As cricket grows locally, North Bay Panthers look for a home

Pursuit is a sports feature series highlighting athletes, coaches, and staff and significant sporting events from North Bay and the surrounding area.                     

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Enthusiasm for cricket is growing in North Bay. The North Bay Cricket Club has been around since 2012, but this past year they took a big step forward and now have a team name and will be known as the North Bay Panthers.  

Vashu Kaarudaiar, the team's captain, was a guest on a recent episode of “To North Bay with Love” with Lisa Boivin, alongside Romy Ghumman, a local real estate agent and club member.  

“We're getting a lot of help from the community this year; we raised funds of $15,000 to $20,000 from the community for our club,” says Ghumman. “Last year we were paying from our own pockets and even this year we were pitching in from our businesses and the money helps pay for the club fees for students who may not be able to afford those fees.” 

Ghumman says the funds also help cover the costs of playing. 

“We don't have a cricket ground here, we have to travel to play, and that means we have to pay for accommodations, we have to pay for food, we have to pay for the travel as well. Every tournament costs us around $3,000 to $4,000, so this year we have help from the community to take care of those costs.” 

Kaarudaiar owns and operates the Circle K on Cassells Street and says when they started the club in 2012, they were originally playing in the park in Callander. 

“There was talk of giving us a permanent spot in Callander until COVID hit. Then we’re not sure what happened but getting a ground in Callander didn’t work out and that was when Romy pitched the idea to talk North Bay and try to find a home ground for ourselves here.” 

Ghumman says, “We’ve been working with the city and talking to Melinda Fry (City of North Bay's manager of sports & events) and we have seen some parks here in the city. Not all of them were very suitable for cricket and they're doing their work to find a suitable place. I think they have found three places where they want to build and we're hoping to get this in 2025. We want to have this as soon as possible so that we can host tournaments here.” 

“We got Canadore College on board as a sponsor this year,” adds Kaarudaiar. “We have other big sponsors like the Camco gas and Wolves Den gas station, Jiffy Lube, Young Forestry, Romy Ghumman Real Estate, Wendy's, Milano Pizza and Shoppers Drug Mart.” 

Ghumman says other northern cities have places to play with fields in Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, Timmins and one in Sudbury, with the Nickel City currently constructing a second one. He says those cities and their member clubs are bringing in teams from around the province for tournaments. 

“If we had cricket around here it would be a very ideal location. It is centralized for everybody. Teams from the south and the north can travel here. That could have a very good impact on our city,” he says. “Right now, we are playing against other cities, but those cities and teams are not coming here to play. For teams in the southern end of Ontario, going to somewhere like Timmins is too far, but I know some teams have gone there twice to play.” 

The game itself has been tabbed as the fastest-growing sport in Canada today, but it has taken a long time to really grab hold of Canadians' attention, despite having its roots here since the mid-1800s. During that time it was so popular that the countries first Prime Minister, Sir John A. McDonald declared it Canada’s national sport and the governing body Cricket Canada has been in operation since 1892. But by World War I, other sports including hockey, lacrosse and baseball were becoming more popular. 

“It is a little similar to baseball. For instance, you have a pitcher, called a bowler and there’s a batsman, which in baseball is a hitter,” says Ghumman.  

Kaarudaiar says, “Cricket is played over a round-shaped field with a diameter of 130 meters (about 426.51 ft) and each team gets to play with 11 players. When one team bats, the other team has to bowl, and the bowling team can have all eleven players on the field at once while the batting team sends two players at the same time. The main objective of the bowling team is to get the wickets of the batsmen, and make sure the other team gets all their outs or restrict them with the lowest possible score total.” 

He continues, “Then they come to bat next and then have to chase the total. That's the nutshell of cricket. But there are three different versions of cricket, such as the T-20, One Day International, and Test Cricket. So, everything has different rules and different criteria for a team to get a victory. But basically, it is restricting the opposition to score, and you go and chase that score.” 

Ghumman says, “In baseball, a home run is when you hit it out of the park and when you do that in cricket it's automatically six runs. That is the maximum runs you can score in one ball.” 

Both Ghumman and Kaarudaiar come from a background which millions of Canadians can relate to, whether it's themselves who are first-generation Canadians, or their parents, or grandparents who came to Canada looking for an opportunity. 

Ghumman immigrated from India to Canada as an International Student in 2012, and has been living in North Bay since 2019. 

“I lived in Vancouver, and I did my studies in mass communication and eventually, I worked as a security officer in B.C., and through that process, I got permanent residency. Once I got that, I was working as a part-owner at a Subway restaurant and at the same time I was a volunteer firefighting too.” 

Kaarudaiar has lived in North Bay since 2016. 

“I was taking aviation at Canadore. I graduated and worked as a manager at Circle K and got my permanent residency here. I run my own business now, I operate the Circle K on Cassells Street.” 

They were able to find each other in North Bay and find a community of like-minded people who love cricket. 

Ghumman says, “Cricket is one medium where we connect with each other. I saw a bunch of guys playing in a park in Callander and I joined them. From there, we started playing regularly and we thought about participating in tournaments. We built a team which included students who didn’t have a lot to do because either they couldn’t find jobs or they had nothing to do other than stay at home, so this really helped with their mental health.” 

Ghumman adds, “This has become a big community. We started with 20 people and now we have more than 150 in our club. I've seen players who do not know how to play but they loved joining and loved being able to have conversations with other people. After our cricket matches we connect with each other, we sit and talk and make sure that if there are any problems, they have someone to listen to. This team has really become a family.” 

Kaarudaiar says, as the captain he takes his role seriously, even though every decision they come to, is made as a collective, “I am the captain, but I don’t have crazy powers over the team. We all lead together. I give the directions, but I talk to Romy and a couple of other team members about what to do. Everyone pitches in their ideas and then I take all the collective ideas and see what is good for the team and we go from there.” 

He adds, “As Romy said, this is not just a team. We are more like a family, on and off the field. We support each other with everything. Whatever we can do within our capacity, we will do our best. We have a mutual bond and respect for each other. While being a captain is different and they listen to me, it is a collective of the whole team. I just put it on the paper. We support each other every day.” 

“At the end of the day, everybody is enjoying the game," Ghumman sums up. "We go home happy afterwards. With all the weekly stresses in work and everything else, this is somewhere we can shed our stress and be happy.” 

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