Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2008
145th Edition
Cricket Round The World: Canada

Darks deeds are afoot in Montreal cricket, as Adastrians CC, winners of the 2007 Premier League, Knock-out Cup, 6-a-side Trophy and inaugural Twenty20 competition, have discovered. Quite simply, four years of clean sweeps at the top have cost them. “Other teams are jealous of our success,” says their Kenyan player-coach Babu Mandal. “They broke into our box in the night and stole glue, nails and garden forks.”

A whopping 300-run win over Pakistan Cricket Club didn’t help. Adastrians spanked 446 for 8 in 50 overs, including 264 not out from Canada’s Qaiser Ali. One of the umpires later asked for “more than his usual 40$ match fee”, because he had to make “more than his usual number of signals”.

In their next game Adastrians had racked up 242 for 1 by the first drinks break after at 22 overs, at which point their opponents, Cavaliers CC, went home. They did not, said Mandal, want Adastrians “breaking their own record”.

Umpires haven’t had it easy. During one Premier League match, a ball, manufactured in the Netherlands, disintegrated in mid-air. Half the ball flew for six, half stayed infield. The umpires didn’t know what to do – 3 runs, perhaps? – but eventually signalled “dead ball”.

While the 46-team league continues to be plagued by racial segregation, on-and-off-field fights, battles with insurers, accusations of rigging, and crimes of jealousy, a refreshing change has been the emergence of the Pirates of the St Lawrence. Formed in the wake of the World Cup, this independent social club boasts over 20 nationalities, from Austrian to Filipino. It has been training an attack of Mexican and German girls, in the hope of attracting touring sides to the city, and coaches cricket in Carlyle School to players aged between 10 and 12. The Pirates are on a quest to resurrect cricket on St Helen’s Island, where the first cricket in Canada was played, in 1785.