Cricket has been growing slowly but surely in Prince Albert, and it got a boost when the Prince Albert Panthers took home their first title by winning the Saskatoon T20 Division II championship earlier this month.
Panthers captain Cobus Van Der Merwe says the championship allows the cricket community in Prince Albert to bring more attention to the sport, which has been growing in recent years.
“This club has been going for about seven, eight years now, and the guys are trying to grow the game in the city. There’s lots of growing interest in the game across the province and even the country. It’s just good to (win) the first real trophy or championship. It’s just another opportunity to grow the game and increase its visibility in the community. There’s lots of people moving into the city all the time, people who have played cricket before.”
There are two leagues that run concurrently that the Panthers compete in. There is a 20-and-over division and a 35-and-over division. Prince Albert failed to qualify for the playoffs in the 35-and-over division.
The 20-and-over division is tiered into two separate divisions and with the championship this year, the Panthers will move up a level.
Van Der Merwe says Prince Albert has been able to get a consistent returning group of players which has helped them grow as a team.
“It was great for us to win because now Saskatoon Cricket, they changed their two-division system. The team will move up a division which is pretty good as well. Overall the year’s been really good. It’s been a fun year. We’ve got a few new players. PA always seems to be a place where people come through here and move on. The struggle is getting a good, stable base of players which we seem to have now.
Although he is not directly involved with the board of directors, Van Der Merwe says that PA Cricket has done a great job at spreading the word about the sport in the community.
“It’s growing all the time, when we started, (it was) just the one team, now under the umbrella of the club, there are four teams so it is growing all the time. We got lots of guys from India, Pakistan, a few South African guys, and that’s about it. The idea is just to grow it more as the community grows. The guys who do a good job in just trying to spread it all the time and make more and more people aware that cricket is in the city.”
sports@paherald.sk.ca
