Cricket: Ontario cricket tour with Whanganui players concludes in Sri Lanka

It's a very different world that the Whanganui contingent from the Ontario Cricket Academy Under 19s will be trying to wind their way home through this week, but at least they had some on-field memories to take with them.

The truncated tour of Sri Lanka for the Canadian side, which included Wanganui Under 15 reps Matthew Hocquard and Henry Blackley, included two matches on the same day against the Sappers Cricket Club on their home ground, about an hour by bus from Colombo.

Ontario ultimately played four of their originally scheduled 11 games, due to matches against some of the top college teams being cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As of Saturday afternoon, local time, there had been 75 cases of infection in the country, with a further 245 people under observation and one confirmed recovery, while there is an island-wide curfew of 6pm to 6am.

"After those first four games the team travelled south to Halle [and] Sri Lankan government then closed all schools and all sports grounds, meaning they could not play let alone gather for a practice," said father Tim Hocquard.

"Grounds closed. Curfews imposed. The place just went dead silent. No cricket. But in the scheme of things not so important."

Ontario's development tour also included former members of Whanganui's Tech Old Boys club in Harkaran Mann, Siddh Ladd and Akhil Kumar, and found themselves up against it playing the Sappers.

"Sappers is a 100-year-old Sri Lankan Army club with a proud history of producing winning teams and athletes," said Tim Hocquard.

"For this game the Sri Lankans put on the Army Under 23 team.

"These soldiers were huge, fit men, who made our players look like boys."

Ontario won the toss and opted to bat first, with skipper Mann (38) and Canada Under 19 World Cup star Kumar (34) getting them off to a good start with a 74 run partnership after 15 overs.

"We lost a couple of quick wickets before a decent partnership of 55 from Matthew [32] and Henry [26] put us back on track for a half decent total of 165," said Tim Hocquard.

"Sappers wasted no time in taking the willow to the leather.

"We should have seen it coming when they only provided the scorers with the names of their top five [batsmen]."

The Sappers reached their target with ten overs to spare, although Matthew Hocquard bowled very conservatively, conceeding only two runs from his five overs, despite the onslaught on the other bowlers.

To round out the afternoon, both teams agreed to play a ten over match, where each player would bowl one over maximum under Twenty20 fielding rules.

Ontario batted first with Matthew Hocquard top scoring with 20 of the 66 runs.

He shared in a good partnership with a Sohail Baden, before then later being run out by his own Whanganui mate Blackley, who wagged the tail with a quick 11 runs.

"The Sappers has a prior engagement to get to, and showed it in their aggressive innings, reaching the target with two overs to spare," said Tim Hocquard.

Again, the visiting team found the local conditions tough to deal with.

"Credit has to be given to our boys taking the field in temperatures reaching late thirties, especially considering the Canadian contingent had just come from a two degree winter patch," said Tim Hocquard.

"In the end, a well tuned Army Under 23 team was too much for our boys.

"Easy wins for them on the day, but an absolutely outstanding venue and facility.

"Sri Lanka spinners are very dominant over here.

"Traditionally they open with a bit of pace but it is always quickly replaced by spin, in particular leg spin with the odd clever googly.

"The spin bowlers here give it a lot less air and extract an extra measure of turn, especially when compared to youths in New Zealand."

Again, the players got to see some unique sights they would not find in Canada or New Zealand.

"Down behind the ground is a grave yard of war vessels, including two recently captured enemy submarines and a smaller torpedo boat," said Tim Hocquard.

"These have been dragged inland and stand as monuments for all to see. Closely guarded by armed soldiers, photos are prohibited."

The team will now make their way back to their respective counties, which for Blackley and the Hocquard's will mean 14 days of self isolation upon their return.

They flew out of New Zealand on March 12, two days before the NZ Government began to introduce restrictions on travel.