Tony McWatt
– Publisher
This month-end., November 2020, marks the end of the first
six months of its two year, twenty-four month, tenure for
the Rashpal Bajwa led Cricket Canada Board of Directors.
Any objectively fair assessment of the Board’s overall
performance during this now completed period would
have to label it as having been very good, all circumstances
considered.
As such with a new calendar year now beckoning on the
horizon, the outlook for Cricket Canada’s immediate future,
under the direction of its current Board should therefore
arguably be “positively optimistic!” As any eternal optimist
would suggest, Canadian cricket’s fortune glass is now far
more half full than it is half empty!
There are at least four noteworthy strategic initiatives that have been implemented by Bajwa’s Board during its first six months in
office. Collectively these warrant both the favorably granted assessment of its performance, as well as the suggested optimism
for the continuation of its positive performances in the immediate future.
Within weeks of its assumption of
office, actually during its very first post
AGM Election Meeting, the Bajwa Board
outlined and designated specific
portfolio responsibilities for each of its
members. Towards its stated intention
of being far more transparent as a
Board, the designated responsibilities
were then most admirably, publicly
shared on Cricket Canada’s website
and Facebook pages for all the world
to see! As good an example of taking
action by “walking the walk and not
merely talking the talk” as there has
ever been by any Cricket Canada
Board of Directors within recent
memory.
Commendable achievement initiative
number two was Cricket Canada’s
hosting of a Training Camp for the
National Men’s players during the early
summer. Amidst the disappointing
COVID19 induced cancellations of all
of Canada’s scheduled international
matches, this was a most welcome
initiative which at least provided some
measure of engagement for our
elite Men’s players. Cricket Canada’s
announcement of its National Men’s
Selection Committee was also a very
positive development.
No sooner had the Men’s Selection
Committee been announced than
there was the unprecedented news
emanating from Cricket Canada on
its appointment of Durriya Shabbir
as its Women’s Cricket Coordinator.
The subsequent announcement of
the appointments of four additional,
impressively qualified ladies as
members of its newly established
Women’s Cricket Committee was
further, irrefutable, evidence of
Cricket Canada’s intention to now
pursue the meaningful development
and promotion of Canadian
women’s cricket.
The impression that was slowly
but surely being created of the
Bajwa Board as being not only
action oriented but also inclusive
of others as well, was then even
further enhanced by the Board’s
engagement in public consultative
solicitation of contributions for its
forthcoming 2020 Strategic Plan.
The previous Strategic Plan which
had first been publicly launched
in March 2018 for a two year, 2018
–2020, period and which obvious
to most, except the inevitably
negatively inclined, only contained
statistical information up to 2017
will expire at the end of this year.
Cricket Canada’s recent initiative in
soliciting public input as part of its process
of developing a new plan for the upcoming
years can therefore now only be described
as absolutely brilliant!
As part of the first stage of the new
Strategic Plan’s development, the Board
has been seeking input from a wide range
of those involved in cricket in Canada,
including current national team players,
provincial board members, officials and
other volunteers and media. Full public
consultation was scheduled to remain
open until the middle of November, thereby
allowing anyone involved in Canadian
cricket in Canada to provide their input
via the Cricket Canada web site. Again an
admirably inclusive initiative by Cricket
Canada.
For all the foregoing reasons, therefore,
the outlook for Canadian cricket under its
current Board of Directors should justifiably
be positively optimistic. Whatever the
indiscretions of previous administrations
may have been, the current Board should not
now be held accountable for those. Instead
on the evidence of its initiatives to date it
should now be given all the encouragement
and support to continue with even greater
speed in its activities towards the further
development and promotion of Canadian
cricket!