As Canada went about their batting business against Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Friday (June 7), conversation on the sidelines turned to the increasing strength of their neighbours. "I was saying that the USA have built a very good team," Ingleton Liburd, the general manager at Cricket Canada, told Cricbuzz, "and one of the gentlemen I was talking to said, 'Maybe Canada needs to follow that model.'"
The previous day, the USA had beaten Pakistan in a World Cup that they are hosting for the first time. The upset confirmed, in case there was any doubt, that this is very much the USA's moment; that cricket is coming of age in the country at an unprecedented rate. It's been enough to cause their more established neighbours, who have competed in four 50-over World Cups, to take a moment for introspection.
The 'model' that has driven the USA's swift development has involved importing dozens of established cricketers from full member nations to bolster the domestic game, and promoting those who could qualify to the national team. It's not a new tactic in Associate cricket, but nobody has done it on such a scale before.
"To get that many quality players in, at the age they're at, a lot of Associate countries would kill for something like that," says Zubin Surkari, who represented Canada at the 2011 World Cup, worked for the ICC Americas and now manages operations for Major League Cricket. He points out the improvement in the Netherlands' performances after the likes of Ryan ten Doeschate and Roelof van der Merwe became available, and also references the game's history in his native country.
"Canada has done that. When they qualified (for the 2003 World Cup) in 2001, they had local players with an injection of good players who had moved to the country - not intentionally to play cricket. Plus they had Canadian passport holders like John Davison. They rode that qualification from 2001-2011 on the backs of those players, along with good domestics."
But while Liburd concedes that Canada has fallen behind the US in recent times, he won't be scanning the scorecards of first-class leagues in other countries for potential imports. "Personally I prefer to do the development route," he says. "It's great to get players in from the outside, but then what happens to the guys who are coming through the Under-15 and Under-19 systems? Do you just leave them hanging? I admire what the US has done and wish them well. We just need to see how we can really get our cricket going."
This approach is easy to follow given that Liburd believes Canadian cricket is "in a good place", citing continual growth and the emergence of new population dynamics. Senior participation in the game has more than trebled in the past 20 years.
"Several leagues are getting bigger with the immigrant population, but the good thing is that a lot of schools are now playing cricket," Liburd reports. "In Ontario, which is the biggest province, cricket is now in the curriculum, so a lot of schools are asking us to come in and introduce the game and have coaching sessions. I think that's a good sign for the future. What we see when it comes to the Under-19s is that all of the kids may be of Asian or West Indian heritage, but they're all born in Canada. A lot of local Canadians are starting to catch onto the game."
As promising as this may be, it also speaks to a more patient approach to development - and one that contrasts with the booming game in the United States. A look at the ICC scorecards in the two countries shows that 10 years ago they had comparable participation figures, but the USA now has twice the senior and 10 times the junior numbers.
While Canada may have chosen a slow and steady path, it is also what's possible within the financial reality. The USA's import strategy has been shoved along by the influx of private investment, particularly into the MLC. That investment has been attracted to a population more than eight times the size of Canada's in a country with an unmatched track record of profitable sporting enterprises.
If development in the USA has therefore been driven as much by the private sector as by USACA, it has also nudged USACA's non-ICC income up to $1.7m in their latest set of reported accounts - almost six times as much as Cricket Canada recorded. This has seen the USA overtake their northern neighbours on the facility front, where Canada previously led the way.
Surkari points out that Canada does benefit from a concentration of good players around the Greater Toronto Area, meaning their quality cricket happens within a short radius. It's something that can also be a weakness though, and Liburd cites spreading the game more evenly through the regions as a current objective.
Such initiatives might not grab headlines but tend to have positive impacts over the long term, and they are the focus for Liburd right now. The 63-year-old was born in Trinidad but played for Canada and has seen administrations come and go in the country across several decades. This has often meant a lack of continuity, and long-term progress, which is something he believes is changing.
"I think with different administrations coming in, there have been different strategies and goals. Each one has a different idea to the one before," he reflects. "If we have a goal over the next 10 years that we work towards regardless of who gets in, then we will get there."
Climate is a major pain point for Canada, whose outdoor season is usually around three months long. By contrast, Texas, California and Florida - three growth areas in the States - have climates where cricket can be played eight months of the year. Nitish Kumar, the batsman who swapped Canada for the United States four years ago and hit the boundary that secured a Super Over against Pakistan, has previously cited the amount of cricket played in each country as a factor in his decision.
One milestone that will assist Canada's desire to retain its players was reached last year when 17 national contracts were handed out for the first time - 13 full time and four part time. The result is that the best players have been training together more regularly, even when kept indoors through the long winter. Results are becoming visible.
"You can see the difference," says Liburd. "We went on a training tour to St Kitts before we came to the World Cup, and Keith Arthurton - the former West Indies player - was saying to me, 'Your guys look really fit and strong.' That was because we were able to have the players training at the Olympic Centre. Having the players contracted full time had a big impact on their preparation."
If the USA's shock win was on everyone's minds during the first innings of Canada's match on Friday, Canada had stolen the limelight by the end of the second with an unexpected victory over Ireland. They might not be grabbing the same attention as their noisier neighbours, but Canada at least appear to be on a steady upward trajectory.
(With additional inputs by Bertus de Jong)