Cricket leagues boom across the GTA, but business models strain as supply outpaces demand
The Manmohan Sports Complex in Brampton hosts hundreds of teams, youth academies, and pro training. Yet private facility owners struggle with tight margins and rising competition.
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On a Sunday in late April, dozens of cricket players ranging from their twenties to their fifties gathered at the Manmohan Sports Complex in Brampton for their weekly practice. Carrying athletic bags and Tim Hortons coffee cups, they walked past flat-screen TVs airing Indian Premier League matches—inspiration for the promising juniors practicing across the facility.
The Toronto Peshwas, a recreational team, treats cricket "as professional as a recreational sport can be," according to founder Tausif Shaikh. This scene reflects cricket's explosive growth across the GTA over the past decade. With waves of South Asian immigration, the sport has become one of Canada's fastest-growing, creating an entire competitive and business ecosystem with increased public investment and hundreds of teams.
The success stories are compelling. Brampton teenager Yuvraj Samra made history at this year's T20 Cricket World Cup with a record-breaking performance on Canada's national team. The GTA has hosted international tournaments and welcomed the sport's biggest stars. Some of Canada's best cricketers came of age competing in local leagues.
But growth has also created tension. Even with increasing numbers of public grounds for cricket, casual play has become more difficult due to prohibitive costs and overwhelming demand from leagues. Private training facilities, seen as promising small business ventures just years ago, now face tight margins and heightened competition. Many have been forced to close shortly after opening.
Outdoor fields require constant upkeep, and pitch quality varies by municipality. Meanwhile, newly reported corruption at cricket's national level—including allegations of gangsterism and match-fixing—threatens the sport's integrity and broader image among newcomers to the game.
Veteran league player Aniket Shinde, who brought his eight-year-old son to the Manmohan facility's Super Kings Academy (a youth program affiliated with the IPL's Chennai Super Kings), acknowledged the paradox. Cricket is evolving, he said, but "is still not the best." The sport's expanded scale and profit potential could rally Canada's largest immigrant community, create new competitive opportunities for youth, and diversify the country's athletic identity. Yet that same popularity—and the money it attracts—has created growing pains that the sport is still learning to manage.
