Saskatchewan cricket players need more playing field

It’s a fast growing sport here in Saskatchewan but while the interest in cricket is exciting for the sport, it comes with its problems.  

President of the Saskatchewan Cricket Association, Mike Sharma says, We are running into a big challenge to have more space to play. We used to have only three teams, gradually it is going up and up every year.  This year we have 12 teams.” 

SCA Secretary, Prakhar Shrivastava adds, “We only have the one ground in Regina, one in Saskatoon. We would love to see a few more grounds come up so we can actually have a competitive league going on here in Regina.” 

A ‘ground’ in cricket is what a pitch is to soccer, or a diamond is to baseball. With 12 teams, they need more than just two. 

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Plus if this boom keeps up, they expect the numbers will too.  

Sharma says, “Lots of immigrants are coming to Saskatchewan because the economy is doing very well here. Most of these people are coming from countries where cricket is huge and they love to play this game.” 

Sharma says most of the potential cricket land is owned by the City of Regina. “They’re working with us and we are applying for funding. They are nice enough to look into it so in the future they can come up with the extra space.” 

Other Prairie Provinces are also supporting their own cricket teams. Prakhar explains, “We travel to Saskatoon very regularly. We also travel to Edmonton and Calgary and Winnipeg.  We’ve had tournaments, invitational that we go play there and the same thing with them.” 

Even with the struggle for space, cricket players still love the sport and always welcome newcomers who are curious.  New player, James Friedrich tells how he got involved, “I went to South Africa with some of my South African friends and cricket is crazy over there. We went to a match. It seemed interesting and when we came back I was like we should give this a shot.” 

With the players’ determination and the City of Regina’s help, we may see this growing sport come into the spotlight.