Pro cricket league coming to Toronto this summer — maybe

If Cricket Canada is to be believed, this summer Toronto could see the advent of a professional cricket league with teams comprising of foreign pros and local cricket talent.

A media release from Cricket Canada in early December promised this and more. Nearly three months later however, official details remain scarce.

Cricket Canada has signed a memorandum of understanding with an Indian company called Mercuri to develop a Twenty20 cricket league, with a final agreement yet to be concluded.

Cricket Canada’s website states that Mercuri has met all aspects of Cricket Canada’s sanctioning policy. Until recently on its website, Mercuri listed Sports Management among its services and stated: “We own, produce and manage many of the world’s most prestigious sporting events and offer unique hospitality and sponsorship opportunities that help companies build global brands.”

But there was no specific information of any sporting events and the description no longer appears on Mercuri’s website, nor does any mention of Sports Management.

Cricket Canada president Ranjit Saini, the driving force behind the project, says he is aware of other successful cricket ventures that Mercuri has been involved in, but doesn’t see it as his place to talk about them. Saini reiterates that Cricket Canada has done its due diligence into its new partner and is confident that Mercuri will help usher in a new era for Canadian cricket.

Cricket Canada’s media release stated the league would be functioning in 2018. That plan seems over-ambitious when there are no actual teams, contracted players, a settled venue to play in, or even a name for the league, referred to in the media release as “Twenty20 Major League Cricket” — a name that now seems to have lost traction.

Saini concedes that it could be difficult for the as-yet-unnamed league to be fully functioning by the summer, but he does promise that there will be “some event” in 2018 that will herald what is to come.
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Mohammed Shaikh, the president of the Toronto and District Cricket Association, who is also a director at Cricket Canada, understands the skepticism around the league at this point, but says that it’s real and it’s coming. “We will be having a cricket festival in June. Work is underway to hold a player draft in Dubai shortly.” Shaikh says that Cricket Canada has already received some sponsorship funds and that according to an agreement signed in New York a week ago, Cricket Canada is to receive around $500,000 from Mercuri by the end of this month — a huge sum in the context of Canadian cricket.

Saini realizes that a cricket league in Canada cannot compete with the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) or Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) and will need to be different. How it will be different is not yet clear, but the nascent plan seems to be to make use of Canada’s — and particularly Toronto’s multicultural diversity — to have teams in the league that are global in their affinity.

“Our league has to have a global focus,” said Saini. “There will be six teams and each team will have its local and global supporters. We will turn our event into a global event. There’s no better place than Canada for a tournament like that. This will be a tourism event, too. South Asians who travel to Switzerland or Australia can come to Canada in the summer and watch cricket.”

Saini says there has always been interest from overseas in Canada’s cricket market, but the rub lies in what Cricket Canada sees as the market’s worth compared to the perception of outsiders. In a potential professional cricket league based out of the United States or elsewhere, Canada is seen as a one franchise country, with a team in Toronto.

“We counter that view by pointing out that Toronto is actually the only place in North America where you’ll get a full house or close to a full house consistently for a cricket match,” he says.

Saini cites the example of the Twenty20 matches played between India and the West Indies in Florida in August 2016. He attended both matches and was unimpressed by the attendance.

“The first match was half-full and the ground was two-thirds empty for the second match. If India and the West Indies can’t fill a 15,000-capacity venue in the U.S., then who will?”

In 2008, the Maple Leaf Cricket Club ground at King City hosted a quadrangular tournament with Canada competing against the likes of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. The temporary stands and video screens transformed the out-of-the-way club cricket ground into something resembling a cricket stadium. Saini takes inspiration from that tournament 10 years ago for what could be possible, if the pieces all line up.

Canada still lacks a cricket stadium and Saini says the investors understand that the first few seasons of the league will need to be played in temporary quarters. It is likely the Maple Leafs will again be pressed into service, at least in the short term. Shaikh says the goal is to eventually have a stadium in the GTA that cricket can share with other sports.

Cricket Canada has no expectations for the ICC to help with any of this or otherwise step in to boost cricket in this country, beyond the funding they already provide. Saini has no complaints about the ICC and is quick to say that Cricket Canada gets exactly what it is entitled to based on it’s performance and ranking.

As ambitious and fraught with obstacles as the potential cricket league in Toronto may seem, its conception is entirely in keeping with Cricket Canada’s responsibility to grow the sport and make it more visible.

And while there is no ill feeling about the ICC’s interest lying across the border these days, Saini thinks the league in Toronto will make one thing clear: “Cricket in the Americas will always be Canada’s game”.

All hype