Cricket comeback

Cricket comeback in Cape Breton

CBU Athletics and Recreation leading resurgence of bat-and-ball sport

By Corey LeBlanc

SYDNEY – A now globally popular sport that thrived here more than a century ago is experiencing a renaissance, one led by passionate newcomers and the dedication of Cape Breton University (CBU) Athletics and Recreation to providing a variety of options not only to students, but also the broader community.

Cricket – a bat-and-ball game between two teams of 11 aside – started to catch the attention of CBU officials more than five years ago, with word that international students attending the Sydney-based university were playing their beloved sport everywhere from parking lots in Glace Bay to soccer and baseball fields across the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM).

“I thought that it would be a good idea that we [CBU Athletics and Recreation] engage with the students to find spaces on campus [to play],” CBU Manager of Varsity Athletics Shaun Ranni remembers of cricket’s genesis, from a university perspective, in 2017.

He adds, “It started with a handful of students and me securing a pitching strip at the grass soccer field at CBU, and engaging with Cricket Nova Scotia to source best practices for fields and future competitions.”

Once those initial seeds were planted, things quickly began to blossom.

“The demand was so high that we moved pick-up cricket into the dome [CBU’s indoor turf facility] during the winter,” he says.

After the third collapse of the dome in its decade-long existence (a new one is planned for the same campus site) led to its closure, cricketers began playing a modified indoor game in the Sullivan Fieldhouse.

“At this stage, cricket was organized into a couple of ‘pick-up’ teams of CBU students and alumni,” Ranni explains of the three-year period until 2020.

Amal Rajendran, who graduated with a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Supply Chain Management from CBU, has been one of the grassroots players that continues to grow the sport. 

“It is hard to explain,” he says, when asked about his connection to the game, one that he started “playing with friends” while growing up in India.

In the spring of 2019, while on the job hunt in his adopted home, Rajendran recalls having “plenty of free time,” so he decided to focus on reconnecting with his beloved sport.

With makeshift equipment – including a tennis ball, rather than the traditional leather-covered cork hard ball, he and his friends were some of those playing wherever they could, including on those parking lots that Ranni mentions.

While taking those early baby steps, ones that brought them to the CBU campus for games, the pioneers of cricket’s rebirth – which included learning about its rich tradition on the Island before the First World War – received tremendous support from athletics and recreation staff, particularly Yann Artur, CBU’s Coordinator of Campus Recreation and Wellness Services, and Teena Campbell, Coordinator of Recreation and Sport.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without them,” Rajendran, who has sat on the Cricket Nova Scotia board of directors, notes of that tandem’s contributions to helping the sport take root at CBU.

That ascent reached another milestone this year with the founding of the CBU Cricket Club.

“It is a comprehensive team sport,” Junaid Hussain, who arrived last September to begin his studies in CBU’s Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Health Care Management, offers in reflecting on his connection to cricket.

Over the past several months, since the launch of the club, he and Artur have organized tournaments and leagues, while also purchasing equipment.

Hussain, who enjoys the “mental capacity required,” as much as the physical talent, to excel on the cricket field,

“It is an amazing sport, one that we want to share with everyone,” he says.

Although there have been as many as 100 participants in events, Hussain notes that the CBU Cricket Club has 35 to 40 “active” members; 95 per cent are CBU students, with some alumni sprinkled in. They take the field on Saturdays and Sundays (outdoors) and Tuesdays and Thursdays (indoors).

“We have people at all skill levels,” he says, including – like him – who have played professionally.

In late May, the club achieved a milestone with its participation in the highly-competitive Confederation Cup Cricket Tournament in Charlottetown.

“The boys were exceptional on the field,” Hussain offers of CBU’s effort, which included a spot in quarterfinal action.

He adds, “We will need some more practice and games together to bond and win games in the future.”

Along with Hussain, Abin Thampi, Lijo Joy and Yasir Saleem were key contributors for the Capers.

After splitting a pair of highly-contested round-robin games – a loss to the Eastside Warriors and win over PEI Tuskers, CBU were eliminated by the Devils.

“We had not participated in any competitive games, so this was great exposure and a learning experience for them,” Hussain adds.

With a successful inaugural season under its belt, the CBU Cricket Club will continue its focus on growing the game – not only at the university, but also in the broader community.

“We want to help as many people as possible to become aware of the sport,” Hussain – who was also instrumental in establishing the Cricket Cape Breton Association (recently approved by Cricket Nova Scotia) – offers, including placing a focus on bringing more female players into the fold.

As interest continues to grow, one crucial key to continuing that momentum – and cementing the sport’s presence on the Island – is construction of a regulation cricket pitch.

“There is a real need for a proper field,” Steve Horne, Development Manager – Recreation, Sport & Special Projects, says, offering that locating it on the university’s Grand Lake Rd. campus makes “perfect sense.”

He notes that CBU officials have recently started talks with consultants regarding the possibilities. Although there isn’t an established timeline, he explains that, hopefully, talks over the summer and fall will lead to the creation and unveiling of a plan [for a cricket field] later in 2023.

Horne agrees that developing a new cricket field at CBU would not only provide extensive opportunities for the sport on the Island, but also around economic development.

Pointing to the importance of the creation of Cricket Cape Breton – not to mention the support of Cricket Nova Scotia for developing the sport, including construction of a venue – Horne says that the focus is not only CBU students and alumni, but also the development of players from the broader community – both male and female – and of all ages.

Noting the CBU Cricket Club’s participation in the aforementioned Confederation Cup, Horne adds that he is looking forward to a time when Caper teams are “waving the green and orange banner” on their home field.

When it comes to the growth and development of cricket on the Island, he says, “We are really just getting started.”