The Canada-Pakistan World Cup encounter on Thursday had quite a subcontinental feel to it. Of course, with the match taking place in Colombo and Pakistan being one of the teams, it had to be so. But it was the Canadian side, which predominantly consists of subcontinental talent, added the desi flavour.
Cricket historian Boria Majumdar, who has closely followed the sport in the great white north, opines that Canadian cricket is nothing but an expat sport, dominated by migrants from the subcontinent. ?If you study Canadian cricket as a whole, you?ll find that almost 85-90% of those who play the sport there are from the subcontinent, especially India. The president of Cricket Canada (the sport?s governing body in the country), Ranjit Saini, its CEO Chandra Gocool, and vice-presidents Ravin Moorthy and Vimal Hardat are all Indians,? he tells FE.
Another team that always offered an Indian touch is the West Indies, but Majumdar feels Caribbean cricket has had a long heritage even for the people of Indian origin.
?This is not so in countries like Canada, where migration from India started only a few decades ago and not centuries ago, like in the Caribbean,? he says. A look at the profiles of the Canadian players adds weight to the assertion, with six of the seven cricketers of Indian descent having been born in India, making them first-generation Indians in Canada. This is quite a contrast to the likes of Shivnarine Chenderpaul or Ramnaresh Sarwan, whose forefathers migrated to the Caribbean long ago. Interestingly, Canadian player WD Balaji Rao was not only born and brought up in India, he also represented the Railways and Tamil Nadu in Ranji Trophy cricket, and was a part of the India Under-19 squad. The 33-year-old hefty spinner could get the honour of playing a World Cup only after he migrated to Canada.
Experts feel such team compositions are actually detrimental for the development of cricket as a global sport. ?Indian dominance is extended and made visible by teams like Canada, but what it also reflects is that cricket is becoming a cartelised sport in such countries, with an isolated community of South Asians really pursuing it. No sport can actually prosper in any country if it can’t attract the backing of the locals. Cricket clearly has a long way to go before becoming a broad-based sport in most parts of the world,? feels Majumdar. Though the first recorded international cricket match was played between Canada and the US in 1844, the current scenario, wherein Canada is just another minnow in world cricket, and the team?s composition, speaks volumes of the extent of isolation of cricket there.
