At a time that is already in turmoil, Cricket Canada got more bad news as board president Arvinder Khosa was allegedly attacked at his home early Wednesday.
Unidentified miscreants reportedly fired some gunshots towards Khosa’s house at 4:40 am local time, while the house was occupied. No casualties were reported, but bullet holes were found in the doors, windows and walls of the house.
Arvinder Khosa was appointed President in April
Khosa was appointed interim president of Cricket Canada following the departure of former CEO Salman Khan in April this year.
Khan also had prior criminal charges against him, which the Canadian board had failed to disclose to the ICC. Eventually, he was removed from office and a nine-member board of directors was appointed.
At Cricket Canada’s annual general meeting in early May, the board announced governance reforms as part of its transformation initiative.
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Lawrence Bishnoi gang suspected to be behind the attack
Khosa confirmed that his house was shot at while he was there, but no injuries were reported. Khosa lives in the Newton neighborhood of the city of Surrey in the province of British Columbia.
Although local police have not yet identified any suspects, the attack is believed to be part of an extortion case.
Earlier, notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his gang were accused of extortion and intimidation from both players and board members in Canadian cricket.
In a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) documentary, it was alleged that the Bishnoi gang was threatening players and board members to “take care” of some players on the Canadian team. In particular, in the threats it was definitely stated player Never be left out of the team, no matter what.
In another investigative documentary by CBC, Arvinder Khosa was named as allegedly having links to local players linked to the Bishnoi gang.
The documentary said that national team players had begun claiming gang affiliation and one player used the name Bishnoi to threaten another in 2025.
Cricket Canada under ACU investigation
The attack on Khosa’s home comes at a sensitive time with the Canadian team currently facing multiple open investigations by the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU).
One of them was opened recently, right after t20 world cup In February-March. The investigation relates to Canada’s loss to New Zealand in the tournament.
Specifically, the investigation appears to be targeting an over bowled by Canadian captain Dilpreet Bajwa, in which 15 runs were scored. Wickets came in each of the last two overs while Canada was defending only 173 runs.
These allegations were made by an investigative documentary conducted by CBC. A second ACU investigation was also opened due to another CBC documentary.
In that documentary, audio calls from 2024 were leaked, where former Canadian national team head coach Khurram Chauhan said that senior board members had put pressure on him to select certain players, and there were also indications of match fixing.
Chauhan’s successor Pubudu Dassanayake had also made similar claims. After moving to America, Dasnayake is no longer the coach of the Canadian team.
ICC stopped funding of the board
After the above allegations came to light, the International Cricket Council halted their funding to Cricket Canada earlier this month.
The ICC called it a “governance failure” and said they would not provide any funding to the Canadian board for the next six months.
Also read: ICC stops funding to Canada Cricket due to governance failure
