Sunny Singh concedes he'd be lying if there weren't times he feared the Canberra Cavalry and Australian Baseball League would shut down permanently throughout the past two years.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After a bushfire-affected 2019-20 season, the competition was brought to its knees by COVID.
The 20-21 league was condensed and largely played in hubs while the competition was abandoned altogether last summer.
Two years later and the ABL is still standing. The Cavalry were put into administration before new ownership rescued the franchise.
Canberra general manager Singh has been one of few constants throughout that time, staying strong as coronavirus ravaged the semi-professional league.
The competition is set to return with a bang this year, the Cavalry determined to recoup all the ground lost over the past two seasons.
"Even before COVID hit, we had a heavily impacted season with bushfires in 19-20," Singh said. "Going directly out of that into COVID, it set the club back a significant way.
"It's disappointing to say that. We had some things going in our favour, the league was generating momentum. COVID took us back a few steps, but we're in a good position now to step forward.
"Through that adversity is now an opportunity. That's the silver lining, it was a rough time the club had to endure but I'm optimistic we're coming out the other side stronger as a club."
With the threat of COVID declining, the Cavalry have found stability on and off the field.
New owners Brendon Major, Illya Mastoris and Adrian Dart, have invested into the club and are united in their efforts to achieve success and give back to the Canberra baseball community.
While a number of changes have been made behind the scenes, the main area of focus has been upgrading the ballpark.
That, Singh feels, will make for an improved fan experience.
"All three of them are pretty established businessmen here in Canberra," Singh said. "They all have extensive networks that they're able to utilise and draw upon.
"They're investing in the infrastructure at the ballpark. That needed to be improved to bring us up to the standard of other ABL clubs and closer to minor league standard. That's becoming more of a requirement of this level, players and our affiliate clubs expect it.
"There will be a new video scoreboard, the padding has been replaced. There will be other improvements that will be done before the end of the off-season to make sure it's ready to go for our first home game."
The Cavalry will open their season at home against the Sydney Blue Sox on November 10, the club confident it will kick start a successful summer.
With ownership stability and, hopefully, an uninterrupted campaign, Singh is confident Canberra will be in the mix for their first championship since 2013.
The general manager has worked closely with star pitcher and assistant GM Frank Gailey to assemble a squad capable of taking down their rivals.
Keith Ward is back for his third year as manager, while Robbie Perkins will captain the side.
"We've built a really strong roster for this season," Singh said. "I say that with some confidence.
"Between Frank, Keith and myself, recruitment has been relatively smooth this year, we've locked in some players reasonably early.
"With Frank's knowledge and insight, he is really good on the recruitment side of things. We've built a strong roster of guys that are assassins for hire. We're not far away from confirming our affiliate players, there's a couple of guys from the Yokohama Bay Stars who have put their hands up."
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark canberratimes.com.au
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram