Ontario Cricket Women Tournament Was A Great Success — Organizer Shobbier

Pictured above, the winning Ontario Green team strikes a pose just after the game.

By Ravi Madholall
The chief organizer of the 2018 inaugural Ontario Cricket Women’s T20 four-team competition Durriya Shobbier is delighted with the progress achieved for three successive days at Ross Lard Park, Toronto.

The former Canadian national cricketer made this revelation just after the completion of the competition on Monday when Ontario Greens emerged victorious by a 54-run margin over Ontario Reds.

Like the president Praim Persaud, prior to the commencement of the competition, the ultimate aim is to see the ladies having a fair chance to represent Canada at the highest level.

“We [are] extremely happy with the tournament; it was a great success and also we were delighted to see some great talents during the duration of the tournament,” Shobbier stated.

The other two participating teams were: JAJA of USA and Alberta Strikers Cricket Club with the former claiming the third-place prize.

Shobbier, who was born in India, further explained that this is an annual affair and she along with the other people involved is working to have more teams taking part every year.

The winning team was awarded with a trophy while other prizes went to outstanding individual performances.

“I think the girls are more motivated now when you have competition like this; they showed a lot of passion to play the game and they have great desire to play professional cricket whether for Canada or USA,” the all-rounder Shobbier disclosed.

In the championship game, Greens took first strike after winning the toss and set up a respectable 113-2 off their 20-overs while the Reds responded with 59-8 when the 20-overs expired.

National player Trisha“Bess”Livia scored a brilliant, unbeaten 62 which was laced with three fours and a six while Anchin Pererra contributed 28 as they shared a solid 86-run second-wicket stand. Livia was named the best batter, bowler and all-rounder while Nicole Samuel captured the best wicketkeeper prize. Samuel captained the runners-up side.

Meanwhile, an avid women’s cricket organizer Abigail Rajkumar was also happy to see the tournament turned out to be pleasing. Rajkumar, a former Canada player, was the manager for the Reds combination and spoke enthusiastically about the growth of women’s cricket in Ontario.

“Since 2009 my active role in women’s cricket development has allowed me to empower, inspire, train and recruit more girls and women in Ontario annually more than any other organizations or clubs. I have brought all opportunities to all our women cricketers in club & league. I’m am delighted to be a part of Cricket Ontario. As a Selector and on the committees for the junior,” Abigail declared.

Across to USA, according to John L. Aaron who coordinated with the Ontario Cricket from USA, said the opportunity was magnificent for the players from USA as well to take part and at the same time keep building the women game in North America.

USA JAJA had national USA players Delkash Shhriarian, Sugetha Chandrasher and Ragini Kumari in their team as well.