Sometime in the Fall of 2012, Roy Singh was glued to the television set at his Toronto home watching two men draped in coloured uniforms whack a white ball around a tiny oval, while 11 others chased it. He can’t quite remember who was playing but he enjoyed watching the match all the same. When the match ended, the 42-year old’s mind started racing with questions, but one in particular was swirling: why doesn’t Canada have a T20 Premier League?
Being an entrepreneur, Singh’s initial skeleton of Canada’s first T20 Premier League started to take shape in his head: 10 teams of 15 players (one team per province), 48 games played in seven weeks, a first class stadium to hold 35,000 spectators, the inclusion of Canadian professional cricketers and international icons, games shown live on TV and possible expansion of the game into the U.S. market. The format would run identical to the booming Indian Premier League and similar T20 leagues in Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies.
More than two years on since the initial Canadian Premier League (CPL) epiphany and Singh’s plan is materializing. He recently announced a string of West Indian international players — Dwayne Bravo, Test captain Denesh Ramdin and Chris Gayle; he confirmed he has spoken to Australian cricket legend Shane Warne about a player-manager role for one of the provincial teams; and has more than 80 Canadian professional cricketers consented to play in the CPL when it launches in August next year. The hunt for two stadiums is coming to an end; one permanent stadium to be built in the GTA which will take four years and one temporary location to help launch the CPL in the meantime.
Justin Robertson caught up with Roy Singh last week to talk more about Canada’s first proposed T20 Premier League, the hunt for a permanent and temporary stadium location and what this could do for the sport of cricket in Canada.
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Is the CPL on track to commence a year from now?
We are on track to launch the event in August next year. We are still a month away from finalizing the venue. We have found a temporary stadium that will be formatted to T20 and its requirements and one that will comfortably host the tournament next year.
The temporary stadium: is it the Rogers Centre? Some media outlets have reported that you have approached them to turn dugouts and bases into temporary cricket facilities?
No, it’s not the Rogers Centre. Cricket can’t be played on that surface. My understanding is that they’re focusing on using (it) for only baseball moving forward. Initially they wanted to entertain the idea of cricket at the Rogers Centre, but once we got into more detailed discussions it ended up where it just couldn’t happen. It was too expensive.
So where is the temporary stadium?
We are talking to the Quebec Government about the Olympic stadium in Montreal. We currently have an agreement in place. We believe the CPL will end up being played there next year. We are meeting with the city and getting all the paperwork approved first.
Why Montreal?
Montreal already has the Olympic stadium built and it can accommodate the games. It has a grass field and can fit eight wickets. That’s what we are working on in the coming months: securing that.
Did you look at other Canadian cities?
We’ve looked around Toronto and places surrounding the city. It’s been hard dealing with the City of Toronto, to be honest, to get land allocated to build a temporary structure. Initially we were interested in Coronation Park and that didn’t go so well because there is a baseball diamond there. What I find disappointing was that the City of Toronto has no problem getting rid of a baseball diamond kids have been using for 50 years, to build a training facility for basketball, yet they can’t consider something similar to actually build a temporary structure for cricket. That shows that the City of Toronto is not serious about cricket in Toronto.
Montreal looks like it will launch the CPL next year, pending paperwork. Where will the permanent stadium be built?
We think the permanent structure will eventually be built in Brampton, Ont., which has land that can actually accommodate the stadium. Toronto doesn’t have the space for a 35,000-seat stadium.
When will that be finalized?
It’s going to take approximately six-to-eight months to secure the space we have in mind for the permanent structure. Once that is completed, we can start building it, which will take three-to-five years.
How much funding have you acquired right now, to build that stadium?
Right now we have $700 million. It’s syndicated finance where a number of investors have put up the money.
How much more do you need or is $700 million enough to build a stadium?
We need a further $300-400 million. All up, the stadium will cost $1 billion.
Can you tell us who has invested in the stadium funding? And how much?
We’ve been dealing with Avcom Investments. Once we finalize everything then we’ll be introduced to the investors that are putting the money up. Right now, I have not met any of the investors except the team from Avcom who have signed a letter of interest.
What happens if you don’t get the funding you require or they decide not to invest?
We are actually very close to getting the remaining funds now. It should happen within the next few months.
ESPN CricInfo’s Peter Della Penna (and other media outlets) wrote extensively about your heavy involvement in a multimillion dollar fraud case that happened more than 10 years ago. You were sentenced to prison for four and a half years in 2007. Given your checkered past with a financing scheme, why should you be trusted?
From a personal point of view, I won’t be handling the finances. There are people that will be involved specially in those departments. I’m not included in that at all. That’s my first step to reassuring people, that, I’m not here to defraud anyone. Why would I be going through all this, to do something like that? It doesn’t make sense. But that’s one of the mechanism’s I’ve put in place to address that.
Has your history of fraud provided roadblocks in moving this cricket vision forward?
Not at all. Look, I’ve paid my dues to society. I want to continue with my life. My actions, moving forward, will speak for (themselves).
Baseball is a sport that cricket will have to compete with during the summer months. How are you going to achieve that?
Canada is a sports country and Toronto is a sports city. The good that will come out of this, by adding cricket, is there will be another top-notch sport here in Canada. The sport will be facilitated by the ethnic diversity that is already here. I’m not here to compete against anyone; what I’m saying, we already have the support to have a new product introduced. God bless baseball and hockey, but I think cricket is a sport that should be here in the Canadian mainstream.
The T20 format: what is it and why did you decide on that adaptation to bring to Canada?
That’s a good question. T20 format is two-and-a-half hours. A hockey game is two-and-a-half hours or there abouts. T20 suits the sport culture here in Canada. It is exciting. There are big hits like the home runs in baseball — except you’ll see a lot more in cricket.
How many players are currently locked in to play when you launch August 2015?
We have 85-90 registered Canadian professional players already on board. All of them consented to play. These players are from each province of Canada. The international players, the likes of Chris Gayle (West Indies), Dwayne Bravo (West Indies) and Shane Warne (Australia) have all verbally committed as player-managers.
Are there any other international cricket players that you are trying to target?
We are looking at a majority of the international players. My head of global operations has a connection to every one of them. We are not concerned about getting players here. We have Robin Singh, former captain of the Indian Cricket Team on board and his responsibility will be to bring over Indian players of high market value.
How will you entice non-cricket followers to get on board with CPL?
Simply because of the excitement. Hockey is a very exciting sport but I think T20 will be quickly adaptable to the Canadian sports scene.
T20 Premier Leagues are played in India, West Indies and Australia. Could you explain the impact this format has in those destinations from an economic and broadcasting perspective?
The Indian Premier League (IPL) has grown from $5 million in worth to $2.8 billion. The Kolkata Knight Riders (one of the teams) is valued at over $80 million itself. The IPL is not even 10 years old. India is a great cricket country. Bringing the Indian cricket greats here to play will transfer those viewers to Canada through whichever broadcasting station we choose to use. So I’m comfortable that we will attract more than 300 million viewers and that’s just from India. The IPL had 112 million viewers in North America. The Sri Lankan Premier League had 97 million viewers during the finals. Those are big numbers.
What will the estimated worth of the Canadian Premier League be at the end of its first season?
At the end of the first year, I project the CPL will be valued at $150 million. That includes everything: merchandizing, broadcasting, team value, etc …
Do you have any interest to expand into the U.S.?
Yes, we do. During the process of building the permanent stadium and launching each year, we will be exploring options in the U.S. to build stadiums or get investors to help build stadiums in various cities that will eventually host T20 games in different leagues. We will start looking into this during years four and five of the CPL. But, right now, the Canadian market is our focus.
Will the CPL help cricket thrive in Canada?
I think it will. The CPL will also assist college and university leagues at the grassroots level where it’s extremely multicultural. Cricket’s main issue is that it lacks the infrastructure. And that’s the void we are trying to fill.
So Canadian colleges and universities will have cricket teams?
There have been discussions with various universities and myself: York University and University of Toronto being the only two so far. The interest is there. They don’t have the proper funding for it but the CPL intends to provide some funding to start leagues and get teams involved in a league. Cricket Canada is not operating the way it should. One of the main reasons for that is they are heavily underfunded and under managed. That would also have to change to help cricket thrive.
How do you think the CPL will change Canada’s perception and involvement in cricket?
The start of the idea for this league wasn’t done to have dreams put out there and not be fulfilled. My intention is to see through with this and make it a success that it should be in Canada and North America. We have obstacles, but I will overcome them. We will get a lot of people playing cricket in a very professional manner. Right now, cricket is being run like an amateur sport. It shouldn’t be that way. Cricket is an amazing sport. It’s full of everything every Canadian sport already has. It’s a shame that Canada hasn’t seen a lot of it. I hope to change that. Cricket hasn’t been taken seriously. We are serious and we are coming.