The Ontario Cricket Academy (OCA) will be making two international tours, visiting 3
countries. In March 2023, during Canada’s schooling Spring Break the U19’s
will travel to UAE and Sri Lanka and during the East Holidays in April 2023, the
U16’s will travel to Trinidad & Tobago.
These tours will mark the 16th and 17th international tours undertaken by the
OCA since 2009. The international experiences provide a great opportunity
for development as the players are tested in hot weather conditions, playing
against top opposition on natural turf wickets. Almost all of OCA’s national
team products have been on these tours and by their own accounts, feel that
these opportunities helped them to drastically improve their skills and become
mentally stronger.
your ‘comfort zone’ can only make players stronger and help them to learn new
skills and techniques which can be applied to higher levels of the game”.
In Dubai, the U19 team will face up against strong academy teams in 2 matches
before heading over to Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the team will travel from the capital
city of Colombo to the southern province, playing a 7 more matches against top
schools and clubs. The matches will be a mix of T20 and 50 over formats, played
on turf.
In Trinidad, the players will get to experience incredible facilities in the Queens
Park Oval and the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba. As in past tours, the OCA lads
will face up against top club teams as well as academies in the different regions.
The players will also get to experience night cricket as most grounds are equipped
with lights. They will play a total of 7 matches in T20 and 40 over formats.
Apart from cricket, the players will be given time to do some sightseeing in
all 3 countries and learn more about the cultures and traditions of the land.
Additionally, on both tours OCA management is planning to reach out to agencies
and organizations supporting local underprivileged children so the players can
engage in activities to learn social responsibility. Overall, the tours will help to
develop players character, skill and expand their knowledge of the world.