…All executives remain intact at Sunday’s AGM

By Frederick Halley
FOUR positions were up for grabs when the Scarborough Cricket Association (SCA) held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Agincourt Community Centre, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada on Sunday.

Vic-president Bisham Singh, who has the distinction of serving under several presidents and who himself was also at the helm of the association, was returned unopposed. Public Relations/Marketing Officer Frederick Halley and Assistant Grounds Co-ordinator Mark Lall also found favour with the members and were returned in similar fashion. Abhinav Kavuru, who served previously as Webmaster and who was appointed Assistant Secretary/Treasurer in December, replacing Mohan Singh, received unanimous approval in his post.

The other executive members, whose positions were secured based on the SCA’s constitution were Shiv Persaud (President); Eon Gunraj (Secretary); Matthew Francis (Treasurer); Abu Rubait Alam (Webmaster); Calvin Alexander (Grounds Coordinator) and Abigial Rajkumar (Registrar/Statistician), the lone female on the executive body.

The AGM marked the first held indoors in three years following virtual meetings in 2021 and 2022 occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and was credited as being the largest to be held by the SCA.

In his sterling report, SCA President Shiv Persaud once again advocated for more playing fields across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). According to the Guyana-born Persaud, “we continue to witness the demand of more teams looking to play cricket in our league. In 2022, we had 43 applications which we are disappointed to have had to decline due to the limited grounds available and our plan to play 14 games per team.

“We have already received 31 requests from new clubs to become members. Rest assured, we have been advocating for cricket and more playing fields across the GTA. Currently, I have the honour of representing SCA on the City of Toronto Cricket Reference Group and provide guidance to the Town of Whitby Master Plan. Due to the work being done, we were allotted permits for Brooklin Park Memorial Cricket Pitch in Whitby, Stone Street Park Cricket Pitch in Oshawa, Alex Robertson Cricket pitch for Pickering and Cedarvale Park Cricket field which we will now be using full-time in 2023.

“We are continuing our efforts to receive playing time across the GTA and I would encourage you to be open to experience playing cricket at these venues. I would also like to recommend that we strongly consider playing T20 cricket during the weekdays beginning in 2023 so we can provide more opportunities to clubs.”

Persaud reminded members that the SCA saw a return to full schedule in 2022 with 94 teams participating. “We saw tremendous support from our Over-50 teams that went from three teams in 2021 to 10 in 2022. One area that we have continued to focus on is the development of youth and women cricket. We launched our first ever SCA Development Programme in 2022 and went from two participants to 24 currently. Special thank you to our Coach, Keith Deonaraine for his commitment and hard work. We are asking for your support to continue improving and providing access to more youth and women who are interested in learning and playing cricket from the grass root level.”

Vice-president Singh, who also hails from Guyana, and heads the Disciplinary Committee, reminded members to follow the SCA Playing Rules and not to import other leagues rules into the SCA. “This not only causes confusion, but disruptions of games.”

Singh advised that The Rules Committee will revisit the playing rules for the 2023 playing season and make the necessary changes. This will be communicated to the members prior to the Captain’s Table. According to Singh “the past season was great for the development of cricket in the SCA. As a reflection of this, the SCA continues to attract application for several new teams. It was a great pleasure to have been given the opportunity to serve as Vice- President. I would like to thank my fellow Executives for their assistance throughout the season as well as the Canada Cricket Umpires Association for their service to the SCA.”

A one-minute silence was observed in remembrance of the passing of the late stalwart cricket administrator and former player, Jainauth ‘Vish’ Jadunauth, who passed away on February 19 last year, a few weeks after retaining his post of Chief Financial Officer of the SCA. Jadunauth is also credited with being in the top echelons of the SCA for over 20 years.