Who controls Canada cricket? Lawrence Bishnoi gang calling shots through threats and influence

Canadian cricket has been rocked by allegations that run from threats, selection pressure to match fixing, with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang at the centre of a CBC investigation.

Dilpreet Bajwa, who led the Canadian team in the recently held ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, is under scrutiny after a match-fixing case linked to him in a Canada vs New Zealand match during the tournament.

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A report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Canada’s public broadcaster, says Bajwa may have links with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s network and could have been influenced to fix matches for the Bishnoi group.

The CBC report also states that the Bishnoi gang may have played a role in Bajwa’s rise in Canadian cricket. The same gang has been accused of the killing of singer Sidhu Moose Wala, the murder of politician Baba Siddique, and threats to Bollywood actor Salman Khan.

The restaurant threat
"Last July (2025), around 25 cricketers, fresh off a win at a major provincial tournament, gathered at a restaurant in Surrey, British Columbia. Two players from the tournament made their way from the outside patio to a table inside, where a star on Canada's national men's team was having dinner with another group. According to sources, they claimed they represented the Bishnoi gang — a violent criminal group designated a terrorist entity in Canada. They told the star that if he didn't support the rise of a young player named Dilpreet Bajwa and another player on the men's provincial team and the national team, he and his family would face consequences," the CBC report says.

The national player who was threatened then spoke to a person who was named Noah by the CBC about the incident at the restaurant. Noah, like the national player, also received death threats.

Bajwa, then 22, was appointed captain three weeks before the T20 World Cup began in February this year. The alleged fixing incident involved the fifth over of New Zealand's chase vs Canada in the T20 World Cup, when the captain Dilpreet Bajwa came on to bowl.

He is mainly a batting allrounder who bowls offspin. He came on to bowl with New Zealand at 35 for 2. He started with a no-ball, bowled a wide down the leg side, and conceded 15 runs in that over.

Restaurant threat part of broader trend The CBC report says these threats such as at the restaurant are part of what it describes as a pattern of intimidation within Canadian cricket, involving people who claim links to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. It says such groups appear to be trying to place cricket administrators and players in specific positions.