After an injury forced him to watch the recent ICC Men's T20 World Cup from afar, Canadian cricketer Harsh Thaker is looking forward to playing again at Global T20 Canada.
The fourth edition of the tournament kicks off Thursday and runs through Aug. 11 in the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Ont., with teams made up of domestic and international cricketers playing before a worldwide audience.
Making his third appearance with the Vancouver Knights at the GT20, Thaker was named the Emerging Canadian Player of the tournament last year.
"That was a special memory that will stay with me for the rest of my career, to be honest," said the 26-year-old. "My family, my friends were all watching the games. And the players we had in our team, it was special."
Thaker, who suffered two fractures in his right foot training with Canada a month before the World Cup, and the Knights open play Thursday against the Toronto Nationals.
"Obviously missing out on the World Cup is huge," said Thaker.
"The last couple of months have been tough for me and my family," he added. "But you have to move on. And the GT20, I'm really keen to perform this year."
Thaker and Canada head to the Netherlands after the GT20 to continue ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play against the 15th-ranked Dutch and 18th-ranked U.S. The Canadians currently top the eight-team standings at 4-0-0 with Thaker hitting centuries earlier this year in Dubai in wins over No. 13 Scotland and the 16th-ranked United Arab Emirates.
The GT20 is essentially a made-for-TV event, with games starting at 11 a.m. ET fitting nicely into India's prime time.
The six-team competition at the Brampton Sports Park also features the defending champion Montreal Tigers, Toronto Nationals, Brampton Wolves, Surrey Jaguars and Bangla Tigers Mississauga.
Each team plays seven games with the top four sides moving on. No. 1 faces No. 2 with the winner advancing to the championship game. No. 3 takes on No. 4 with the winner taking on the loser of the No. 1 versus No. 2 match to determine the other finalist.
Vancouver won the tournament in 2018 and was runner-up to the Winnipeg Hawks in 2019. Montreal defeated the Surrey Jaguars in the 2023 final when the competition returned after the pandemic.
This summer's edition marks a homecoming for the 23rd-ranked Canada team that made its ICC Men's T20 World Cup debut in June in the U.S. Led by captain Saad Bin Zafar, the Canadians recorded their first win at the T20 World Cup when they beat No. 11 Ireland by 12 runs on June 7.
Zafar is joined on the Toronto Nationals roster by Canadian teammates Nicholas Kirton and Nikhil Dutta.
Other Canadian World Cup team members taking part include Pargat Singh, Dilon Heyliger and Rayyan Pathan (Bangla Tigers Mississauga), Aaron Johnson and Ravinderpal Singh (Brampton Wolves), Kaleem Sana and Dilpreet Singh Bajwa (Montreal Tigers), Shreyas Movva, Navneet Dhaliwal and Junaid Siddiqu (Surrey Jaguars), and Jeremy Gordon and Rishiv Joshi (Vancouver Knights).
The tournament features such marquee names as Australia's David Warner (Brampton), Australia's Marcus Stoinis and Logan van Beek of the Netherlands (Surrey Jaguars), Australia's Chris Lynn and Sherfane Rutherford of the West Indies (Montreal Tigers), and New Zealand's Colin Munro (Toronto Nationals).
Thaker says rubbing shoulders with elite cricketers is priceless.
"Even if they say 'well played' to you for an innings, that confidence will carry on much longer than just that one moment," said Thaker. "It's a moment for them, but for Canadian players, I think it just shows them that they can produce and perform at high levels."
It appears Pakistan stars Shaheen Shah Afridi (Toronto Nationals) and Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan (Vancouver Knights) will not play after failing to get clearance from the Pakistan Cricket Board.
The player pool draws on talent from Canada, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, Italy, Malaysia, Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa United Arab Emirates, the U.S., and the West Indies.
India does not allow its players to take part in foreign leagues, unless they are retired from international cricket and not playing in the domestic IPL.
Usman Khawaja (Australia) and Reeza Hendricks (South Africa') have been added to the Vancouver squad. Toronto has added Jason Behrendorff (Australia), Roston Chase (Barbados and the West Indies), Fabian Allen (Jamaica), and Unmukt Chand (India).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2024
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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press