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Canada cricket reaches for the SkyDome

Cricket Canada has outlined ambitious plans to become a centre for staging international matches as part of a bid to raise the profile of the game, and a scheme for an indoor event features highly

Sahil Dutta
Sahil Dutta
26-Jan-2010
Cricket Canada has outlined ambitious plans to become a centre for staging international matches as part of a bid to raise the profile of the game, and a scheme for an indoor event features highly.
"We are working on investment in our infrastructure, money from government, and in addition we want some good international fixtures," Ranjit Saini, Cricket Canada's interim president, told Cricinfo. "We want to create a unique Canadian cricket event that people can look forward to every year.
"Annually we could have an event in the SkyDome [the Rogers Centre in Toronto], trying to create a mix of entertainment and cricket, that cricket lovers throughout the world can look forward to.
"It could be a sixes tournament like Hong Kong or could be Twenty20 as well, but we want to bring in an entertainment angle to it - perhaps with audience participation in some respect - but it's very early planning so that's all I'd want to say at this stage."
Canada has a difficult task attracting international cricket, not least because of the long winters when the country is covered in snow, but Saini felt that this could work to their advantage.
"We'd want something for the coming year. There are two proposals, one for summer and one for winter. My preference is for winter, because we're covered under snow and there could be real excitement with an indoor event, recognised throughout the world as a unique fixture."
Despite the ambitious idea, Saini is yet to make approaches to potential partners. "We haven't spoken to formally to any cricket board or TV company as yet, but we had an initial meeting with some interested parties in India on December 16."

Sahil Dutta is assistant editor of Cricinfo