Cricket catching on in northeastern Ontario - Action News
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Sudbury

Cricket catching on in northeastern Ontario

The sport of cricket continues to grow in popularity in northeastern Ontario, along with the rapid rise in the south Asian population. A second cricket club is now launching in Greater Sudbury and area schools are including it in gym classes.

The Kings Cricket Club will officially launch in Sudbury on May 11

High school students play cricket on a green turf field inside a white dome.
Students at Sudbury's Lasalle Secondary School are learning to play cricket in their physical education classes. Rainbow District School Board has added the sport to its kindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum. (Erika Chorostil/CBC)

The south Asian population of northeastern Ontario has been growing rapidly in recent years, and with that has come a rapid growth in the sport of cricket.

In a few short years, cricket clubs have been foundedin North Bay, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, which is about to get its second cricket club.

Kings Cricket Club Sudbury will hold a launch party on May 11. It will operatealongside Big Nickel Cricket Club, which has been playingin the city since 2014.

Gurpreet Singh Broca,one of the founders of the new club, said they saw a need to establish another teambecause of the growing number of newcomers interested in playing.

"It's about, you know, giving back to the community," he said.

"You want to give other people some chances which they could be good atand maybe teach others in the community who don't know much about the sport yet."

A man wearing a blue turban smiles.
Gurpreet Singh Broca, one of the founders of the new Kings Cricket Club in Sudbury, says the sport has grown since he started playing in the city 10 years ago. (Markus Schwabe/CBC)

Singh Broca insists, though, that there will be no rivalry between the two cricket clubs.

"I think this would be a really good healthy competition because it'll improve the game that we play together in a more competitive spirit and will make us ready for maybe tougher competitions."

Singh Broca said the new club has 35 registered members and they hope to expand and eventually include a women's cricket league and possibly a children's league.

There is only one full-sized cricket field within Greater Sudbury forteams to play gameslocated in Capreol, but there is talk of the city setting up a second cricket oval in time for the 2025 season.

Schools includecricket in phys-education curriculum

You can also see cricket being played at schools in and around Sudbury.

The Rainbow District School Board, which operates English public schools in Greater Sudbury, Espanola, and Manitoulin Island, is now including cricket in its physical education curriculum for students from kindergarten to Grade 12.

"I think it adds a new part to gym and it's kind of exciting because usually you're playing the same sports such as soccer, basketball," said Owen Olivier, a Grade 9student at Sudbury's Lasalle Secondary School who's learning to play cricket.

"So it's fun to learn something different and about a different culture that plays the sport."

A man wearing a blue jacket stands on a green turf field in font of a soccer net under a white tent.
Rainbow District School Board physical education and physical literacy co-ordinator Matt Cootes teaches students to play cricket at various schools, and says they've enjoyed the new sport. (Erika Chorostil/CBC)

Matt Cootes, the board's physical education and physical literacy co-ordinator,said the school board received grant money from the Ministry of Education that has helped supply schools with cricket startup kits.

"We're going into schools and running workshops for staff and professional development, and running students through clinics as well to try and embed cricket as an activity as part of our physical literacy programming,"he said.

"We're seeing a lot more of our community members who relate to the game or it's culturally significant for them. And we want to make sure that that is represented in our classrooms as well."

With files from Markus Schwabe