Uniting for a common goal

When the Canadian national team’s coach calls a practice session, most of the team has to book a flight to attend the practice. One player has to fly all the way from New Zealand to be there.

The team is a walking advertisement for how different cultures can unite for a common goal. The 15 players fly a collective 160 000km for the team practice that ultimately lasts a week.

Coach Gus Logie, a former West Indian batsman of the West Indian glory days, believes that this shows how motivated the team is to compete. ‘You must have a dear love for the game and willpower to play if you fly so far for practice,” he said.

The Canadian blend consists largely of expatriates from the West Indies and the Asian subcontinent, but Australians, Britons and New Zealanders complete the mixture of this truly international team.

Most of the international players either immigrated to Canada or they boast a Canadian parent or were born in Canada.

The cosmopolitan nature of the team shines through in captain Joe Harris, a hard-hitting batsman. He was born in India, played for Barbados in the West Indies and now captains the Canadian team in their first appearance in the World Cup since 1979. He moved to Canada in the late 1980s after failing to establish a place in the Barbados side.

The Asian connection continues in wicketkeeper Ashish Bagai, who emigrated from India to Canada when he was eight. At 21 he is one of the youngest players in the Canadian team and definitely a player for future tournaments.

Opening bowler Sanjay Thuraisingam’s roots are in Sri Lanka. He was Canada’s top wicket-taker at the 2001 ICC Trophy. Thuraisingam also boasts the scalp of Adam Gilchrist for a single in the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

Fazil Samad is another player with Guyana connections, but he now lives in New York where his day job is working in the film industry. He funds his travels to Canada for cricket practice with his film salary.

Nicholas de Groot also learned his cricket in Guyana as a regular opening batsman before he made the decision to move to Canada in order to play international cricket.

Ian Billcliff, a middle-order batsman, is one of the team members who has to fly around the world to attend practice. He is a schoolteacher in Canterbury, New Zealand. His Canadian birth, combined with his New Zealand first-class experience, where he played for Otago, Wellington and Auckland, made him a natural selection for the Canadian squad for the 2001 ICC trophy.

The only true professional in the side is 32-year-old off-spinner John Davison who plays for South Australia … He was born in Canada, but his parents moved to Australia when he was only five weeks old.

The Australian-Canadian attended Australia’s prestigious cricket academy where Ricky Ponting and Glen McGrath had graduated as well. A Canadian official noticed his Canadian connection and gave him the opportunity to play international cricket.

But Davison still wants to play for Australia one day. ‘I would not say I feel Canadian in any way, it’s just an opportunity to play cricket,” he said.

‘If Canada were a full ICC [International Cricket Council] member or a one-day international side then it might be a problem to play for Australia but with the current status I can wear the ‘baggy green’ one day as well,” Davison said.

Even Canada’s coaches fit in with the team’s international look. Australian Jeff Thomas coached the squad before Logie took over.

The new coach is determined to make a difference in Canadian cricket. ‘It’s a challenge like everything else. It’s an opportunity for me as well to see how much input I can make into the development of Canada’s cricket,” Logie said.

Harris said Thomas had done a tremendous job of bringing the scattered Canadians together and blending them into a team. ‘The coach has done a great job bringing us together,” he said.

Canada, who hosted the ICC trophy, qualified for the Cricket World Cup by defeating Scotland in the third place play-off of the competition. This earned them a nomination for the ‘Canadian Male Team of the Year” at the Canadian Sports Awards, a first for cricket in the country.

For all their lack of experience and indigenous players, Canada is hopeful that they have bright future in cricket. 

‘When you look back at the history of Canadian cricket compared to Sri Lankan cricket, for example, we both were ICC Trophy finalists in 1979, and yet Sri Lanka went on to win the World Cup just 17 years later in 1996. So why can’t we aspire to some of those things?” team manager Karam Gopaulsingh said.