The cricket stadium is full to capacity at the final of Global T20 Canada.

Written by Shail Prasad

The 5 takeaways of this successful second season are:

“cricket of this magnitude in our own backyard backed by fans and global audience”, “spectator-worthy cricket has finally arrived”, “opportunities for young Canadian cricketers”, “hope for national cricket team” and “Canada leads the brand of cricket in North America.”

The Global T20 Canada second edition just concluded in Brampton but it seems like the action is still on. The memories of sixes soaring over are so refreshing that it is hard to accept that the spectacle of 22 days of exciting cricket has come finally to an end.

The league has left an indelible imprint in the minds of thousands of cricket fans in Canada. They came, they saw and they were conquered!

From the first over to the super over – it was such a surreal experience for hundreds of thousands of fans as they watch the exciting sporting spectacle wrap up in their own backyard.

The tournament was a fantastic effort by the league owners given the amount of international cricket played here. It was like a Herculean task as everything was built from the scratch. The choice of venue at the City of Brampton was announced at the last moment and it was left for organizer to pull it off in little over six weeks. The result of the hard work was astounding – an uneven expanse of land was converted into a flat gorgeous ground with a makeshift stadium-style seating. A fully invested draft launched the best players of the game this season. Three belter of pitches were imported that gave eight 200 plus scores. And to top that all – the passion shown by gritty league owners to accomplish this was incredible as they announced that “they are here to stay”.

Canada is a sports loving country but we hardly see anything of this stature happening in the game of cricket. A spectacular catch by Rohan Mustafa, a quick-fire by Chris Gayle, a splendid spell of spin bowling by Ish Sodhi are just some of the scintillating spectator-worthy action that cricket fans in Canada were cringing for and they got them all – 6759 runs, 233 wickets, 399 sixes, 140 catches wickets in 20 game days.

And the top of cherry was the Super Over in the final – reminiscent of recently concluded World Cup final.

While we saw great international players Yuvraj Singh, Chris Gayle, Andrew Russell, Jimmy Neeson, Faf du Plessis, Heinrich Klaasen, Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Umar Akmal, Rassie van der Dussen, Darren Sammy, J P Duminy, Shahid Afridi and others in action, our own homegrown Canadian players were brilliant. Dillon Heyliger, Rodrigues Thomas, Kaleem Sana, Saad Bin Zafar, Ravinderpal Singh, Jeremy Gordon are some of the names that have promised a lot and they most likely will take over the mantle of national Canadian Cricket team. 

Among these players were the legends of the game Brian Lara, Mahila Jayewardne, Wasim Akram and Dilip Vengsarkar. Some of the best supporting staff headed by super coaches like Stephen Flaming, Tom Moody, Jeff Lawson, Lalchand Rajput, Lance Klusener, Donovan Miller, and some of world’s top ranked commentators Simon Doull, Dean Jones, Mike Haysman, Harish Bhimani made this edition of GT20 an unforgettable experience.

The final game recorded an attendance of 5084 – the maximum permitted at the grounds. People from all walks of life and various parts of Canada and the USA line up to fill the stadium for an action packed final.

No tournament can be complete without stake holders, franchise owners and sponsors and GT20 had all of them. Coke, TELUS, Dafabet were among top tier sponsors. The champion team Winnipeg Hawks was well-led under the ownership of Sanjay Duty and Manyata Dutt.

But behind all these are Global T20 League Chairman Gurmeet Singh, CEO Ashit Patel, Director Sona Singh and COO Karan Singh. 

I remember meeting Ashit Patel who camped in a Mississauga hotel for weeks before the first season of GT20 kicked off. A man with clarity and vision, Mr Patel put together a brilliant team of local Canadians while his partners in crime Gurmeet Singh and Sona Singh joined to work on a project that became bigger by the day – resulting in three weeks of labour of love bringing some of the best international marquee players like Steve Smith, David Warner, Chris Gayle to Canada. 

There was a grand vision in the reckoning – preparing Canada for 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup. 

Along came a road map for Canadian cricketers to earn a decent living playing cricket and a plan to scout Under-26 new talents all across the country – a project led by legend Dilip Vengsarkar. 

While the Global T20 Canada is still a work in progress, a lot has been achieved in a short space and it was only possible because the league owners envisioned and executed their plans brilliantly. They are passionate about the game and see it beyond the business model. 

“We don’t see breaking even in the initial few years,” chairman Gurmeet Singh mentioned in a talk show on TAG TV ‘Straight Bat’ with Devesh Shankar.

He talked about this league as his labour of love reminiscing his early days as young cricketer. He worked hard to become a top entrepreneur in hospitality, entertainment and sports business. 

The inaugural edition of the GT20 Canada is said to have cost league owners, Bombay Sports Company (formerly Mercuri-Canada), about $10.5 million. The second edition estimated costs have increased by 17 to 20 per cent this year. The outfield and the pitch, which was prepared in Indianapolis, are estimated to have cost upwards of $500,000. The league has estimated that around 73,000 fans have attended this year.

According to the league, global television viewership has passed 150 million, approximately a three-fold increase over last year’s numbers. Star TV and web streaming arm Hotstar were the rights holders broadcasting in over 80 countries with local partners. 

“Even YouTube has over 3.5 million viewers, “ said Ashit Patel. 

The league was not entirely a smooth sailing as days before Sunday’s final, there was a dispute with the league’s players over contractual payments.  

Nearly the same time, Winnipeg Hawks player Umar Akmal reported being approached by bookies to fix matches. Bad press followed after a story broke out in the ESPNcricinfo and it was picked by major dailies in India. 

The owners took swift action and everything was settled in time.

“It was a contractual issue that has been sorted out,” said Ashit Patel when I raised this question to him.

Rayad Emrit, the captain of the Winnipeg Hawks, said the money issue has been resolved. Finally it was found out that all players, including Canadians, were paid in full and the dust finally settled down for a “big final”.

It was like a script with an exciting end. A Super Over decided the champion after 40 overs of exciting cricket. Winnipeg Hawks – led by back-to-back man of the match winner 40-year-old UAE opener Shaiman Anwar – was crowned champions. 

The league has given great impetus to Canadian players after the debacle at ICC Division 2 when Canada crashed out and the obituary of Canadian cricket was written. But with the GT20, Canadian players are back in action and this heralds new opportunities for young raw talent we have in Canada. International players say they will be back next year and they will keep passing the knowledge to young cricketers in Canada. The world has witnessed the talent young cricketers in Canada possess and we see only one way – UP to the top.

Finally, cricket is the winner… all the way!