At a blink of an eye 2022 is over and a
lot of questions remain about the future
of Women’s Cricket in Canada.
This year we saw a few highlights for
Women’s Cricket in Canada.
The first being the National
Championships in which we saw
women from all across Canada
come to Ontario for a well fought
tournament. Alberta came out
winners against Ontario in a
game that came down to a
super over. The tournament
showcased a lot of new talent
and the player pool to pick
the National side became
larger with the amount of
talent on display.
The second highlight, the
participation of our Women’s
side at the South American
Championships, was the first
time Canada competed in the
tournament and comfortably
came out on top. We saw a
new captain in Divya Saxena and
a new coach in Rizwan Cheema.
The squad was also a good balance
of young and experienced players,
showing promise for the next few years.
However, apart from the two highlights
above, not much else can be said for the
Women’s Program. There has been a
consistent lack of structure, training,
and tours. There is also a huge gap that
needs to be filled in the development of an
U-19 women’s program.
The women should be immersed in preparations for
the America’s Championships due to be
held next year for a spot at the world
cup qualifiers, however after further
conversation with players, there has
been little to no follow-up with regards
to training sessions, fitness, etc. Our
neighbours down south, USA, are about
to compete in the first-ever women’s
u-19 world cup early in the new year
and have regular training camps despite
similar geographic struggles.
The hopes for the new year would
be for Cricket Canada to develop a
grassroots girls program to allow for a
self-sustained system and develop a high
performance program in which there
is a full-time appointed coach and a
player pool that is being worked with to
develop skills and fitness. There should
also be a serious push to develop an
U-19 program. A lot of work remains
for the Women’s program in Canada
but nonetheless, these are exciting times
in the horizon for Women’s Cricket
Globally