Unsafe fields, favouritism, no financial transparency? Cricket players accuse Quebec federation

A pair of cricket players in Montreal are raising concerns about how the Quebec Cricket Federation – the provincial governing body of cricket – manages cricket leagues and grounds.

The players say uneven field conditions – such as the Verdun cricket grounds in Montreal – are unacceptable. And some of the better grounds, they say, are only allocated to certain teams.

“There is a lot of problem that we demand with the league. They are not answering or they are not taking care of the problems,” said Sureshkumar Sivasubramaniam, president and player with the Quebec Panthers.

Tejinder Pal Singh, a player with the Punjab Lions, says the conditions of fields in Quebec are significantly worse than other provinces like Ontario or B.C.

“The worst conditions, with the grass and the water puddle all over here,” said Singh, who goes by TJ. “And then we have spoken to the committee so many times that what is going on and the conditions are worse here to play. Eighty per cent of the teams are playing cricket here, and the rest 20 per cent are playing at Atwater.

“Looking around here, we can see the puddles and the grass, and you see the big patches behind me. That’s where the people are playing with this condition that even in India, people are playing in the village, I think they’re better than us.”

Sivasubramaniam, also known as Suresh, says the Verdun fields’ condition is a downright safety issue, as players and even spectators are at risk.

“Field quality, as you can see, it’s uneven,” he said. “Nobody can run for a catch. Because when you’re playing, you’re running, looking at the ball, you don’t know where you’re landing, you can break your knee and you’re gone for the season or two, three, we don’t know.

“You can see there’s a garden. If there’s a small kid standing there and the ball could hit the kid and the kid could be gone, on the spot. I told them last year to put a net on the side to protect those kind of incidents. They haven’t done that.”

The players are also critical of the quality of cricket balls that are used during the games.

“The ball doesn’t work more than five overs and it’s finished,” Singh said. “And then if we are talking about 40 overs, how can you play that ball?

Biases in team selection is another of the players’ accusations.

“Team selection is based on the people who are in the committee. They are favouring the people whoever they want it to play for them,” said Singh.

Added Sivasubramaniam: “And also selections of Quebec provincial players. I think the players should be only residents from Quebec who participate in the games, fully participate in the seasons, should be selected for the provincial team. Not now, they’re selecting players from Ontario who lives there, they come here and then they select them.”

The concerns were raised in a petition directed to the Quebec Cricket Federation along with other issues, such as financial transparency.

“I wonder where $102,000 they collect yearly is going,” Sivasubramaniam said. “They haven’t done financial audit for the last two, three years. Nobody asked and it has to be done by third party.”

“There’s no third-party audit have been done on this,” Singh added. “Any audit has been done on these guys, but they come with and if somebody asks the question, they pass the question and they don’t want to answer that.”

Several teams had initially agreed to sign the petition, to force a special general meeting, but now it appears that almost all the teams have withdrawn from the petition – and it’s not exactly clear why.

“The league came back by threatening us that they would ban all 21 teams if we, if I don’t withdraw from the petition. And also it was a call by the president who made the call to me,” Sivasubramaniam explained.

“Everyone calling them individually and asking them to withdraw the petition. So all the team withdraw the petitions. Probably the same thing happened to me, which I withdraw in the end when all the teams withdraw the petition because there’s no point of one or two teams being there, you know.”

“People who ever has been filed a petition against them, they have given the threats,” Singh said. “And everybody has emails of threatening them. And since Cricket Canada or anybody is not even asking them any question, so they keep on doing the same thing from so many years.”

CityNews contacted the Quebec Cricket Federation about the concerns in the petition, but they did not want to comment.

“Some people got scared,” Sivasubramaniam said. “And this is the problem with our people. They don’t stand up and fight. They want other people to fight their fights. And then when we win, they all come together and say, ‘oh, we won it.’ But we have to be together.”