The Caribbean Graphic of April 14 features Roy Singh’s cricket stadium project. The article, largely sourced from a news item on the “Stadium Business Summit” web site, indicates Mr. Singh has been nominated for the “Rising Star” award, to be presented at the Summit in early June, in Madrid, Spain. The SBS web site, however, does not list this award on its web site. The SBS site article (published in February) titled “Canada’s cricket revolution” describes the proposed stadium project and includes the following:-
“Canadian Premier League T20 Chairman, Roy Singh has been spearheading unprecedented plans to revolutionise Canadian cricket by constructing the world’s first indoor cricket stadium. His perseverance to find a suitable site and raise funds for the ambitious project appear to have paid off, with a land deal set to be tied up within three months and work on the 35,000-seater stadium scheduled to start in January 2017. In a first for cricket, the purpose-built $700m stadium at Niagara, Ontario, will have a fixed roof and boasts a unique and iconic design which Roy claims is distinct from any other stadia in the world. It will also house 100 private boxes and a wide variety of food concessions…
While Roy is clearly buoyant now that his plans look set to come to fruition, it is evident his path to success has not been an easy one. “To be fair there has been a lot of scepticism,” he said. “But if you have a vision and you have a goal you should go ahead and do it. It has been an uphill struggle. People don’t see the big picture but now some people are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Caribbean Graphic article is featured on the CPL T20 Facebook page, along with a document that indicates the CPL will be launched next year with matches being played on natural grass in Montreal’s Olympic stadium (currently artificial turf). The document states that it will feature 10 teams and that it is sanctioned by Cricket Canada (we have seen no indication of official sanction from Cricket Canada).
The Facebook page also links to a crowdfunding site. The site looks for support as follows:- “Just launched our #makeachamp campaign to invite membership inquiries for the Canadian Premier League T20-2015 Tourmanemt.” Perhaps the scepticism referenced by Mr. Singh in the Stadium Summit article is manifested here- in 10 months the site has garnered 3 supporters and $10 in donations.
Caribbean Graphic in their April 26 edition featured an article by Tony McWatt on the upcoming Cricket Canada elections. Mr McWatt advocates that Cricket Canada needs to change direction, and that change of direction should include official sanction of the Canadian Premier League.
Canada Cricket Online would welcome the development of new cricket facilities in Canada, and if a high level competition were financially viable, it would undoubtedly provide a tremendous boost for cricket in Canada. It is hard to avoid, however, a degree of scepticism when evaluating these plans. Conclusion of the land deal described in the article would represent a big step towards convincing the skeptics had a sound basis in reality.