North Peace Cricket Foundation raising funds for field upgrades

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – A GoFundMe campaign is looking for help paying for a critical feature for the North Peace Cricket Foundation’s cricket pitch.

After struggling to find a permanent home since 2015, the North Peace Cricket Foundation has finally found a place to play. But what makes a cricket field unique is the long, thin patch where the bowler throws the ball toward the wickets. It needs to be level and have a consistent bounce for pitchers to accurately put the ball in play.

Now that they have a field to play on, work has recently been done to install an artificial turf strip between the two wickets.

North Peace Cricket Foundation Vice President Snehal Mistry says the artificial strip is the best choice for northern B.C. climates.

“There are a few different options, but keeping in mind the weather in Canada, it’s artificial. In international competition, they would use real grass,” says Mistry.

The process to install an artificial strip was done almost entirely by volunteers.

“We took off a little slice of grass, poured gravel in the hole, and installed a bar on top so that nothing shifted. On top of that, we poured concrete, and then it’s finished with an artificial grass mat.”

Mistry says the field owner, Cliff Forster, was a huge help during the process.

“We didn’t get any help from anyone other than the owner of the field, Cliff Forster. He did most of the work, and we made the pitch ourselves.”

Making the pitch with volunteers helped keep the cost well below what other communities have invested.

“The City of Grande Prairie made a field for cricket, and it cost about $25,000. That’s crazy expensive because there’s so much labour. But everyone volunteered, we rented the equipment here, and I don’t know the exact cost, but it was pretty cheap.”

Mistry says there are five teams in the league, including one from Dawson Creek. Teams will usually practice on their own time, but games are always on Saturdays and Sundays.

While there are a number of different formats to play a match with varying game lengths, Mistry says games in the North Peace Cricket Foundation have a time limit.

“I think the average time for a game is three hours, which is the shortest format of the game. There are three different formats in cricket.”

The three formats are Test Matches, One-day International (ODI), and Twenty20 International (T20I). The average Test Match length is five days, playing over seven hours per day. The average ODI match length is around seven hours, and the average T20I match lasts about 3 hours.

The North Peace Cricket Foundation is looking for contributions to offset the cost of installing artificial turf at Forster Field. As of Thursday, June 3rd, $246 has been raised for the $10,000 goal.

Donations can be made on the Cricket Ground GoFundMe page, and more information can be found on the league’s Facebook page.