Shelburne Cricket Club kicks off 2022 summer season

Written By Brian Lockhart

The Shelburne Cricket Club started the 2022 season with some fanfare at KTH Park in Shelburne on Saturday, May 28.

The local Club played a tournament style season with two teams last year, however, interest in the sport has allowed the club to expand to three teams. They will be bringing in other outside teams this year to make it a four-team season.

The Club held an opening ceremony at the park prior to the first game of the year.

Teams marched onto the pitch carrying the flags of nine nations. Players come from a diverse background and the flags of their home countries were on display to start the day.

Club treasurer, Maira Quraishi, welcomed visitors to opening day and provided some history about the organization before introducing guest speakers.

“This is official opening of our first house league,” explained club president, Ahsen Siddiqui. “Last year we played a best-of-seven tournament. This year we have three teams because we are growing. Today we have the opening of the league which will run through to the first week of September. We'll be playing every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.”

Ahsen said members of the club come from a variety of countries.

“Members have a background from ten different countries,” Ahsen said. “What we did to show the diversity and multiculturalism, is we brought the home country flags. We have all those home country flags under the Canadian – just to support our slogan which is ‘game is on', to promote that vibe.”

The Club has put out a considerable effort to promote their sport in the region, as well as make it a viable enterprise.

They have some new umpires which they are paying, at Ahsen's insistence even though some umpires offered to volunteer their time.

“The Town has done a great job to give us the cricket pitch,” Ahsen said. “It's not a proper cricket field but they gave us the 22 yards where we are playing.”

The pitch is the area on the field where the bowler throws the ball and the batter hits.

The grass on the pitch was cut down right to the roots to make a suitable surface.

Teams were introduced to the crowd and filed onto the pitch carrying the flags to officially get the new season underway.