The crack of the cricket bat sent the ball skyward, interrupting the murmurs of the crowd as their eyes followed players hustling to catch it. Knocked by the superb Hassan Khattak, the hit added to the excitement felt at SFU’s Pakistani Student Association’s (PSA) Cricket Day Tournament.
The PSA hopped from location to location on May 24 — with little time to prepare — in order to make their tournament as playable as possible. A mere eight hours before the day-tournament, the location of the pitch had to be changed from SFU’s tennis courts to the nearby Westridge pitch, just down Burnaby Mountain.
“The bounce was not good!” exclaimed PSA president Shery Alam. Alam says players echoed that cry during the earlier test match at the SFU tennis courts on May 21, prompting the PSA to change venues last minute.
The new playing field — its boundaries marked by paper cups — catering, and notifications to the participants of the change were all arranged and finalized half an hour before the start of the first match.
Cricket is the most popular sport in Pakistan, having first been introduced by the British during their colonial rule of British India. Hosting the cricket tournament fit within the PSAs mandate, which is to promote Pakistani culture, cuisine and way of life, and to promote multiculturalism at SFU.
The club was eager to provide a venue for its top players, including Abdul Majid and Aman Saini. “They were the PSA’s motivation and responsibility to provide a tournament better than last year,” said Alam.
Participants on the eight teams competed all day while loudspeakers provided commentary on the match, occasionally ringing the chosen theme music of teams after a run or a wicket was scored. Of the two finalist teams, the All-Stars celebrated to “Josh-e-Junoon” and the Victorious Secret to “Welcome” — the Cricket World Cup theme song of 2003. The spirit of fun and use of multicultural music added to the type of community through cricket that the PSA had hoped to produce, said Alam.
As the day continued, players milled around and laughed, unconcerned about the length of the tournament, the earlier clouds, or the location change. Many participants joined in, playing and dancing with the black and white husky dog known as “The Great Gatsby” — an unofficial mascot of this and many other events.
Alam was eager to recognize the over 70 sponsors, players, volunteers and spectators who attended the event. The rays of the evening sun continued to shine on the attendees of the match until late in the afternoon, many of whom had arrived as early as 8:00 a.m.
Zainab Bukhari, the PSA’s VP external, thanked everyone in the neighbourhood who stopped and watched the tournament in the day: “We are about community and involvement [. . .] anyone is welcome to attend!”
On Friday, May 30, the PSA awarded the tournament trophy and medals to man of the tournament, best bowler and best batsman. The All-Stars won the tournament, but the PSA considered the day to be a victory for everyone who participated in terms of community building.
Alam himself did some umpiring, but still had time to conclude with The Peak: “Before our journey at SFU is over, before we graduate, Karan [Thukral, PSA’s VP of finance] and I have a challenge: for SFU to approve and have cricket equipment on campus for future students to use.”
