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Cricketers at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) are calling for their sport to be given varsity status in the hopes that increased funding will aid in their development.
“This way we can continue to improve our skill set as a team and as individuals,” said Chirag Dhariwal, a bowler for the TMU Bold.
Currently, cricket is a competitive club at TMU with a men’s team only. This impacts the amount of funding the team gets, much of which goes towards paying tournament registration fees, said team captain Ahsan Sajjad.
“It’s basically a club,” Sajjad said. “Just like a regular club that you have in school. It gets a little bit of funding here and there.”
While TMU has had women’s cricket in the past, consistently fielding a team has proven to be a struggle.
“I would love to have women’s cricket at TMU and we have tried for several years to support the development of one,” said Ryan Danziger, the competitive clubs coordinator at TMU. “However, they have never been able to maintain enough interest to keep one going year-over-year.”
A lack of dedicated varsity funding from the university means that TMU cricketers “pretty much” use their own equipment and share with those who do not have their own, said Sajjad.
The path to varsity status, however, is not a straightforward one.
“There are a number of criteria used to decide what makes a competitive club versus what makes a varsity team,” said Danziger.
According to Danziger, varsity sports have to be affiliated and organized via U Sports, Ontario University Athletics (OUA), or managed by a provincially or federally sanctioned governing body.
“We also take into consideration the operational and administrative requirements to manage the program safely and effectively,” said Danziger.
Neither U Sports nor OUA count cricket among their sports. Instead, the TMU Bold cricket team plays in two or three tournaments a year that are generally put on by an organization called Canadian College University Cricket (CCUC).
Until U Sports, OUA or any other governing body adopts cricket, the sport will remain a competitive club at TMU. Both U Sports and OUA did not respond to emails regarding whether they plan on organizing cricket tournaments in the future at the time of publication.
Despite the hurdles, TMU cricketers remain optimistic and, this past September, they won the TD National Cricket Championship.
“We have a talented pool of young players who are more than capable of taking the team to even greater heights in the coming years,” said bowler Daud Abbas.
“We hope this success will attract more resources and support from TMU’s athletics department.”
OTR reporter, fall 2024
