Quebec cricket on the rise? Local player selected for national team for 1st time in 12 years

Shreyas Vasudevareddy Movva, 28, may be the new face of an emerging cricket scene in Quebec.

The software engineer got the call recently telling him he had made the cut for a T-20 Cricket World Cup qualifying tournament, coming up in Antigua & Barbuda Nov. 7-15.

"When I came to Canada, I had two goals. One is to get a masters from (Concordia) University and another one is to get selected for Cricket Canada. So I would say the hunger to achieve the goal was within me," Movva said.

Movva immigrated to Montreal from India five years ago with his ambitious goals.

But, after speaking with friends, he learned that realizing his lifelong dream to play international cricket from Quebec would be difficult.

"Some of the players used to tell me that, 'Oh you won't get selected because they won't take people from Quebec' or something. But I kept believing in the Quebec Cricket Federation management. They helped me a lot."

The federation and its president, Charles Pais, recognized Movva's potential and worked with him to create opportunities for him to showcase his skills at national team training camps, which were often located in the Toronto area.

"It doesn't happen very often," Pais said about Quebec-based players reaching the national team "but this is not a fluke. The level of play is getting better in Quebec."

Pais added that the Quebec federation has grown to around 600 players across 38 club teams at the senior level in 2021. Including other leagues outside of the QCF he estimates there are now more than 1000 senior-level players in the province.

The federation says the biggest challenge is the shortage of proper cricket pitches for play and practice.

"I'm pretty happy for Quebec. I'm pretty happy for Shreyas as well. This is a beginning," said Amarinder Bhinder, the head coach for Canada T-20 Men's national team.

"In the central T20 (training camp), I did notice there was not one, but there were three or four very good cricketers from Quebec. In the future, they can knock down the door. There is some talent in Quebec."

Upon learning that he'd be wearing the maple leaf, the first call Movva made was to his parents in India.

"All the dreams, all the hard work, all the time that I spend on the grounds, it all came to my mind. I was shocked for two or three minutes," Movva said.