With an influx of immigrants from Southeast Asia and a burgeoning foreign student program at the Parkland college, it was only a matter of time before the area's most popular sport, cricket, came to the forefront of the Yorkton sports scene. With the hard work of Yorkton Cricket Association's Faisal Anwar, the YCA went from a recreational group of cricket fans and players to a full fledged club competing in the Saskatchewan Cricket Association in their first year of existence, an incredible feat seeing as the city has yet to construct a cricket pitch.
"Our group has grown from a group of players practicing and getting together at the Flexihall and Gloria Hayden Community Centre, to a full fledged club in a matter of months showing that we have a group within the city that is passionate about growing the game of cricket and putting together a competitive team," said Anwar during the Yorkers press conference launch on Monday afternoon outside of City Hall. Anwar, along with some other residents of Yorkton began getting together to play cricket before gauging the interest of the rest of the city, finding that they had the interest, and the talent to put a competitive team together.
With the influx of international students thanks to the Parkland College having one of the largest programs for a regional college of its kind, the Yorkers have been able to assemble a large team of talented young cricket players with many attending classes at the college. To show their support the Parkland College generously donated the Yorkers jerseys to show their support of their students and cultural sports and activities inside the community.
William Litchfield of the Parkland College was on hand for the jersey presentation/launch and mentioned that due to the amount of students the college receives that are players of the sport, the move to support the team was a no brainer. "Having one of the largest international student programs of any regional college of our kind, many of which who are playing for the Yorkers, it is an honor to get the ball rolling for a club in our community that we hope will be around for many years to come" says Litchfield.
While the Yorkers have grown overnight, they still do have the problem of not having a proper cricket ground in the city. For the time being in the winter they have trained indoors at various community locations such as the Gloria Hayden and the Flexi Hall, but still without a pitch they will have the problem of not being able to host any home dates until they will be required to travel almost every weekend to their league play in Regina.
Mayor Bob Maloney was on hand to be presented with a jersey, and remarked how impressive it is to see a club in the community grow so rapidly. "This group has gotten together to promote sport in Yorkton as well as bringing a new sport to the community which I feel is great," said Maloney who also addressed the Yorkers lack of a pitch in the city, saying that it will be an item they will look into in the near future.
For those who aren't aware of the game of cricket it is a sport very similar to the game of baseball and is the second most popular sport in the world behind soccer. Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a roughly circular field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. At each end of the pitch is a wicket composed of three wooden stakes called stumps. Balanced on the top of the stumps are two bails.
Each team takes a turn at bat, during which they attempt to accumulate as many runs as possible. The game progresses as one member of the fielding team known as the bowler delivers the ball to one of the two batsmen down the length of the pitch. Batsmen score runs by putting the ball in play and attempting to run between the wickets. If the ball reaches the boundary on the ground it counts four runs, if in the air, six.
Each batsman continues batting until he is dismissed. Fielders may dismiss batsmen by catching a fly ball or disturbing the bails from the stumps while the batsman is between the wickets. Once ten batsmen from the batting side have been dismissed, the team is said to be all out and the two teams change roles.
There are many different formats of the game depending on the amount of overs (pitches from the bowler) which determine the length and speed of the format of each type of game. Two formats of cricket are played today in Saskatchewan are T20 and ODP. In T20 cricket, each team's innings comprises a maximum of 20 overs. An over is six deliveries of the ball by a bowler. In ODP, also known as 40-over cricket, each team bats for a maximum of 40 overs.
Yorkton will compete in both the T20 and ODP leagues in Regina with all of their games being on the road for the time being. The city will have to hold off on its first cricket match to be held in the city until a proper ground is constructed, but for now Yorkton's newest sports club is looking to represent the city in its inaugural season of play.
