Shelburne Cricket Club kicks off new season

Written By Brian Lockhart

The Shelburne Cricket Club (SCC) launched the 2023 season with an opening ceremony and player draft held at the Centre Dufferin Recreation Complex on Saturday, May 14.

Four men's teams and two women's teams were represented at the event.

The new championship trophy for the upcoming season was unveiled, as well as new team uniforms.

“This is the SCC 2023 opening ceremony, for out T25 house league and T15 women's series,” explained club president Ahsen Siddiqui. “Today will deliver the main objectives of the SCC – why we are building this club, a little bit about our background, and what is the objective of the 2023 season. SCC is creating openness on mental health, secondly youth inclusion and women's inclusion as well as healthy living. Our first house league match will take place on May 20. The women's league will start on June 11.”

The advent of the women's league has turned out to be very popular, as many local women have signed up and want to play the sport.

“We're already at the field supporting the men's team,” Ahsan explained of what so many women told him why they want to play, not just watch the sport. “We have full teams of 11 each. We also have an offer from an outside woman's league to come to Shelburne to play against us.”

Team captains handed out hats and uniforms to players during the opening event. SCC has tried to balance the teams in terms of skill to create a competitive atmosphere on the field.

“It's sort of a draft,” Ahsen explained. “The captain will call the team out and hand out the uniforms. It's sort of a meet and greet, to meet your team. Uniforms are important in cricket. The SCC is all about displaying best behavior and cricket is all about discipline – that's why uniforms are so important. You need to look professional when you are playing. It's all about presentation in cricket.”

The club is working hard to build up the organization and ensure everything runs smoothly.

“This year we are trying to get the next level, and improve on what was missing from last year,” said Anang Ramavat, senior tournament manager. “We want to get our setup on the field more organized, getting our cameras doing more live-streaming as well as more commentators.”

Anang also acts as an arbitrator for any issues during a game and is the first point of contact if any problems arise.

“We try to balance out the teams,” Anang explained. “We had some players from the previous season and took into consideration their performance in the season. We spread them out. We do have newer players so they were distributed evenly among the teams.”

The club is currently playing their games at KTH Park in Shelburne.