The York Lions’ cricket club are champions, believe it or not.
They won the first ever Chartered Institute of Management Accountants University Cricket Championship this past summer, but they continue to struggle to win the support they need from the Lions to achieve their long-term goals.
The cricket club is one of more than 20 competitive clubs affiliated with the York Lions. These clubs generally play sports that are not played in the Ontario University Athletics and Canadian Interuniversity Sport, such as archery, badminton, and water polo.
All players in these competitive clubs must be students at York, yet the Lions provide a limited amount of funding and support for clubs, leaving management to the clubs themselves.
On Saturday, June 13, the cricket club defeated their counterparts from the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus to win the very first CIMA University Cricket Championship at Sunnybrook Park in Toronto. The championships were sponsored by CIMA. The current president of York’s cricket club, Hassan Jamil, received the Best Batsman award, and his teammate Umair Khalid was named the match’s MVP. Teams from Ryerson and UOIT were also defeated by York’s cricket club on its road to victory.
Despite this success, Jamil says that the York Lions’ have been increasingly unsupportive in recent years, specifically noting funding in regards to clubs attending major tournaments.
The tournament he has in mind is the American College Cricket Championship, held annually in the United States. York’s cricket club has participated in the tournament in the past. In 2010, York’s team won the championship in a series that attracted viewers from as far away as Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates. York also achieved second place in the two years that followed.
The American College Cricket Championship was most recently held in February 2015, in which three Canadian universities participated, including Ryerson, McGill, and the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. York has been unable to participate since 2012, according to Jamil, because of the unsupportive stance from the Lions. He says the cricket club is not affiliated with the Lions this year, in protest.
“We promote various ways for clubs to raise funds and encourage them to share ideas,” says Peter Mumford, the associate director of campus recreation for the Lions.
Mumford notes an annual meeting they do for all competitive clubs, and also says they educate them on how they can complete different fundraisers with the use of Tait McKenzie.
The cricket club was not present at the meeting held earlier this year. Mumford confirms that so far the club has registered with neither the Student Community and Leadership Development, or Athletics and Recreation.
Mumford mentions that funding for competitive clubs has been available, but is based on a three-tiered approach which is based off of its level of activity. They are divided into the OUA competition, competitive activity (sport-specific leagues not affiliated with OUA), and recreational activity.
Cricket is not played in the OUA, so it can be considered either competitive or recreational activity. Since the cricket club is not officially a part of any major competitive league, it is likely considered in the tier of recreational activity.
Regardless of funding, Jamil hopes that his team will be able to return to the American College Cricket Championship in March of 2016 in Florida.
He estimates that the cricket club would require around $7,000 for travel expenses.
“We don’t expect the school to pay us each and every cent of it,” he says. But he does expect substantial support, and the remaining costs can be covered by members of the club.
Hassam Munir, Sports & Health Editor
Images courtesy of Hassan Hassan
