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American College Cricket announced that the 2011 edition of American College Cricket Spring Break Championship will be held at the Central Broward Regional Park, Lauderhill between March 15 and 20, 2011.   "Additional fields will also be used as needed," according to the press release by American College Cricket.

The American College Cricket Championship, which began in 2009 with five colleges playing for the Shivnarine Chanderpaul Trophy, gained rapid momentum in 2010 with 20 colleges taking part.   The Montgomery College won the championship in the inaugural year and York University of Canada won in 2010.

Pic (Left): York University Captain with the Chanderpaul Trophy in 2010 [Photo by Daniela Zaharia, Courtesy of AmericanCollegeCricket.com]

Among the many innovations in 2010, the final day’s proceedings were webcast and the stream was carried live on the jumbotrons at the Square One Mall in Toronto, Canada.   In another first, the University of West Indies participated as a special invitee.

Speaking about the 2011 event, American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah said, "York University are eager to defend the Chanderpaul Trophy, and many new college clubs are joining American College Cricket." 

"We are assisting in the formation of cricket clubs and developing teams at Universities all across the USA and Canada," he added.
 
In the press release, American College Cricket announced that it had named a number of accomplished professionals to its advisory board including John Aaron and Krish Prasad of USA Cricket Association, Cricket Canada's Ravin Moorthy, cricket historian and writer P. David Sentance, USC's Arvin Varma and Don Gonzales.   These additions add “a wealth of knowledge and resources to the college cricket movement,” the press release noted.
 

American College Cricket Media Release

Steve Kalloo, Umpire since 1989 (WICUA/USCUA), has officiated  International games and has spent decades watching Test and First Class cricket. Umpire Kalloo said the fielding at the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship was “some of the best fielding I have seen…..as good as Test level “.

From the Daily Trojan:

You can see them every Friday night under the Cromwell Field lights anytime from 6 p.m. to 11:00. Upon first glance, you guess that they’re a group of baseball players barred from playing on Dedeaux Field.

However, a second glance yields a different impression. You notice the batter wields a large, flat paddle — strikingly similar to those used in the freshmen hazing rituals in Dazed and Confused.

New direction · The USC cricket team, which has been in existence for 10 years, suffered through numerous losing seasons before getting serious last season. The team is now one of the best in its region. - Photo courtesy of USC cricket team

Full article here

Members of the NYU-Poly cricket club (left to right): Dhwanil Shah, Sumanth Kalidindi, Adrian Gordon (captain), Jagminder Singh, Dhaval Dharaiya.

Instead of sand in their shoes, 12 Polytechnic Institute of NYU students hope to return from spring break with grass stains on their batting pads and batting gloves.

The students are members of NYU-Poly’s cricket club who will represent the school at the American College Cricket Championship March 17-21 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. And if you don’t know what batting pads and batting gloves are, they’re essential cricket equipment: batting pads protect players’ shins; batting gloves protect their fingers.

NYU-Poly’s cricket club was established informally two years ago, and became an official club this year. Bruce Niswander, director of NYU-Poly’s business incubators and director of the Office of Innovation, Technology Transfer, and Entrepreneurship, coaches the team, which includes Imad Akhtar, Dhaval Dharaiya, Adrian Gordon, Sumanth Kalidindi, Karan Khetan, Dinesh Kumar, Ali Ahmed Lali, Raj Parekh, Alok Prabhu, Dhwanil Shah, Hardik Shah, and Jagminder Singh.

Full article here.

Four years after start, cricket team makes nationals

by Elizabeth Traynor
Hatchet Reporter  

It's not uncommon for college kids to spend their spring break in Florida. But one group of GW students will be heading south next week for a different reason: the 2010 American College Cricket Championship.

It's a far cry from four years ago, when a trio of current seniors decided to start a cricket team at GW without ever having played the game. Ankit Sheth, Ali Sternberg and Curt Sonnet recruited potential teammates - and then asked them to teach them how to play.

"We just started off looking to do something different," said Sheth, "And I don't think I would have ever thought we'd be here after four years."

It took a while to get the cricket team off the ground. They started playing pickup games in University Yard as more of a fun pastime than a competitive team.

Once the team gained momentum, however, they reached out to GW students to boost their roster and then to the surrounding colleges to find anyone that would play them.

"It started off as an accident," Sternberg explained, "and then turned into something institutional."

As their number increased, so did their visibility, and the players found themselves with funding from the Student Association and match-ups against surrounding colleges, including American and Montgomery college.

Full article here.

Brillian article in the Washington Post by Annys Shin

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Last March, the Montgomery College men's team handily beat four other schools to win the first American College Cricket championship.

There was only one problem: The school had no idea it had a cricket team.

Despite the college slogan, "endless possibilities," national titles are hardly commonplace at Montgomery, which has more than 60,000 students on its campuses in Rockville, Germantown and Takoma Park. But officials didn't realize that their own school was a cricket powerhouse until some weeks after the tournament, when English professor David Lott read a newspaper article about the championship. He alerted the administration, which didn't exactly shower the team with support, leading Lott to agree to serve as the team's faculty adviser.

Click here for full article.

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By Peter Della Penna

USACA VP of Operations Manaf Mohamed confirmed in an email on Tuesday morning that the USA U-19 World Cup squad will not be participating in the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship, scheduled to begin on Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Speculation had been mounting for weeks as to whether or not USA’s U-19 World Cup squad would be playing in the tournament as USACA never announced a squad. Mohamed did not say when or why the decision was made.

The news is not sitting well with teams who were looking forward to getting a chance to play matches against USA.  “I think it’s disappointing,” said Nisarg Chokshi, vice captain of Rutgers University and former captain of the Atlantic Region U-19 squad at the 2009 USACA U-19 National Championship.

The Rutgers squad arrived in Florida by plane on Tuesday morning and was supposed to play USA in their first match at the tournament on Wednesday. “We had a perfect schedule. We play USA tomorrow and we had our league matches after that. We could have understood our strengths and weaknesses by playing against them. But now we have a rest day and it’s just kind of a waste of a day.”

“[USA] were basically special guests so the games were not directly involved in the championship aspect of it,” said Jodah. 

Jodah said the rest of the teams are still going to participate and it will not affect the tournament in terms of competition points. USA’s scheduled matches against Rutgers University, York University and Montgomery College would not have counted towards the standings.

Jodah said that a revised tournament schedule would be released sometime later on Tuesday, which will now include Montgomery College playing against University of the West Indies. Jodah also said that Brian Piccolo Park will be used for the tournament in addition to the Central Broward Regional Park in an effort to have more matches on turf wickets, giving the players a chance to test themselves on a natural cricket pitch.

Auburn captain Naveenan Thiagarajah will lead the newly chartered Auburn University Cricket club in its season opener against 18 other teams in the 2010 American College Cricket Championships in Ft. Lauderdale March 17 -21.

The club will face its most experienced opponents to date, including exhibition matches against the University of the West Indies and the U.S. under 19 World Cup team, though the players feel confident in their abilities, experience and track record.

The cricket club made it to the semifinals in its first outing as a team and its record only improved since that time, going undefeated in the 2009 Bulldawg Championship hosted by Mississippi State University.

Full article in the Auburn Plainsman.

From the Daily Targum:

The Rutgers Cricket Club team will compete March 17 to 21 against 19 other clubs from all over North America for the right to bring home the Shivnarine Chanderpaul Trophy. 

“This is a national tournament, and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for many players,” said Hardik Jogani, club president. “Even though there is no monetary reward for winning the tournament, each player is determined to give their best because we know that this means a lot to us and for cricket.”

Jogani, a School of Engineering sophomore, said the team is not just playing for a victory. They also want to bring some recognition to the game at the University and around the nation.

The team has come a long way since its founding two years ago, when the cricket team had to fight just to become an official club, said Ankit Pandya, co-founder of the club.

At DreamCricket.com, we remember those beginnings!  Click here to read the full article.

By Ashish Namjoshi (Communications, Thunderbird Cricket Club)

Fourteen spirited individuals from Thunderbird will embark on a journey to take on top college teams from different schools in the US at the American College Cricket Spring Break Championship from March 17th to 21st at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  This is the biggest collegiate cricket championship in the country which aspires to be comparable to other NCAA sports.

T-birds (as the Thunderbirds a popularly known as) will play against USC (University of Southern California), USF (University of South Florida), UM (University of Miami), and UWI (University of the West Indies) as part of the Southern conference in the league stage.

Founded in 1946, Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona is the first and oldest graduate management school in the World focused exclusively on Global Business. It is regarded as the world's leading institution in the education of global managers and has operations in the United States, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Central and South America, Singapore and China.

Ranked as the World’s number 1 Business School in International Business for the last 15 years by the likes of Financial Times, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal etc, Thunderbird is dedicated to educating global leaders who create sustainable prosperity worldwide.

The number 1 school in Global Management in the world + the presence of students from 76 different countries + the most diverse campus + the most inclusive student body + the most interactive cross-cultural environment = what do you get?

The global sport of cricket!

Yes, you read it right. The gentlemen’s’ game of cricket in Thunderbird has only risen in popularity over the years. Given the high percentage of overseas students on campus, the sport has spread like a virus and has infected all sport enthusiasts. No longer baseball on valium, cricket now sizzles as a global sport in its Twenty20 avatar.  A fact that is reflected in the sport's growing popularity nationwide in the US and also the popularity and buzz created by the Indian Premier League.

What does this mean for Thunderbird students? 
Playing Cricket on campus regularly? Yes.
Watching Cricket matches in the wee hours of the morning despite the paucity of time due to hectic schedules? Yes, again.
Playing in the Arizona Cricket League? Yes, sure.
Playing in a tournament with National and Global recognition? Hell Yeah!

The Thunderbird team consists of players from different backgrounds, but with a common goal, the desire and the passion to succeed. The tournament in Florida is a new beginning, a new opportunity. 14 Players, 1 mission! Team Thunderbird is ready to roll!

Thunderbird Cricket Team (T-birds)

The Thunderbird Cricket Team are supported by the Thunderbird Students Government, Thunderbird Finance Association, Thunderbird Consulting and Management Association and the Thunderbird Global Supply Chain Club.

Sudeep Misra (Captain)

Plays for AZ Cricket League and was selected for the USA South West Division team in 2009. Has played extensively in India at various levels. A left Arm Spinner and a good batsman.

Abhishek Sharma

The most famous and funniest company in Thunderbird history! In sports, everything takes a back seat as he gets the courage of a Mad Bull. Untamable passion for Sports and a great team player besides being a good batsman.

Aditya Bhagchandani

He has a huge passion for fielding and loves this team! He enjoys Cricket and smiles every single moment on the field. A very good batsman!

Ashish Namjoshi

Ashish our communications guy is a tall and dashing left-hand batsman, who can unsettle any attack. A die hard ‘Mumbai Indians’ Fanatic. A very handy medium pacer.

Devaarchit Harkauli

Kashmir, Mumbai, Indonesia have produced an amazing Wicket-Keeper - Batsman in DC, as he is popularly known. Leadership skills and constant strategy formulation keeps him serious…always!

Nimish Jalan

As a complete Cricketer, he is an excellent batsman, a good spinner and fielder and also acts as the back-up Wicket-Keeper for the team. He brings with him Sports (Cricket) Management experience from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Dubai and understands the nuances of the game very well.

Nitin Sahni

The McGrath of the team! Swing and control are his greatest strengths. On his day, he is unplayable.

Parth Bahuguna

The docile Delhiite packs a punch when he comes out to bat. He is directly come from Mexico from a course abroad to showcase his Cricket skills in Florida. A very good spinner too.

Phalgun Balasubramaniam

Vice-Captain of the team. Played for Tamil Nadu in India. One of the better all-rounders in the team. Plays for the AZ Cricket League and has represented AZ in the USA South West Division trials in Los Angeles.

Priyaranjan Parida

The researcher par-excellence. ‘Ranjan’ is a very hard worker and is always full of suggestions for the team. Has the thinking ability to do just about anything.

Rahul Bhosale

A good Batsman and a handy spinner. His passion for Cricket originated from the lanes of Mumbai and is still going strong in the deserts of Arizona.

Rishi Chaturvedi

This smiling assassin has got a lovely bowling action and a huge array of shorts including some special T-20 unorthodox ones.

Rohit Singla

Timing, hand eye co-ordination and the want to bat 24/7 makes him a tough opponent to control. A very handy medium pacer.

Saurabh Goyal

His cheerful attitude makes him a good team player. His sling-arm bowling action is hard to read. He is got a some confident drives too.

WOOSTER,Ohio - March Madness will stretch beyond the basketball court this spring when an international group of students from The College of Wooster competes in the USA College Cricket Championship next month (March 17-21) in Fort Lauderdale.

Wooster, which is the smallest school in the field and the only independent liberal arts college to participate, will join 20 other collegiate teams from the United States and abroad, including the University of the West Indies and York University from Toronto. All matches will follow the One Day International (ODI) 20/20 Format, and will last no more than three hours. The semi-finals and finals will be played in the International Cricket Council ODI-certified stadium in Central Broward Regional Park, and will be broadcast live on the web.

Click here for detailed article.

American College Cricket Media Release

Feb 22, 2010

                         

The schedule of games for the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship has been released. A total of 47 games will be played by 19 US College Cricket Clubs, plus the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the USA Under-19 World Cup team.

Akeem Dodson - One of college stars scheduled to participate in the tournament 

The Championship will be March 17-21, 2010 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.    

 

The Colleges are in Four Conference Zones: The Northeast, Northwest, Mid-Atlantic and Southern. Each Conference has five cricket clubs, as follows:

 

NORTHWEST

University of Minnesota             UMN

St. Cloud State University          SCSU

York University                          YU  Toronto, Canada

Ohio State                                  OSU

College of Wooster                     CW  

 

NORTHEAST

York College                             YC Queens, New York

Rutgers University                    RU

Boston University                     BU

New York University                 NYU

University of Penn                    UPenn

 

MID-ATLANTIC

George Mason University         GMU

U of Maryland Baltimore          UMBC

George Washington U              GWU

Montgomery College                MC

Auburn University                    Auburn

 

SOUTHERN

Thunderbird School                 TSGM

University of So. California       USC

University of the West Indies    UWI

University of South Florida       USF

University of Miami                   UM

 

Colin Jodah, American College Cricket Special Advisor in charge of drafting the Championship Schedule explained, "There were so many variables to factor in when scheduling the 44 playoff games, amongst 21 teams .We also did not want Andy Mohamed - USA U-19 Starany team to play back-to-back games on any one day. The logistics of playing on up to five fields on one day added to the complexity. Then, although we wanted to highlight traditional rivalries such as the Trojans and the Buckeyes, the northern clubs were coming out of winter, whereas the southern clubs have the weather to play and practice." 

 

The University of The West Indies, playing as a Special Guest have been placed in the Southern Conference, and matches between them and their Conference opponents will count towards determining which US college makes it to the Semi Finals. As some UWI players were even selected recently to play Test cricket the University's presence is electrifying. 

 

Matches played by the USA Under-19 World Cup team will not affect the points standings; however the colleges will be eager to prove their mettle against the USA players, who are themselves mainly college freshmen. The USA team will feature in two marquee match-ups under lights at the Central Broward Regional Park cricket stadium, the first on Friday night, March 19 against 2009 American College Cricket Champions Montgomery College and the second on Saturday night, March 20 against the University of the West Indies.  

 

Below is the schedule, subject to change at any time by American College Cricket. Games on the far right are night games.

 

Practice - Mar 16 on two fields available for UWI and other early arriving cricketers.

AMERICAN COLLEGE CRICKET PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fort  Lauderdale, Fl. February 14, 2010

                             
The 2008 ICC and Wisden Cricketer of the Year Shiv Chanderpaul will be Head Coach of American College Cricket, announced Lloyd Jodah, President of ACC, today.The current West Indies Test player Shivnarine Chanderpaul endowed the Chanderpaul Trophy for the Winning Team in the American College Cricket Spring Break Championship and has endorsed the Championship practically from the beginning. Never before has any active Test Cricket star been so involved in the game in the USA.
 
Chanderpaul has been the premiere batsman for the West Indies for years. A team player, nevertheless Shiv has achieved many personal accomplishments such as : (1) scoring the 3rd FastestTest Century in history (in 72 balls vs Australia) ; (2) being the only batsman to bat 1,000 consecutive balls in Tests without getting out and (3) being 2nd only to Brian Lara in Test runs scored for the West Indies.
 
Chanderpaul said, " It's been gratifying to see the response of cricketers across the USA to the thought of playing in the American College Cricket Spring Break Championship. Some talent has already emerged, such as Adil Bhatti and Ankit Sehgal - it's exciting to wonder how many more players will take advantage of the opportunities the Championship presents." adding "Right now I'm happily playing cricket all over the world but when my schedule permits, I'd like to do some coaching of college cricketers in the USA. The resources of the USA can bring so much to the game. Doing my bit to assist cricket in the USA is helping cricket everywhere."
 
Shiv Chanderpaul's manager Chris Thakoorpersad added "Whilst Shiv's Team commitments are priorities, we're making every effort to have Shiv present the Chanderpaul Trophy to the National Champions on March 21st in Florida".
 
Chanderpaul has also been working with the Guyana Minister of Sports Frank Anthony to develop the game in schools in Guyana, where his teenage son Brandon lives and plays.
 
Chanderpaul is currently recuperating from a hand injury which forced him to miss the Australia vs West Indies ODI Series, currently in progress.