The federal government announced Friday it was officially recognising the game, elevating its formal stature and making it eligible for much needed public funding, Toronto Star has reported.

"It's a tremendous day for cricket," said Ben Sennik, president of Cricket Canada, the umbrella organisation that speaks for the sport and is responsible for the Canadian national team.

The recognition, which follows a decade of lobbying, means an immediate grant of $77,000 for 2007-2008. While it's a modest sum, Sennik could barely contain his delight. "We need every dollar, the way we are developing. In the past, we have been scraping through," he said.

Canada is no stranger to the pastime, with reports of games played here as far back as the mid-18th century. The country's first Prime Minister, Sir John A MacDonald, declared it Canada's national sport in 1867 and Cricket Canada itself was established in 1892. However, the game was quickly overtaken by baseball in importance.

In recent years, interest has risen to a new level with the influx of immigrants from cricket-crazy areas such as Pakistan, India and the Caribbean, as well as from other Commonwealth countries such as Australia, South Africa and the UK.

A happy Toronto taxi driver, Ahmad Chaudhary, began pontificating about Canada's place in the cricket world immediately after hearing about Ottawa's decision.

"They have a lot of good players over here," said Chaudhary, who played the "gentleman's game" as a boy in India.

"If they want, they can have a really good team. If they get funding, they can get a very good team." About 40,000 people in Canada are registered as cricket players with their provincial associations - the best of them barely qualifying even as semi-professionals. As many as 50,000 others are estimated to play regularly and schools are increasingly getting in on the game as well.

Ottawa is committed to spending $164 million a year supporting more than 50 different sports, and Secretary of State for Sport Helena Guergis welcomed cricket to the fold.

"It is an exciting day for cricketers for Cricket Canada, as a national sports organization, to have the opportunity to be recognised by the federal government," Guergis said.

Cricket Canada used the opportunity to show off the national team's natty new uniform - grey with a red stripe on the sides of the shirt and pants, with a splash of yellow on the sleeves.