By Keiran Gorsky
At their first match of this year’s Ontario Central T20 tournament, the Ottawa Valley Cricket Council had tallied an impressive 179 runs against the considerably larger Mississauga Cricket League, composed of the best players from 261 cricket teams scattered around the Greater Toronto Area.
MCL were still 89 runs shy of the squad assembled from the OVCC’s 24 teams when one Rishiv Joshi stepped up to bat for the Mississaugans.
“It happens to me a lot,” Capital United’s Shah Zeb mentions in an interview. “You get a player out, and then somebody tells you, ‘Oh, he’s the guy who’s an opener for the Canadian national team.’”
Joshi played for Vancouver’s team at the 2024 Global T20 Canada tournament – where some of the world’s renowned cricketers play alongside emerging Canadian talent – and was also one of several players at the tournament who represented Canada at the recent Men’s T20 World Cup. He and his batting partners managed to claw 61 runs back before Zeb finally got a chance to bowl to him.
Joshi took a powerful swing but barely got a piece of Zeb’s first delivery of the over. He was caught out by the wicket-keeper from behind, effectively ending his afternoon. OVCC managed to hold on and win the match 179 runs to 155.
Such is the curious cricket scene in Ontario, where top players might find themselves at a World Cup one year, and playing on astroturf against amateurs in Brampton the next. Ottawa cricketers, in turn, find themselves somewhat isolated from the larger community centred in and around Toronto, where provincial and national teams tend to pull most of their players.
All around Canada, clubs are mostly comprised of new Canadians with roots from other cricket-crazed countries. Zeb and fellow all-rounder Ameer Khan, perhaps Ottawa’s top performers in Brampton, both originally hail from Pakistan.
When Zeb came to Ottawa four years ago to attend Algonquin College, he wasn’t sure whether people here played cricket at all. It took a couple of years for the president of the OVCC, Ottawa’s regional cricket body, to happen upon a post Zeb had made on Facebook asking whether there was any cricket in the area. It was only then that he was finally introduced to the local community.
“I would say my whole social circle in Canada is mainly because of cricket,” Zeb now describes.
Conversely, Khan already knew a number of former cricket-playing acquaintances from Pakistan when he originally arrived in Mississauga seven years ago. The now-36-year-old, who led the tournament in runs with 172, winds up captaining most of his teams, including the one OVCC sent to Brampton.
“I think it’s primarily because a lot of grey hair,” Khan laughs.
For local cricketers, the tournament is a golden opportunity to get spotted by provincial selectors and talent scouts. A spot at nationals is prestigious enough in its own right, but it also serves as an opportunity to land a spot at the annual Global T20 tournament where players might collect one of those elusive paycheques in Canadian cricket (although the 2025 edition of the event has been shelved, with plans to return next summer).
Of course, not everyone can easily take a week off work to play cricket frequently. Zeb, who was named man of the match against MCL and who finished the tournament ranked 11th overall in total contributions, almost missed it altogether. He had already scheduled a week off from his day job some weeks prior for another tournament that ended up getting cancelled. It took some convincing from the president of the OVCC to get him to take a few more vacation days.
“I [thought] if I ask for a day off again, my manager’s gonna be pissed, but she was super nice about it,” Zeb recounts.
OVCC’s 2-1 record in the group stage of the July 14-16 Ontario Central tournament was enough to get them to the semi-finals, where they faced off against the team from the Toronto District Cricket Association.
They knew they were in for a challenge, not only because of TDCA’s penchant for hard-to-hit spin bowls, but also because very few of them had played on a natural turf wicket surface like the one at Batsman Park, where knockout matches were played.
“I’ve never worn spiked shoes,” Zeb describes. “It was like a completely different experience.”
OVCC did reasonably well to limit their runs, but the offence simply wasn’t there. TDCA managed to surpass their score in 14 overs, winning by eight wickets. Nevertheless, Khan is pleased with the way the team played.
“[In] the last three years, I’ve seen Ottawa cricket improve a lot,” Khan underlines. “The teams are getting more organized. Teams are getting more competitive.”
Indeed, Ottawa has been a part of the sport’s collective growth around the country. The 2021 opening of Monarch Cricket’s indoor facility allows local players to practice all year round. When cricket grounds are available, Khan says they’re better maintained and tended to than ever before.
The surprise result against MCL will help make the case that local players should be included on future Ontario teams, Khan indicates.
“The way that we performed,” he explains, “I think there should be some representation from Ottawa.”