It sounds different this time as the ball comes off the
bat before soaring through the early-evening sky. The fielder stretches,
but the ball soars well over his reach.“Just like in baseball,” Murtaza Popalzai, 24, says from his seat in the stands, “when a person hits like that, they know it’s gone.”
This is cricket, though, not baseball, and Nabi Nawabi has clubbed a six, meaning the ball has flown over the 75-yard boundary. In a regular match, it would have been worth six runs.
Nawadi and nearly 20 other Capital United Cricket Club teammates are conducting a regular Tuesday practice on a grass field on Lynda Lane, near The Ottawa Hospital’s General campus. The grass is longer than it should be for proper cricket grounds, nor is there a proper pavilion, but at least it’s not conflict-ravaged Afghanistan or a refugee camp somewhere else.
“When we came to Canada, the league we’re playing in right now, we’re playing with an official cricket ball, which is a hard ball. But in Pakistan, because we didn’t have the money for the equipment and our families couldn’t afford it at that time, we played with a tennis ball,” says Mustafa Popalzai, Murtaza’s 26-year-old brother. “We used to cut cardboard to use for our (leg) paddings, and I never actually touched a regular hard ball until I came to Canada. … We used to break the chairs in our school and take the handles and make bats out of them.”
The Popalzais originally lived in Kandahar, but moved to Pakistan when Mustafa was two, and the brothers learned cricket on Peshawar streets. In 2000, they immigrated to Canada, where Mustafa Popalzai met fellow Afghan Yousuf Ebadi, first with an Ottawa Valley Cricket Council junior team and later with Christ Church Cathedral Cricket Club.
They encountered other cricketers from Afghanistan, too, leading to the idea of creating a team of athletes who shared their heritage and love of cricket. Capital United Cricket Club was formed in late 2009 in a meeting at a Tim Hortons restaurant.
How much more Canadian can you get? Besides, Sir John A. Macdonald declared cricket Canada’s first national sport in 1867.
“When we moved to Ottawa, many of us, including me, we were surprised when we actually saw cricket being so professional and so advanced here,” says Ebadi, a 26-year-old who was born in Afghanistan, but lived in an Indian refugee camp between 1991 and 2001 and learned to play on the streets of New Delhi.
Capital United’s roster has roughly 50 players, with some from India, Pakistan and Barbados, but roughly 40 are from Afghanistan. That’s why the chatter at practice is a mix of English and Dari.
OVCC president Sudershan (Shawn) Manhas says the concentration of Afghan players isn’t unusual in the 10-team league, with other clubs featuring groups from Sri Lanka, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, West Indies, England, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Barbados and Jamaica.
It’s also a lot easier to find cricketers in Ottawa now than it was a decade ago.
“We have two things going for us,” Manhas says. “One is the international students. They’re going to Carleton (University). Carleton is the hub for those players. They come from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Caribbean, West Indies. They have a great cricket background. In the summer, they love to play cricket.
“Secondly,
the (Indian Premier League) and others have created some interest in
terms of people who used to play, but stopped playing. They’re coming
back and playing some cricket. … I remember when we didn’t have any TV
coverage. Now I can watch any game.”
Afghan cricket history extends back less than a generation, with the Afghanistan Cricket Board created only in 1995. In contrast, traditional powers such as England and Australia have been International Cricket Council members since it formed in 1909.
The ICC admitted the Afghanistan Cricket Board in 2001. Seven years later, Afghanistan was still in Division Five, the lowest level. By 2009, it had progressed to Division One and placed fifth in a qualifying event, one spot short of the 2011 World Cup.
In 2010, Afghanistan won a qualifier for the World Twenty20 tournament, and later that year it beat Scotland in the ICC Intercontinental Cup final, a top multi-day competition for ICC associate nations.
In between, another Afghan team went to the under-19 World Cup. The qualifier had been played at King City, Ont., in September 2009.
Ayoub Ahmadzai led that tournament in scoring. Then he, four other players and the Afghan coach sought asylum. They remained in Toronto, but Ahmadzai moved to Ottawa because a cousin, his only Canadian relative, lived here.
The cousin knew Ebadi and the Popalzais, so Ahmadzai also joined Capital United.
He was born in Peshawar to Afghan parents and started cricket at age 11. He began to take it seriously in 2007, dropping out of school, and was selected for a national under-15 team that went to Nepal and the under-19 team that came to Canada.
There is no real mystery about why he and the others wanted to stay: seeking a better life. Cricket is another matter.
“They have better quality. They have very good talent there. I have seen it here, but there they have very good class players,” Ahmadzai says.
“It’s all about the time. There, when people are playing cricket, they just concentrate on cricket. There is no job, anything like this. From morning to night, they are just playing cricket. They just make their life as a cricketer.”
When Ahmadzai was on the Afghan junior national teams, he received stipends during training and tournaments. The funds began with the ICC, but were routed through the Asian Cricket Council and Afghanistan Cricket Board.
That’s not how it works in Canada, Mustafa Popalzai says.
“Some of the guys are stocking shelves at Wal-Mart or taxi drivers,” he says. “Here they don’t provide too much money to the cricket players. That’s why people don’t take it seriously. They can’t sacrifice their jobs for cricket.”
Another problem for cricket in Canada, particularly in Ottawa, is the relatively short season.
Afghan cricket history extends back less than a generation, with the Afghanistan Cricket Board created only in 1995. In contrast, traditional powers such as England and Australia have been International Cricket Council members since it formed in 1909.
The ICC admitted the Afghanistan Cricket Board in 2001. Seven years later, Afghanistan was still in Division Five, the lowest level. By 2009, it had progressed to Division One and placed fifth in a qualifying event, one spot short of the 2011 World Cup.
In 2010, Afghanistan won a qualifier for the World Twenty20 tournament, and later that year it beat Scotland in the ICC Intercontinental Cup final, a top multi-day competition for ICC associate nations.
In between, another Afghan team went to the under-19 World Cup. The qualifier had been played at King City, Ont., in September 2009.
Ayoub Ahmadzai led that tournament in scoring. Then he, four other players and the Afghan coach sought asylum. They remained in Toronto, but Ahmadzai moved to Ottawa because a cousin, his only Canadian relative, lived here.
The cousin knew Ebadi and the Popalzais, so Ahmadzai also joined Capital United.
He was born in Peshawar to Afghan parents and started cricket at age 11. He began to take it seriously in 2007, dropping out of school, and was selected for a national under-15 team that went to Nepal and the under-19 team that came to Canada.
There is no real mystery about why he and the others wanted to stay: seeking a better life. Cricket is another matter.
“They have better quality. They have very good talent there. I have seen it here, but there they have very good class players,” Ahmadzai says.
“It’s all about the time. There, when people are playing cricket, they just concentrate on cricket. There is no job, anything like this. From morning to night, they are just playing cricket. They just make their life as a cricketer.”
When Ahmadzai was on the Afghan junior national teams, he received stipends during training and tournaments. The funds began with the ICC, but were routed through the Asian Cricket Council and Afghanistan Cricket Board.
That’s not how it works in Canada, Mustafa Popalzai says.
“Some of the guys are stocking shelves at Wal-Mart or taxi drivers,” he says. “Here they don’t provide too much money to the cricket players. That’s why people don’t take it seriously. They can’t sacrifice their jobs for cricket.”
Another problem for cricket in Canada, particularly in Ottawa, is the relatively short season.
“We
miss a lot of games due to snow and rain and cold weather,” Popalzai
says, “but we are very thankful that we have an opportunity. We are
blessed with five grounds here in Ottawa. We have the opportunity to at
least play cricket in a peaceful environment, which we are really glad
for, and we thank the governor general for providing us their house,
where we can go there and play on two grounds for our matches.”
Besides two grounds at Rideau Hall, there are two at Lynda Lane and one in Barrhaven, where the narrow cricket pitch lies between two soccer fields. Cricketers can use the whole area until 6 p.m., when soccer takes over.
Manhas says the OVCC is working with the city to create another cricket ground in Cumberland, and it’s hoped games might be played there by August or September.
Ottawa’s cricket season doesn’t extend much past that, so no more balls are bowled or hit competitively until an indoor league resumes at the Carleton fieldhouse in January. It runs until April, giving each team roughly one game a week, and a softer ball is used to accommodate the reduced playing area.
“We’re still trying to recruit some of the kids, especially new Canadians coming from different parts of the world where they play cricket,” Manhas says, putting more than half of 800 total registered players are in that category. The average age is between 25 and 35, though some cricketers in their 40s still play.
Capital United clearly is a “new” OVCC member. Only first-year Cumberland Cricket Club has less history in the league, and the only other entry close to them is Nepean Cricket Club, now in year six.
Seven other league members range from Barrhaven and Canterbury, founded a half-century ago under different names, to 164-year-old Ottawa Cricket Club, credited with 13 regular-season and one playoff championship.
The primarily West Indies and Caribbean players for Barrhaven previously won 22 regular-season titles under the Bel Air Cricket Club banner, plus eight playoff crowns to tie Christ Church Cathedral (Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago) for the lead in that category.
Capital United won its first 50-over Challenge Division playoff title last fall. So far this year, it leads pool standings in Challenge (5-2 record, with one rainout), the 40-over Citizen Division (3-3) and the T20 Division (2-0) for the limited-over “speed” version of cricket.
“Some of these players have not been in Canada for very long,” Manhas says. “Most of these people, when they come from Afghanistan, they are not focusing on cricket, they are trying to make a living. In spite of going through that ordeal, they still have the talent and the will.
“I will say kudos to them because they have very talented players and they can certainly put together a team that can win not just last year. Their core players are still there, and they can win more.”
Ebadi gives credit to the inspiration of Afghan national team success.
“People read about their country and their talents in their own newspapers,” he says. “It really brought them together, and there was a passion for it. At the same time, it was some sort of a role model for people like us here, thinking that, if it can happen at the international level, why not at the municipal level.”
Besides two grounds at Rideau Hall, there are two at Lynda Lane and one in Barrhaven, where the narrow cricket pitch lies between two soccer fields. Cricketers can use the whole area until 6 p.m., when soccer takes over.
Manhas says the OVCC is working with the city to create another cricket ground in Cumberland, and it’s hoped games might be played there by August or September.
Ottawa’s cricket season doesn’t extend much past that, so no more balls are bowled or hit competitively until an indoor league resumes at the Carleton fieldhouse in January. It runs until April, giving each team roughly one game a week, and a softer ball is used to accommodate the reduced playing area.
“We’re still trying to recruit some of the kids, especially new Canadians coming from different parts of the world where they play cricket,” Manhas says, putting more than half of 800 total registered players are in that category. The average age is between 25 and 35, though some cricketers in their 40s still play.
Capital United clearly is a “new” OVCC member. Only first-year Cumberland Cricket Club has less history in the league, and the only other entry close to them is Nepean Cricket Club, now in year six.
Seven other league members range from Barrhaven and Canterbury, founded a half-century ago under different names, to 164-year-old Ottawa Cricket Club, credited with 13 regular-season and one playoff championship.
The primarily West Indies and Caribbean players for Barrhaven previously won 22 regular-season titles under the Bel Air Cricket Club banner, plus eight playoff crowns to tie Christ Church Cathedral (Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago) for the lead in that category.
Capital United won its first 50-over Challenge Division playoff title last fall. So far this year, it leads pool standings in Challenge (5-2 record, with one rainout), the 40-over Citizen Division (3-3) and the T20 Division (2-0) for the limited-over “speed” version of cricket.
“Some of these players have not been in Canada for very long,” Manhas says. “Most of these people, when they come from Afghanistan, they are not focusing on cricket, they are trying to make a living. In spite of going through that ordeal, they still have the talent and the will.
“I will say kudos to them because they have very talented players and they can certainly put together a team that can win not just last year. Their core players are still there, and they can win more.”
Ebadi gives credit to the inspiration of Afghan national team success.
“People read about their country and their talents in their own newspapers,” he says. “It really brought them together, and there was a passion for it. At the same time, it was some sort of a role model for people like us here, thinking that, if it can happen at the international level, why not at the municipal level.”
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