Toronto Tour Report ….
Thanks to Krish & Kazi for helping on this report
After a 2-year hiatus, it was exciting to see a 3 game Toronto Tour back on the schedule. An opportunity to meet old friends, late night outings (Vegas style) and oh yes, the cricket on the finest grounds this side of the world. With a busy post-COVID touring schedule at TCSCC, we ended up with one fixture on the grass wicket at TCSCC and two fixtures on astro. With the tour confirmed, the usual rituals followed to get bodies to travel - commitments, cancellations, coaxing, cajoling. Thanks to some last-minute additions, we managed to get exactly 11 bodies committed for the whole tour. A far cry from the glory days of 22 tourists that gave birth to some novel selection criterion!
In email exchanges, our dear friend Phil Nutall mentioned it was the 50th year when this partnership started between Toronto Cricket Club & Merion/BOCC. There is a lot of cricketing history and some of them can be discussed with Chris/Kenny and of course with Tahir Bhai over a few drinks.
The touring party started its journey up north on 06/30, some reached there on the same day, others decided to break in Kingston and reach the next day. The first evening itself set the tone for the tour as couple of people finished an entire bottle of scotch the same night (one of them was our own kid, Patel). We will leave the evening stories with that as all the evenings were amazing with our own T taking a lead on slaying the scotch! We also got to know our guest players Matt and Michael “The Better” Cooblall.
BOCC vs TCSCC July 1st, 2022
Game 1 was at the scenic TCSCC. The wicket, pristine grounds and facilities never cease to leave the tour virgins and veterans drooling.
Kunal asked the team to arrive by 11:00 AM and skippered his first game at TCSCC as club captain of BOCC, with his family members (sister and co) in attendance to witness this historic moment! TCSCC generosity continued as always by giving us the toss. Jon (skipper after Phil’s retirement) walked with me to the center talking about the conditions and the forecast and mentioned the magical act of flipping the coin so that the teams know that we did the toss.
Dark clouds and thunderstorms reduced the game to a 32overs a side. We had 2 youngsters join us from Buffalo for the day to provide some extra legs on the field. Vishnu & Shariq opened the batting for BOCC, Vish looked in great touch striking 3 boundaries before being called by Shariq for a non-existent run and was promptly run out for 13. Shariq went on score the first 50 of the tour, along with Parth and tour virgin Charlie who slammed an 18 ball 50. Kunal gave his family plenty to cheer as he provided the final burst with a rapid 47 to get BOCC to a more than respectable total of 271/7 in 32 overs. Given the late start, lunch was foregone, and Toronto started their innings. They never got any momentum, loosing wickets at regular intervals as other than the opener, Qaisar (51*), they ended with 177/5 in 32 overs.
Dinner was a fantastic affair at Soorthy’s, including fortifying the tour kitty with a fines night, followed by a late night binge at a steakhouse near the hotel.
BOCC vs York July 2nd, 2022
Game 2 was at the York CC in Glendon, on a sandy astro turf and smallish ground. We won the toss, elected to bat, and Vishnu/Parth strode in purposefully. We had one York CC youngster, Sahil, assisting us with the scoring as he wasn’t picked for the game, losing out a spot to his brother. Expecting an additional guest player (who never showed up), Shariq coaxed the York CC to play the youngster for a 12 a side. Meanwhile, Vishnu/Parth hit 3 boundaries each and looked in good nick from the previous day, as Ali Bhai asked what a competitive score was at the ground and the reply was 180 in 40 overs. We ended up losing 4 quick wickets, before a 100-run partnership between Krish (44) and Kunal (60) took us to a competitive 203 in 38 overs, or so we thought.
A decent lunch followed by a team meeting where we were confident about putting some early pressure on with wickets, we took the field enthusiastically. Their opener, Roy, rode some early luck to retire on 50 while Tahir and Ali Bhai took a couple of wickets to keep us in the hunt. The last-minute youngster Sahil came in at a crucial time and hit a clean 50 from 28 balls to set up an easy win as York cantered to 203/7 in 34.1 overs.
We retired to a Greek restaurant to commiserate over some fine nourishment, meeting our Toronto friends as Tahir Bhai dulled the pain of the loss with a constant supply of wine and ouzo while Ali Bhai hydrated with water and Kazi enjoyed a Heineken 0 to “fit in”!
BOCC vs Toronto Police July 3rd, 2022
Game 3 was a new experience for all as it was on a new ground, an astro turf, thanks to our beloved Ali Khullo. 11 tired bodies rolled in, with couple of players indicating they needed to leave early. We lost the toss, were put into field, and the opening pair of Kunal/Charlie removed the openers quickly. And then the trouble started as the #3, an ex-Canadian u-19, played a composed innings of 72 with the #4 and #5 hitting rapid, identical 47 each as Toronto Police racked up 284 in 35 overs.
We were pretty confident at the break as we had the solidity of our day 1 batting performance as the barometer of our abilities. Vishnu/Charlie opened and although Vishnu was back under the shade quickly as he missed his brother’s presence, Kazi joined Charlie as they put on a 50-run partnership in no time as Charlie hit 48, falling first ball to the wily Ravi, who picked up 5 crucial wickets, gutting our riposte. Krish 90 runs innings helped us to reach a decent score, but he didn’t get enough support from the other end to take us across the winning line. We were always in the hunt, right till the 33-34th over, but the lack of any meaningful partnerships didn’t give the base to get over the finish line as we finished on 254/8 in 35 overs.
A tame end to the tour given the stellar first game we had, as some of the players started their trek back to good ol’ USA on the same day, while some of us indulged in the fine Toronto night life and made the drive back on Independence Day with a hangover! Another tour with stories that will live in memory for a long time.
Kazi’s First Toronto Tour’s Experience
An exciting journey is a kind of a breath of freshness and inspiration for new beginnings. It is always interesting to discover something new, see a different way of life, meet different people, try different foods, listen to different musical rhythms. The man was created from memory and consciousness. You need to constantly replenish your memory so that there is something to remember and tell others.
And what better way to do it with the team I love, the teammates I admire and the sport I am so passionate about. I thank BOCC for arranging such a wonderful tour to Toronto which enabled me to create such wonderful memories. This trip was a bridge to connect between the legends and the newbies along with the current leadership. The late-night chills and hang outs, visiting different places (sober or not!) just added spice to the curry and of course there was wonderful cricket and generous hosts.
I think it would suffice for me to say, if fate gives me another opportunity to have another trip like this, I will just pack up my suitcase and go!
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Hope to see a good participation when Toronto team visits on October 7th.