This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Durham cricket players — many who were previously gathering to play at 10:30 p.m. in empty GO Station parking lots — are getting better places to play. Clarington, Oshawa and Whitby are opening new cricket pitches this summer.

“We didn’t have a facility. It came down to, what are the bus times at GO parking lots? Play after that. There’s lights. People can get their cricket fix. The problem is at that you can’t coach your kids. People over 40, like myself, want to go to bed early. We need something local and that we can utilize at a Godly hour,” said Clarington resident Nawaz Ahmed, who has been championing the need for municipal cricket pitches.

Cricket players have similar needs to baseball players: combed pitches, proper fences and flood lights for evening games. While there are numerous baseball diamonds in central and east Durham, there have been no municipally owned cricket grounds for residents to use in Whitby, Oshawa or Clarington.

“This community is becoming more diverse,” said Clarington regional councillor Granville Anderson. “We want to make this a welcoming place for all different cultures.”

In the past year, residents have appeared before local councils asking for proper cricket fields. This summer, those requests started being answered.

Whitby’s new, temporary cricket pitch opened on Saturday, July 2 at Brooklin Memorial Park, 67 Winchester Rd. E. The cricket field, in the infield of the walking and running track, includes a temporary pitching mat and wickets, line marking and a storage vault. Whitby staff worked with a number of local partners to plan the new facility and the local Whitby Cricket Club is developing an inclusive program open to the entire community.  

“We’re very pleased to be opening a new, temporary cricket ground for community use at Brooklin Memorial Park. The popularity of the sport of cricket has been growing in Whitby in recent years. This new temporary pitch will help respond to this significant community interest until a permanent field can be considered as part of our long-term parks and recreation master plan update which will begin later this year,” John Romano, Whitby’s commissioner of community services, said via email. “It’s our hope that residents who have yet to experience the sport will have the chance to do so this summer.”

Construction is underway in Oshawa for a new cricket pitch at Stone Street Park, 1535 Cedar St. The field used to be a baseball diamond so it wasn’t a big grading project to convert it, explained manager of parks planning and development Mitch Wiskel.

Only the artificial turf and cricket equipment installation was needed. The sod around the pitch will need a few weeks to establish once construction is complete. By mid-July, the Oshawa cricket pitch will be ready for play.

“This is a small temporary pitch meant to serve the cricket community until a more permanent solution can be built in north Oshawa with the appropriate land requirements,” Wiskel added.

In Clarington, park space for cricket was difficult to find, so the municipality reached an agreement with a local school board to set up a temporary pitch in a Courtice schoolyard. The cricket pitch overlay will be at the Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School, 2260 Courtice Rd.

Clarington purchased a portable mat and storage container for the pitch, and reached an agreement with the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board to use their facilities for municipal programming during the summer.

The Clarington pitch is expected to be ready for play by mid-July.

“That’s temporary. The players, they would like something more permanent,” said Coun. Anderson. “My vision is when we develop the Courtice Waterfront, I want to make sure a permanent cricket pitch becomes part of the plan.”

Ahmed said he would have preferred to see a Clarington Fields baseball diamond converted for cricket but is happy to see some progress being made for the sport he loves. He will “absolutely not” miss playing in the dark in the empty Whitby GO parking lot.

“My oldest daughter is 12. I always worry. If these kids run and dive to catch the ball on that hard concrete, they’re not coming back in one piece,” said Ahmed. “You’re not able to play the sport the way it’s meant to be played.”

Story Behind The Story: This Week was invited out to watch a 10:30 p.m. cricket game in the Whitby GO station parking lot, and then decide to followup on municipal plans to create new cricket pitches in Clarington, Oshawa and Whitby.

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com