Match report - Indcan II Vs Windies II @Mackin May 29, 2016 - By Omkar S.

Our team was strong on paper but today we had to deliver to our potential to grab that win. Playing Windies in their own backyard is not an easy ask.

Won the toss and elected to bat. Anant and Aniket played solid and gave us a good start. Later on Sudipta hit some glorious shots out of the park and Sanjay Ankit followed suit. Sanjay P and Ankit's partnership was key for us in terms of stability and run rate. Almost everyone chipped in with bat and especially Vikram who's quick 28 runs set the opponent a target of 194.

Bowling conditions weren't perfect for swing and the Windies got off to a flyer. It was solid fielding performance from the team where we dropped hardly a couple of catches as against 5/6 in all our previous games. Bowling got back on track after their star batsman got out on Ankit's bowling. From then on Ganesh again lead the attack with 4 wickets. Later Vikram bowled brilliantly, taking the wicket of their main batsman who scored 60 odd runs and was the only one posing any threat.

It was a very good well deserved 41 run win. Hopefully we take all the positives and turn this season around for team 2.

Vikram's performance with bat and ball was awesome and was clearly the difference between a close match and a comfortable win.

Man of the match - Vikram

Match report - Indcan III Vs Surrey United III @Chilliwack May 21, 2016 - By Rajiv Kozhikode

There are hardly any positives that one could take if Team 3’s performance was to be evaluated purely based on its scoresheet from the previous game. The scoresheet isn’t lying by any measure. There is much to forget about that game… about a third of the opponent’s score came in extras, which, by the way, is the margin by which we lost the game; our over rate was poor, to say the least; and our wickets fell in bundles… these asides, the scoresheet doesn’t tell about those important catches that we dropped and run outs that we missed and those easy doubles that remained as singles. But despite all these negatives, the mood was upbeat, everyone had fun and we left home as a happy team… So what were we so happy about? Let me run you through what really happened that day.

It certainly isn’t a thrill to ride 90 km to Chilliwack to play cricket. It simply tires you out. But usually the picturesque ground makes up for the arduous ride to Chilliwack. The ground reminds me of Queenstown Cricket Ground in New Zealand, or our own Dharamsala Cricket Ground. But this Saturday, the wet outfield, chilly weather and overcast skies were indeed spirit dampeners. To top it all, we lost the toss and were forced to field. And when we took to the field, we got the opponent’s scoreboard ticking well before we bowled our first legal delivery. But slowly we gained momentum. We got our first scalp in the fourth over. That gave us something to cheer about. But it didn’t last long as their second pair started building a good partnership. Thanks to the quick work of new comer Tauseeq, we were able to break that partnership with a run out. But as we were bleeding in wides and easy singles, the opponent’s scoreboard was ticking at a steady pace. Before drinks (21 overs), we were able to get another wicket… But at the pace at which they were going at that stage, even 200 appeared within their reach. The drink break was much needed at this juncture. It allowed us to regroup and rethink our plans.

We had to stop bleeding wides and improve our over rate, the latter will certainly improve if we took care of the former. When we got back to the field after the drinks break, it might have been the Gatorade that we drank or the short huddle that we had while we drank it, we were on fire! Our captain took it upon himself to speed up our over rate and stop the bleeding of wides. He was bowling ball after ball in quick succession and that too with immense accuracy… this should have thrown the opponents off rhythm. Their middle order collapsed and their tail was in and out in no time. They were all out for 144 in about 36 overs. The highlight was Robin’s five-fer… of which two were LBWs and two were clean bowleds. Taufeeq complemented Robin really well and ended up with 3 wickets. That said, the find of our fielding innings was certainly Tauseeq, the young lad has a powerful arm and he throws very accurately. To top it, he plucked a difficult catch out of thin air…

I think the opponents didn’t expect to get bundled out so quickly… they ordered lunch just about when their batting innings was coming to a close. So we had to pad up and get to the field without lunch. The task for the opening pair was to hang in there and see the new ball off. The openers stuck to this task until the 8 th over, when the first wicket fell. But two more wickets fell in that very same over, which made our chances of winning the match bleak. But Garry and Robin patiently put up a healthy partnership, which gave us all some hope that the game was still on. But Garry lost his patience when we was troubled by a junior spinner. He mistimed one in the air and it was caught easily. The young lad from the opposition deserves due credit. He bowled really well. He picked up a few wickets. After Garry’s wicket, we still had some chance of getting back in the game. But the umpires had other plans…

We lost two other wickets in quick successions… at least one of which was due to a poor umpiring  decision. Then came young Atharva’s turn. He made the opponents work for his wicket. He held his ground for several overs. They were really annoyed at this child’s seemingly impenetrable defense. But after a lot of effort, they got him out too. By then we were past the 36 th over… we had lasted more overs than our opponents. That was reason enough to cheer about. Although they knew we were not going to win, they were finding it very difficult to get us all out. The father-son duo of Prashant and Ishan also gave the opponents a run for their money. By the time we were all out we had played 41 overs. That was definitely something to cheer about. When we looked at the stats, we realized that it was our extras that cost us our game… well, to be honest, we still would have been a few runs short even if we hadn’t bled so many extras… but we certainly would have been a more motivated side if we had 45 fewer runs to chase.

That said, isn’t “grooming youngsters” and “having fun” among the major objectives of Team 3? If so, I must say, our game this Saturday was a success. We found some fresh talent and rediscovered some old talent and definitely had a lot of fun. Mission Accomplished!

Indcan Man of the match: Robin Arora

Sean selected to represent Canada at the 2016 Jubilee Games in Dubai!

We are delighted to inform everyone that our very own Sean Fernandez has been selected to represent Canada at the 2016 Jubilee Games to be held in Dubai, UAE during the week of July 22-29, 2016.

The Games seek to encourage and support Ismaili athletes in achieving excellence in competitive sport, and to enhance the Jamat’s awareness and appreciation for physical fitness and health.These games will be held once every 4 years. First initiated as part of the commemoration of Mawlana Hazar Imam's Golden Jubilee in 2008, the Jubilee Games seek to celebrate the best Ismaili athletes from around the world, while reflecting the global jamat's wide diversity of socio-cultural and linguistic traditions.

Indcan wishes all the best to Sean at the games!

Match report - Indcan I Vs Fraser Valley I @CFV Exhibition on May 15,2016 - By Ankit P.

Coming from a loss, we needed to get back into winning ways immediately. And the omens were good before the game began. Overcast and cool conditions, 'home territory' for Indcan. We lost the toss that we did not want to win and were asked to bowl first. We started with a wicket off the first ball of the game. We reduced them to 5 down in the first six overs, thanks to some great bowling by Deore. Then their more experienced players started to get a foothold and the runs were coming in thick and fast. By the end of 15 overs they were looking set and in for the long haul. After the drinks break, some tight bowling from Vikram and Nikhil put pressure on the batters to score and Nikhil broke the partnership. In that span of 15 overs till the next drinks break, they managed to score only 20 runs. In the third session of play the pressure to score was evident, thanks to some brilliant bowling, as they folded out for 85.

While we had a stable start to our batting, we lost Sudipta and Sanjay before either of them could get a foothold. But Nikhil and John played a level headed innings scoring majority of the required runs before Nikhil got out. John was our highest scorer with 40 not out and Nikhil scored 26. 

Indcan Man of the match: Ganesh Deore for taking 4 wickets.

Match report - Indcan II Vs Surrey Hawks III @Sperling May 7, 2016 - By Omkar S.

This spring is turning out to be very good for cricket. Playing in our backyard we hoped to get our first win which has been few runs away in our first two games.

Indcan lost the toss for the third time in a row and Surrey Hawks chose to bat first. Taufeeq got us to a flying start with a wicket in his second over but from then on it was hard work. Their batsman scored freely and they were 55/2 in 15 overs. Harsimran and Nikhil got the run rate down and got crucial wickets too. Surrey Hawks were 114/5 in 25 overs at the second water break. Indcan came back strongly after the break. Taufeeq finished the tail up and we succeeded to restrict them to 134 in 34 overs. Considering the conditions and the batting line up we had, it seemed like an easy score to chase.

Our openers (Anant and Aniket) toiled really hard to see off their best bowlers. But loosing regular wickets in the middle order put pressure on our lower batting. Sanjay P and Taufeeq tried their best to finish the game for us with some cracking shots. Unfortunately Sanjay was caught in deep in an attempt to finish the game. This time again we lost a close match by 16 runs.

The difference in the two side was catching. We have let us down with some poor catching and have paid the fine by loosing all three games. But the thing to admire is the way we fight with bat and ball. We have been consistently batting 45 overs with the lower middle order contributing consistently. We have to improve our middle order performances and with the team we have its just a matter of time before we start winning. All in all a great game of cricket played in good spirit and I am 100% confident that we will rise and shine. All the best Indcan !!!!

Man of the match: Taufeeq K.

A visit by Jimmy Hansra! - By Anant B.

Our Indcan Cricket Club practices at Sperling every Tuesday and holds a special training session for juniors once a week.

Today at our tuesday practice, we had a surprise visit by Jimmy Hansra, ex-captain of Canadian National Cricket team. Jimmy spent two hours with us and shared valuable tips about the game. Jimmy led several fielding drills with the players starting with high catches, slip catches, and ground fielding, coaching us along the way about the correct way of stopping the ball, taking a catch in a safe way and then the art of picking up and throwing.

He shared his experiences as a batsman and gave us several batting tips. He then got a measure of some of our bowlers when he batted for a few minutes. Jimmy laid a lot of emphasis on fitness and building physical endurance and stamina. We are glad that we as a club are going in the right direction since our coach Sanjay Morar has already been coaching us on similar points for some time.

Ankit won the Team Canada red cap from Jimmy for not dropping a single catch during the drills. It was a pleasure to have Jimmy with us today at our practice and I hope that he received a positive impression of the talent in our club. We look forward to hosting Jimmy again sometime later this season.

Match report - Indcan III Vs Newton Surrey V @Chilliwack on May 1,2016 - By Sudip T.

Match was played on Sunday May 1, 2016 at the Chilliwack Ground. The weather was excellent, bright, sunny, 25C.


IndCan won the toss, and chose to bat. Harish Lalsinghani and Rajeev Krishnamurthi opened the innings, and slowly, but steadily built a solid platform. IndCan were well positioned at the first drinks break. Unfortunately, after the break, some poor shot selection from our middle order batsmen led to a collapse, and IndCan ended the innings at 66 all out. Special mention to Harish for a sensible, solid innings, scoring 25 runs, and to our youngster, Arthava, who batted at number 10, but still made a solid contribution.

Karthik Krishnaswamy and Neeraj Gaur shared the new ball for IndCan, but unfortunately, despite best efforts were unable to extract much from a pitch with very little bounce. The Newton Surrey openers played good shots, and chased the target down. We need to work on our fielding in practice, as there were a few missed chances in the field.


Would like to thank the Newton Surrey players for being very sporting and encouraging our juniors while they were batting and bowling. Look forward to our next match with them. Also, thank you to our IndCan family members who made some delicious snacks to enjoy during the innings break and after the match.

IndCan Man of the Match: Harish Lalsinghani

Match report - Indcan II Vs Newton Surrey IV @Douglas May 1, 2016 - By Omkar S.

Lost the toss again and were asked to field on a hot sunny day. Aniket started with a wicket in his first over and bowling beautifully throughout his spell. We had to fight for our wickets and dropped catches didn't help our cause. They managed to score 147 in the end which was 20 runs short due to excellent death bowling and fielding.


We didn't start well losing 2 wickets early on. Anant and Ganesh stabilized the innings by putting down the anchor. Middle order failed to contribute and at that point, we were 70 for 7 and almost run a ball required. Kuntal and Karthik J played an excellent inning to keep our hopes up. Sanjay M and Jai's cameo in the end almost gave us a victory. Unfortunately with 3 runs required to win in last 2 balls, we lost our final wicket thus losing another close match by just 2 runs this time.


It was a team effort which really got us very close in the game with excellent batting from our lower order. Win was tantalizingly close and yet so very far.


Man of the Match - Ganesh D.

Match report - Indcan I Vs Okanagan Royals I @Keogan Sports Park on April 30,2016 - By Ankit P.

While we had never won an away game at Okanagan before, we were quietly confident as we were fielding the best Indcan side taken there till today. Winning the toss we chose to bat first and put the opposition under pressure with our bowling after putting up a competitive total. Our innings was started strongly by our openers Sudipta and John, both seeing out the new ball and getting set on the crease. Along with Sunil, our top 3 batsman scored about 110 runs among them with a few last over flourishes from Vikram and Abhinav of 20 and extras adding our total to a respectable 184.

We were confident we could defend the total and we got off to a good start, holding the batting side to a run rate of 2 for the first 15 overs. Later with a few quick catches and run outs, we tightened our hold over the win. But just after the drinks break we started leaking runs and suddenly even after being 7 down the batting team was fulfilling their required run rate of 7 an over. They were moving swiftly towards the target. We were showing symptoms of dropped morale by not saving the singles and dropping catches. Most of our bowlers had finished their quota of 9 overs and we were going to fall short of bowlers to finish our 45.

Harshmeet, who had bowled a few leg spin overs, but went for runs was then brought in as a change. He not only broke the partnership with a brilliant caught and bowled, but followed it up with another caught and bowled to get the penultimate wicket. We were back on top. An over later the last wickets fell and IndCan registered it's first victory in Okanagan by 54 runs.
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Man of the match - Sudipta M. for scoring 54 runs.

Match report - Indcan II Vs West Van V @Hugo Ray 24 April 2016 - By Omkar S.

Under perfect swinging conditions, we started our 2016 season at Hugo Ray. After losing the toss Ganesh started the match with a perfect wicket maiden. It was an excellent bowling performance from then on to restrict them for just 83 runs. Ganesh lead the attack with 5 wickets and later Karthikeyan spun the web around them grabbing 3 more wickets. There was some rustiness on the field and in spite of good ground fielding and an excellent run-out by Robin we dropped 6 catches. Abhinav bowled a brilliant spell giving just 9 runs in 6 overs and didn't let their batsman off the hook.

Batting didn't start well with fall of regular wickets until Sanjay and I tried to stabilize but I couldn't hold the fort longer in an attempt to see off their best bowler. Sanjay Patankar then hit their spinners out of the park scoring quick 29 before he too was caught on the boundary.

The match still went close but regular wickets didn't help our cause and the saviour from the other day (our beloved coach, Karthikeyan P) was left stranded on the other end.

Losing the first match of the season by 8 runs wasn't the start expected but all in all a good fair game of cricket. Hope we all learn from this game and improve.

Man of the match - Karthikeyan and Ganesh D.

Indcan Donation Drive for Chennai Flood Relief - A report by Vignesh V.S.

Chennai received 1,049 mm of rainfall in November, the highest recorded since November 1918. This spell of heavy rains had caused a lot of suffering to the city dwellers and inundated many parts of the city. They had thought the worst was over but little did they know that it was yet to come. A new low pressure system developed on 30th November, bringing 49cm of rain in 24 hours on December 1. Rains with such fury and intensity broke critical communication and transportation lines. All essential electricity, telephone, cellular, internet lines were disrupted. Already crippled city came to a standstill and this became a nightmare for the 4.5 million residents of the city. Chennai International airport was completely closed for three days between December 2 to 5. The rains claimed nearly 300 lives. Chennai was officially declared a disaster area on the evening of December 2. Many tens of thousand families had their houses flooded for up to 7 feet water. Having lost the ability to stay in their homes, they moved to elevated neighborhoods and were scrambling for survival. Government machinery was slow and small to tackle this massive disaster. Hence dwellers of the city sprang up to action doing whatever they could, to help the needy. Much of the effort was concentrated on providing immediate relief like shelter, food and water. After the water levels receded, effort was also taken to restore the lives of the people who were left in shambles.

Indcan, being a very strong community of Indians living in Canada, helped at this time of crisis. A total CAD $1695 (Rs.80,000) was quickly collected and sent promptly to two groups (known to me personally) who were involved in relief efforts on ground in Chennai. One group focused on cooking food and providing fresh water to those displaced from their home. This effort was concentrated near the Perungalathur area which is a suburb near Chennai. This neighborhood lies near Chembarambakkam lake which is the main source of drinking water for the city of Chennai. This lake overflowed which primarily caused flooding in the Cooum river that runs through heart of Chennai. Hundreds of families in the low lying areas of Perungalathur had taken refuge in first and second floor of houses in elevated regions. They were out of cooking supplies and drinking water as their houses got submerged in water. This group of twenty five members undertook the effort of cooking food, procuring fresh water and delivering to them. Rs.20,000 was utilized towards this purpose of procuring vegetables, rice, water bottles and other groceries. This effort went on for about eight days between December 2 to December 9. This sum of money has helped provide 300 people approximately for two meals on these days.

After water had receded, the affected families suffered further financial loses in having to restore damaged houses and furniture etc. This loss was not just restricted to individual families, but also to public properties like schools, parks, public buildings etc. The Government estimated a loss of $3 billion to the city. In one such instance, a high school in Ambattur in Chennai suffered huge loses when its classrooms were submerged with 3 feet water in the first week of December.

The stagnating water damaged the wooden desks, benches, cabinets and other school properties. Another group of volunteers (friends of mine) were helping in post flood relief efforts in that area. From the remaining sum of Rs.60,000, Rs.50,000 was utilized towards buying new steel desks, tables, cabinets, etc. for the school classrooms. The remaining Rs.10,000 was spent on purchasing text books, notepads, and other essential stationery items to more than 500 students of the school. This part of contribution has helped the students of the school sit on desks instead of sitting on the cement floor. Pictures from the distribution event are below.

As it is said, you can take an Indian out of India, but not India out of an Indian. Indcan is a true example of one such strong community of Indians residing outside India who contributed generously at the time of need. The following people (in no particular order) contributed generously towards the cause of providing relief measures and assistance for the affected.

I want to personally thank the above people who donated generously and to Indcan for building such a strong network of friends. Your help has directly helped a few hundred people of Perungalathur suburb and has enabled the students of Ambattur high school continue their education after such damage and destruction due to flooding.