Its Only Cricket

Current Cricket Series : South Africa vs Australia, West Indies vs New Zealand. Coming Up : India in NZ 2009.

India to play 5 ODI's against West Indies in Toronto, Canada.

Filed under Cricket Article

Lets get this straight – It was Indian team who went to South Africa for the first time in 1992, after Proteas came out of the ban which kept them out of International cricket for 20 years, it was Indian team who played 4 test matches instead of 3 against West Indies recently when West Indies cricket board was short of money to prepare for the coming Cricket World Cup.

Now again Indian cricket board has given the green signal to a five one day international series against West Indies in Toronto, Canada in September. Again for the same reason – West Indies needs money and for that they need to play more cricket. Who better than Indian board to ask for a help, who is always ready to send its national team to anywhere on earth when it comes to playing cricket matches.

I am sure none of we viewers are going to complain as well, as its always good to watch our Team India play against some team, even if its the same old West Indies, again.

Indian board had promised to play some ODI matches in USA but now they have changed their mind to Toronto in Canada as none of the American cricket grounds has got the approval of ICC to hold an International cricket match. In simple words – the reason is American cricket grounds are not up to the required standards as yet and thus – Canada gets the benefit. But how are we going to attract Americans to cricket if we don't show them the highest standards of it. We all know that if that country joins in, cricket will get lot more global than what it is now.

Anyways, lets talk about Cricket in Canada for the time being and hope that America will join sometime soon. There has been 25 one day matches already at Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club in Toronto, Canada and if there comes no hurdles, India will be playing 5 more matches against West Indies, sometime in mid- September.

I remember having long conversations with my Dad, just before the first time Indian team were about to play in Toronto – in the Sahara Cup against Pakistan, and that was when I got Cable TV at my home for the first time. It was the month of September in 1996. At that time, it was ESPN who did the live telecast of those matches, and then again in 1997, and again in 1998. In each of these three years, India played Pakistan in a series of 5 ODI's, 15 matches in all, and the end figures were – India 7 and Pakistan 8.

It all started with first every cricket series in Canada, India vs Pakistan, 5 one day matches, in 1997 and that probably was the closest series in all of the 5 Sahara Cups...... wait a minute, I said 3 India vs Pakistan series, each of 5 ODI's, so how come 25 matches in all at Toronto Cricket ground..??

Answer - the last two series in Toronto were India vs West Indies and then West Indies vs Pakistan.

Indian government, or BCCI or someone very important had made a decision of not playing Pakistan anymore in bilateral series, as there has been trouble between the two countries. And that is when West Indies were called as the third team, to first play 5 matches with India, and then with Pakistan to complete the commitment.

Sahara Cup – the name of all those 5 cricket series, was quite a bit of success and Toronto was then considered as a HOT upcoming neutral venues to host International cricket, but then Kargil War settled things down.

I am tempted to write more about those series, as I had the pleasure of watching all those 25 matches, but I also know how important your time is. So let me create another article on that, and leave you here if you want to go..!!

Its Only Cricket

India to play 5 ODI's against West Indies in Toronto, Canada.

Related Articles

Get new posts in email

feeds