Cricket Canada's CEO Atul Ahuja is interviewed by Cover Point's North American Editor, John Holmes.
In November 2007, Atul Ahuja became the first full-time CEO of Canadian cricket's governing body, Cricket Canada. His aims include professionalising the administration of the sport in Canada, and gaining Test-playing status for the national team. Before taking up the position, he was a senior executive in the IT industry.
JH: What motivated you to take on the position at Cricket Canada?
AA: It's a labour of love for a game I've played since childhood, and still play. I think there's a lot more we can do here in this country, and a huge talent base that can be leveraged a lot more than it is currently. I came into this role at substantially lower compensation than I had in industry. My motivation is to try to lift the level of the game, and take us forward in the international arena.
JH: What do you see as a realistic goal for Canadian cricket in the next 20 years?
AA: We'd like to be a full member of the ICC, playing Test cricket, by 2015.
JH: That's a bold statement. Was that your mandate when you became CEO?
AA: No, it's not a mandate that's been handed down to me. It's a goal I've personally set for the organisation.
JH: In April, Scotiabank became Canadian cricket's first major corporate sponsor, and all the Associates will received increased funding from the ICC in 2009. What are the priorities for spending that money?
AA: The first priority is the high performance programme, so that we continue to perform in the international arena in the short-term. We've played 25 ODIs since January 2006, and we've only won 7.We're clearly not doing something right. Of course we need a long-term view, but I don't want to find in three years time we've dropped off the face of the earth in terms of our results. I'm talking months for us to up our investment, and as part of that paying the players is very important. These people have full-time jobs, which are hard to juggle with a rigourous practice schedule. Before my arrival we were practising one or two days a week. Now we practise five or six days a week.
JH: Ashish Bagai, the former national team captain, recently gave up the role to further his career as an investment banker. How big a blow was that?
AA: My objective would be to distance ourselves from the model that says we have a star and we need to hold on to that one star. The system needs to be producing many stars, we need a base of 50 or 60 players playing at the top level in this country. One player should not be indispensable. Yes, it is a sign Ashish Bagai left for work. But he has a successful career as an investment banker with UBS in London, and I don't think Cricket Canada will be able to compete with that kind of salary for a long time. He is a brilliant individual both on and off the field, very focused and driven. I hear he's a brilliant investment banker.
JH: Geoff Barnett, the opening batsmen, plays first class cricket for Central Districts in New Zealand.Would you like more players to gain experience overseas?
AA: We've had some trouble with the model of flying players in from overseas. It worked well when we were an entrant in the international arena, but now we've stagnated and the other Associates are performing better than us. Each season we fly in several players from overseas, and they go back, so any experience they gain playing for the national team doesn't go back into the system. It also creates a motivation issue. When the domestic players feel like they're competing for just a few places in the team, it's hard to motivate them. You can never underestimate the value of developing a team that works together as one. That extra effort, that extra slide, that extra dive that comes from the feeling of being together. There's great value in having a Barnett or a John Davison on the side, but it's only sustainable if they play first class cricket offshore in our wintertime, and play the domestic season here. This policy of dropping in players for seven or eight games is starting to show it's not the best thing for team building.
JH: How important is professionalising the administration of Cricket Canada?
AA: It's important we continue down the road where we increase our number of employees so we have full-time paid people running the sport. Today cricket is an industry. It's not just about picnic cricket anymore, it's a serious sport now. It's important for us to compete in the international arena, and we need to be professional in our approach internally. Recently the other Associates have grown substantially in terms of their own financial and administrative resources. I think Scotland, Ireland and Bermuda have between 10 and 14 full-time employees, and that has impacted their ability to perform big time.
JH: Are you planning regular games against Test-playing countries for the national team?
AA: It's very important we play Test-playing countries every summer in Canada. If you want to be one of the big boys, you have to play with the big boys, so it's imperative we start playing them every year. If we're able to promote Canada as a destination for international teams, because the weather or the political situation isn't suitable for them to play games at home, it will help raise the game here domestically.
JH: Toronto has two grounds – Maple Leaf Cricket Club and Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club – that could host international cricket. Are there plans to develop either?
AA: Both grounds come with great advantages, but both are private clubs, so it's a decision their members would have to take. If we can't develop either, we're working with other parties to develop other venues nationwide. That brings us to another point about the Toronto-centricity of cricket. I'd like to see international cricket in Vancouver, Calgary or Montreal. I know the largest cricket playing population is in Toronto, but that's something we need to correct. There's also a demographic issue. A large number of South Asian kids play the sport, which is great from a numbers perspective. But we'd like every community to play cricket. Our schools programme is geared to address the imbalance. In five years time we'd like participation across the board.
JH: Canada hosts the Under-19 World Cup in 2012. Do you have a performance target?
AA: We'd like to win it. That's a stated objective. At 16, a kid in Canada is no different from a kid in Australia in terms of playing ability. Long-term athlete development models say the difference develops after that age. If we're able to do a good enough job with our 16-year-olds, starting now, there is no reason why a Canadian Under-19 team cannot beat an Australian U-19 team.
JH: How are the domestic competitions evolving?
AA: We had the inter-provincial Scotiabank T20 Championships in May. It was unseasonably cold and it rained all three days, so from a crowd perspective we could have done a lot better. From a visibility perspective, mainstream media really covered that event, we were really impressed. CBC, CTV and every mainstream media outlet in the country gave us coverage, and we had Rogers TV doing commentary on the final. We've never had any domestic game televised before in this country. Twenty20 is definitely suited to this country, and we need to set up a professional league in the next year or thereabouts, with franchises and oversees players.
JH: Is funding currently in place for a schools programme?
AA: The funding for the schools programme is going to come from Scotiabank. The ICC is currently our largest benefactor, but the idea eventually is for ICC support to be a fraction of corporate support when cricket becomes a mainstream sport. The grassroots programme is very important to develop cricket in the mainstream population. Soccer is a great comparison. Over the last 20 years it has grown through its schools programmes and women's programmes, and even though Canada is only ranked around 80th in the world, it has become such a visible sport. In cricket we're ranked 15th in the world. We need to make sure we capitalise and spread the message that here's a sport where we're in the top 20, and it's no longer about five days and the clichéd lunch and tea breaks.
Copyright: Cover Point
