Today I want to talk about cricket, a sport loved, and even religiously followed, by over 1.5 billion people across the world. Many of them call Ontario their home—immigrants from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Australia who have brought their love of cricket to this beautiful province.

There are over 25 teams just in my riding of Scarborough Southwest. Yet a complete lack of infrastructure and barriers to accessing practice space, even when the city fields sit empty, has left local cricket groups with little to no options.

Cricket enthusiasts, like Hossain Shumon from our community, camp overnight on the playing pitch—that’s the centre of the field that allows cricket to be played—just so they can play in the morning. Because there are so few fields, while he’s doing that, usually there are a few others who will show up, realizing that they missed their opportunity.

Let me tell you about another cricket organizer named Gulam Imran who has been working tirelessly for the past two years just to secure a regular space to play cricket during the summer. There are empty fields and recreational facilities across the city, especially in Scarborough, but local youths who live in these communities and want to play a sport that they love are turned away. By comparison, cities like Brampton, Milton and Mississauga actually have cricket facilities for residents to use.

Our local youths deserve better. It is time that Scarborough and Toronto residents had the same opportunity to play a sport that they love.