Bowled over: Canada falls back in love with cricket

Cricketers in Canada are taking desperate measures to play their booming sport in a country better known for ice hockey, baseball, basketball and American-style football.

At one time nearly forgotten, cricket has exploded in popularity once more, as waves of immigrants have moved to Canada and want to play the once national game.

"We get a lot of complaints," said Manitoba Cricket Association president Paramjit Shahi about young people playing cricket in Winnipeg Walmart parking lots, where brightly lit asphalt offers day-working enthusiasts a chance to play. "They're just neighborhood kids."

The city government of Regina, Saskatchewan, posts signs on tennis courts saying "cricket is not allowed on courts", because batsmen were damaging them, it told reporters. The small prairie city now has three dedicated cricket pitches.

From British Columbia on the Pacific coast and Newfoundland on the Atlantic, to Yellowknife in the Arctic, the popularity of cricket has exploded as immigration from South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean has ignited a demand for ovals, night lights, winter training facilities and new teams.

Manitoba, a prairie province of fewer than 1.5 million people, now hosts 72 teams, compared to fewer than 20 eight years ago, according to Shahi.

"We don't have enough grounds," said Shahi at a recent inter-provincial tournament being played on a windswept patch of prairie south of Winnipeg, with three new-roofed shelters opened by local politicians and cricket officials.

In Vancouver and Toronto, cricket has been flourishing outside the usual sporting infrastructure, but has also struggled to find adequate grounds and training facilities.

"The sport is thriving. Not too many people are aware," said Imdad Alli, a Guyana-born cricketer who arrived in Toronto as a 10-year-old immigrant in 1979 and has spent his life deeply involved in the sport.