"How shit you must be if I got you out twice!"
-Paul Harris to Andrew Symonds, Perth 2008

Monday, May 28, 2012

Oh Canada!

Recently, I went to my first ever international match in Canada. Hell, it was my first ever live match watched in a cricket 'stadium'. Don't judge me. Cricket matches weren't the best places for young girls to be at in Bangladesh when I was young. Thankfully times have changed.

I was like a maniac at this game. People around me thought I was strange because I screamed when Mark Boucher came to bat. Nasir Hossain was cheered, whistled at (I am not kidding you...) and also booed (2 drop catches...sigh) by the many, many Bangladeshis there. A lot of people, including myself, were waiting for Lara to bat. He never came. We thought he had backed out in the last minute.

Shockingly, I have just found out that Lara was there but refused to bat because he wasn't paid. Neither were any of the other players. Sanath Jayasuriya among others had to buy their own plane ticket. Mind you this game was to promote cricket in Canada.

I'm not going to lie to you, the game was a poor show of cricket. Half the players looked like they weren't interested, the rest yesteryear's superstars who had put on weight (Oh Saqlain!!). Yet we cheered at every 6 and every wicket like we were at the game of our life. It was a rare opportunity for us. Most of the stadium was empty (it holds 50,000 and there were maybe 5,000 of us) and the pitch was some sorry-ass cardboard because there was a huge baseball game taking place in that stadium the next day. The wicket were the plastic ones kids practice on, but we stayed till the end and enjoyed every moment of it.

Little did we know that the damn organizers couldn't even be bothered to fucking pay the players, so we get this opportunity on a much larger scale moving forward. Is this how you promote cricket in a country?

We didn't complain when we saw the best you had was Sunil Joshi, Stuart McGill (although he made our day when he yelled at the music person for keeping the music on while he was bowling) and some random 'Canadian' cricketer to replace Shahid Afridi. There were some Kiwi superstars there too, but let's face it, they don't draw the crowds. We were still okay with it. We cheered on Jacod Oram's horrible bowling and a bored looking Mark Boucher's many, many half attempts. YOU couldn't even make sure that these players get paid properly so they come back and actually give a shit the next time.

I thought the poor camera angles (which weren't changed because of said baseball game), the jerseys with no names on them (we spent half our time guessing who Batsman 1 and Batsman 2 were) and the atrocious pitch was bad enough. Then you do this?

If you are trying to encourage people's interest in a game at least make a decent attempt. What do you think the cricketers will tell the youngsters who want to play the game for a living?

'Do you want to be broke the rest of your life? Then this is the game for you'.

Hi Canadian cricket, the players that you so proudly brought over to show off and sell your tickets..yeah, this is kind of their living. It's their job! They don't show up to games just to get some love and cheers. Yet they did. For you. Are you ashamed of yourself yet?

I am embarrassed for Canada. I can't believe I missed a once in a lifetime opportunity of watching Brian Lara bat, because some asshole thought it would be okay to drag him all the way here just for fun. I can't believe the state of Canadian cricket. I can't believe these people are actually sitting there and thinking they did a good job because they got some stars to play for free once in a blue moon.

Get the Afghanistan Cricket Board on the phone so they can take over.

21 comments:

New Web Games said...

I agree with you.. in order to bring a game into your contry you have to do all the possible thing half hearted attempts are really useless....

Unknown said...

You went to that thing? I was considering it, but I had a bad feeling... decided on The Avengers instead.

Purna said...

It wasn't all that bad. I'll take a little bit of cricket any day. But I can't believe the Canadian Cricket Association pulled such a big scam over these players. Some flew from New Zealand you know!

Anonymous said...

Cricket Canada Statement on All Star T20

Cricket Canada is greatly disappointed by the events following the May 12th All Star T20 event from the Roger’s Centre with respect to unpaid player salaries and have been working with the promoters to resolve the situation amicably.

We fully understand the frustration felt by the players in question and have reached out to the participating agents to provide copies of their clients’ contracts with event promoters Kat Rose Inc, so that we can engage to explore opportunities to assist in the pursuit of unpaid monies to both the participating players and Cricket Canada.

The event itself was a positive statement for the potential of cricket in Canada with an estimated 12,000 enthusiastic cricket fans in attendance to witness an exciting contest that featured many of our Canadian cricket stars. We will continue to seek opportunities to host future high profile events and take the necessary steps to ensure that the interests of all stakeholders are met accordingly.

Purna said...

Well, I'll believe it when I see it. And we probably won't see anything for another 3 years.

Social Cricket Games said...

oh canadian team :hey friends can you shre canada cricket players name list here .I wat to know about this new team?

Sid the Gnome said...

Disappointment aside, it's good you went. If people don't show at these events, what are the chances of there ever being more and better ones?

I'm currently attempting to convince the husband to fly to Belfast for a day to watch Ireland v Australia. It's not the same (low) calibre, I know, but I feel we cricket fans have a responsibility to support these things.

Purna said...

Ireland is an awesome team to watch any day Sid! You should go!

Unknown said...

The Canadian Cricket Association should definitely try harder... they have a huge expat market just waiting to be exploited.

livescore said...

No doubt that Canadian cricket team and association both are trying hard to get a good position in cricket world. As Canadian cricket team has most Asian players settled in Canada, they can bring Canadian cricket team on the peak.

Armchair Experts Cricket Forum said...

A half-arsed job was exactly what Canada needed to avoid - the opportunity was one that needed to be utilised!

CricketNNS said...

Well Canada ruined their chances of making their country into a Test-playing nation, after a decent show in the WC 2011.

USA had a good advert for cricket, when West Indies and New Zealand played two T20Is there.

Canada sure could learn a lot of things from USA! :)

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