Canada’s World Cup Qualification A Plus For Caribbean Tourism!

The Canadians are coming!
By virtue of an incredible victory over hosts Bermuda in the 2023 Americas Qualifier, Canada secured its spot as one of the 20 teams at next year’s 2024 ICC T20 World Cup.
It is a development that augurs well for Caribbean tourism!
The Canadians’ victory over hosts Bermuda in the decider over the weekend, was a reversal of the outcome a week before, when the two teams met on September 30 for the opening match of the tournament. On that occasion, the Bermudians romped to a historic 86-run victory, their first victory over Canada in eight meetings between the two teams.
Victories by both teams in their remaining matches against the Cayman Islands and Panama then set the stage for the tournament decider on October 7.
In a match that was reduced to 18 overs per side as a result of the after effects of Tropical Storm Phillipe, which passed over Bermuda the day before, the Canadians won handily by 39 runs to secure their first-ever spot at the T20 World Cup.
Canada’s qualification for the event, which will be jointly staged by the West Indies and the USA, could potentially be a major boost for Caribbean cricket tourism, more so than if Bermuda had emerged as the Americas Qualifier.
By comparison to Bermuda’s minuscule island population of approximately 65,000, well over 34 million people now call Canada home.
More importantly, over five million Canadians also hail from cricket-playing countries of the Caribbean and South Asia. Canadian residents from South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, where cricket is played most passionately, now number more than four million.
For those individuals, the 2024 T20 World Cup being played as it will be in the three neighboring US cities of Dallas, Miami, and New York, as well as seven Caribbean countries namely Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, St Lucia, St Vincent, and Trinidad & Tobago, will provide opportunities to take in some of the action.
Canada’s cricket team that won the recent qualifier was comprised of four West Indians, three Indians, two Pakistanis, a Sri Lankan, and one Canadian-born player. Dilon Heyliger, Jeremy Gordon, Aaron Johnson, and Nicholas Kirton were the Caribbean-born players.
Heyliger and Gordon are both Guyanese-born, Johnson hails from Jamaica, while Kirton is from Barbados.
Navneet Dhaliwall, Nikhil Dutta, and Pargat Singh are the India-born members. Skipper Saad Bin Zafar is from Pakistan, as is Kaleem Sana. Srimanthe Wijeyeratne of Sri Lanka and Canadian-born Harsh Thaker are the remaining members.
Moreover, those 11 members as well as the squad’s four other players, coaches, managers, and support staff, all belong to a Canadian cricket community, the size of which is estimated to be more than 40,000. When one takes into consideration their families, close friends and associates it constitutes a large target population of persons who may be interested in traveling to the Caribbean next year to support Canada during its 2024 World Cup matches.
Which Caribbean country or USA city – hopefully, one of the former rather than the latter – will benefit directly from the potentially huge numbers of Canadians who will likely be attending World Cup matches is still to be determined. The ICC’s pending announcement of the match schedule will be the determining factor in where Canada’s group stage matches will be played.
The same applies to the Canadian supporters of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, all of whom will also likely be scrutinizing the fixtures when they are eventually released to determine which venues they should attend.
Canada is also home to over 40,000 South African-born residents, some of whom may also be interested in attending World Cup matches to support their team.
Regardless of where the Canadian team’s group stage matches are played, as a result of winter there will be virtually no cricket played in Canada between now and the start of next June’s World Cup. That is an inescapable, often disadvantageous reality of Canadian cricket. As a result, that means Canada’s practice matches will have to be played elsewhere, ideally, somewhere in the Caribbean to provide the best possible acclimatization to the conditions likely to be encountered during the World Cup.
The more progressive tourism boards from among the seven named Caribbean World Cup venues should now be making plans to invite the Canadians to their country early in the New Year, as part of its tournament preparation plans.
Of the seven, Barbados with its vastly superior cricket facilities would arguably be the best choice for the Canadians.
Barbados’ Toronto-based office, under the astute management of Peter Mayers and the direct involvement of Business Development Manager, Stacey Hutchinson, has also always been outstandingly supportive of cricket tourism initiatives. Far more so than their counterparts from any other Caribbean country, as I can attest to!
In light of such circumstances, the Barbados Cricket Association should now be seeking to work directly with the island’s tourism officials, particularly Mayers and Hutchinson in Toronto, to invite Canada to visit to the island early in the New Year. If properly timed and organized, such a tour could quite possibly also attract the participation of families and close friends seeking a warm-weather escape from their winter blahs.
Whether directly from among the families, close friends, and fans of team members, indirectly from within the country’s cricket fraternity or even further afield to the cricketaffiliated residents of Canadian society, interest in next year’s World Cup will now very likely be the highest ever.
By the time next June comes around, T20 World Cup interest among at least five million Canadians should be at an all-time high! It is an interest that both Cricket West Indies (CWI), as well as the respective Caribbean host country venues should be seeking to capitalize on to their fullest possible extent.
But then again, that which should seem to be basic common sense to most, has in recent times often wickappeared as rocket science to many.
Especially concerning West Indies cricket, common sense is rarely ever as prevalent as it should be!
About The Writer: Guyana-born, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets/monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted toward Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.