Turn Barcelona into the European capital of cricket, the epicenter of this sport in continental Europe. This is Robert Masih's dream since he arrived in Barcelona, almost by chance, 19 years ago, and started playing cricket with several Pakistani and Indian immigrants like him in the Parque de la España Industrial in the popular neighborhood of Sants.
His dream will begin to come true this summer, when the BarcelonaT20 will be played for the first time, a recently created league in which 6 teams will participate and play 34 games, between the regular phase and the play-off, between August and September.
Masih, former senator for ERC and founder of the Indian Cultural Center in Barcelona, is the current general director of the Catalan Federation of this sport, which he created in 2013 and which now has 93 clubs and more than 3,500 players.
In reality, it is the only cricket federation that exists in Spain, because the person who manages its promotion and organization at the state level and the national teams is Cricket Spain, a private association recognized by the International Federation.
His passion for the game of bat and ball led this Indian businessman to travel to London several times, in 2010, to negotiate with the European Cricket Federation the organization of a major European league when the foundations of cricket had not yet been laid. in Catalonia nor in Spain nor in the old continent outside the British Isles. “Then, the project fell apart due to lack of sponsors,” he recalls in an interview with EFE.
This time, Robert Masih wanted to start the house from the foundations and has decided to first replicate in Barcelona, and on a small scale, the best league in the world, the Indian Premier League (IPL), to expand and professionalize his ambitious project from the Catalan capital. of cricket.
“Barcelona is a world-known brand. Everyone is delighted to come and play here. And that's why we want it to be the epicenter of our project. And from here, expand with other leagues throughout the rest of Europe in 3, 4 or 5 years,” he explains.
Organized by the Catalan Federation, BarcelonaT20 will initially create six franchises and will bring at least a dozen professional players from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia and England, from the IPL, which will then have finished its season.
The sponsors of the competition are "almost all Indian companies related to new technologies that want to expand their business in Europe," Masih clarifies, and they will choose the team that will bear their name and also the professional players in a kind of 'draft'. .
The squads will be completed with players who already play for Catalan clubs who will be classified in different categories that will determine their salaries. “The idea is that all players in this league get paid, not just the professionals who come from the IPL,” says Masih.
For the recruitment of talent – both economic and sporting – and the production and promotion of the event, the Catalan Cricket Federation has signed a 25-year agreement with Sports Newtworks UK, a company that has worked with the IPL, which has extensive experience when it comes to monetizing the investment in this sport and that will broadcast the competition to more than 70 countries.
And, although in Spain it may sound a bit strange to say it, cricket is the second sport in the world with the most viewers, only behind football - the IPL has registered television audiences that exceed 200 million per game in India -, although its popularity and media following is limited to the Commonwealth countries.
To give it a structure that is as professional as possible, the Catalan Federation has also hired Surinder Khanna as an advisor, a legend of Indian cricket and with experience in the organization as a former member of the Governing Committee of the best league in the world.
The BarcelonaT20 will be held at the Carlos Pérez de Rozas Municipal Baseball Stadium, on the Olympic mountain of Montjuïc, a field that does not meet the regulatory dimensions, but does have the necessary infrastructure to host a competition of these characteristics.
Quite the opposite of the facility that the Catalan Federation has in Vidreres (Girona), with a larger playing field but pending major remodeling.
However, the medium-term objective is that the success of the league and the investment of new sponsors will allow the construction of the second cricket field in Spain in Barcelona, since the only one approved by the European Federation is located in Almería.
The next step will be to progressively increase the number of franchises - the Indian Premier League has fourteen teams - that would draw on more stars from the IPL and also from other teams in Spain, and create other leagues in Europe before establishing a League of Champions, as exists in the majority of professional sports that take place in Europe.
In its first season, BarcelonaT20 will have a budget of between 500,000 and 600,000 euros. But for Robert Masih this is only the starting point of an ambitious long-distance race.
"From Barcelona we want to create, in 25 years, a professional cricket ecosystem with more than 1,000 employees, including technicians, referees, administration staff, etc., and organize more than 1,000 matches, with a business turnover of about 100 million euros”, summarizes Masih.
