(03-26-2021, 11:43 PM)pj57 Wrote:(03-26-2021, 01:10 PM)stillwill Wrote: He played for Canada for some time, you used to be able to play if you only had citizenship, then they dropped that now if you are a Permanent Resident you can play. I don't know why he quit the team, Davy Jacobs also quit the team, he actually quit cricket and runs a construction business now. Actually, if you played decent cricket, you can easily get PR. There are lots of former WI cricketers that played a couple of matches live here and many former FC players. There are a good number of Indian u19 state players and guys that played few FC matches for one of the lesser known 30 states in India and so on. SL cricketers I can think of are Kaveen Bandara, Pathirana and Romesh Eranga played for Canada. There might be like a dozen other guys that played a few FC and like top-level school cricket. Also, I'm speaking specifically in the Greater Toronto Area. In other provinces there may be other guys that im not aware of them. Srimantha Wijeratne played for SL u-19. All these guys are either PR or citizen and have mostly settled down.
In terms of paid well, I say no. West Indian players like Shane Shillingford, a couple of UAE players and top Canadian cricketers are getting paid to play club cricket. Davy Jacobs of Mumbai Indians and South Africa A definitely got paid. But most are happy to come play, work, earn a living and possibly use that time to settle in Canada. Usually, these guys stay at someone's house or in their basement, get free food, get driven around everywhere. Lot of the WI FC players get paid like $5000 to play for like 4-5 months and they get all accommodation so no expense and the money converted into WI is a lot. Teams also find them under the table cash jobs during the weak where they make more money than playing money and again when they take it back that's a lot of money for them. If you look at it, they are probably making $1000/month + $2000/month on the side and after season going home with like $15,000 and that is a lot. Also now GT20 is there, they are paying well for the short term. Someone like Kaveen Bandara can easily get into the side, if he declares himself as Candian PR. He can still go play FC in SL. Lot of these imports mostly FC cricketers that know they won't have an international career, already in their early 30s, or U19 talents that fell of the radar and so on.
Also after few seasons of "experience", these guys can easily apply for PR. Once settled, these guys can drive trucks, work at some manufacturing, drive uber and there are tons of things you can do to live a comfortable life. You can also bring your kids over and give them a top class education and one of the safest country and country that ranks in top few for Human Development Index. Maybe someone like Pathirana who is from well-off family can do something in SL, but lot of these FC players took risk of playing cricket because they knew they didn't have much to lose, so they aren't from well of families. They have not much skills apart from cricket. In Canada, you can do pretty well without education and you dont need to be a buisnessmen. These things can be really helpful for those.
Pathirana last played for Canada in 2018 and Eranga in 2019, both of them haven't played any FC cricket since then according to Cricinfo stats. Kaveen Bandara didn't play for Canada, did he? He must have played club cricket there.
No, Kaveen Bandara is a foreign player. He isn't a PR, he can't play for Canada yet. Don't just look at cricinfo, lot of the times, players are practicing but just never make it to the squad. Pathirana quit I think, its either that or the selectors kicked him out of the team.