Cricket Canada pulls plug on Global T20 League in Brampton

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Thousands of fans flocked to see some of the world’s greatest cricketers compete in the annual Global T20 League in Brampton — but no more.

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Cricket Canada has pulled the plug on the popular league and this stunning turn of events won’t only rob the local public of international cricket, but also have a huge financial impact on the national squad.

Players such as Chris Gayle of the West Indies, Australians David Warner and Steve Warner, South Africans Faf du Plessis and Rassie van der Dussen and India’s Yuvraj Singh were among a host of international stars that attracted huge crowds.

“The contract we had with Bombay Sports Company (owners of the league) has been terminated,” Amjad Bajwa, president of Cricket Canada told Postmedia in an exclusive interview.

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“The organizers have often been late with their payments and we couldn’t carry on in this fashion,” he said. “They always wanted us to obtain permission to set up the league for the following year before we received any back payment and I viewed this as a form of blackmail.”

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When reached before boarding a flight from Calcutta to Mumbai on Tuesday morning, Karan Singh, director of GT20 League, told Postmedia: “We will see you in Toronto in the summer.”

He seemed confident the tournament will go on.

“There are multiple things going on right now and we basically do not accept the cancellation,” Karan said. “This has left a bad taste in the mouth as there hasn’t even been a courtesy call from their end. I cannot say anything more as our legal counsels in Canada and India are handling the matter.”

Cricket Canada and Bombay Sports signed a 25-year contract and Gurmeet Singh, founder and owner of GT20 league, said in 2019 that he expected this venture to be a losing cause initially, but he expected it to be profitable down the road.

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“It’s imperative a new stadium is built as that would cut down out costs significantly,” he said at the time.

Every year the organizers spend roughly $4 million erecting the temporary stadium on the grounds of the CAA Centre in Brampton. At about the same time, Brampton mayor Patrick Brown said that his council was in the process of building a new cricket stadium.

Of course, nothing came of that.

If the GT 20 League falls on the wayside, Cricket Canada will find itself caught between a rock and a sticky financial wicket. The league injects between $1,000 to $40,000 towards an annual salary for each player while the International Cricket Council boosts the total to some $70,000 in an effort to get some of the players to concentrate full time on the game. This paid dividends as Canada qualified for the World Cup in 2024.

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“We will make up that shortfall,” Bajwa said, who is in the process of landing a Cricket Super 60 League (a 10-over league) with eight teams, but first needs the greenlight from the ICC.

This could be a tough sell as the ICC finds itself in a tight spot where Canada is involved. Would fans flock in huge numbers to watch a not-too-popular version of the game?

To ramp up the headaches for the national body, Bajwa finds himself under fire as CEO Salman Khan has been charged with theft and fraud committed during his time as president of the Calgary and District Cricket League between 2014 and 2016.

The Calgary Police in a statement said it believes two men are responsible for misappropriating “approximately $200,000 from the league.”

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Even though his CEO is under investigation, Bajwa is standing by his man.

“Many want him (Khan) out,” Bajwa said, “but I won’t use a knee-jerk reaction to dismiss him for now. We will consult legal and governance experts to decide further course of action.”

“I know about it,” added Bajwa, who also happens to be under a Vancouver police investigation. “Being in the construction business, you always face these problems.”

Khan, too, has refuted the charges.

“Let me make this clear: They have nothing to prove against me,” Khan said. “I am not worried at all. I’m ready to fight just like I’ve been doing for the past eight years.”

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Three other charges against Cricket Canada includes one by former national coach Pubudu Dassanayake. Under his guidance as coach, the country qualified for the final of the global tournament for the first time and simultaneously nailed a spot in the 2027 World Cup (50 overs) to be played in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

At the T20 tournament, underdog Canada shocked Test nation Ireland before gallant efforts against eventual champion India, Pakistan and co-host the United States. But on returning home, he was fired without cause.

Dassanayake has launched a suit for wrongful dismissal and “it’s in the hands of my lawyers right now,” the coach said on Tuesday.

Two other suits include the wrongful removal of national women’s captain Divya Saxena and the other by two former national team members Strimantha Wijeyeratne and Amar Khalid. This column will touch on these two cases next week.

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