Cricket, anyone? Toronto creating strategy to meet ‘growing demand’
Global News
Recognizing its growing popularity, the City of Toronto is in the process of finalizing a cricket strategy to better meet the rising demand.
Recognizing its growing popularity, the City of Toronto is finalizing a cricket strategy to better meet rising demand.
The development of the strategy, which began in 2020, will be considered by the executive committee at its meeting on Tuesday.
With 27 cricket pitches within city parks, some of which are shared with other activities, Toronto wants to increase access to the sport through new facilities and partnerships with institutions like schools.
“Recognizing that cricket is one of the fastest-growing sports across the region, a new cricket strategy is being developed to better meet this growing demand,” staff said in a June 4 presentation.
“Demand for youth cricket programs and access to cricket facilities is increasing in many communities across the city.”
In that presentation, staff said the cricket strategy focuses on three goals: more fields, better fields and more opportunities to play.
So far, the city has made pitch improvements at several parks, including Cedarvale Park and Flemingdon Park, as well as offering beginner cricket programming at several locations in 2023. Those programs are full with waitlists, staff said.
They identified a number of projects for 2025 – funded this year – which include introducing a full-size, fully-lit cricket field at McCleary Park and additional practice cages at Byng Park. They are also exploring converting baseball diamonds at Corvette Park to a full-sized cricket pitch.