My first interaction with Ben Sennik was at the University of Toronto on May 3, 2007 at a day-long cricket conference organised by the university. Ben and I have been in touch for over a year now, having exchanged multiple emails over the organisation of the conference. However, never did it occur to me that Ben was an Indian expatriate who had made it big in Canada as a business magnate. When we finally met at the university and he handed me his visiting card, I was rather intrigued to see that Ben was an anglicised version of Banwarilal. Born in Kenya, Sennik has been at the helm of affairs in Canada for over three years and has drafted a reasonably ambitious plan for the games' expansion. His ancestors migrated from India to Kenya in 1904 from a small town half way between Lahore and Islamabad, a town Sennik still considers home. Excerpts of his interview:

My first interaction with Ben Sennik was at the University of Toronto on May 3, 2007 at a day-long cricket conference organised by the university. Ben and I have been in touch for over a year now, having exchanged multiple emails over the organisation of the conference. However, never did it occur to me that Ben was an Indian expatriate who had made it big in Canada as a business magnate. When we finally met at the university and he handed me his visiting card, I was rather intrigued to see that Ben was an anglicised version of Banwarilal. Born in Kenya, Sennik has been at the helm of affairs in Canada for over three years and has drafted a reasonably ambitious plan for the games' expansion. His ancestors migrated from India to Kenya in 1904 from a small town half way between Lahore and Islamabad, a town Sennik still considers home. Excerpts of his interview:

Leading the charge for a game which is badly cash strapped. 

When I took over in 2004 there was nothing-no documents, no audited reports, no infrastructure. We had a debt of C$300,000. In three years we have paid off the entire debt, successfully crossed the first stage to generate federal government funding and are also on the verge of undertaking the building of our own stadium. Yes, there are problems but sponsors have been approached and I am confident the situation will be far better in two-three years.

On a sport dominated almost completely by expatriates.

Look, South Asians are no longer South Asians here. They are every bit as Canadian as someone born in Canada. In fact, I am confident that for the 2011 World Cup the Canada team will mostly consist of players born in Canada. The game has spread to the grassroots and there's a lot of interest. With kids taking interest, there will be no dearth of talent.

 My experience shows there's very little infrastructure.

I agree with you. And it is here that we want to appeal to prosperous cricketing nations like India to come forward and help us. If they allow three-four of our players to train in India, Canada cricket will take a quantum leap. The same applies for Australia. This is how cricket can be globalised as well. I really hope the BCCI reads this and comes forward

With a growing South Asian populous, how do you explain the lack of sponsorship? Isn't it your failure?

None of us in the CCA are paid staff. Everything here is done on a voluntary basis. The sponsorship work needs time. We never had the personnel to chase big companies. We have sponsors, but they are small companies. And there aren't many giant South Asian corporations that can spend big money on sport. I am keen that Indian companies like Reliance and Tatas come forward and help. They have business interests here and for a far lesser amount they will have good value for money.

India had promised to come and play here. What happened?

Yes, they did. I am disappointed with the series not happening. It would have allowed us to raise some funds. The BCCI personnel did not even bother responding to emails on occasions. I really hope they assume much more responsibility.

 Do you have enough cricket grounds?

We are far better off than a few years earlier. Toronto mayor David Miller is a cricket fan and is helping us a lot. We are planning our own stadium. We have 22 acres of land in King City, north of Toronto. The cost would be around C$250 million and we are negotiating with a number of companies.

 Are you optimistic about the future?