With Christmas only a few days away I cannot help but reflect on an amazing year.

18 year old pacer Ali Irfan who recently represented our provincial side at the Visitors Coverage Cup in California, is coming to the end of a month long trip to Pakistan. Ali, who is part of the Ontario Cricket Academy High Performance program has been going for sessions at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, Pakistan working with national squad coaches and meeting some famous names such as Mohammad Irfan (the tallest bowler in the world). 

OCA&C's Emanuel Khokhar who recently turned 16, led the Ontario provincial representative team with the bat, registering the only half century in the series for Ontario. The U-17 select team travelled to Santa Clara, California to compete against the California Cricket Academy in the Visitors Coverage Cup (which included two T20's and two 50 over fixtures). The series was split 2-2. 

OCA&C star player Nikhil Dutta has left for Barbados to take one step closer to his goals of playing full fledged professional cricket. He was selected amongst a group of Canadian, Americans and Bermudans as part of an ICC/WICB initiative to provide an outlet for top level players in these countries to earn contracts in the West Indies professional franchise cricket structure. 

OCA&C 16 year old cricket sensation Abraash Khan is currently in Pakistan training with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The youngster who started his cricket at the OCA&C in 2007 and recently captained Canada U-17 in Bermuda- has impressed the coaching staff at PCB.

I’m on the 400 North, cottage country bound. My in-laws are visiting from South Africa, and we had booked a lake cottage for the week. I have wanted to do this since the day I landed in Canada, but the last two summers have been really busy, and it takes a while to settle into a new place, never mind a foreign country. “Cottaging” is where it’s at, it is the “Canadian way”.