Growing up in Sri Lanka, cricket was “like a religion” for Dasman Kalansuriyage.
Playing in school and club leagues throughout his childhood, Kalansuriyage kept up with the sport after moving to Canada as a student 21 years ago. When he started working for TD in 2008, Kalansuriyage and a group of his TD colleagues saw an opportunity to carve out a community around what would become the Bank’s very first employee cricket team: the TD Legends.
Almost 15 years later, the TD Legends are thriving—and whether he’s on the cricket pitch or in the office, Kalansuriyage says his experience as the team’s captain has made him appreciate what it takes to lead a successful team of people with different skills and expertise.
“With cricket, one day you could be up, the other day you could be down. It allows you to learn how to come back from very difficult situations and also makes you very tactically smart as a person,” said Kalansuriyage, Associate Vice President, Trading Product Group Technology Lead, Online Wealth at TD.
“Cricket helps you to grow your mental thinking powers but also teaches you how to come back from very difficult situations—just like life.”
Cricket is one of the world’s most popular sports—second only to soccer—with billions of fans around the globe with hot spots in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. It’s also the fastest growing sport in Canada, particularly among the burgeoning South Asian community.
“It reflects in TD’s culture as an organization that we work in communities that represent us. Many people are new immigrants who come from different cultures and are interested in different sports,” said Kalansuriyage.
“TD is a place for everybody. You have people who love hockey, you have people who love baseball, and you have people who love cricket. We live in a diverse society, and that helps TD become a diverse company.”
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‘We all get to work together for one goal’
It all started back in 2010, when Kalansuriyage emailed fellow TD colleagues to ask if the Bank had any kind of employee cricket team. There wasn’t one—so Kalansuriyage and a few other colleagues got to work building one from scratch.
Kalansuriyage says it took about a year and a half of organizing and practicing before the team was ready for what he calls “the major league”—the Canadian Corporate Cricket League, where the TD Legends compete against other teams from major corporations.
With word spreading about the cricket teams through LinkedIn and word of mouth, Kalansuriyage says a few hundred people showed interest in trying out for the team each season. It’s been such a success that they formed a second cricket team, the TD Titans, with about 60 rostered players between both teams. On top of being the TD Legends’ captain, Kalansuriyage is an all-rounder—a cricketer who is good at both batting and bowling.
“One of the things I love about playing is I believe it helps me be a better leader,” said Kalansuriyage. “Cricket is an 11-player game with different attitudes, views and capabilities. Everybody’s strengths and weaknesses are not the same, but we all get to work together for one goal: achieving a winning success.”
Kalansuriyage says one of his favourite parts is getting the chance to connect with colleagues that work in different departments across the Bank.
“It’s awesome because it also provides career opportunities. I meet people from different lines of business, and you get to experience the TD culture together and we play as one team, which is really great and it builds up the culture and also the morale when people get together and contribute to one goal.”
For TD colleagues who are early in their careers, Kalansuriyage says joining a team like the TD Legends or TD Titans can help improve their awareness about TD as an organization, help them understand the Bank’s different lines of business by interacting with colleagues from various departments, and most importantly, help them network and grow in their careers.
“I’ve seen a lot of people using the contacts and the networking connections they’ve made. Because as much as you play cricket to participate in the sport, it also allows you to improve your network within TD,” said Kalansuriyage.
Bringing TD colleagues together
It’s the love of the game that keeps Kalansuriyage coming back to play with the TD Legends every season. But even though he’s one of the team’s founding members, Kalansuriyage says he doesn’t expect to be captain forever. As a leader, Kalansuriyage says he wants the TD Legends and TD Titans cricket teams to be his legacy for the next generation of cricket lovers at TD.
“It’s not about me—it’s about what we can build for the next generation. There comes a time where you need to step down and hand it to the younger generation. I do plan to hand it over to the younger folks and build out a thing that is continuous,” said Kalansuriyage.
“I really think interest in cricket is something that will keep on growing. The Cricket World Cup is the third most watched sporting event in the world, and as more people become interested I see the North American market growing.”