of the final.

Prior to the selection of the two Ontario squads, a trial match was kept in which over 30 players were invited. The teams were picked on performances and additionally experience and previous outstanding displays in other related competitions across the Greater Toronto Area.

Coach of the Ontario Reds side Shiv Persaud is very optimistic of his team emerging triumphant at the tournament revealing that the girls have shown great eagerness and enthusiasm to be the top side.

Persaud, who is the current president of the Scarborough Cricket Association, also mentioned the competition should be fascinating but at the same time the women have a great opportunity to churn out good performances as there will be a Canadian National competition featuring Eastern and Western Provinces very soon.

Ontario Reds team reads: Nicole Samuel (Captain), Miryam Khokhar (V/Captain), Suboor Khan, Habeeba Bader, Hiba Shamshad, Shweta Gakhar, Kainat Qazi, Kadie Ramdass, Shristhi Raha, Maliha Mubasher, Zylene Ortiz and Ayesha Bushra. The Manager is Abigail Rajkumar and Shiv Persaud (coach). Ontario Greens team reads: Kamna Mirchandani (Captain), Achini Perera (V/Captain), Terisha “Bess” Livia, Maliha Baig, Lorraine Kenton, Mahrukh Imtiaz, Chuntell Martin, Anto Dency, Menaka Aiyathdurai, Ovea Naresh, Simran Kapoor and Ishu Sagoo. The Manager is Tina Naidu and the coach is Suthershini Sivanantham.