Build an oval and they will come. And they did, every two years, from places such as Auckland, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore, and they spent money on the Island while playing the pastoral sport they love. But not this pandemic summer.
The organizers of the biennial Victoria International Cricket Tournament, the longest running six-a-side event in the world, knew their chances of hosting the 2020 event dwindled with each passing day. The tournament, scheduled for July 30 to Aug. 8 at Beacon Hill and Windsor parks, was cancelled Saturday.
“We were hanging on for as long as we could, to see how the world situation developed,” said tournament chair Nick Grant.
“Obviously, it is disappointing for everyone, but cancelling is the only sensible thing to do given the priority of controlling COVID-19. We had lined up a very strong group of teams and it would have been a terrific 10 days of cricket and tourism in Victoria.”
The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the sports industry. The Victoria cricket tournament joins a long list of cancelled or postponed Island events. The Canadian women’s rugby team was to have hosted the Canada Sevens this weekend at Westhills Stadium in Langford as part of its Olympic preparations.
The Canada men’s soccer games against Trinidad and Tobago, considered key for 2022 World Cup Qatar qualifying in CONCACAF and scheduled for March at Westhills Stadium, were cancelled. So too the annual Times Colonist 10K last weekend.
The cancellation of the 2020 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, rippled across the continent to Saanich and caused the cancellation of the Canadian Little League championship scheduled for August at Layritz Park.
The annual Stars on Ice, featuring former world championship and Winter Olympic figure skating medallists and scheduled for May 12 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, has been cancelled. The annual Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada DC Bank Open, slotted for June 4-7 at Uplands Golf Club, has been postponed. The Tokyo Olympic basketball qualifying tournament, originally scheduled for June 23-28 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, has been rescheduled to next summer to coincide with the new Olympic starting date of July 23, 2021.
The Victoria Royals’ Western Hockey League post-season was cancelled, as were the B.C. Hockey League playoffs just as the Cowichan Valley Capitals and Nanaimo Clippers were poised to meet in the Island Division final. Pacific FC’s soccer season in the Canadian Premier League is on hold and the scheduled starts this month of the Victoria Shamrocks’ and Nanaimo Timbermen’s 2020 Western Lacrosse Association seasons have been postponed.
Grant noted the depth of the cancellations. His 12-year-old son, Desmond, will not get to play his final season of Little League at Lakehill. The Grant family annually billets Victoria HarbourCats baseball players in the West Coast League, something that is unlikely to happen this summer.
Sport, however, can play a big part of the economic recovery next year, said Grant. He noted the Victoria cricket tournament began in 1986 to help bolster Island tourism out of concerns the majority of visitors that year would be siphoned to Vancouver for Expo ’86. In that spirit, Grant said, the plan is to host the Victoria tournament next year and not the scheduled next date of 2022.
“The team that was coming to play from Dallas said they didn’t want to wait for 2022 and that got us thinking to host the tournament next year to start a new two-year rotation,” said Grant.
Going in 2021 sends a significant signal, he added.
“All our visiting teams are keen to get back to Victoria as soon as possible, and as organizers, we’d love to contribute to what is, hopefully, a huge bounce back year for tourism on the Island in 2021,” said Grant.
“So we are planning for the event next year, which links nicely with how it all started way back in 1986 — a focus on Victoria tourism.”
