THUNDER BAY – To get a sense of how much the sport of cricket has grown in Thunder Bay over the last 12 months, all one has to do is make a visit to Chapples Park or Current River Park this weekend.
A year ago, squads from Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie came to Thunder Bay along with a squad from Winnipeg to take part in the Ontario Manitoba Championship.
At this weekend’s event, which is put on by the Thunder Bay Cricket Council and got underway on Friday evening, two teams from the host Kombans are joined by the Thunder Bay Gujarat Lions and Thunder Bay Royal Punjab Kings to compete with the Winnipeg Lions for the three-day competition.
“The sport’s growing very fast here in Thunder Bay,” said Abhiram Giri, who is a player for the Kombans and a board member with the Cricket Council.
“There wasn’t an official team here a couple of years ago, but now we have teams developing here with the Kombans and other groups who are making their own teams in Thunder Bay, which is great.
“Now we’re starting to travel elsewhere in Ontario to play and we’ve also started to go down and play in the United States.”
While the competitive teams get the spotlight with their showings at out-of-town events, such as when the Gujarat Lions won the Mayor’s Cup tournament in Timmins back in July, cricket as a whole continues to make strides locally.
“We have the second ground here now at Current River to go along with our pitch here at Chapples, which I think is one of the best ways to help promote the game and get new players wanting to sign up,” Giri said.
“With the Kombans, we have 250 active players at the moment, which is really good. We have our own space in the community and we are always welcoming anybody who wants to learn cricket and help grow the game.”
Part of that growth is welcoming the Winnipeg squads to Thunder Bay on an annual basis.
“It’s really about making that connection so that we can have more players come here and play,” Giri said.
“We can also head to Winnipeg and play and that’s really good for us as it helps to build our program outside of Thunder Bay. As people learn about us in other communities, that helps us grow.”
The Ontario Manitoba Championship resumes at 8 a.m. Saturday with the championship contest starting at 3 p.m. Sunday at Chapples Park.
This marks the last major outdoor event for the Kombans this season, as they’ll soon shift to indoor play and also start up their winter kids camp.
Although the calendar is nowhere close to turning over to 2025, plans are already in motion to make next year’s Ontario Manitoba Championship even bigger.
“We are thinking about moving this tournament up to the middle of August or the end of August,” Giri said.
“That way we don’t have to worry as much about dealing with the sun going down earlier like it does at this time of year and we can also get a few more teams from Winnipeg and elsewhere to come to Thunder Bay.”
