Hopes that Canada's cricket World Cup campaign will boost game

Cricket might not be as popular in British Columbia as it is elsewhere in the world, but 17-year-old Arnav Sekhri says the game is catching on in Canada.

"A lot of people are picking it up these days and it's a positive change," said the young player from Surrey, B.C. — and his optimism about the sport's prospects is only growing as the national men's team gears up for its first ever T20 World Cup.

"It's going to start [getting recognition] and people like us are going to get more opportunities," said Sekhri, a medium-pace bowler and batsman who currently plays for Surrey's Master Blaster club and has been competing in the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League (BCMLC) for the last four years.

Canada is one of 20 participating teams in the T20 tournament — the shorter format of the game — that's taking place in cities across the U.S. and the Caribbean Islands this June.

The national men's cricket team last took to the international stage at the 50-over World Cup in 2011. 

Cricket Canada president Amjad Bajwa says qualification for the T20 was a much needed success for the national team.

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The Canadians had failed to qualify for the eight previous editions of the T20 World Cup and also lost its One Day International (ODI) status after a number of losses in the 2014 World Cup qualifier in New Zealand. 

"[We] struggled after 2011 but in [the] last two to three years, [things] have gone up up again," Bajwa told CBC News. 

Canada regained its ODI status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four at last April's World Cup Qualifier Playoff in Namibia. The national team then qualified for the T20 in October after defeating