Rajender Dhanda was a teenager in India when the South Asian country won the 1983 Cricket World Cup.
“When we were growing up, if you were to name the top-ten sports, number one-to-ten it was always cricket,” said Dhanda, in an interview on CBC Edmonton’s Radio Active on Thursday.
The six-week, 2019 Cricket World Cup kicked off on May 30. Ten nations, including India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Australia, will battle it out in the tournament, which is being hosted by England.
When cricket fans in Edmonton are not glued to their screens, watching the matches, many of them will be playing in a game of their own in the Edmonton Cricket Cup, which kicked off on May 25.
“In Edmonton, we have like nine or ten weekends to play,” said Ashok Rao, an organizer for the Edmonton Cricket Cup Board. “So we’ll be waiting all winter to play it again.”
Long games
The sport, which is similar to baseball, is known for its long games, which can go on for days, but the version played in the Edmonton tournament is condensed to three hours per game.
For Rao, who is also originally from India, the tournament is a way to unite the diaspora communities with their love for the game. It’s also a taste of home.
“In India, cricket is a big sport,” he said. “They play cricket everywhere. They watch cricket everywhere. So it’s like a religion there.”
In Edmonton, they play on soccer pitches and make their own cricket markings.
They are also organizing gatherings to watch the World Cup matches over the next six weeks, joining some 1.5 billion TV and digital viewers of this year’s Cricket World Cup, around the world.