Brantford Cricket Club (BCC) has roots in the 1980s, with a track record of fielding competitive teams throughout the years and producing top notch players as reflected recently with four of its players being selected to represent in the 15-member squad at the Central T20 Cricket Tournament 2025.
Danish Sharma, who is the Vice-President of the BCC, discussed the importance of having these players, who include: Mansimran Singh, Harshit Sharma, Damandeep Singh and Gurdeep Singh being part of the team.
“This year, we were very fortunate that four of our players were selected into the next level to represent the Hamilton and District Cricket League (HDCL) team. The tournament is organized by Cricket Ontario and brings together eight teams that represent each district cricket league in the province which includes Brampton and Etobicoke, Toronto, Scarborough and Ottawa among others. These teams are composed of each district league’s best players,” he said. “In this tournament, we played three games and were very competitive against the Toronto District Cricket League (TDCL) team. Although we didn’t come away with the results we wanted, but we are very proud of having these players there…Mansimran Singh was captain of this team. He was also captain of last year’s team… he is one of the best players in the in the HDCL [and has] been part of Brantford team since 2020…and in 2022 he was part of Ontario’s 20-player squad which represented the province’s best. Along with Mansimran, we have great talent in Brantford.”
However, Sharma explained that an early version of the Brantford Cricket Club was formed in the 1980s with some success before being resurrected in 2014.
“Since getting the club going over a decade ago, we have been growing it and performing on a high level…winning various championships within this area. We mainly play in Hamilton and District Cricket League (HDCL), which comes under the tree of Cricket Canada which is the national sports organization for cricket…we were runner up in 2016 [and] we won in 2020,” he noted. “Currently, there are a few formats that we play under HDCL including the 40 over format, where games on average spans about six to seven hours. And then there is a key 20 format…which is only half the time of 40 over. And we participate in both. Then there are tournaments that run from the mid of May until the end of September or the first week of October. It’s all weather permitting. And there are four tournaments we play in…and we have won at least one of them every year. Right now, we have about 150 plus registered players within the BBC, and out of those about 80 members who actively play more than 50% of the games we compete in, and the rest play one or two games a season.”
Along with Sharma, who joined the club in 2016, two brothers have been instrumental in growing the BCC.
“Jagmeet Chahal, who is the president of the club, had the vision to grow the sport in the community. He moved from the GTA to Brantford around 2013; and at that time Chahal and his brother Jason were looking to join a cricket club in the area without much luck…so they dug into the city’s history and found that there was a club operating back in the 1980s. They would go on to reach out to Varun Payne, the founder of a cricket club in Brantford, who was very supportive in helping the brothers continue the tradition of the BCC in the city.”
Nevertheless, as cricket continues to grow steadily in the area, Sharma points out two highlights for him and the BCC.
“One of the biggest achievements is getting these four players to the tournament this year, who proudly represented our club…we had only one player last year, so that shows that this program is one that is getting stronger. Another achievement for us is winning the Super League Championship in 2023 which is in the Super Elite Division…we played against national players, and we truly excelled against them,” he said.
Overall cricket, according to Sharma, has risen in popularity in the area, as well as across Canada.
“Cricket will continue to grow in the country because of how well Canada has been performing at an international level…that will provide a lot of exposure and interest in the sport…on a local level, there have been a big increase in parents coming to us and inquiring about teaching their kids cricket [and] we are involved in youth camps and some exhibitions in helping them get started in the game,” he said. “We are also finding people in general are getting interested in the sport [and] for simply recreational purposes…some of these players are developing into very good athletes who are coming from the Brantford community wanting to perform at provincial levels, with an eventual goal of competing at a national level.”
