2024 will be a big year for the Canadian men’s cricket team. It has been some time since that could be said. Success in critical tournaments of last year gives Canada the opportunity to re-join the group of top ICC Associate nations and to make their debut at the ICC T20 Men’s World Cup. The latter marks this nation’s return to a senior men’s World Cup for the first time since the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
News of Canada’s fixtures for the upcoming year began to appear this week. The Cricket Association of Nepal has released its 2024 schedule in which Canada features prominently. According to this information, Canada will visit the Nepalese for a bi-lateral one day series in February. Later in the year, Canada host Nepal and Oman as part of the Cricket World Cup League 2 competition set for September. There are also T20 internationals planned for the 3 teams before the Canadians play host for the reciprocal bi-laterals with Nepal.
In many ways, June represents the highlight of Canada’s year as the eyes of the cricketing world will be on the Caribbean and United States for the 2024 T20 World Cup. The men in red face the Americans in the tournament opener on June 1st. If that visibility was not enough, large overseas audiences will see them play Pakistan and India. It will be a huge challenge but also the chance of a lifetime to play against some of the sport’s leading figures.
This year will be Canada’s most active for the senior men’s team since the days of its last World Cup. Accordingly, the team will again play as professionals after a decade. As much as rising to the higher level of competition will be difficult, it is pleasing to be able to look forward to the new year and see Canadian cricketers as participants on the world stage.