By IANS,
Toronto : Canada, which officially resurrected cricket as a national game just two months ago, is set to hold its first one-day international tri-series also featuring the West Indies, and Bermuda from Monday.
The matches will be played at King City near here Aug 18-24, with the controversial Darrell Hair of Australia and Roger Dill of Bermuda standing as umpires.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has deputed Ranjan Madugalle to officiate as match referee.
After the Sahara Cup between India and Pakistan here in the late 1990s, the tri-series will be the first major international ODI series on Canadian soil.
Scotia Bank, the country’s second largest bank that has officially undertaken promotion of cricket in Canada, will sponsor of the tri-series and will do so in perpetuity, Cricket Canada CEO Atul Ahuja said.
“It is a matter of pride that top international players from the West Indies and Bermuda will be playing for the first time in Canada,” he said.
With the ODI series becoming an annual feature from this year, cricket will get a big boost in Canada, Ahuja added.
The series has come as a consolation for the fledging cricketing nation that was to hold the first quadrangular Twenty20 series this week.
But the slam-bang series had to be cancelled because of Pakistan’s non-participation.
Apart from the Canadian government and the nation’s top banks, the ICC has targeted Canada as a priority nation to promote cricket.
The nation’s cricket governing body has just rechristened itself Cricket Canada. The new body has ushered in major changes to make cricket popular among white Canadians and schoolchildren.