SPORTS FLASHBACK 1995: La Broquerie teen excels at cricket

Eighteen-year-old Andrew Amsden of La Broquerie is consumed with cricket, and for good reason. The 1995 graduate of the Steinbach Regional Secondary School, who emigrated to Canada from Britain with his family in 1989, spent the summer playing for Canada’s Under 19 National Cricket Team.

While Amsden’s classmates at the SRSS naturally are more familiar and more concerned with sports such as volleyball, basketball, hockey, baseball, or perhaps curling, Amsden is ensconced in cricket, and understandably so.

For the uninitiated, according to the dictionary, “cricket is a game played with a ball and solid wood bat by two sides of 11 players on a grass field centering on two wickets, each defended in turn by a batsman.”

The rules of cricket make it a complex game for the outsider.

Terms such as LBW, third man, short third man, silly mid off, short leg, square leg and leg slip are terms that are foreign to most Canadians, but not to those who are literate in cricket.

In cricket, LBW (leg before wicket) is a method of dismissal when a batter’s leg obstructs a ball that would have hit the stumps. The other terms refer to specific fielding zones, and are as familiar to cricketers as left field, centre field, and right field are to North American baseball players.

Amsden has just started his first year of general studies at the University of Winnipeg. In the future, he hopes to go into business with his uncle in England or perhaps study physical education. But for the time being, cricket is number one. According to his mother, Christine, “Andrew lives and breathes cricket.”

Andrew has applied to the Yorkshire Academy in England, which is a pure cricket school near the home where they once lived. If Andrew is accepted, it may open up the possibility of playing professional cricket in England in the future.

Cricket has a tradition of excellence in England, and is one of three sports that Amsden grew up playing in elementary school in Yorkshire, along with rugby and football (soccer).

But cricket does not enjoy that same tradition in Canada, and in a way, it has benefited Amsden. In England, cricket is more competitive, played by scores of people, and making a national squad is significantly more difficult.

Amsden, through his competence in the sport, and the relative obscurity of cricket in Canada, was able to make Canada’s national team this year, which was a great opportunity for him.

The Amsdens were also dairy farmers in England, and it was at home on the farm, that Andrew’s dad, Richard, first taught him the game.

“When I moved to Canada in grade 7, I didn’t know if I would ever play cricket again.”

A family acquaintance put Amsden contact with the coach of Canada’s Under 19 National Team and since that time, Amsden’s Canadian cricket exploits have kept him busy.

From 1990-94, he travelled several times with Manitoba teams to Toronto and Vancouver for cricket tournaments and national team try-outs.

This summer, Amsden was exceptionally busy, spending two weeks in Holland with the national team at an international tournament, where the Canadian squad finished with a 2-4 record against some of the toughest nations in the world.

Coming home, he then travelled Vancouver for two weeks with the Manitoba senior team and another week with the national team. The summer was capped off with a two-week family vacation to England.

The Manitoba and Canadian Cricket Associations pick up a portion of the expenses, and the Amsden family expressed their appreciation to local sponsors, Southeastern Farm Equipment, Team Landmark and Bakx Agri Services, who helped defray some of the extra costs.

Amsden says cricket in Canada is growing, and in Winnipeg there are currently 11 teams playing their games at Assiniboine Park.