The Blue Jays’ surprising rise to the top of the American League may have much of Toronto focused on the Rogers Centre this summer, but over at city hall, other, less-glamorous baseball diamonds are firmly under the microscope.
Places such as Parma Park in North York and Corvette Park and Littles Road Park in Scarborough, which have played host to baseball for years, are currently in the process of being overhauled and reconfigured as the city makes way for another famous bat-and-ball game – cricket.
“Essentially, we heard very, very clearly that we need more [cricket] fields across the city,” said Matt Bentley, project manager for parks, forestry and recreation at the City of Toronto. “We need better fields across the city. And we also need the opportunities to increase opportunities to play.
“So what that resulted in is us looking at opportunities not just for full size, sort of traditional cricket pitches across the city. But we’re also looking at opportunities for practice play, which we’ve seen come in the form of opportunities, for instance, to convert a baseball diamond to a practice pitch for cricket.”
After hammering the wooden stumps into the ground, Rishi Samuel marks the crease with spray paint as he preps for a cricket match at Littles Road Park.
With more than 10 times as many baseball diamonds as cricket pitches in Toronto (there are currently just 27 dedicated cricket pitches), there would seem to be plenty of inventory to go around. Though many diamonds are still home to buzzing baseball scenes, that is far from a universal situation, particularly with some that are designated as ‘C-diamonds’ by the city, meaning they simply comprise a backstop, an infield and then an open field area.
Over a five-year period between 2020 and 2025, the City of Toronto consulted with Cricket Canada and Cricket Ontario, as well as local organizations that manage leagues, to draw up a cricket strategy that is now being rolled out, initially committing $7.6-million for its implementation.
Parma Park, which represents the city’s first formal conversion of a ball diamond to a single-direction cricket pitch, is set to open later this year. Owing to the space requirements of a full-size cricket field – the diameter of the field of play can stretch between 140 and 150 metres – the city is leaning on a number of single-direction pitches, which means the bowler bowls from the same end instead of switching ends between overs.
Rudy Bhoopaul grabs a cricket ball as he helps his wife Ranie Bhoopaul set up the team table ahead of the match.
That space requirement, as well as the limited amount of green space, particularly downtown, throws something of a curveball (or a leg spinner, in cricket terms) into plans to accommodate the sport of cricket.
“The fact that [the play is] in both directions, it’s really, really challenging,” Bentley said. “And then you also have to consider things like adjacency to homes and things like that as well. Because of the way that the sport is played, it’s like having a home run fence all around the entire field.”
In addition to repurposing underused baseball diamonds, another approach that the city is taking to accommodate the fast-growing sport is to partner with schools. Many of them are adjacent to, or have their own playing fields, so the idea is that the city and school boards can work together to meet a common goal.
“So many schools and parks are adjacent to one another, and one on their own may not have the ability to sort of advance a major facility,” Bentley said. “But what we’re trying to do is identify opportunities where we can work together to support the sport.”
It’s a similar story in neighbouring Peel – the “cricket capital of Canada,” according to Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown. There the city is investing $10-million over the next two years to upgrade cricket facilities, which currently include 23 cricket fields.
In addition to the current construction of Earnscliffe Park Cricket Facility, the city’s first year-round cricket facility which is expected to open in 2026, Brampton has also partnered with the Peel District School Board to provide a new fully lit facility complete with artificial turf and pavilions at Turner Fenton Secondary School.
Azeem Khan, president of the Ontario Masters Softball Cricket Clubs. Founded in 2000, the league largely serves players 40 and older, and promotes softball cricket in Ontario.
In Mississauga, another Peel District school is leading the way when it comes to on-field results, with the Stephen Lewis Secondary School showing what can be achieved when good facilities are provided.
The Lady Lynxes powered their way to a third consecutive title in both the indoor and outdoor cricket championships, culminating in a 68-run victory over the West Humber Collegiate Institute at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Park earlier this summer to win the Ontario Schools Cricket Association GTA outdoor championship.
Rameen Rashid, the team captain, has used her school’s cricket program to make the provincial team, winning the nationals with Ontario last year.
Born in Pakistan, the 17-year-old all-rounder was raised in Oman before moving to Canada in 2016. She says she’s seen an unbelievable explosion in interest in the sport since she started playing in Grade 9.
“The increase in cricket that I saw through from 2016 till like 2025 was really insane,” she said. “Especially last year and this year, I’ve seen so many female athletes, male athletes going to these new grounds to play cricket.”
The Lady Lynxes, who have gone 42-0 since the girls’ cricket program was reintroduced in 2023, are in some ways setting a new standard for the school’s athletic prowess.
“The area is changing, right?” says Rohit Malhotra, the coach of the girls’ cricket team at Stephen Lewis. “A lot of new immigrants are coming with South Asian culture. So it’s great to have a school within the GTA that the demographic is saying, ‘Hey, the sport at this school is cricket, and it’s girls’ cricket.’”
Girls and boys, adults and teenagers. As far as Bentley is concerned, it’s just about keeping up with demand. The City of Toronto’s initial cricket strategy called for five new cricket fields over 20 years. But “we heard very, very quickly, especially as we developed the cricket strategy, that we need way more than that.”
Bentley and his team will be doing a final cricket engagement this fall with various cricket stakeholders, before the recommendations lock themselves into the facilities plan that will go to council next spring.
Already his team added another $2.5-million to the cricket projects in the 2025 budget to essentially support things such as increases in cost of construction from a year prior.
When it comes to highlighting where these cricket facilities will be located, Bentley adds that in many cases the cricket community does much of the literal legwork for him.
“If you go on to Google Maps or Google Earth at Littles Park in Scarborough, you will see the wear mark where cricket is being played on a daily basis in that park,” he said. “So in that case, there is no better demand than it’s almost like desire lines that you see in parks as people make our pathways for us.”
Littles Road, which is set to open as a cricket-first facility next spring, is another former baseball diamond that is set for a new lease of life. And Corvette Park – “traditionally a baseball location” where Bentley used to play baseball as a kid – will see two baseball diamonds converted to three cricket fields, and is also set to open next spring.
While Bentley adds that he’s “not suggesting that baseball is [being] wiped off the map by any means,” he knows that there will be some baseball diehards that won’t be happy to see Toronto’s shift away from the sport.
“Obviously, there’s always going to be people that are going to not be thrilled about that,” he said. “But at the same time, I think we have to do what’s right here, and this is what’s right in this example.”