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USA Cricketer
March 2010 - Posts
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March 31, 2010
Sri Lanka's Daily News confirmed today that Sri Lanka will play a series of Twenty20 Internationals after the World Cup.
 "After
the World Cup in the Caribbean the Sri Lankan team will also play a
series of Twenty20 Internationals against New Zealand and the United
States of America during their historic maiden cricket tour to the USA," the newspaper wrote.
Daily News also noted that 40-year old Sanath Jayasuriya and 20-year old
Dinesh Chandimal would both be part of the squad for the World Cup in
the Caribbean and the tour of USA following that.
The full Sri Lanka squad is as
follows - Kumar Sangakkara, Muthiah Muralidharan, Tillekeratne Dilshan,
Mahela Jayawardana, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera,
Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, Ajantha Mendis, Lasith Malinga, Chanaka
Welagedara, Chamara Kapugedara, Sanath Jayasuriya and Chinthaka
Jayasinghe. This latest news report follows last week's report from Pakistan's The Nation,
in which Nabeel Ahmed, USACA First VP, was quoted as saying: “Sri Lanka
Cricket (SLC) and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) - have agreed to send their
teams immediately after the ICC Twenty20 final (in Barbados on May 16).”
Although the exact schedule is not yet known, the timing of the
matches following the ICC Twenty20 final would be perfect from a
logistical perspective.
“The weather condition in Florida is same as in West Indies and two
teams playing here will not find any problem as Florida is only one and
half hour flying away from West Indies,” Nabeel Ahmed told The Nation.
New Zealand has just finished their tour of Australia and look to
get some rest before reassembling on April 18th for a training camp
prior to departing for the Caribbean. The following Black Caps squad for the World T20 was announced yesterday: Daniel Vettori, Shane Bond,
Ian Butler, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins, Brendon McCullum,
Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Rob Nicol, Jacob Oram, Aaron
Redmond, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor.
In his 'Message from the CEO' dated March 5th, Justin Vaughan, CEO
of New Zealand Cricket wrote: "We are pushing ahead with plans for a
T20 series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka to be held in Florida in
May. If successful, it would be the first time two full ICC members
will have met in an official match on US soil and it follows the
agreement of a strategic partnership between NZC and the USA Cricket
Association."
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By Peter Della Penna
A dogged defense of 91 in a Friday night Twenty20 encounter was backed
up by a methodical chase of 198 on Saturday afternoon as the USACA
South East Region squad made it two for two coming out on top of the
touring Marylebone Cricket Club squad at the Central Broward Regional
Park in Lauderhill, Fla.
Post Match Interview with MCC Captain Michael Foster from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
On Friday night, South East won the toss and batted first against the
MCC squad. South East got off to a superb start as Timothy Surujbally
charged full speed ahead for 27 runs opening the innings and combined
with Saisitaram Ramesh to put on 46 runs for the second wicket. Ramesh
was bowled by Ajaz Akhtar with the score on 52 in the 6th over and that
sparked a dramatic collapse.
Surujbally was out to Tom Bartram in the next over, the first of
Bartram’s five wickets as he then set about dismantling the middle
order with steady medium pace bowling. Bartram was on a hat trick after
taking the wickets of Steven Taylor and Robert Cresser with the score
on 77 in the 9th over. South East’s last nine wickets fell for 39 runs
as they were all out for 91 in 13.3 overs.
It looked like MCC would get there with plenty of overs to spare, but
South East came out fired up and keen to defend their meager total. Ken
Singh set the tone for South East, opening the bowling by completing
two maidens in his four over spell. Anand Tummala also built pressure
of his own with a maiden and two more overs for only six runs. After
the halfway point in the innings, MCC was 24 for 5.
Captain Michael Foster came in at the fall of the fifth wicket and
tried to galvanize his team, scoring 38 off 29 balls. With the score at
80 for 7 and 12 needed to win off the final over, MCC was boosted after
a no ball was called on the second delivery to make it nine needed from
five balls. Foster then scored a two and a single off the next two
deliveries, but was stranded at the non-striker’s end with six needed
to win in three balls. Robert Cresser bowled a dot ball, then bowled
Ajaz Akhtar before Bartram hit a single off the last ball as South East
managed to hold on for victory.
“I thought we had bowled and fielded really well and probably had a
number that we could chase down,” said Foster after the loss on Friday
night. “But as we’ve seen all around the country here, a lot of spirit
in the field… and unfortunately we fell a couple short.”
In Saturday’s contest, MCC won the toss and batted first. Once again,
their innings got off to a very slow start as Singh and Tummala didn’t
offer anything loose. Shani Kamalia hit MCC’s first boundary with the
last ball of the 12th over to make the score 42 for 0. Two balls later,
Singh claimed the first wicket for South East as he bowled Simon
Montgomery. In the next over, Jibran Gul replaced Tummala and Kamalia
started to open up, hitting another boundary off the fourth ball, but
got carried away and on his next delivery, tried to pull a short ball
and mistimed it straight to Tummala at midwicket in the circle to make
it 48 for 2.
After Singh’s spell was finished, Hussain Haider came on and continued
to apply pressure with some crafty right arm spin bowling as he mixed
in off spin with leg spin. He finished with 2 for 27, claiming the
wickets of Paul Bryson and Karl Pearson.
When Pearson fell to make it 88 for 5 in the 26th over, Foster was
joined by Paul Davidge at the wicket and the two grinded out 97 runs
for the 6th wicket. Foster took on an aggressive role while Davidge
blocked his way through the first half of his innings, making sure to
stay at the wicket to keep the tail from being exposed. At one point,
Davidge was on 10 off 47 balls. Foster, a former Sheffield Shield
player for Victoria in Australia’s first class competition, played some
classy strokes to keep the scoreboard moving and brought up his 50 with
an elegant cover drive. He was finally caught in the 47th over on the
boundary by Cresser off Surujbally’s off spin for 66 in 67 balls with
eight fours in his knock. The only other boundaries in the innings were
the two hit by Kamalia. MCC finished 198 for 8 in their 50 overs.
South East had a rocky start to their innings when both openers,
Surujbally and Taylor, were dismissed cheaply to make the score 17 for
2. After seeing off the rest of Bartram’s opening spell, Sunju Patel
and Japen Patel then constructed a solid 82-run partnership for the
third wicket to get things back on track. Japen Patel was caught behind
trying to defend a Pearson delivery to make it 99 for 3, but Sunju
Patel moved along, playing mostly through the air as he reached 50 in
70 balls. However, he was dismissed LBW one ball later to Rupert
Swetman’s medium pace to make the score 117 for 4 in the 29th over.
Tummala and Syed Hassan inched their way comfortably towards the target
as South East looked set for an easy win, but when Bartram reentered
late for a second spell, he nabbed both men, with a run out sandwiched
between the dismissals, to swing things back MCC’s way making the score
174 for 7. Will Hodson got Cresser pinned on the crease to be given LBW
for 3 making it 190 for 8 in the 44th over and it looked like MCC just
might steal the match.
 Anthony
Sahadeo joined Moazzam Imtiaz at the wicket and the two calmly
negotiated their way through the pressure of the situation to tick off
the last nine runs, sealing the victory by two wickets.
Pic (Right): MCC player Paul Davidge (left, with sunglasses)
observes FCA player Faraz Jaferi bowling his left arm spin in a clinic
put on by the MCC touring squad on Friday afternoon. [Courtesy: Peter
Della Penna]
Over the entire tour by MCC, the US teams dominated most matches as the
squad from London was caught off guard by the quality of players they
were facing.
“We just sort of jumped off the plane in LA thinking this is gonna be a
wonderful holiday and we’ll get challenged a few times playing cricket
and maybe we’ll have the better of the games and how wrong we were,”
said Foster. “What has just stunned me all the way around the country
is just the spirit with which the game is played. I expected some
talent because this is the US after all and the US is very good at
getting their act together with skills but just the spirit for the game
and the little things that the sides have been doing. They’ve been
fielding really well and putting energy in the field and a lot of voice
and managing to put pressure on us. We’re experienced cricketers and
they managed to put pressure on us, which is what we should be doing to
them.”
Prior to the first match on Friday, the MCC squad conducted a coaching
session outside on the satellite fields at Central Broward Regional
Park with some teenage players from the Florida Cricket Academy. The
MCC squad also conducted clinics in California and all the MCC players
were very impressed with the young talent. Foster believes there is
definitely something to look forward to down the road for cricket in
America.
“I think the talent is terrific,” said Foster. “I’ve been to a lot of
developing countries, sort of the lower tier cricketing nations if you
like and seen a lot of players going around. The talent here is second
to none.”
MCC vs. South East Region T20 Scorecard
South East won by 4 runs
South East won the toss and batted
South East Batting Balls Runs 4s 6s Dismissal
T Surujbally 27 21 3 0 ct Kamalia b Bartram
A Sahadeo 1 2 0 0 ct Pearson b Friedlander
S Ramesh 16 12 2 0 b Akhtar
A Tummala 3 6 0 0 b Bartram
S Taylor+ 10 7 0 1 ct Friedlander b Bartram
R Nayar 1 2 0 0 LBW Bartram
R Cresser 0 1 0 0 b Bartram
K Singh* 1 2 0 0 runout (Kamalia)
S Hassan 10 17 2 0 not out
M Imtiaz 1 5 0 0 ct & b Terry
J Patel 1 6 0 0 b Terry
Total Extras 20 (0 no balls, 5 byes, 1 leg bye, 14 wides)
Team Total 91 all out in 13.3 overs
Fall of wicket: 6/1 (Sahadeo), 52/2 (Ramesh), 54/3 (Surujbally),
56/4 (Tummala), 75/5 (Nayar), 77/6 (Taylor), 77/7 (Cresser),
83/8 (Singh), 84/9 (Imtiaz), 91/10 (Patel).
MCC Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
M Friedlander 2-0-18-1
W Hodson 3-0-18-0
T Bartram 4-0-17-5
A Akhtar 2-0-24-1
P Terry 2.3-1-8-2
MCC Batting Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
S Montgomery 5 5 1 0 ct Imtiaz b Cresser
M Friedlander 6 10 1 0 LBW Singh
K Pearson 21 43 1 0 ct Tummala b Cresser
P Davidge+ 0 4 0 0 ct Imtiaz b Tummala
S Kamalia 2 11 0 0 LBW Tummala
R Swetman 2 11 0 0 runout (Ramesh/Taylor+)
M Foster* 38 29 4 0 not out
W Hodson 0 2 0 0 LBW Ramesh
A Akhtar 2 4 0 0 st Taylor+ b Cresser
T Bartram 1 1 0 0 not out
Total Extras 10 (1 no ball, 0 byes, 1 leg bye, 9 wides)
Team Total 87 for 8 in 20 overs
Did not bat: P Terry
Fall of wicket: 16/1 (Montgomery), 16/2 (Friedlander), 17/3 (Davidge),
21/4 (Kamalia), 24/5 (Swetman), 68/6 (Pearson),
72/7 (Hodson), 86/8 (Akhtar).
South East Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
K Singh 4-2-7-1
R Cresser 4-0-32-3
A Tummala 3-0-6-2
J Gul 4-1-0-16
T Surujbally 3-0-9-0
R Nayar 1-0-8-0
S Ramesh 1-0-8-1
MCC vs. South East Region 50 over match Scorecard
South East won by two wickets
MCC won the toss and batted
MCC Batting
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
S Montgomery 9 32 0 0 b Singh
S Kamalia 28 47 2 0 ct Tummala b Gul
P Bryson 11 35 0 0 b Haider
R Swetman 4 21 0 0 b Cresser
K Pearson 7 12 0 0 b Haider
M Foster* 66 67 8 0 ct Cresser b Surujbally
P Davidge+ 31 74 0 0 ct & b Surujbally
M Friedlander 2 5 0 0 st Sahadeo+ b Surujbally
P Terry 2 3 0 0 not out
W Hodson 5 6 0 0 not out
Total Extras 33 (2 no balls, 11 byes, 8 leg byes, 12 wides)
Team Total 198 for 8 in 50 overs
Did not bat: T Bartram
Fall of wicket: 42/1 (Montgomery), 48/2 (Kamalia), 64/3 (Swetman),
75/4 (Pearson), 88/5 (Bryson), 185/6 (Foster),
189/7 (Davidge), 190/8 (Friedlander).
South East Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
K Singh 10-2-23-1
A Tummala 7-1-34-0
J Gul 6-2-19-1
H Haider 10-3-27-2
R Cresser 5-0-22-1
T Surujbally 7-0-32-3
M Imtiaz 3-0-14-0
S Hassan 2-0-8-0
South East Batting
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal
T Surujbally 2 16 0 0 ct Kamalia b Bartram
S Taylor 11 20 2 0 LBW Hodson
S Patel 50 71 4 0 LBW Swetman
J Patel 30 57 2 0 ct Davidge+ b Pearson
S Hassan 32 47 2 0 b Bartram
A Tummala 14 20 0 0 ct Davidge+ b Bartram
J Gul 9 14 0 0 runout (Kamalia)
M Imtiaz 11 18 2 0 not out
R Cresser 3 7 0 0 LBW Hodson
A Sahadeo+ 4 14 0 0 not out
Total Extras 35 (3 no balls, 0 byes, 6 leg byes, 26 wides)
Team Total 201 for 8 in 46.5 overs
Did not bat: K Singh*
Fall of wicket: 15/1 (Surujbally), 17/2 (Taylor), 99/3 (J Patel),
117/4 (S Patel), 157/5 (Tummala), 174/6 (Gul),
174/7 (Hassan), 190/8 (Cresser).
MCC Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets
T Bartram 10-3-24-3
W Hodson 9-2-39-2
K Pearson 8.5-0-38-1
M Friedlander 7-0-33-0
P Terry 4-0-24-0
R Swetman 5-0-21-1
S Montgomery 3-0-16-0
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MYCA Media Release
Glen Burnie, Maryland – March 25, 2010
 The
Maryland Youth Cricket Association announced today the inauguration of
its “Cricket Partner” program for area elementary and middle schools.
This first-of-its-kind program is designed to both promote the playing
of cricket in physical education classes and to provide a material
support network for partnering schools.
Cricket, the world’s second-most popular sport, has become one of the
fastest-growing sports in the United States, where it hasn’t
experienced widespread popularity since the early 19th century. This
resurgence is primarily due to an influx in immigration from
cricket-playing regions such as India and the Caribbean; now the sport
is spreading to the American mainstream.
Last week, for example, saw the playing of the 2nd annual American
College Cricket National Championship at the Central Broward Regional
Park Cricket Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In May, the Broward
grounds will host three matches between the national teams of New
Zealand and Sri Lanka, and Pakistan seems ready to play there as well.
The city of Indianapolis is about to begin construction on a 40-acre
cricket facility, and other communities are considering the
possibilities for cricket as well. Cricket, it seems, is no longer a
game of America’s past – it has now staked a firm claim to a place in
America’s future.
With this in mind, the time seemed right to introduce the sport to
youngsters in Maryland, which is already home to two adult cricket
leagues and thousands of cricket fans. The “Cricket Partner” program
will supply to schools all of the cricket equipment and will also
provide material support to participating schools through its extensive
network of cricket supporters, many of whom are college-educated
professionals. This national and global community is anxious to see
cricket taught to American schoolchildren, and is excited at the
potential for the Maryland program. To MYCA Director Jamie Harrison, a
former high school teacher, it seemed like a perfect match.
“In these challenging economic times, schools need partners in the
community they can turn to in times of need, whether it be as simple as
a routine fundraiser, or as dramatic as upgrading the computers in the
media center,” Harrison said. “The cricketing community is ready,
willing and able to provide that support network for partnering
schools.”
Cricket, as it turns out, is well matched for physical education
classes. It can be played indoors or outside, on a basketball court,
asphalt or grass. It allows the instructor to observe students both as
individual participants and as parts of a team.
Cricket also possesses the unique potential to appeal to all athletes,
not just those who are typically large, strong or fast. (In a gym
class, this propensity causes many disaffected
students to shrink away from active participation. This means less
involvement and a discouraging, awkward experience for the student; it
also makes the task of assigning that student a fair grade more
difficult for the instructor.) Cricket rewards patience, technique and
intelligence; stature has very little to do with eventual greatness.
This encourages all students to participate, and draws out those
typically disaffected students.
The MYCA has secured a key sponsorship agreement with Dreamcricket.com,
the American cricket community’s number one source for cricket news and
the home of the Dreamcricket Pavilion, its comprehensive online cricket
superstore. Dreamcricket also operates the Dreamcricket Academy, an
indoor training facility in Hillsborough, New Jersey.
“Without the backing of Dreamcricket, what we are doing would simply
not be possible. The company is demonstrating its commitment to the
cause of youth cricket in the US,” Harrison said.
Schools that are interested in exploring partnership opportunities with
the Maryland Youth Cricket Association are asked to contact them by
email at mdyouthcricket@gmail.com, or to visit them on the web at http://www.mdyouthcricket.org.
Contact:
Jamie Harrison
Maryland Youth Cricket Association
Mobile Number: 443.835.0619
Email: mdyouthcricket@gmail.com
http://mdyouthcricket.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101921749847808
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MdYouthCricket.
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There is now a new place for cricket fans to get their daily dose of IPL 2010 live in USA apart from DIRECTV and Willow.TV.
The Valueable Group, the world's largest digital cinema network, has
kept its promise to simulcast IPL action live on big screens in major
cities across USA.
For the first time, U.S. cinema goers can experience IPL 2010 action
in cinemascope and in high definition. Above all, there won't be any
annoying advertisements during playtime.
It is currently being shown at sixteen theaters and public venues in
USA, impressive considering that only about 500 theaters in USA are
estimated to have the technology to handle live simulcasts according to
a news report by NPR.
Here is the list of big screens where you can enjoy IPL action live:
Ilinois:
Ashyana Banquets, Downers Grove, IL
Viceroy of India, Chicago, IL
Golf Glen 5, Niles, IL
California:
Fremont 7, Fremont, CA
Towne 3, San Jose, CA
Norwalk 8, Norwalk, CA
Georgia:
PeachTree Funplex 8, Norcross, GA
Virginia:
Loehmann's Twin Cinema, Falls Church, VA
New Jersey:
Movie City 8, Edison, NJ
Columbia Park 12, North Bergen, NJ
New York:
Bombay Theater 1, Fresh Meadows, NY
Manhattan 1, New York, NY
Bombay Palace, New York, NY
Michigan:
Novi Town Center 8, Novi, MI
Washington:
Totem, Kirkland, WA
Florida:
Screen Post Production, Lauderhill, FL
Please visit the following website for show timings and other information:http://www.valuablegroup.com/IPL/
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By a historic 4-1 vote on March 17th, Cupertino City Council
approved the first turf wicket in the Bay Area. The turf field will be
located adjacent to the Cupertino library and will feature an outfield
that will be mowed to exacting international standards.
 California
Cricket Academy will share the cost of laying the pitch and also cover
any maintenance costs over and above the $5,000 that the city will
spend. The field, which is expected to be ready by June, has a
shorter boundary which makes it ideal for junior and women’s cricket
where a 55 yard boundary is deemed sufficient.
Pic (Right): The current cricket field adjacent to the Cupertino
library will be upgraded to international standards with a turf
wicket. [Courtesy; Google Earth]
Hemant Buch, the Chairman of the Western Region for USACA, was among
the leading proponents of upgrading the pitch to turf. Expressing his
thanks to the Cupertino City Council, the Mayor, the City Manager David
Knapp and Park Director Mark Linder, Mr. Buch said “I am extremely
pleased with the outcome. It is a historic step for junior cricket in
the Bay Area and we are open to sharing our experience with others in
this region and in cities around the country.”
Mahesh Nihalani, a member of the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce, was
instrumental in obtaining support for the idea among the City
Council. Mr. Nihalani, a recipient of Cupertino’s Distinguished
Citizen of the Year award in 2009, called the development a natural
next step in the evolution of the game in Cupertino.
“This is another milestone in a journey that began in 2003 when the
first seeds of cricket were sown by California Cricket Academy (CCA).
The Councilmen, both present and past, have been supportive of the
efforts to promote cricket,” Mr. Nihalani said. Mr. Nihalani said that
there is a lot of goodwill and cooperation for the sport, and that was
because of the active canvassing for support by Cupertino’s grassroots
volunteers like Hemant Buch and Ram Varadarajan.
Cupertino resident Ram Varadarajan, who ran unsuccesfully for President
of USACA in 2008, called it a good investment in the future of the city
and in the future of cricket in the country. “Cupertino is generally
known as the headquarters of Apple, but among the cricket playing
community, the city will now be identified with youth cricket.”
In fact, that may already be the case! A photo of a junior cricket match features prominently on the city's website alongside photos of headquarters buildings of Cupertino's more famous high-tech tenants!
Mr. Varadarajan reiterated that the goal must be to promote the game
beyond its immigrant base. “One positive consequence of this increased
popularity of cricket here is that it becomes easier to take the next
step, which is to introduce cricket to the mainstream,” he said.
The same thing had happened to other sports like table tennis and
badminton, ‘Fees collected from those games are now producing a
financial boon for the city,’ the San Jose Mercury News quoted Vice
Mayor Wong as saying.
Calling the step a “forward thinking” one, Mr. Buch thanked Raj Padhi
and Abrar Ahmad for offering their support in converting thought to
action. “Abrar Ahmad will be the consultant to the city for the
pitch,” Mr. Buch said.
Raj Padhi already has plans for using the turf wicket for the national
women’s tournament in June. "For cricket players, playing on an
official turf wicket is a dream come true. It's the real challenge,"
Mr. Padhi, USACA Director for the Western Region, told San Jose Mercury
News. The June tournament will feature four teams from across the
country and will bring a lot of attention to Cupertino. "My hope is
that the tournament will spur a whole new energy about the game." Padhi
said.
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From the Deccan Chargers website -
Mike Young
The 53 year old Mike Young holds a degree in Sports Administration and has been the fielding coach of the Australian Cricket Team for various Test, ODI and T20 series. He brings along his earlier experience as a field manager and coach of the Australian Baseball Team. Mike was awarded the Australian Medal of Merit for Sports Achievement in 2001. He has published various articles and coaching resources.
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Here are more details - Mike is American. He attended University of Wisconsin - River Falls and was a baseball coach in USA in the 80's and 90's. He coached several minor league teams and was part of the Cleveland Indians coaching organization as well.
It was baseball that took him to Australia where he coached the national team and twice won the International Baseball coach of the year in 1997 and 1999. Beginning 2000, he became involved with the Australian cricket team in the areas of catching, throwing and positioning. In 2009, he was named a fielding consultant by India. This is besides his involvement with Deccan Chargers of course.
Here is a link to an article that appeared on Baseball vs Cricket in the fielding context.
And here are links to an article that appeared in the UWRF magazine.
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Notes from Hamish Barton's blog detailing his time with the Senior USA team and USA U-19 boys in Florida. On December 19 Dipak Patel and I left Auckland bound for Miami, Florida
to spend 4 days working with the USA National team and the USA U19
team. After a long flight we finally arrived in Miami, the flight from Los
Angeles to Miami is 5 and half hours, which felt like eternity! We
arrived at the hotel and finally found something to eat and I suppose
we both felt excited and anxious about what to expect for the next few
days as we had no real idea of what to expect.
 Don Lockerbie (CEO USACA), Hamish Barton and Dipak Patel We
were picked up from the hotel on the first morning by the CEO of the
United States of America Cricket Association (USACA), Donald Lockerbie.
Donald is great guy and immediately made us feel welcome. We made our
way to the ground and on the way Donald gave Dipak and I an insight
into USA cricket and also his background. The majority of the players in both squads are a mixture of
Caribbean and Asian origin with the exception of one South African born
player in the U19 squad, Ryan Corns. Bringing a group of players like
this together from cricket rich nations is amazing and as you can
imagine the players have incredible natural talent as Dipak soon found
out when he watched players from both squads having throw downs.
“I
was absolutely amazed by the talent these players had, it was something
I hadn’t seen for along time, these players haven’t had a lot of
coaching and you could see that it was just all natural, they have
great hands and natural striking ability when batting and the spinners
ability to bowl all the delivery’s with out thinking about it was
really exciting to watch”. Overall it was an incredible experience in Miami working with the USA
players. The amount of talent that was on show was really exciting and
it was refreshing to see players who haven’t been exposed to a lot of
coaching just play on instinct and natural flair. The scary thing is
the potential to grow cricket in the USA is mind boggling and when you
mix together the talent pool the USA has to choose from your looking at
a pretty exciting prospect.
To read more about Coach Hamish Barton's experience in USA, click here.
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On March 23, 2010, Pakistan's The Nation newspaper quoted USACA FVP Nabeel Ahmed as saying:
“Sri Lanka and New Zealand teams will play here three Twenty20 matches
in May. Both boards - Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and New Zealand Cricket
(NZC) - have agreed to send their teams immediately after the ICC
Twenty20 final (in Barbados on May 16).” “We were very keen to host few warm up matches for the teams before the
ICC World Twenty20 in West Indies but it didn’t materialise." Full article here.
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DreamCricket.com, USA's cricket destination, is now on Facebook. Please help us popularize cricket in USA by becoming a fan of our Facebook page. By Peter Della Penna
York University (Toronto) swept through the final day just as they had
in group play throughout the tournament, dominating the competition to
finish as undefeated tournament champions, beating University of South
Florida in the first semifinal of the day before crushing York College
(NY) in the final to become the winner of the 2010 American College
Cricket Spring Break Championship. YU left-handed opener Jai Patel was
named the finals MVP after a superb day, beginning with 53 against USF
before scoring 48 against York College.
ACC SBC Semi Final: Jai Patel & Raza Rahman from York University from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
“It’s great, I can’t explain it,” said Mahjuj Jasim Sourav, captain of
York University. “It’s been such a long journey, organizing the whole
team and coming here and actually winning this. It’s really big. I
can’t explain it actually.”
USF won the toss and elected to bat first against YU. The game was
scheduled to start at 10 am inside the stadium at Central Broward
Regional Park, but was delayed 14 minutes because the tournament
organizers did not want the match to begin until the camera crew
filming the game for a live UStream webcast had worked out some last
minute technical difficulties. At the start of the first semi final
match, the much hyped tournament had only 8 people in attendance inside
the stadium.
USF got off to a super start behind 57 from Saisitaram Ramesh. He put
on 81 runs for the first wicket with Nirav Shah, but foolishly threw
his wicket away when it looked like he could have easily scored a
century. Ramesh had nine fours, but chipped a full ball from medium
pacer Chirag Shah straight down Raza Rahman’s throat just inside the
long off boundary and Ramesh walked off the field banging his helmet.
The next highest partnership in the innings was the final unbroken 8th
wicket stand of 24 runs as USF’s momentum grinded to a halt afterward.
Rahman took a brilliant diving catch at point to dismiss the dangerous
number three man Harsha Boddepalli for only 4 runs as Shah took his
second. Boddepalli was given an award as the tournament’s Best Batsman,
but did not fire against York and no one did after him.
Still, USF posted a competitive 141 for 7 in 20 overs. Patel though
made clear he was going to put his stamp on the game. In the third
over, captain Boddepalli was bowling his right arm medium pace and on
the first four balls of the over, Patel cranked him for four. The first
three balls were all short and pulled onto the leg side while the last
was short and outside off, getting slapped over mid off.
“It was a batting track,” said Patel. “The ball was coming on. I just played my natural game.”
ACC SBC Final: Mahjuj Jasim Sourav from York University from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
The sequence left USF shellshocked in the field as their captain and
best player had just been carved into pieces. After Saad Zafar was run
out, Patel teamed up with Khushro Wadia for more damage, carting Nirav
Shah’s medium pace for 15 runs in the 6th over to make it 53 for 1.
From there, York eased up on the gas pedal and cruised to the target
with two balls to spare. Rahman came to the crease after Patel was
bowled by spinner Dhir Shah and scored 44 not out to close out the
match and put York into the final where they awaited the winner of the
second semifinal between York College and UMBC.
York College won the toss and elected to bat first. YC was in a hole
very early on as star opener Akeem Dodson was out for only 7 to make it
15 for 1. Dodson pulled a short ball from Faisal Maniar towards square
leg and Austin Aluvathingal reached to his left to knife the ball out
of the air one handed. On the very next delivery, Maniar bowled Mohit
Chopra with a full and straight ball to put himself on a hat trick but
wasted the opportunity by bowling a wide to Hugo D’Oliveira.
ACC SBC Semi Final: Hugo D'Oliveira from York College from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
Rather than try and consolidate, former NY Region U-19 player
D’Oliveira went on the counterattack and blitzed the UMBC bowlers to
the tune of 51 runs with six fours and two sixes in his knock which
came off 26 balls. At the other end, he wasn’t getting much support
though and after Bilal Shahid fell to Maniar, Rikin Parikh came on to
bowl off spin and before long was on a hat trick of his own as he
bowled Abbas Khizar and Shamas Rahman back-to-back. Just like Maniar
before him though, Parikh’s hat trick ball was wasted as he bowled a
waist high full toss that was belted over midwicket for six by Yasin
Khan.
D’Oliveira finally fell in somewhat controversial fashion as he
appeared to hit a full delivery into the ground with a bottom edge for
a bump ball. The ball then carried through to the keeper, who appealed
for a caught behind. Both umpires consulted and after a delay
D’Oliveira was given out to make it 107 for 6 in 14 overs.
Parikh struck again to remove both Yasin and Dilawar Khan as he
finished with 4 for 21. York College finished 132 all out in 20 overs
as Mahendra Jagroop was bowled by Gurvish Singh off the final ball of
the innings.
UMBC started off the chase very methodically and never really got the
burst they needed to chase down what should have been a simple target.
Whereas York College ran superbly between the wickets to turn ones into
twos and twos into threes, UMBC’s batsmen had a much more conservative
approach.
UMBC lost their first wicket at 14 on the last ball of the third over
when Eraj Raza was caught behind by Dodson off of Yasin Khan’s medium
pace. Three balls later, UMBC suffered a terrible blow when number
three batsman Anand Patel was run out without facing a ball. Captain
Sumeet Chordiya was on strike and pushed one into the covers straight
to D’Oliveira. There was no run there, but both men took off and
D’Oliveira fired a sharp throw to Dodson over the stumps with Patel
well short when the bails came off.
Chordiya made amends by scoring 60 and formed a big 86-run partnership
for the third wicket with Ananth Ranga, but halfway through each
player’s innings, they seemed exhausted and could no longer run hard at
all between the wickets. Chordiya scored his runs in 64 balls and Ranga
scored 32 in 33 as Chordiya admitted afterwards that their fitness
standards were nowhere near what they needed to be able to last the
whole five days of the tournament.
ACC SBC Semi Final: Sumeet Chordiya from UMBC from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
“We were going well, but we both ran out of the gas,” said Chordiya.
“One of us should have accelerated and it didn’t happen. After getting
set, Ranga, he couldn’t run much and by the time he got out towards the
end, I was not able to run. We lacked fitness to finish up the game and
that’s the reason. We couldn’t convert the twos into threes, especially
with this big ground we should have done that.”
Dodson took off the wicketkeeping pads and gloves at the start of the
15th over with D’Oliveira taking over behind the stumps and on the
first ball of the 17th over, Dodson bowled Ranga to break the
partnership as Ranga played a very tired cross batted heave and missed
everything. Seven runs later on the second ball of the 19th over,
Dodson removed Chordiya and the match was slipping faster and faster
away.
Heading into the last over, UMBC needed 19 to win. The over started
with Yasin Khan bowling two wides and giving up a four to put some
spirit back into UMBC’s camp as they now needed 13 in 5 balls, but it
was false hope as clever changes of pace kept Gurnish Singh and Beenish
Bhatia from connecting well. Dodson iced the match by running out Singh
on the final ball as York College won by 7 runs putting them in the
final against York University.
York College’s achievement was even more noteworthy in a tournament
dominated by international students as they were the only American
college or university team whose entire 12-man squad was made up of US
citizens or permanent residents, proving that good cricket talent can
be cultivated in the United States.
In the final, York University won the toss and batted first, giving
Patel a chance to pick up where he left off against USF. Patel teamed
up with Wadia opening the match to put on 76 runs for the first wicket.
Patel was on 48 when he went for a big drive to a full ball outside off
stump from D’Oliveira. The ball took the edge and Dodson behind the
stumps made a phenomenal one handed diving catch to his left to snag
it, breaking the stand.
Wadia was then joined by Rahman and both men continued to romp, taking
advantage of some horrendous fielding by York College. The Queens, NY
squad let themselves down badly in the catching department, grassing no
less than six chances in the field. Rahman benefitted most after being
dropped on 12 to finish with 35 before being caught on the long on
boundary by Dodson trying to smash a six off Dilawar Khan.
York University finished with 163 for 6 in 20 overs as captain Mohammad
Suleman of York College took three wickets in the final over and should
have had a fourth had there not been a drop on the midwicket boundary
by Khizar. Wadia was the man dropped, but was run out on the relay
throw for 54 to top score for York University.
The chase was always going to be difficult and much of it depended on
how long Dodson could stay at the crease. But after reaching 19, he
drove a full ball from YU captain Sourav slightly uppishly towards
Hassan Choghtai at cover, who pulled off another brilliant catch diving
to his left to snag it before it hit the ground.
The top order collapsed afterwards and at one point, Sourav was on a
hat trick after claiming D’Oliveira and Khizar, but the hat trick ball
to Shamas Rahman was left alone just outside off stump. The damage was
done though and York College was effectively finished at 35 for 4 in
the 5th over.
After Sourav’s burst, he put three slips and a gully in place for the
next few overs while the pacemen were on to keep up the pressure.
Choghtai then took two wickets with his medium pace along with two from
legspinner Faiyaz Chowdhury and one from paceman Mohammad Zubair Zia.
The score was 90 for 9 after 19 overs when the tower floodlights were
turned off at the stadium. According to a source at the ground, the
organizers paid to use the floodlights for two hours and the organizers
requested that the lights be turned on at 6:30 pm. A two hour timer was
set and at 8:30 pm on the button, the lights turned off with the
players about to start the final over. After a few minutes of confusion
to figure out whether or not the lights could be turned back on to
complete the final over, the players walked off the field and York
University was declared the champion.
Post Tournament Interview with ACC President Lloyd Jodah from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah held the Post Tournament
Ceremony inside the pavilion and announced Ramesh from South Florida as
the Best Bowler of the group stage of the tournament while his teammate
Boddepalli was named the Best Batsman. Dodson was named the MVP of the
group stage. YU’s Patel took home a Best Batsman award for the final
day in addition to his MVP award Sourav was named the Best Bowler of
the final day.
ACC SBC Tournament Trophy Presentation from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
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By Peter Della Penna
 Twelve
matches finished off pool play on day four of the American College
Cricket Spring Break Championship in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. When the
dust cleared, South Florida, York University (Toronto), York College
(NY) and University of Maryland-Baltimore County emerged as the four
semifinalists who will battle for the tournament title inside the
stadium at Central Broward Regional Park.
On the satellite artificial wicket fields outside the stadium at
Central Broward Regional Park on Saturday, York College got things
started with a thrilling one-run victory over Boston University to
clinch the first semifinal spot, topping the table in the Northeast
Conference. York posted 137 for 6 in a solid all-round team effort
before they held BU to 136 for 9 in 20 overs. BU needed three off the
final ball for victory but could only manage a single.
UPenn knocked Rutgers out of contention for the semis, beating the
Scarlet Knights by four wickets. Rutgers won the toss and batted first
posting 154 in their 20 overs. UPenn chased it down with an over to
spare.
St. Cloud State won by 10 wickets in a romp over Ohio State. Ohio State
was bowled out for 107 in 19 overs and the total was never going to be
enough against the opening combination of Saminda Siriwardena and Pavan
Kumar Chakravarthy. Siriwardena played second fiddle today as the lefty
Chakravarthy hit five fours in his first five scoring shots on his way
to 59 not out.
In the second two Northeast Conference matches of the day, UPenn posted
152 for 8 against BU and then bowled out the Terriers for 132. Rutgers
ended a disappointing tournament on a good note with a victory over
NYU-Poly by 52 runs. Winning the toss and batting first, Rutgers posted
160 for 4 after former USA U-15 player Anvit Patel opened the innings
with 37 which was followed by 57 from Nalin Chopra. NYU-Poly was bowled
out for 108.
ACC SBC Day 4: Sadiq Naseer from Montgomery College from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
At Brian Piccolo Park, York University continued their domination of
the Northwest Conference by becoming the only team in the tournament to
sweep their pool. In their first game Saturday against College of
Wooster, York posted a phenomenal 208 for 7 in only 16 overs as Saad
Zafar scored 65 while Raza Rehman pitched in with 49. Wooster struggled
to compete against the stronger clubs in their pool all week and
Saturday was no different as they were bowled out for 66.
In York’s second game against Minnesota, the Golden Gophers posted 127
for 8 in 20 overs before York chased it down for the loss of five
wickets to book their spot in the semis. Khushro Wadia continued his
glorious form in the tournament with 75 not out for York and he will be
a strong contender for tournament MVP if York University goes on to the
final.
In the two matches on the turf wicket at Brian Piccolo Park, University
of Miami (Fla.) put in a spirited fight against University of the West
Indies, but the Caribbean squad came out on top by four wickets in the
end. Miami clawed their way to 83 for 7 in 20. In reply, UWI lost a
wicket in the first over, but managed to keep moving along despite the
fall of wickets until they passed the target in 9.3 overs.
In the last match at Brian Piccolo Park’s turf wicket, UMBC kept George
Washington winless for the tournament. GWU posted 108 runs batting
first but made UMBC work hard for the runs as they crossed the line
with only two wickets to spare in the final over.
In the matches played in the stadium at Central Broward Regional Park,
Montgomery bested Auburn by six wickets. Auburn was bowled out for 113
as Montgomery passed the target with ease.
In a match to decide who would advance to the semis from the Southern
Conference, University of South Florida stunned Thunderbird School of
Global Management to win by 41 runs. USF only managed to post 124 for 6
in 20 overs, but Saisitaram Ramesh continued an excellent tournament
with the ball taking 4 for 8 to spark a Thunderbird collapse as they
were all out for 83 in 17.2 overs.
USF finished 2-1 in the group, including a crucial washout from their
scheduled match on Wednesday against University of the West Indies and
therefore split points from that game. UWI went undefeated in the
tournament but was not eligible for the semifinals. Thunderbird and USC
both finished 2-2. Had USF played UWI and presumably lost, USC would
have gone through to the semis.
In the final match of the day, one last spot was up for grabs in the
Mid-Atlantic Conference. Montgomery and George Mason both squared off
with 2-1 records while UMBC was finished at 3-1 and all three teams had
a chance to go through to the semis. George Mason grinded their way to
140 for 7 in 20 overs as the Patriots squad was aided by an abysmal
performance in the field by Montgomery.
“We probably gave them about 20-30 runs just by dropping catches,” said
Sadiq Naseer, Montgomery College vice captain. “We should really not
have dropped as many catches, but everyone has a bad day and that’s
what we had.”
George Mason them came out fighting hard in the field and turned in a
brilliant all-round fielding performance to heap pressure on the
defending tournament champions. Things got heated after the ninth
wicket fell when players and supporters in the traveling party with
Montgomery stormed the field as the sledging got out of hand in the
middle.
In the last few overs, Montgomery’s strategy changed from going for the
win to blocking out deliveries to survive the final overs. The target
was getting further out of reach and qualification for the semis seemed
slim. However, by not being bowled out, Montgomery would deny George
Mason the bonus point they needed to overtake UMBC on the conference
table. After a tense final over, the final ball was kept out by
Montgomery College. UMBC’s squad, which had made their way into the
stadium from Brian Piccolo Park, erupted in celebration knowing they
had qualified for final day on Sunday.
ACC SBC Day 4: Hashim Khan from George Mason from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
“That was not spirit of the game,” said Hashim Khan, George Mason
captain. “If you know that you weren’t making it by the 17th over, all
your tailenders are coming in, I think we should be having a good shot
at the championship because we were a very tough team in this
championship. We should be in the finals but again we lost to Auburn in
a pool game which is not exactly what we wanted. But we’re still happy
that we came and represented George Mason University.”
The first semifinal will take place between York University and South
Florida at 10 am from Central Broward Regional Park. The second
semifinal will follow at 1 pm between York College and UMBC. The
championship match is scheduled for 5 pm, but according to American
College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah, may be moved up to 4:30 based on
night time rain in the forecast for Fort Lauderdale. Dreamcricket.com
will provide live ball-by-ball coverage of the championship match.
[The day's matches will also be broadcast beginning 9AM on Sunday via a live webstream available at www.americancollegecricket.com]
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By Peter Della Penna
In the first match of day three at the American College Cricket Spring
Break Championship, York College defeated NYU-Poly by 88 runs on the
multi-purpose satellite fields outside the stadium at Central Broward
Regional Park. Akeem Dodson hit his second consecutive half-century of
the tournament, scoring 68 opening the innings for York after being
sent in to bat by NYU-Poly captain Adrian Gordon.
Dodson was dropped on 5 off a skied pull to cover and made NYU-Poly
pay dearly by slaughtering the meek bowling attack for 12 fours. Gordon
finished with 3 for 28 and eventually got the wicket of Dodson, caught
behind trying to hook a bouncer, but the damage had been done and York
finished with 173 for 6 in 19 overs. In response, NYU-Poly never got
going and was bowled out for 85 in 14.2 overs.
ACC SBC Day 3: Akeem Dodson of York College from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
Thunderbird School of Management had their game delayed by 25 minutes
against University of West Indies because UWI did not have
transportation to get to the ground on time. TSGM won the toss and
batted, but was overwhelmed by UWI’s bowling attack and only managed 94
for 8 in 17 overs. UWI then cruised past the target for the loss of
only two wickets in 9.3 overs.
George Mason defeated George Washington by 49 runs. Ishaan Prakash took
4 for 25 with medium pace for GWU, but the rest of the attack leaked
runs to let the Patriots get to 145 in 19.4 overs. George Washington
was then bowled out for 96 in 16.3 overs with Anoop Nair putting on a
tidy display of off spin to claim 3 for 16.
UPenn lost to NYU-Poly by 5 wickets as Gordon and Jagminder Singh Bains
took four wickets apiece to blast out UPenn for 81. Gordon then
completed a fine all-round effort with 31 not out to take his team past
the target in 13.1 overs.
In the last game on the artificial wickets at CBRP, York took on
Rutgers in an attempt to stay undefeated in the tournament, but fell to
the Scarlet Knights by 24 runs. Rutgers won the toss and batted first,
posting 119 before rolling over York for 95.
As for the matches inside the stadium, Rutgers had the honor of playing
the first match of the tournament on the turf wicket at Central Broward
Regional Park along with Boston University. BU overcame their
frustrations from day two to post a convincing 41-run win. Harsh
Mainkar propelled the Terriers to 142 for 6 in 20 overs by opening the
innings with 52. Rutgers got off to a fairly strong start, but crumbled
quickly to be all out for 101 in 18.1 overs.
In the second match on the turf wicket, St. Cloud State hammered
College of Wooster by nine wickets. Sai Kishore Beeram took four
wickets bowling off spin as St. Cloud held the opposition to 92 for 6
in 20 overs. Saminda Siriwardena then asserted himself at the top for
St. Cloud by stroking 14 fours in his 68 not out to see his side past
the target in 12.3 overs.
ACC SBC Day 3: Saminda Siriwardena from SCSU from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
In the final match of the day at the stadium, USC took on University
of the West Indies and once again the Caribbean side was just too much.
USC won the toss and batted first as Mishal Patel scored a chanceless
56 not out opening the innings for the Trojans. However, Patel was left
without any support as a series of rash shots led to a rapid downfall.
USC finished 98 for 9 in 20 overs before UWI reached 99 for 2 in 14.3
overs with classy left-handed batsman Greg Scott scoring 41 not out.
ACC SBC Day 3: Mishal Patel and Tarun Tyagi of USC from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
In the matches at Brian Piccolo Park on the artificial wickets,
Montgomery College started the day with their first loss in group play,
not including the defeat to University of West Indies on Thursday, as
they fell badly to University of Maryland-Baltimore County by six
wickets. The defending champions were bowled out for 132 before UMBC
put in a balanced batting display with Rikin Parikh finishing 38 not
out to go along with 36 from Anand Patel.
The first century of the tournament was raised by South Florida captain
Sri Harsha Boddepalli as he blazed 133 coming in at number three for
his squad. USF eventually put up 206 for 3 in 20 overs against Miami
(Fla.). The Hurricanes were overwhelmed and collapsed to be all out for
69 as Saisitaram Ramesh claimed 5 for 5 bowling off spin.
UMBC defeated Auburn by six wickets. Auburn batted first and posted 137
for 8 in 20 overs, but Baltimore’s own Eraj Raza notched a second
innings 50 to give UMBC a crucial victory.
In the matches played on the natural turf at Brian Piccolo, Ohio State
had mixed fortunes. In their first game against York University
(Toronto), the Buckeyes were routed by seven wickets. Batting first,
OSU was all out for 98 before Khushro Wadia once again led the way for
York with 38 in victory. Ohio State bounced back though against
Minnesota in the afternoon, trouncing the Golden Gophers by 72 runs.
OSU posted 140 for 4 before bowling out Minnesota for 68.
Twelve more games will take place on Saturday between Brian Piccolo
Park and Central Broward Regional Park before the semi finals and
finals are scheduled to be contested on the stadium turf wicket at
Central Broward Regional Park on Sunday.
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By Peter Della Penna
USC bounced back after an opening day loss to notch two wins on day two
of the American College Cricket Spring Break Championship in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla. In the first of six matches played on the artificial
wickets outside the stadium at Central Broward Regional Park on
Thursday, USC dominated South Florida to complete a 41-run win after
South Florida produced a horrid display in the field. Rishabh Nanda top
scored for USC with 36 in their total of 157 for 6 in 20 overs. Nanda
survived two dropped chances as well as two missed stumpings in his
innings to capitalize for USC, who earned a bonus point for reaching
150 in their innings. Right arm medium pacer Jeet Poonater then took
four wickets to keep South Florida pinned down.
 University
of Maryland-Baltimore County fell to George Mason by five runs in an
18-over match. UMBC won the toss and elected to bowl first to George
Mason, holding them to a reachable total of 133 for 5. Aside from
Gurnish Singh’s 38, UMBC couldn’t get anyone to fire and fell just
short.
Pic (Right): Bilal Javed of George Mason shows off his team's
impressive kit. George Mason's players raised funds and found sponsors
by themselves to cover the cost of their kit and some tournament
expenses. Their team is still not officially recognized as a club sport
at GMU and therefore receives no university funding.
[Courtesy: Peter Della Penna]
In George Mason’s second match of the day, they lost to Auburn by 38
runs in another solid performance by the Tigers. Auburn captain Naveen
Thiagarajan top scored for the second day in a row, scoring 34 as part
of a 57-run opening stand in Auburn’s total of 139 for 8 in 20 overs.
“We couldn’t have asked for more,” said Thiagarajan about his team’s
two wins in two matches. “It’s been tremendous, except that we could
have held on to more number of catches. We’re doing well and we’re
happy about it. Sameer Shah bowled excellently and credit goes to all
the boys who have played excellently throughout this tournament so far.”
Shah ripped through the Patriots batting card with his left arm pace to
finish with 4 for 25, helping to bowl GMU out for 101 in 17.4 overs.
“When I was practicing back home in Auburn, the ball was going pretty
fast and I was feeling confident about my bowling,” said Shah.
“Conditions here are favoring me and I’m bowling pretty fast and I hope
to increase the pace next match.”
Defending tournament champion Montgomery College looked impressive in a
nine-wicket win over George Washington. Four Montgomery bowlers shared
two wickets each to hold GWU to 108 for 8 in 20 overs. Ishaan Prakash
was the lone bright spot for the Colonials with 54, half his team’s
total. Ankit Sehgal then registered a crisp half-century to chase down
the target in 10.5 overs. Sehgal creamed nine boundaries before ending
the match with a six over midwicket to finish 50 not out.
“Last year, I didn’t even score above 35,” said Sehgal. “Last year, I
just gave my wicket in all the matches. I got a good start, but was not
able to finish it well. So this time I really prepared for it. It was a
good start for me and I’m happy.”
ACC SBC Day 2 - Renaldo Arthur from UWI from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
Montgomery played their second match of the day against University of
the West Indies, whose team hails from Barbados, and didn’t back down
against the most talented team in the competition, scoring 187 for 3
after being sent in to bat. Montgomery captain Adil Bhatti scored 60
not out with four fours and three sixes while Sehgal chipped in with
49.
“We gave them a good target and I thought it would be good enough to
get us a win, but unfortunately not,” said Bhatti. The longer Sehgal
and Bhatti stayed at the wicket, more and more bouncers were sent down
by UWI’s bowlers in the spirit of the old West Indies pace attacks.
“That was fun at the end,” said Bhatti. “At the end, I pulled the one
for a six so I liked it. It was fun playing with them, a good
experience.”
 UWI
then chased down the runs in 17.1 overs. Renaldo Arthur blasted
Montgomery’s tired bowlers for 68 not out with four fours and two sixes
while former West Indies U-19 player Barrington Yearwood iced the game,
hooking a boundary to fine leg to finish 60 not out having hit three
fours and five sixes in his innings.
Pic (Right): Bilal Javed of George Mason shows off his team's
impressive kit. George Mason's players raised funds and found sponsors
by themselves to cover the cost of their kit and some tournament
expenses. Their team is still not officially recognized as a club sport
at GMU and therefore receives no university funding.
[Courtesy: Peter Della Penna]
In a somewhat controversial affair, Boston University lost by four
wickets with two balls to spare against NYU-Poly. All three matches
played on Central Broward Regional Park field two were done without an
official scorer as the designated scorer for the field failed to show
up. As a result, the teams scored the match themselves and a dispute
resulted with BU in the field as they did not agree with how NYU-Poly
was scoring their chase of 124. There were no disputes in the two games
that George Mason played on the field against UMBC and Auburn, but that
was not the case between BU and NYU-Poly.
“The first thing is you should not ask us to score when our team is
batting. That’s not fair in a tournament because there is a bias
already in there,” said BU player Bhupi Nagpure. “Second thing is, when
you are asked, you should have a third neutral party who should be
keeping score.”
“The real issue here is that the entire integrity, everything about
this tournament and what it’s supposed to be about is just completely
broken because you’ve got two teams keeping track of their own score
and you can’t take anything seriously,” said BU player Vidit Munshi.
“It’s like a pickup hoops game pretty much.”
NYU-Poly captain and Atlantic Region senior player Adrian Gordon felt
his team scored fairly, but said that he was not really comfortable
even starting the match without a neutral scorer.
“I hope we have a good scorer next time,” said Gordon. “I hope that he
doesn’t depend on us to score so I hope we have an official scorer.”
As for the matches at Brian Piccolo Park in Cooper City, St. Cloud
State defeated Minnesota but fell later in the day to York University
from Toronto and Ohio State beat College of Wooster in the three
matches played on artificial turf wickets. Khushro Wadia of York
University recorded the highest individual score of the tournament so
far with 78 out of York’s first innings total of 188 before Ahmad Malik
took six wickets for York to roll over SCSU’s order. Saminda
Siriwardena, a 2009 USA U-19 Second-Team All-American from the Central
East Region, scored 60 not out for St. Cloud State in their win over
Minnesota.
In the first match played on the natural turf wickets at Brian Piccolo,
York College (NY) defeated University of Pennsylvania. York got a boost
from their trump card, 22-year-old former USA senior squad and USA U-19
player Akeem Dodson, who notched 62 runs on a surface few players in
the tournament have had a chance to play on. In the second match, USC
defeated Miami (Fla.) to give the Trojans their second win on the day.
USC’s experience paid off as the Trojans compete in Division Two of the
Southern California Cricket Association competition. As a result, the
squad gets a load of experience playing on the turf wickets of the
Woodley Cricket Complex in Van Nuys, Calif., just outside of Los
Angeles.
ACC SBC Day 2 - Renaldo Arthur from UWI from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.
Thirteen matches are scheduled for Friday between Brian Piccolo Park
and Central Broward Regional Park, including three matches on the ICC
approved stadium turf wicket. As conditions permit, the final match of
the day, USC vs. University of the West Indies, will be covered with
live ball-by-ball coverage on Dreamcricket.com beginning at 4 pm EST on
Friday from inside the stadium.
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By Peter Della Penna
Thunderbird School of Global Management (T-birds) secured a win over USC on Wednesday in the first match of the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship on the artificial wickets outside the stadium at Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Fla. Auburn also notched a victory in a rain-interrupted match over George Washington.
“Right now, I think people are pumped up,” said T-birds captain Sudeep Misra after his team’s victory. “We’re gonna win every single match we’re gonna play.”
USC won the toss and elected to bat first in overcast and wet conditions getting off to a very strong start but the T-birds fought back with wickets in the middle overs to restrict the Trojan batting lineup. USC was still hopeful of posting around 140 but due to the nature of the tournament rules, which do not follow ICC guidelines, they were not able to make a final push as their innings was called after 18 overs and they finished on 115 for 8.
“They had a fantastic start so we were thinking of wrapping them up within 125 or something and we were partly successful,” said Misra. “We got them for 115 runs. But at the same time, when they started they were getting some boundaries because there was some sloppy fielding I would say from outside and the ball was swinging a lot. It was different than our conditions back in Arizona. It’s way too dry. It doesn’t swing at all and right here it was overcast and the ball will swing so it was difficult for the bowlers to control it.”
According to the tournament rules, each innings can not take longer than 80 minutes, regardless of injury stoppages or stalling by the team in the field. As a result, USC’s plan to hit out in the final few overs was negated and they finished on 115 for 8 in 18.
“The last momentum, the last push we usually give towards the end of the innings, we couldn’t give that because our batsmen weren’t aware,” said Tarun Sandhu, USC vice-captain. The target was changed to 116 off 17 overs after a decision was made that T-birds should be penalized with 1 over overall and 1 over deduction of Poweplay.
USC got off to a fantastic start in the field as Sandhu’s pace claimed two wickets in the first over, including one on the first ball of the innings, to put T-birds in a big hole. However, number four batsman Nimish Jalan dug in at the crease and dug his team out of trouble with a very solid 49 to top score for T-birds.
“I just wanted to stay in the crease and ensure that I see through the first six overs and see the new ball and that was the plan,” said Jalan.
T-birds were 99 for 6 in 15 overs, needing 17 to win, when the match was called after 80 minutes of time had elapsed for the second innings. According to the tournament rules, the winner in this situation is decided on net run rate, not Duckworth/Lewis Method, and T-birds were declared the winner based on a better run rate.
In the words of Sandhu: “In the entire history that we’ve been playing, we’ve never faced this kind of situation. We always play our 20 overs and that’s how we plan it out. If you look at it, our main bowlers, they still had on over up their sleeve because we were waiting to use them right at the death. But saying that, I would still give all credit [to T-birds]. I think they batted well. Whatever the conditions I think their batsmen, a couple of those guys got stuck in and they played really well.”
In the second match of the day, Auburn blitzed the George Washington bowlers and capitalized on some poor fielding to run up 141 for 1 in 15 overs before time was called on their innings. In reply, GWU was 35 for 3 in 7.1 overs when the umpires took the players off the field as the showers at the ground became stronger and fielding became dangerous. Under the tournament rules, the match becomes official if at least six overs are completed so Auburn was declared the winner, way ahead on net run rate. Auburn captain Naveen Thiagarajan opened the innings and top-scored with 49 not out.
The other three games on Wednesday, College of Wooster vs. Minnesota, University of West Indies vs. South Florida, and University of Miami vs. Thunderbird, were washed out.
Eleven matches are scheduled for Thursday to be split between Central Broward Regional Park’s artificial wicket fields and the artificial and natural turf wickets at Brian Piccolo Park in nearby Cooper City. York College and University of Pennsylvania are scheduled to play the morning match on the natural turf wicket at Brian Piccolo Park while USC will face University of Miami (Fla.) in the afternoon contest.
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An All-Star team comprising players drawn from various SCCA clubs will play in the Hollywood All-Star versus MCC Twenty20 match on Saturday, March 20, 2010. The match begins at 9:30AM and will played at Woodley Field, Van Nuys, CA.
Several current SCCA and USA players will join local legends who have served SCCA for years. Two former test internationals - Gary Crocker (Zimbabwe) and Franklyn Rose (West Indies) - who play their cricket in the Southern California Cricket Association, are also part of the All-Star team.
The team is coached by one of USA’s finest coaches - Reginald Benjamin and is managed by Mark Azeez who is a long time member of Hollywood CC and Hollywood Golden oldies.
The game will be played as a tribute to Christopher Carroll from Hollywood CC and Phil Lynch of Corinthian CC. The two long serving SCCA members passed away in the last 2 weeks.
A Tribute to Christopher Carroll
 Chris was born March 1, 1944 in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England. he was raised in a carefree era, before cell phones, email and fax machines, a 'luxury' Chris maintained for most of his life.
His family traveled extensively throughout Europe during his childhood in the 1950s, thereby instilling in him a lifelong love of adventure and travel.
In 1965, when Europe was still recovering from WW II, Christopher left England for America. Having completed his undergraduate degree from London University, he took an enormous leap of faith and arrived in New York aboard the Queen Mary, from where he boarded a Greyhound bus to Los Angeles with $100 in his pocket. With pluck and perseverance, the 21 year old Englishman joined an investment firm. Two years later, he put himself through USC, earning a master's degree in Finance and then moved into a coveted position with a major New York investment bank. Later, he established Carroll Capital Management Corp., specializing in venture capital, money management and real estate investment.
An avid athlete and passionate cricket player, Christopher is a past president of the historic Hollywood Cricket Club.
Christopher dedicated a formidable amount of his time to the local arts community and at the time of his death, he was an active member of the board of directors of Opera Santa Barbara and the State Street Ballet. He was also a former board member of the Montecito YMCA, past president and current member of the Rotary Club of Montecito, a council member at the Music Academy of the West, and a parishioner of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.
 A Tribute to Phil Lynch
Phil arrived in California in 1997 when he joined the Corinthian Cricket Club. His impact on the Southern California cricket scene was felt immediately as he started to contribute to the Southern California Cricket Association (SCCA) as Director, Grounds Committee member and other key roles.
Originally from England, Phil was an avid reader, a writer and a talented musician with the blues guitar and vocals. Above all, he will be remembered for his love of cricket in its purest spirit.
He played competitive and social cricket with the same attitude as a gentleman and promoted the spirit of cricket among all.
Pen Pix of the Hollywood All-Stars Squad
Aditya Thyagarajan (C) – Hollywood CC (India): Current USA National player and SCCA captain. Former India U-19 and Karnataka Ranji player.
Nazim Shirazi (VC) – Pegasus CC (Bangladesh): Former SCCA captain and Bangladesh National player.
Ritesh Kadu (WK) – Hollywood CC (India): Future USA player and currently representing SCCA.
Franklyn Rose – Corinthian CC (West Indies): A former West Indies and Jamaica international.
Gary Crocker – Hollywood CC (Zimbabwe): A former Zimbabwe test and ODI player.
Ronnie Iranpur – Hollywood CC (India): Former SCCA and Hollywood player.
Rodney Cutting – Carribean CC (West Indies): Former SCCA player.
Richard Blackledge – Corinthian CC (England): SCCA player and former English first class player.
Paul Severn - Corinthian CC (USA): The only USA born player of the team.
Anup Desai – Hollywood CC (India): Long time SCCA and Hollywood club player.
David Pieters – Pasadena CC (South Africa): At 23 years of age, one of the most talented fast bowlers in the country. A future USA prospect. Currently playing professional cricket in England.
Coach – Reginald Benjamin
Manager – Mark Azeez
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DreamCricket.com, USA's cricket destination, is now on Facebook. Please help us popularize cricket in USA by becoming a fan of our Facebook page.
By Jamie Harrison
Cricket, as a game, has everything required to make it attractive to
Americans, especially now that the Twenty20 format has been adopted.
All arguments made to the contrary are based on ignorance or, in some
cases, a misplaced parochialism. How do I know this? I have witnessed
it firsthand in my association with the Cardinal Gibbons cricketers,
who were smitten by the sport from they instant they played it. My
experiences with those students, when juxtaposed with the rest of
non-cricketing America, also provided a roadmap to making cricket more
than just a niche sport.
1. Get Kids Playing Cricket.
This, I believe, is the key element in any discussion about growing
cricket in America. Typically, adults are resistant to adopting new
sports; the sports one enjoyed as a child are almost always the sports
one follows as an adult. This is why time and treasure invested in an
attempt to introduce American adults to cricket are likely to be time
and treasure wasted. Yes, there are rare exceptions, such as myself,
but we represent the statistical outliers, and should not be used as
examples to be emulated.
The true blueprint for success can be seen in the American soccer
market, which is, itself, still developing. For decades, soccer was a
sport played only by adult immigrants and ignored by everyone else in
the United States. It was only when soccer began to be played in
schools and recreation leagues that it moved into the American
mainstream. Why? Because parents follow their children. If Billy wants
to play soccer, Mom or Dad must take him to practices and games, where
they will learn the sport by watching, and will develop a passion by
cheering for their child’s team. (I have been through this process with
my daughter, Sarah.)
As Billy learns the sport, he will become interested in its teams and
players, and he will want to own things that reflect his newfound
interest. This will require that Mom or Dad join him on this voyage of
discovery, as they will be the ones responsible for acquiring the
correct paraphernalia (apparel, posters, bedding, memorabilia, etc.).
Billy will also wish to attend professional or college games, which
will require an adult escort, and the escorting adult will, of course,
cheer loudly for Billy’s player and team, which continues the
indoctrination process.
So how do we make Billy a cricketer? Billy probably won’t choose to
play a game he’s never heard of, or join a league where he has no
friends. This is why it’s critical that we start by introducing him to
the sport at school, where it can be taught as a part of his
curriculum, and he and his friends can learn it together. (Cricket is a
perfect sport for physical education classes, but I’ll leave that for
another time.) My experience has been that often this is all that will
be required to spark a passion for cricket. Once Billy and his friends
begin to enjoy cricket at school, they’ll want to play at home, and
it’ll be up to us to make sure they have the opportunity.
This brings us to the major hurdle we face in this regard: Right now,
there is no coordinated national effort to introduce cricket at the
elementary or middle school levels in the United States. As a matter of
fact, I’ve never even heard of an organized local effort. This vacuum
of leadership in the area of youth cricket creates an obstacle that
will frustrate all of our desires to promote cricket, if it is not
addressed. This is why USACA, as the sport’s officially sanctioned
governing body, must appoint a board-level National Youth Cricket
Coordinator without delay. This individual will be responsible for
articulating USACA’s vision for youth sports, and developing local
leaders, sponsors and programs that will effectively implement that
vision. Until this is done, our hopes for youth cricket will founder
and drift as a series of disconnected, directionless dreams.
Until we see children playing cricket at American beaches, in American
parks and in American gym classes, little of lasting substance can be
accomplished.
2. Cricket Equipment and Sets Must Be Readily Available For Purchase In Stores
Even if, in the beginning, it’s only toy cricket sets on the shelves at
Walmart, having something to give Billy for his 8th birthday that will
foster his love for the game is critical. Soon after, we’ll need to
have real equipment on the shelves at places like Modell’s & Sports
Authority. Right now, there are precious few places in America where
cricket gear of any kind sits on a store shelf, and while dedicated
cricketers may be willing to order online, those that are merely
curious about the game (our target market) must have somewhere
convenient to go to satisfy that curiosity. Also, if we want to see
children playing cricket, we need to make it easy for their parents to
acquire their equipment. That is not the case today.
To change this, a major push will have to be made both by the
manufacturers of cricket products and by the game’s American
supporters. Retailers will want to know that SKUs can be obtained
easily, at a cost that will enable them to make a profit. They will
also need to know that a market exists for these products. Someone at a
national level will have to coordinate this joint effort if we want to
see immediate results.
3. We Need To Have More Places To Play
From my experience in the Baltimore/Washington area, I can tell you
that there simply aren’t enough pitches for the teams that exist
already, and there are no indoor facilities closer than New Jersey.
This is unacceptable if we wish to develop the game. Players need
facilities at which to practice (especially in the offseason), and
teams need places to play. Changing this will require both public and
private funding, and the patience to wait for the market to grow to the
point of full usage of the facilities.
4. Cricket Highlights Need To Be Seen On Television
One impediment to the adoption of cricket in the United States is that
most Americans have never seen it played. As a result, they reject it
as alien, and assume it to be unwatchable. Regular highlight clips,
played on networks that are available as part of the basic cable
package, are important in both introducing the sport and dispelling the
stereotypes. It may seem strange, but psychologically, as the sports
fan sees cricket alongside other “accepted” sports, it will seem more
normal for him to have an interest in it, and his mind will be opened.
(I’ve actually seen IPL highlights on ESPN Sportscenter’s Top Ten
before, but there needs to be more than that, and it needs to be more
than just the IPL.)
5. T20/IPL-style Leagues Must Be Used To Promote The Game
All of the buzz seems to indicate that we are very close to seeing an
American professional T20 league established. If this becomes a
reality, it presents a wonderful opportunity for the teams, players and
coaches to get out into their local communities and promote the game.
This can be accomplished through youth clinics, demonstration games,
ticket donations and so forth. It would truly be a lost opportunity if
the league came and went without ever leaving the cricket grounds. The
individuals involved have a duty to be goodwill ambassadors for the
sport, and it is my hope that they won’t fumble this golden chance.
Our success will eventually be measured not by the number of trophies won, but by the number of children playing our sport.
As you can see, when I think about growing cricket in America, my focus
is squarely on developing the youth market. If we fail to do this
properly, no advances made anywhere else will make a difference,
including winning international matches. On the other hand, soccer has
expanded vastly in the United States, despite the fact that the
American men’s national team has never gotten within sniffing distance
of a World Cup. This points out the fact that creating and maintaining
a fan base is not dependent on world-class victories as much as it is
dependent upon the adoption of the game by kids.
[The author coached
the only American high school cricket team outside of New York City.
The Cardinal Gibbons Cricket Club was created by a group of American
kids who, without ever having played a hardball game, had fallen in
love with the sport. ]
DreamCricket.com invites you to share
your views with us on how cricket can be made more attractive to
Americans. Please leave your comments by clicking on the Reader's Comments link. If you would like to write an Op-Ed column on this subject, please write to us at content@dreamcricket.com.
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