A player for the Prince Albert Panthers gets ready to swing during a game in September. (Prince Albert Cricket Association/Facebook)

By Logan Lehmann

Cricket fever

P.A. Cricket excited to see local talent during upcoming tournament

Nov 10, 2023 | 5:00 PM

The Alfred Jenkins Fieldhouse will be buzzing this weekend as the Prince Albert Cricket Association (PACA) is gearing up to host its second ever indoor Cricket Cup.

Earlier this year in March, PACA hosted its first-ever Cricket Cup featuring teams from both Saskatoon and Prince Albert. That tournament saw the Saskatoon Raptors defeat the Saskatoon Shahsawars in the finals to be the first to have their name etched into the trophy.

Now nine months later, all teams and the players competing are based out of Prince Albert with none from elsewhere in the province. With the sport rapidly growing in the city, President of the PACA Mohib Mohammed said he’s happy to see the interest and popularity rise.

“It’s very exciting,” he said. “This year we planned on promoting cricket primarily in Prince Albert and having all the teams from P.A. We were very surprised to see when we opened the spot for six teams that eight teams showed interest. All of the players are from Prince Albert which is exciting to see, and to see the growth of cricket in Prince Albert itself is amazing.”

He added that 13 teams wanted to play in the tournament, but because of time and limited space, they had to turn away five teams. Additionally, four of the eight teams participating in the tournament will be playing together for the first time.

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Mohammed said that he hopes this will be one of two annual tournaments that the organization will host yearly.

“We would like to host as many players as we can, both in P.A. and provincially,” he said. “Every year, we plan on having two tournaments in Prince Albert – an indoor one at the start of the winter and one at the end of the winter.”

Games get underway at the Fieldhouse gymnasium on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. while the gold medal game will start at 8:00 p.m.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com