USA Cricketer : NCCA Cricket

California Cricket: Supernovas are Matrix NCCA T20 champions

openingbat — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:33:00 GMT

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[Source: NCCA T-20 Media Release]

Supernovas defeated Fooglies to win the Matrix NCCA-T20 2012. The tournament was held in Santa Clara, California and was attended by a large number of spectators, including Mayor Jamie Matthews, sponsors and players from the six teams. Also present was coach Owen Graham who is presently undergoing chemotherapy.

Fooglies defeated Spinners in the first semi-finals and Naseer Islam's rapidfire 95 paved the way for Supernovas to defeat Titans in a keenly contested second semi-finals.

In the final, Fooglies scored 135 and Supernovas chased it down comfortably. Supernovas was led by the young USA U-19 player Pranay Suri and Fooglies was lead by Arjun Thyagarajan.

Mayor Matthews appreciated the efforts of NCCA's leadership and added that he was extremely delighted to see the professional manner in which the tournament was conducted. The Mayor was accompanied by Dr. Mohammed Nadeem who is running for the City Council in Santa Clara.

Sunny Sethi, owner of Matrix Insurance Agency, the tournament's title sponsor, said that Matrix had made the right choice to continue its partnership with NCCA. Sethi thanked all those who were at the ground and also those who watched the game live over web stream through TVU networks.

Sunil Kumar, president of NCCA thanked Mayor Matthews for joining the event and appealed to all stakeholders to help NCCA find a dedicated facility for NCCA to practice and play its games. “We have been around for over 120 years and I feel it is the right time for us to reach out to the larger community and create awareness and interest among the sport loving youth, women and men who are willing to practice and play the sport," Kumar said. Sunil also thanked Sujesh Pulikkal, Secretary of NCCA-T20 and the coach of NCCA's senior men’s team, and all the team owners and the league's board and executives for their support.

The following prizes were presented in the award ceremony that followed the final:

Best Batsman: Vatandeep

Best Bowler Award: Kuldeep Singh

Most Valuable Player Award: Naseer Islam

The event photographs can be viewed by clicking the following url: http://alturl.com/fvxsi

California Cricket: Player auction for NCCA-T20 event

openingbat — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:38:00 GMT

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[Source: NCCA Media Release]

The IPL Style USACA approved NCCA-T20 2012 Edition has reached its “Auction Day”. Speaking ahead of the auction, the NCCA-T20 2012 Commissioner and President of NCCA, Sunil Kumar said: “Six teams in the tournament will be participating in the auction on August 21, 2012 to pick the best fourteen among over 200 players who had signed up online."

The six teams with their owners and Icon players are listed below:

Blasters - Team Owners: Deval Patel & Ayan Banerjee; Icons: Sunny Singh, Krishna Prasad, Imran Khan, Arshi Jammu

Cloudalyze Spinners - Team Owner: Vaibhav Mankame; Icons: Shiva Vashishat, Saqib Saleem, Naseer Jamali, Muhammed Saleem Mustafa

CSZ Titans - Team Owner: Mukul Kumar; Icons: Mukul Kumar, Sujesh Pulikkal, Anwar Ahmed, Sheryar Khan

Fooglies - Team Owner: Arjun Thyagarajan; Icons: Arjun Thyagarajan, Shantanu Divekar, Ritesh Kadu, Syed Fareed Ahmed

Stanford Supernovas - Team Owner: Rohan Chandran; Icons: Pranay Suri, Mahesh Krishnamurthi, Rishi Bhardwaj

Warriors - Team Owner: Sridhar Reddi; Icons: Sridhar Reddi, Srinivasan Mohan, Jayavel Shanmugam, Shafiq Khan

TVU Networks (Sponsor NCCA-T20) will be streaming the auction live from 7 pm pacific time to the end of the event which is expected to run over 4 hours.

Cricket lovers can catch the action live in high-definition by visiting the NCCA-T20 Channel. The tournament website is nccat20.com and Twitter handle is @nccat20.

The Auction Nite will be held at Dosa N’ Biriyani (DB), Sunnyvale, CA. DB are also the official sponsors and caterers for this event and for the tournament. The partners at DB have taken their love for cricket and their support for it to the next level by renaming their bar to “The Pavilion”.

Sunil Kumar, was highly upbeat about the NCCA-T20 2012 Auction Nite and was confident that this event which will see some of the best names in the cricketing circuit across the country being auctioned live, albeit through virtual dollars, will be among the best.

“The auction nite is a big phase of this tournament, the phase when the team owners slug it out in the middle to get the best bet for their money. Top quality players will be on high demand and will fetch maximum it is expected”. It is all about preparation, strategy and planning prior to the auction and having your plans and counter plans ready to take the situation head on, said Sunil Kumar.

San Francisco Bay area cricket community rallies around cancer-stricken youth coach Owen Graham

openingbat — Sat, 12 May 2012 10:15:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Owen Graham, 45, has been an influential youth coach and player in the San Francisco Bay area cricket community for nearly 20 years. His resume includes being a championship winning captain for the San Francisco Freedom in the lone season of the US Twenty20 league known as Pro Cricket, being one of the founding coaches at the California Cricket Academy, coaching in the NCCA junior development program and most recently working as the head coach for the East Bay Youth Cricket Association.

So when he was recently diagnosed with cancer, the west coast cricket community didn’t hesitate to rally around the well-liked personality known simply as “O.G.”

Image (right) - Owen Graham

“His spirit is definitely high,” said EYCA president Gopal Samant, regarding Graham’s attitude since being diagnosed with multiple myeloma. “He’s appreciative of the fact that the community has got together and put aside the political differences of all the leagues and a lot of people are offering a lot of love and care.”

A social media campaign was started a few weeks ago by the tech savvy cricketers in the Silicon Valley to help raise funds for O.G.'s cancer treatment and immediately word spread north to Seattle and south to Los Angeles. In less than 48 hours, the Northwest Cricket League raised $2500 and mailed a check to Samant, who is one of the community leaders organizing the efforts to raise money for Graham. One of the others leading the charge is Ganesh Sanap, former president of the NCCA and a close friend of Graham’s, who says that the reaction by the community is just an indication of the “legend” that is O.G.

“People take to him very quickly,” said Sanap. “There’s very few Jamaicans here in the Bay Area. Everyone else here is Indian or Pakistani. That Jamaican accent, people get attracted to him, his coaching techniques, his depth of cricket knowledge.”

According to Sanap, Graham had been experiencing back pain for a short while and when he went to see a doctor, he was told he had a tumor. Despite losing some weight, his appetite and some of his physical strength, Graham has stayed positive in the face of his diagnosis. Samant says that Graham will have at the very least six months but probably closer to a year’s worth of treatment beginning with surgery and continuing with chemotherapy.

“He’ll have to go through surgery,” said Samant. “There is a tumor on his spine so they have to take it out through surgery because it’s causing numbness in his body and in his legs. After that he’ll have to go through chemo so he’ll be out of action for six to nine months for sure.”

Samant says that the EYCA has agreed to continue paying Graham’s coaching fee while he is going through treatment so that he’ll be able to meet his normal living costs including rent. He says it’s the least that EYCA can do for someone who has contributed so much not just to getting EYCA started, but to all of the youth cricketers in the Bay Area.

“I have not found another person as passionate as him who had the reason to take the game to the right place,” said Samant. “OG obviously has been a pillar of putting together the structure, the curriculum, what needs to be done and what doesn’t need to be done. His importance to EYCA goes without saying. He’s been the primary pillar who helped us define how a club needs to run and what kind of infrastructure we need.”

However, his medical bills are projected to reach six figures and Graham does not have health insurance. As a result, the NCCA and BACA leagues in addition to the EYCA are collecting money to help alleviate the financial burden on Graham. The single dad has a 15-year-old daughter who lives with him. He also has a 5-year-old son who was living with Graham before the diagnosis but has gone back to live with the boy’s mother while Graham receives treatment.

“I don’t know how much people can help him but whatever they can that is what we are appealing,” said Samant. For more information on ways to donate funds for O.G.’s treatment, please contact Gopal Samant at cricket.eastbay@gmail.com.

USA Cricket: An analysis of member leagues' eligibility vs. satisfactory achievement of compliance audit criteria

openingbat — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 09:16:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

In the wake of a USACA board meeting on February 26, South West Region representative Mark Sood commented in an interview this week that the board was inconsistent with their decisions regarding which leagues to rule eligible and ineligible. To further support his point, he also revealed some of the reasons given by Robert Chance why certain leagues were ruled ineligible as opposed to eligible, but Sood’s notes were mainly limited to leagues within his region, the South West.

The following lists have been compiled based on the final spreadsheet document from Robert Chance that was published on the USACA web site. The first set of lists will show the number of each criteria that each league satisfied with a “Yes” rating, comparing those who remained eligible with the same number of overall criteria completely satisfied vs. those who were ruled ineligible with the same number of overall criteria completely satisfied.

The second set of lists will show which leagues received a “Yes” rating in each of the nine categories of criteria which would indicate that a league completely satisfied the requirement of the category – regardless of whether or not these categories are actually mentioned in the USACA Constitution – and were subsequently ruled eligible vs. those that were ruled ineligible. Likewise, they will show which leagues received anything short of a “Yes” rating in each category – including a “No” for not satisfying the requirement, a “P” for partially satisfying the requirement or a “U” for insufficient information to determine if they satisfied the requirement – and were still ruled eligible vs. those that were ruled ineligible.

Comparing leagues eligibility vs. ineligibility with the same number of overall criteria satisfied

Leagues that received a Yes in 9 categories: Zero.

Leagues that received a Yes in 8 categories and ruled eligible: 1 – Great Lakes Cricket Conference

Leagues that received a Yes in 8 categories and ruled ineligible: 1 – Midwest Cricket Conference

Leagues that received a Yes in 7 categories and ruled eligible: 7 – Washington Cricket League, Minnesota Cricket Association, Central Texas Cricket League, Houston Cricket League, Brooklyn Cricket League, Northwest Cricket League, Central Florida Cricket Association.

Leagues that received a Yes in 7 categories and ruled ineligible: 5 – Garden State Cricket League, Millennium Cricket League, Connecticut Cricket League, California Cricket Academy, Georgia Supreme Cricket League.

Leagues that received a Yes in 6 categories and ruled eligible: 2 – New Jersey Cricket Association, Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference.

Leagues that received a Yes in 6 categories and ruled ineligible: 5 – Michigan Cricket Association, New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Massachusetts State Cricket League, Sacramento Cricket Association, Triangle Cricket League.

Leagues that received a Yes in 5 categories and ruled eligible: 3 – North Texas Cricket Association, American Cricket League, South Florida Cricket Alliance.

Leagues that received a Yes in 5 categories and ruled ineligible: 6 – Cricket League of New Jersey, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association, Florida Cricket Conference, Florida Southeast Cricket League, San Diego Cricket League, Southern California Cricket Association.

Leagues that received a Yes in 4 categories and ruled eligible: 1 – Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board.

Leagues that received a Yes in 4 categories and ruled ineligible: 5 – Eastern American Cricket Association, Northern California Cricket Association, Arizona Cricket Association, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association, Orange County Cricket Association.

Leagues that received a Yes in 3 categories and ruled eligible: 1 – New York Cricket League.

Leagues that received a Yes in 3 categories and ruled ineligible: 3 – Nassau New York Cricket Association, California Cricket League, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference.

Leagues that received a Yes in 2 categories and ruled eligible: Zero

Leagues that received a Yes in 2 categories and ruled ineligible: 1 – Commonwealth Cricket League.

Leagues that received a Yes in 1 category: Zero

Leagues that received a Yes in 0 categories and ruled ineligible: 6 – Indoor Cricket USA, American Cricket Conference, Illinois Cricket Board, International Cricket Management League, Colorado Cricket League, Bay Area Cricket Alliance.

Comparing leagues eligibility vs. ineligibility for individual categories of compliance audit criteria

Category 1: Operates pursuant to a written constitution

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria and was ruled eligible: 10 leagues – New Jersey Cricket Association, Washington Cricket League, Great Lakes Cricket Conference, Minnesota Cricket Association, Central Texas Cricket League, Houston Cricket League, North Texas Cricket Association, North West Cricket League, Central Florida Cricket Association, South Florida Cricket Alliance.

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria but was ruled ineligible: 12 leagues – Midwest Cricket Conference, Nassau New York Cricket Association, Connecticut Cricket League, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association, California Cricket Academy, Northern California Cricket Association, Sacramento Cricket Association, Florida Cricket Conference, Georgia Supreme Cricket League, Triangle Cricket League, Arizona Cricket Association, San Diego Cricket League.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria but was ruled eligible: 5 leagues – Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board, American Cricket League, Brooklyn Cricket League, New York Cricket League, Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria and was ruled ineligible: 20 leagues – Cricket League of New Jersey, Garden State Cricket League, Indoor Cricket USA, Millennium Cricket League, American Cricket Conference, Illinois Cricket Board, International Cricket Management League, Michigan Cricket Association, Colorado Cricket League, Commonwealth Cricket League, Eastern American Cricket Association, New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Massachusetts State Cricket League, Bay Area Cricket Alliance, California Cricket League, Florida Southeast Cricket League, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association, Orange County Cricket Association, Southern California Cricket Association.

Category 2: Plays under its own written playing conditions/regulations, or under previously published playing conditions

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria and was ruled eligible: 15 leagues – New Jersey Cricket Association, Washington Cricket League, Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board, Great Lakes Cricket Conference, Minnesota Cricket Association, Central Texas Cricket League, Houston Cricket League, North Texas Cricket Association, American Cricket League, Brooklyn Cricket League, New York Cricket League, Northwest Cricket League, Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference, Central Florida Cricket Association, South Florida Cricket Alliance.

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria but was ruled ineligible: 26 leagues – Cricket League of New Jersey, Garden State Cricket League, Millennium Cricket League, Michigan Cricket Association, Midwest Cricket Conference, Commonwealth Cricket League, Eastern American Cricket Association, Nassau New York Cricket Association, New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Connecticut Cricket League, Massachusetts State Cricket League, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association, California Cricket Academy, California Cricket League, Northern California Cricket Association, Sacramento Cricket Association, Florida Cricket Conference, Florida Southeast Cricket League, Georgia Supreme Cricket League, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference, Triangle Cricket League, Arizona Cricket Association, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association, Orange County Cricket Association, San Diego Cricket League, Southern California Cricket Association.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria but was ruled eligible: Zero leagues

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria and was ruled ineligible: 6 leagues – Indoor Cricket USA, American Cricket Conference, Illinois Cricket Board, International Cricket Management League, Colorado Cricket League, Bay Area Cricket Alliance.

Category three: Has submitted a signed and notarized Article III Pledge

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria and was ruled eligible: 12 leagues – New Jersey Cricket Association, Washington Cricket League, Great Lakes Cricket Conference, Minnesota Cricket Association, Central Texas Cricket League, Houston Cricket League, American Cricket League, New York Cricket League, Northwest Cricket League, Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference, Central Florida Cricket Association, South Florida Cricket Alliance.

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria but was ruled ineligible: 24 leagues – Cricket League of New Jersey, Garden State Cricket League, Millennium Cricket League, Michigan Cricket Association, Midwest Cricket Conference, Eastern American Cricket Association, Nassau New York Cricket Association, New York Metropolitan District and Cricket Association, Connecticut Cricket League, Massachusetts State Cricket League, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association, California Cricket Academy, California Cricket League, Northern California Cricket Association, Sacramento Cricket Association, Florida Cricket Conference, Florida Southeast Cricket League, Georgia Supreme Cricket League, Triangle Cricket League, Arizona Cricket Association, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association, Orange County Cricket Association, San Diego Cricket League, Southern California Cricket Association.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria but was ruled eligible: 3 leagues – Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board, North Texas Cricket Association, Brooklyn Cricket League,

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria and was ruled ineligible: 8 leagues – Indoor Cricket USA, American Cricket Conference, Illinois Cricket Board, International Cricket Management League, Colorado Cricket League, Commonwealth Cricket League, Bay Area Cricket Alliance, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference.

Category four: Has provided the names and contact information for itself and its officers

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria and was ruled eligible: 14 leagues – New Jersey Cricket Association, Washington Cricket League, Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board, Great Lakes Cricket Conference, Minnesota Cricket Association, Central Texas Cricket League, Houston Cricket League, North Texas Cricket Association, American Cricket League, Brooklyn Cricket League, Northwest Cricket League, Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference, Central Florida Cricket Association, South Florida Cricket Alliance.

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria but was ruled ineligible: 24 leagues – Cricket League of New Jersey, Garden State League, Millennium Cricket League, Michigan Cricket Association, Midwest Cricket Conference, Commonwealth Cricket League, Eastern American Cricket Association, New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Connecticut Cricket League, Massachusetts State Cricket League, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association, California Cricket Academy, California Cricket League, Northern California Cricket Association, Sacramento Cricket Association, Florida Southeast Cricket League, Georgia Supreme Cricket League, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference, Triangle Cricket League, Arizona Cricket Association, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association, Orange County Cricket Association, San Diego Cricket League, Southern California Cricket Association.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria but was ruled eligible: 1 league – New York Cricket League.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria and was ruled ineligible: 8 leagues – Indoor Cricket USA, American Cricket Conference, Illinois Cricket Board, International Cricket Management League, Colorado Cricket League, Nassau New York Cricket Association, Bay Area Cricket Alliance, Florida Cricket Conference.

Category five: Has identified all of the clubs (of which there are at least 8) in their league, including names and contact information for club presidents and each club has at least 15 active members

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria and was ruled eligible: 13 leagues – New Jersey Cricket Association, Washington Cricket League, Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board, Great Lakes Cricket Conference, Minnesota Cricket Association, Central Texas Cricket League, Houston Cricket League, North Texas Cricket Association, Brooklyn Cricket League, Northwest Cricket League, Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference, Central Florida Cricket Association, South Florida Cricket Alliance.

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria but was ruled ineligible: 16 leagues – Cricket League of New Jersey, Garden State Cricket League, Millennium Cricket League, Michigan Cricket Association, Midwest Cricket Conference, Eastern American Cricket Association, New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Connecticut Cricket League, Massachusetts State Cricket League, Sacramento Cricket Association, Florida Cricket Conference, Florida Southeast Cricket League, Georgia Supreme Cricket League, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference, Triangle Cricket League, Southern California Cricket Association.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria but was ruled eligible: 2 leagues – American Cricket League, New York Cricket League.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria and was ruled ineligible: 16 leagues – Indoor Cricket USA, American Cricket Conference, Illinois Cricket Board, International Cricket Management League, Colorado Cricket League, Commonwealth Cricket League, Nassau New York Cricket Association, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association, Bay Area Cricket Alliance, California Cricket Academy, California Cricket League, Northern California Cricket Association, Arizona Cricket Association, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association, Orange County Cricket Association, San Diego Cricket League.

Category six: Has paid dues for all of its member clubs

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria and was ruled eligible: 8 leagues – Washington Cricket League, Minnesota Cricket Association, Central Texas Cricket League, Houston Cricket League, American Cricket League, Brooklyn Cricket League, Northwest Cricket League, Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference.

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria but was ruled ineligible: 6 leagues – Midwest Cricket Conference, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association, California Cricket Academy, Georgia Supreme Cricket League, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association, Orange County Cricket Association.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria but was ruled eligible: 7 leagues – New Jersey Cricket Association, Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board, Great Lakes Cricket Conference, North Texas Cricket Association, New York Cricket League, Central Florida Cricket Association, South Florida Cricket Alliance.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria and was ruled ineligible: 26 leagues – Cricket League of New Jersey, Garden State Cricket League, Indoor Cricket USA, Millennium Cricket League, American Cricket Conference, Illinois Cricket Board, International Cricket Management League, Michigan Cricket Association, Colorado Cricket League, Commonwealth Cricket League, Eastern American Cricket Association, Nassau New York Cricket Association, New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Connecticut Cricket League, Massachusetts State Cricket League, Bay Area Cricket Alliance, California Cricket League, Northern California Cricket Association, Sacramento Cricket Association, Florida Cricket Conference, Florida Southeast Cricket League, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference, Triangle Cricket League, Arizona Cricket Association, San Diego Cricket League, Southern California Cricket Association.

Category seven: Is able to demonstrate competent financial controls, or is willing to start to implement competent financial controls

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria and was ruled eligible: 13 leagues – New Jersey Cricket Association, Washington Cricket League, Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board, Great Lakes Cricket Conference, Minnesota Cricket Association, Central Texas Cricket League, Houston Cricket League, North Texas Cricket Association, American Cricket League, Brooklyn Cricket League, New York Cricket League, Northwest Cricket League, Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference.

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria but was ruled ineligible: 12 leagues – Garden State Cricket League, Millennium Cricket League, Michigan Cricket Association, Midwest Cricket Conference, California Cricket Academy, Sacramento Cricket Association, Florida Cricket Conference, Florida Southeast Cricket League, Georgia Supreme Cricket League, Triangle Cricket League, San Diego Cricket League, Southern California Cricket Association.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria but was ruled eligible: 2 leagues – Central Florida Cricket Association, South Florida Cricket Alliance.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria and was ruled ineligible: 20 leagues – Cricket League of New Jersey, Indoor Cricket USA, American Cricket Conference, Illinois Cricket Board, International Cricket Management League, Colorado Cricket League, Commonwealth Cricket League, Eastern American Cricket Association, Nassau New York Cricket Association, New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Connecticut Cricket League, Massachusetts State Cricket League, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association, Bay Area Cricket Alliance, California Cricket League, Northern California Cricket Association, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference, Arizona Cricket Association, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association, Orange County Cricket Association.

Category eight: Has implemented, or is willing to start to implement, a formal youth development program

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria and was ruled eligible: 3 leagues – Great Lakes Cricket Conference, Brooklyn Cricket League, Central Florida Cricket Association.

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria but was ruled ineligible: 9 leagues – Cricket League of New Jersey, Garden State Cricket League, Millennium Cricket League, Michigan Cricket Association, Midwest Cricket Conference, New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Connecticut Cricket League, Massachusetts State Cricket League, California Cricket Academy.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria but was ruled eligible: 12 leagues – New Jersey Cricket Association, Washington Cricket League, Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board, Minnesota Cricket Association, Central Texas Cricket League, Houston Cricket League, North Texas Cricket Association, American Cricket League, New York Cricket League, Northwest Cricket League, Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference, South Florida Cricket Alliance.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria and was ruled ineligible: 23 leagues – Indoor Cricket USA, American Cricket Conference, Illinois Cricket Board, International Cricket Management League, Colorado Cricket League, Commonwealth Cricket League, Eastern American Cricket Association, Nassau New York Cricket Association, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association, Bay Area Cricket Alliance, California Cricket League, Northern California Cricket Association, Sacramento Cricket Association, Florida Cricket Conference, Florida Southeast Cricket League, Georgia Supreme Cricket League, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference, Triangle Cricket League, Arizona Cricket Association, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association, Orange County Cricket Association, San Diego Cricket League, Southern California Cricket Association.

Category nine: Has implemented, or is willing to start to implement, a formal women’s development program

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria and was ruled eligible: 3 leagues – Great Lakes Cricket Conference, Brooklyn Cricket League, Central Florida Cricket Association.

Received a Yes for satisfying the criteria but was ruled ineligible: 5 leagues – Garden State Cricket League, Millennium Cricket League, New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Connecticut Cricket League, Massachusetts State Cricket League.

Did not receive a Yes and as a result did not fully satisfy the criteria and was ruled ineligible: 27 leagues – Cricket League of New Jersey, Indoor Cricket USA, American Cricket Conference, Illinois Cricket Board, International Cricket Management League, Michigan Cricket Association, Midwest Cricket Conference, Colorado Cricket League, Commonwealth Cricket League, Eastern American Cricket Association, Nassau New York Cricket Association, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association, Bay Area Cricket Alliance, California Cricket Academy, California Cricket League, Northern California Cricket Association, Sacramento Cricket Association, Florida Cricket Conference, Florida Southeast Cricket League, Georgia Supreme Cricket League, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference, Triangle Cricket League, Arizona Cricket Association, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association, Orange County Cricket Association, San Diego Cricket League, Southern California Cricket Association.

USA Cricket: South West Region rep Mark Sood says board meeting decisions were "inconsistent"

openingbat — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:59:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

In the wake of USACA’s decision to bar 32 out of 47 member leagues from voting in upcoming USACA elections, USACA board member Mark Sood says that the decisions made to ban certain leagues and not others lacked consistency and that “any reasoning with the board to make a sensible decision didn’t go through anywhere.”

In an exclusive interview, Sood confirmed that he was one of only two dissenting voices during most of the votes as he continuously voted to keep leagues eligible while the majority of board members voted to make leagues ineligible from voting. The only other board member who voted with Sood on these issues at any time during the meeting was North West Region representative Ajay Athavale. New York Region representative Krish Prasad had earlier stated his views during the meeting that he did not approve of how things were being organized and left in protest before any votes were taken. South East Region representative Nasir “Charlie” Javed did not attend the meeting and also was not a part of any vote.

According to Sood, the board took individual votes on each of the 12 leagues in “Group B” which were characterized by compliance auditor Robert Chance as leagues that “could be considered eligible to vote, depending on board decision.” Curiously though, Sood says that hardly any debate or discussion took place to weigh the worthiness of each league to be voted eligible or ineligible based on the evidence gathered by chance. Instead, Sood claims that a straight vote was taken on each league and mysteriously three leagues got approval while nine were not approved despite the lack of discussion.

Image (right): Mark Sood [Courtesy: Travel Talk Radio]

According to documents obtained by DreamCricket from a source, the 12 leagues in Group B were Central Florida Cricket Association, Brooklyn Cricket League, New York Cricket League, New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Florida Southeast Cricket League, Mid Atlantic Cricket Conference, San Diego Cricket League, Northern California Cricket Association, California Cricket Academy, Connecticut Cricket League, Southern Connecticut Cricket League and Massachusetts State Cricket League. Three leagues – Central Florida Cricket Association, Brooklyn Cricket League and New York Cricket League remained eligible while the other nine were voted to be ineligible in a majority vote of the USACA board.

Sood says he was shocked when the board voted to allow the New York Cricket League to remain eligible, despite the fact that the league never paid membership dues to USACA in 2010. Meanwhile, the San Diego Cricket League paid its league dues, albeit three days late. USACA happily took the money from the SDCL but the board voted to rule the league ineligible.

“I questioned the San Diego Cricket Association because the only reason to not allow them was because they were late by three days,” said Sood. “They completed everything else. Everything was proper but they were just late by three days. I said if you’re going to make this concession to Brooklyn Cricket League and New York Cricket League, why would you not for the San Diego Cricket Association and I was voted down.”

When Sood asked USACA president Gladstone Dainty why the New York Cricket League was allowed to be eligible despite not paying dues in 2010, Sood responded by saying that “according to Mr. Dainty, they allowed them not to pay and it was okay. The reason is they don’t have any grounds to play on. So the league in actuality is defunct. If they’re not playing any cricket, they don’t have any grounds... so what good is it having them as members?”

Sood claims there was hardly any opportunity to press the claims of legitimacy for the leagues in “Group C” which had 17 member leagues that Chance said “should not be considered eligible to vote.”

“There were hardly any discussions,” said Sood. “If there were any discussions, it was because of the points that I raised or Ajay raised. There were absolutely no other things from anybody at all. Nobody asked any questions to Mr. Chance other than me and Ajay. When it came to individual leagues, all the regional directors were silent. All they voted was yay or nay and that was the end of it. The only arguments were for the South West Region or North West Region. That’s it.”

He was ultimately denied as Chance gave brief reasons why each league was should be declared ineligible. There were four leagues from the South West in Group C.

“Arizona, according to Mr. Chance, all clubs did not pay USACA dues and the reason given that all clubs cannot afford fees is not acceptable,” said Sood. “According to Mr. Chance, in 2010 and 2011, the Arizona Cricket League had 14 clubs listed on their web site but they only paid for eight. When he asked for a reason, he was told that not all clubs can afford the fees for USACA which according to him is unacceptable. For SCCA, 2010 and 2011, club lists did not match with the web site. In 2010, the web site listed 38 whereas the dues were paid for 36. In 2011, the web site lists 38 and dues were paid for 37.”

“I questioned him. Does he understand that it’s the clubs that are members and not the teams? SCCA has various clubs that have multiple teams so as long as the club is a member, that’s what could be the discrepancy. He said he does understand that but he’s just going by what it shows on the web site. San Diego got everything else. Only default they had was late by three days and the board would not consider them.”

“GLACA is, Mr. Chance, the reason he gave is not enough players, inconsistent rosters and accurate information has not been given. So not enough players were members of the league, inconsistent rosters were provided and not accurate information was given. They didn’t have enough players. As for Orange County, he said problem with the meetings according to the constitution and financial controls are not strong enough. These were the two reasons.”

Overall, Sood says that the process was inadequate and that he was particularly puzzled why exceptions were made for some leagues but not for others. The same measuring stick was not consistently applied.

“If you are making concessions for one then you have to make concessions for the others,” said Sood. “If there are 12 on the borderline, which according to the attorney the board should consider, and you only pick three out of them and not the other nine, it does not make sense.”

Particularly confusing to Sood was how USACA could take money from leagues without approving their eligibility beforehand. Now that they have been ruled ineligible after the fact, Sood says USACA should return the leagues their money and not wait for the leagues to take legal action to force the money to be returned.

“You took money from them,” said Sood. “You accepted them as members and now for the elections we come to a compliance process. Why did you accept them before if they were not a member in good standing? It should not have been accepted and I think the onus is on USACA to refund their money. USACA should give their money back to all these leagues that are ineligible.”

Sood was not against the compliance process, but says the timing of the audit was not right.

“We have situations from what I know that we have leagues that are just paper leagues so the compliance process is required and is necessary,” said Sood. “I think what I would question is the timing of the compliance process. Is this the right time to do it just before the elections? So what is the purpose of doing compliance before the elections? Why was it not done earlier? The thing is if the discrepancies are minor, should that be reason enough to bar these leagues?”

Sood also wanted to take issue with Michael Gale, who Sood says was responsible for writing the meeting minutes and the summary which appeared on the USACA web site.

“I had asked for the meeting minutes and I am reading the summary right now and I don’t know what this summary is. It’s not properly recorded,” said Sood. “I had asked as a board member that the board, the people that are voting the names for each league for each voting process, they should be recorded. If I am voting yes, then my name should go next to it. It’s within my rights to ask for it and I did ask for it and it’s not recorded properly. And to say, I mean I’m reading here in the minutes he’s saying, ‘The board expressed disappointment that only one third of USACA membership is in good standing.’ That’s nonsense. Everybody seemed very happy with it except me. I was the only person who voiced that this is a sad day in cricket that out of the 47 leagues we only have 15 that are eligible and they changed it to, ‘The board expressed disappointment.’ This is manipulating the minutes and the procedure. It’s not complete and it’s missing important information. It does not even record that I objected that we were not given sufficient time to study Mr. Chance’s report.”

Sood says he never read the report ahead of Sunday morning’s board meeting. The report was was sent out by Chance on Saturday night, 7:22 p.m. PST (10:22 p.m. EST). Sood was only aware that it was sent out when he went to check the conference call password a few minutes before the board meeting began. It was then that he saw an email from Chance.

“It’s a Saturday. I’m not checking my emails on a Saturday evening on a weekend,” said Sood. “I was watching the India and Australia game until 1 o’clock in the morning. So I went to sleep late and I just put an alarm 10 minutes before the meeting to wake up and get online. So just when I was checking emails to get the password for the call-in number, that’s when I realized there was an email from Mr. Chance.”

“I asked Mr. Chance that he hasn’t given us sufficient time to study his report. His report came to us on Saturday evening which is a weekend, like late in the evening about 8 o clock and he expected us to read it during the night, make any interrogations and be ready for a meeting on Sunday morning? That did not give us sufficient time. The second thing is that I asked him as to why his report is incomplete because it did not give or list any leagues and why they were not, what was lacking in compliance.”

Not only did Sood object to the amount of time in between receiving Chance’s email and the start of the board meeting, but Prasad objected as well and left the meeting in protest. Sood said he feels 48 hours would have been adequate time to study the document sent by Chance before commencing the meeting.

When USACA first vice-president Michael Gale was asked if he felt adequate time was given for board members to review the document before the meeting, he responded, “Can you actually tell me what the nature of this question is? Is the nature of the question had members of the board seen this information before and this is the first time or is the nature of the question the members have not seen this information and this is the first time?”

“Members of the board had received progressively over this audit period, constant updates of the information relating to the audit process. The information delivered to them that morning was marginally different than information delivered progressively over the last weeks and months through to this. So this was neither new, either in format or in nature or in variables, and probably had some small variations compared to previous documentation they’d been seeing. This is not the first time they’d seen this information in this format with those recommendations.”

Another concern from some stakeholders is the representation of players from ineligible leagues in the US national team for the upcoming 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE. Seven players – half the squad – played in leagues in 2011 that USACA has deemed to be illegitimate including Elmore Hutchinson (SCCA), Abhimanyu Rajp (SCCA), Asif Khan (Midwest Cricket Conference), Nauman Mustafa (NCCA), Andy Mohammed (Eastern American Cricket Association), Muhammad Ghous (Garden State Cricket League) and vice-captain Aditya Mishra (Cricket League of New Jersey).

When Gale was asked if their participation on the tour to the UAE would be affected if they had played in leagues that were ruled ineligible, Gale responded, “The eligibility relates to the electoral process. There are still three statuses of leagues in this country. Associate, affiliate and so on. I can’t answer the specifics of that.”

San Francisco Blasters win first ever TANA Cup 20/20

openingbat — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:26:00 GMT

Now, you can get all the USA Cricket updates via Facebook. Also follow us on Twitter via @dreamcricket

San Francisco Bay Area, July 5, 2010

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In the finals of the USA Independence TANA Cup 20-20 organized by Northern California Cricket Association (NCCA) and Telugu Association of North America (TANA), San Francisco Blasters continued their undefeated run defeating DreamCricket Fooglies by 5 wickets and taking home the championship and $3000 in prize money.

The finals started at the North Gate Park with the star studded DreamCricket Fooglies taking to the bat and looking for a mammoth score.

Pic (Right): San Francisco Blasters celebrate their win [Courtesy: Ganesh Sanap]

In fact, that was within the realm of possibility as long as USA senior team player and opening batsman Aditya Thyagarajan (43) was at the crease together with Scotland’s James Crosswaite (36). In the end, the newly reunited DreamCricket Fooglies managed to put up a par score of 153 for 7.

Blasters captain Sunny Khan led the bowling ranks with his 2 for 17 in a remarkable 4 over spell.   Krishna Prasad took two crucial wickets - those of North West Region’s Vijay Beniwal, who threatened to blow the Blasters away with two huge sixes and of NC Aiyappa of the Royal Challengers Bangalore who too was looking to accelerate.

In reply, the San Francisco Blasters showed the kind of aggression that was needed to counter the raw pace of Scorpio Speedster award winner and Royal Challengers Bangalore bowler NC Aiyappa! After losing the first wicket early on and the score reading 2 for 1, Arshdeep Jammu (89 from 48 balls) and Majid Muhammed (22 from 31 balls) let their intent known - the former setting the field ablaze with 13 boundaries.

By the time Majid’s wicket fell with the score reading 108, the damage was done and barring a small chance of a self-inflicted implosion, the pendulum had already tilted in favor of Blasters.   Two wickets fell with the score on 147 but that did not really affect the home team’s chase which they accomplished for the loss of 5 wickets with a few balls to spare.

Arshdeep Jammu was the Man of the Match as well as the MVP of the Tournament and Krishna Prasad took the most wickets - 15 in all.

Calling the event a landmark, The Times of India wrote a glowing report about the TANA Cup. The paper quoted Ganesh Sanap, President of NCCA as saying: "Even though US is mainly a non-cricketing nation, the expat Indian and Commonwealth community is strong and eager to play cricket. We had a Ranji trophy player NC Aiyappa and current USA players like Aditya Thyagarajan, Sushil Nadkarni and Bilal Khan playing, but all of it was non-profit.”

And what’s the secret for Blasters’ surprise win over the supremely talented DreamCricket Fooglies? Ayan Banerjee, the manager of SF Blasters who is a project manager in Cisco had the answer.   He told The Times of India: "We took the tournament seriously because we knew we had tough competition. We were passionate, aggressive and we trained hard.”

[Match statistics and report are based on incomplete scorecards. Please send your corrections/feedback to content@dreamcricket.com]

CCA Invitational: Hosts are U-13 winners and DreamCricket Academy are runners-up. All Stars reign in Under-17 category.

openingbat — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:55:00 GMT

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By David Sentance

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Since its founding in June 2003, California Cricket Academy has galvanized both Northern California and US Cricket in the area of junior cricket. Seven members on the USA Under-15 team have participated in matches hosted by the Academy and over 250 active league cricketers have been trained in the six year existence of the CCA. Most impressive is the volunteer base of eighty parents, with seven volunteers assigned to help maintain each of the two Cupertino grounds at Dilworth School and the Cupertino Library.

Five Under-13 teams contended for first spot in the CCA 25-over Invitational tournament which started on June 23rd with an opening ceremony that included several local Cupertino Council members and the deputy mayor. The teams participating were: DreamCricket Academy, Northern California Cricket Association, CCA Champions, CCA Challengers and Los Angeles Tri-Counties (representing Orange, Riverside and San Bernadino counties of Southern California).

Pic (Right): True to their name, the CCA Champions were crowned champions in the U-13 tournament

This was only the second tournament for the visiting DreamCricket Academy team which is coached by Jamaican born cricketer - Earl Daley and his wife Malika Frank Daley. And it was the first tournament for the Southern California based team coached by former Sri Lankan test cricketer, Malayasian National, Australian Level 3, Coach Mumtaz Yusef.

With the most match experience of any team, the CCA Champions, the senior of the two CCA sides, were the favorites to win the tournament. The CCA Academy has implemented a winning formula for developing young cricketers that could be replicated nationwide if funds were available.

According to Kinjal Buch, wife of Hemant Buch, who co-founded CCA along with her husband, the CCA’s Silicon Valley location has a 30% Asian, 12% of which is Indian. The high educational level of Cupertino’s cricket parents encourages full parental involvement in an area where median house prices are in the $1 million range!

Pic (Left): The DreamCricket Academy U-13 boys finished runners-up.

Ajay Athavale, CCA President, remains clear in his training objective when he says: “We want one great team not eleven individuals,” he’s also a realist noting that “Cricket was a Gentleman’s game.” Currently, Maharashtra coach Shyam Oak, lives in Mumbai and Poona when not coaching in Cupertino, directs a three month six times a week training regime based on rigorous physical conditioning applied to technical skills training.

USACA Treasurer John Thickett, a generous individual CCA sponsor in the past three years, believes the CCA’s youth program is the best organized in the United States.

Under-13 Day 1: CCA Challengers vs Tri-Counties

Library Ground June 24th: CCA Challengers 94/7 Tri-Counties 70. Challengers won by 24 runs

The Under-13 tournament started on the clay wicket of the Cupertino Library Fields at 9.30 sharp. The first game was between Challengers - the young farm team of the CCA, and Tri-Counties. This was Tri-Counties first competitive match. Challengers won the toss and their opener Swapnavo Biswas(14) teamed with number 3 Shankara (10) as they put on a re-assuring 27 run partnership before Shankara was run out by Nihar.

Swapnavo then teamed with Monil Patel (10) before he was caught out by Arjun off Paras Choudhry’s bowling for a team leading score 14 in 47 balls. The Challengers tail-enders wagged effectively with Apurna scoring 13 not out in 21 balls. Challengers made 94 (including 41 extras) for 7 in their 25 overs. Tejas Peruvamba was the most effective of the Tri County bowlers with 1 for 9 runs in 4 overs. In their innings, Tri-Counties scored a confidence inspiring 70 (including 22 extras) all out. Opener Braham (6) did well to stave off a rampant Shankara who took a devastating 3 wickets for 2 runs in his 5 over opening spell. Lakshya Jain took 2 for 15 and Apurva Mishra effectively staked his claim as an all-rounder with bowling figures of 2 for 20. Challengers defeated Tri-Counties by 24 runs-a good result for both teams.

Tri-Counties managed by Pradeep Patel and coached by Mumtaz Yusef were well pleased with this first match.

Under-13 Day 1: CCA Challengers vs NCCA

Library Ground June 24th: Challengers 83 all out NCCA 59/7, Challengers won by 24 runs

After a delicious curry lunch, the second game on the Cupertino Library pitch was between Challengers and the NCCA. Challengers again won the toss and elected to bat. The home side scored 83 which included 26 extras. After the Challengers openers were dismissed cheaply with one run on the board, number 3 Vikram Ramesh(11) teamed with Monil Patel(9). The pair stabilized the innings scoring a 35 runs partnership from 76 balls. Apurva Mishra’s match winning contribution of 29 runs not out in 30 balls, his second undefeated innings, scored more than half the CCA Challengers runs as he teamed with Lakit Jain for a 24 run partnership. Apurva, a black-belt in karate, rose to this occasion after Challengers posted five ducks.

Nikhil was the most economical NCCA bowler with 1 wicket for 9 runs. Shivane Sabharwal 2 for 15 and Kushal Singh 2 for 12 also bowled well for the NCCA. The CCA Challengers were all out in 24 overs.

Batting in reply, the NCCA put up a dogged defense using their full 25over allotment, scoring just 26 runs with 33 extras for an innings total of 59 for 7. No batsman made double figures for the NCCA. Kushal Singh led the NCCA batting with 7 runs. Challengers won the game by 24 runs. Challengers Monil Patel’s economical 5 runs in his 5 over opening spell set the tone early in this duel of bowlers. Ajit Kumar was the Challengers most successful strike bowler with 2 wickets for 12 runs.

Under-13 Day 1: NCCA vs DreamCricket Academy (DCA)

Dilworth June 24th: DreamCricket Academy 83 /6 defeated the NCCA 57 all out by 25 runs

The opening game at Dilworth on the June 24th between DCA and the NCCA went the full 25-over round. DCA scored 82 (39 extras) for 6 with opener Vivek Narayan (18) their top-scorer. Kushal Singh 2-16 and Nikhil 2-20 were the top NCCA wicket takers.

For the NCCA opener Rudrik (16) led the batting ably supported by number 7 Shivane(11). With five of the remaining NCCA players scoring ducks they were all out for 57 (including 17 extras) as DCA came out victors by 25 runs. Vivek Narayan 2 wickets for 5 runs (including a difficult caught and bowled), Gavranshu 2 for 8 and Raymond Ramrattan 2 for 10, underpinned an economical winning bowling performance for DCA. Vivek Narayan proved to be the best all-rounder in this game but the spectators also witnessed some spectacular fielding from the DCA boys including a juggling catch by Richard Ramrattan and a spectacular full-stretch catch by Ryan Aravind.

Under-13 Day 1: Tri-Counties vs CCA Champions

Dilworth June 24th: Tri-Counties 58/6 lost to Champions 59/0 by an innings

In the second game at the Dilworth Elementary Ground, Tri-Counties won the toss and elected to bat on the Astroturf wicket. Shikar (24) batting number 3 scored over two-thirds of the earned runs as Tri-County ended their 25overs with 58 (including 21 extras) for 6. All of the CCA Champion bowlers took a wicket each. Captain Neil Tagare (27 in 46 balls) scored swiftly with M Buch (13 in 39 balls) as they steered the Champions home to victory in just over half an hour at the crease. Both opening batsmen were not out, as Champions scored a total of 59(19 extras) runs for no wicket. The Champions coasted to an easy victory by an innings in 10 overs.

Under-13 Day 2: CCA Champions vs DreamCricket Academy

Library Ground June 25th: DreamCricket Academy U-13 47/7 lost to CCA Champions 118 for 7 by 71 runs

The Under 13 June 25th day of the tournament continued in perfect cricket weather as the CCA Champions played DCA at the Library Ground. Hirsh Solanki was the Champions dominant bowler taking 4 wickets in one over including a hat trick.

A right hand fast medium pace bowler Hirsh, whose family hails from Gujarat, bowls off a rhythmic twelve pace run up with a high delivery release that enables pin-point accuracy for his off-breaks that land on a full length. Hirsch’s yorkers in the batsman’s block-hole will be feared in future. One of Hirsch’s wickets in his 5 wicket effort was caught off a brilliant catch at silly mid-on.

Chasing a mammoth target of 119 on the Libary Ground clay wicket, a surface that DreamCricket Academy team is unaccustomed to, the boys showed poise as they dug their way out of the Hirsch induced crisis with straight bats and determination. Coach Daley has imparted character to his team, which was demonstrated as the DCA team ended their innings with 47 runs for 7 wickets.

On interviewing CCA's Hirsch Solanki after his match winning performance, Hirsch gave credit to training at the DreamCricket Academy's fast bowling camp, conducted by Englishman Ian Pont, and a CCA organized cricket tour to Maharashtra with its enhanced opportunities for gaining mental toughness playing against well coached opposition on turf wickets.

Under-13 Day 2: DreamCricket Academy vs CCA Challengers

Library Ground June 25th: DreamCricket Academy U-13 53 beat Challengers 42 by 11 runs.

A nail biter of a game played out between the CCA Challengers and the Hillsborugh based DreamCricket Academy at the Library Ground's clay wicket. CCA Challengers lost the toss and soon had DCA reeling DreamCricket openers were dismissed cheaply out LBW to S.Srikantan and Vivek Narayan, a usually reliable opener who plays men’s league cricket in New Jersey.

Gauranshu Sharma repaired the damage with a determined 14 runs off 63 balls, scoring more than half DreamCricket’s batted runs and ending highest individual score for the visitors. Wickets tumbled regularly as DCA put just 24 scored runs on the board. The highest scorer was extras with 29 as DCA finished their innings with 53 runs in 24 overs on an unpredictable track.

The Challengers bowlers were devastating with S. Srikantan taking 3 wickets for 6 runs in 4.5 overs finishing with a 2.00 bowling average. This stunning bowling performance was beaten by Apurva Mishra who took 3 for 4 in five overs for a superlative bowling average of 1.33. Lakit Jain mopped up with 3 for 8 and a third place average of 2.67. Challengers could easily be forgiven for assuming victory was theirs’ for the taking.

Challengers got off to a wobbly start when their openers S.Srikantan(2) and Ajit Kumar were easily dismissed by DCA. But with V. Ramesh stabilizing the innings for over an hour scoring 16 in 48 balls and Ramesh also in control, Challengers were cruising comfortably to victory.

An all CCA final looked firmly set for the following day, then according to a proud Coach Daley who played his cricket for Milburn CC in Jamaica, “...came a brilliant full-stretch catch to his weaker side by Ryan Aravind who caught Ramesh’s hard stuck on-drive at ground-level for a brilliant caught and bowled.”

The young Challenger team were awestruck as their in-coming batsmen, drained of confidence fell cheaply to the DCA dream team. None of the remaining seven batsmen scored more than 3 runs as Challengers scored 25 runs. Including extras, Challengers were all out for 42 in 22 overs.

DreamCricket Academy's stunning snatch of victory from the jaws of defeat was secured by tight bowling, which by Under-13 standards, gave up a miserly 17 extras. Ryan Aravind’s (16), the highest score for DCA, followed his dominating 4 for 11 bowling resulted in a 2.75 bowling average; definitely a man of the match performance.

Talking to the Coaches Daley after the match - the following day - Malika Daley, a therapist by training, was effusive about Aravind’s performance. It was a sure reminder that one young man most certainly can make a difference. Ryan’s turn around effort had a primal, dramatic, unforgettable quality. South African singer Miriam Makaiba sang Malika as a theme song against apartheid in 1960, a song so unique in resonance that it recalls a troubled time and place. This day it was Ryan Aravind’s effort that resonated as he carried his team triumphant into the finals.

Under-13 Day 2: Tri-Counties vs NCCA

Dilworth June 25th: NCCA 104/9 defeated Tri-Counties 68/8 by 36 runs.

The June 25th morning game at Dilworth was between Tri-Counties and the NCCA. NCCA won the toss and decided to bat. Batting number 2, R.Sauthur (15) played a captain’s innings for the NCCA who struggled to score runs as Tri-Counties gave them away instead as the NCCA as ended 104/9 innings helped by 68 extras.

T.Peruvemba was the most successful Tri-Counties bowlers with 2 wickets for 13 runs ending with a team leading bowling average of 6.5 runs. In reply, S. Gupta (14) batting number 2 played a captain’s innings but found little batting strength to rely on for the rest of the team. Kanth (5) was the next highest scorer as Tri-Counties fell short of their goal by 36 runs, ending their innings at 68 for 8. In addition to two runs out, six wickets were evenly distributed between 6 NCCA bowlers. S.Sabharawal won the NCCA bowling honors with 1 wicket for 3 runs in 4 overs including a maiden.

Under-13 Day 2: NCCA vs CCA Champions

Dilworth June 25th: NCCA 61 lost to CCA Champions by 8 wickets.

The afternoon game at Dilworth between the NCCA and Champions started at 2.08 with a solid partnership of 30 between NCCA Captain R Suthar(6) and A Prabhu(7). They crafted a solid foundation which was not built on by successive NCCA batsmen. The NCCA 20 scored runs were greatly aided by 41 extras at the Champions gifted as the NCCA innings closed at 61 for 9 wickets in 25 overs. For the Champions, Dasarthy (4) and Khasigwala’s (7) opening partnership was broken up early by Kushal Singh and R Suthar. The Champions reliable Avinash Ghimikar (15) and Champions captain Neil Tagare (22) were easily up to the task, as they overhauled the NCCA total in twelve overs, steering the Champions to victory by 8 wickets.

Under-13 Day 3: CCA Challengers vs CCA Champions

Dilworth June 26th: U13 CCA Champions 175/2 defeated U13 Challengers 72 all out by 104 runs

The following morning at 8.53 the U-13 CCA Challengers took on their CCA academy rivals the Champions, on the Astroturf of Dilworth. CCA records tumbled as the Champions R Khasgiwala (59) and S Dasarthy (61) scoring at the rate of just under a run a ball, opened with a 134 run partnership that lasted over an hour and half. After Dasarthy was bowled by A Kumar and R Khasgiwala was run out, Champions captain Mihir Athavale (15) was joined by A Murthy (13) with the score on 154.

Both batsmen combined for an unbeaten 20 run partnership as Champions finished their over 25 over allotment with a total of 174, the largest innings of the Under 13 tournament. To the Challengers credit there were only 28 extras in the 174 total, a testament to tidy, economical bowling under adverse conditions. The Challengers showed character under pressure-a good omen for their future as a cricket team. Wicket-taker A Kumar was the most effective bowler for the Challengers taking 1 for 24 in 4 overs. Faced with a daunting task the Challengers got their collective heads down as left-hander S Srikarnan and right-handed batsman Mohil Patel opened with a respectable 28 partnership which was broken up by a catch to mid-wicket. Wickets fell rapidly after that wicket-keeper Shashir Dholakia (4) showed resistance until Neil Tagare ran him out.

The tail wagged as A Kumar(14) and Satish Ghimikar(2) posted the Challengers second highest partnership of 8 runs. Helped by 27 extras combined with 45 earned runs, Challengers resistance lasted for just over two hours, their combined efforts recorded as a reasonable total of 72 runs. A Murthy 3 for 9 (average 3), R Bise 3 for 5 (average 1.67) and M Buch 2 for 6(average 3) were the Champions most successful bowlers as Challengers lost by 104 runs.

Under-13 Day 3: DreamCricket Academy vs Tri-Counties

Dilworth June 26th: DreamCricket Academy 131 defeated Tri-Counties 43 by 88 runs

On June 26th at Dilworth, Tri-Counties won the toss and decided to field. With openers Vivek Narayan(1) bowled N. Shah and S. Singh(3) run out, Ryan Arvind (32 not out) was called on to right the ship which he did effectively with his captain V.Barbhaiya who played a spectacular knock of 34. The two featured in a 72 run partnership.

Ryan Arvind retired not out with the score at 100. S Gupta then ran out two DreamCricket Academy batsmen before taking a wicket himself. N Shah got the remaining wicket for Tri-Counties as DCA finished their innings with a score of 131 for 6 including 52 extras. Shah was the Tri-Counties best bowler taking 2 wickets for 9 runs in five overs which included 3 maidens, a fine performance. Tri-Counties were all out for 43 in 24 overs, including 18 extras, losing the game by 88 runs. Ryan Arvind led the DreamCricket bowling taking 2 wickets for 1 run in three overs to end the game with a .5 bowling average for another Man of the Match performance. His effort was aided by Humzah (2 wickets) and Rohan (1 wicket). For Tri-Counties A. Patel (11) and S.Peruvemba (6) showed some resistance with a seventh wicket partnership of 15 runs, thereby avoiding a rout.

Under-13 Championship Match - CCA Champions vs DreamCricket Academy

Dilworth June 27th - CCA Champions 146/5 beat DreamCricket Academy 70/7 by 77 runs.

The Under 13 final was web-streamed live by eParasaran on the internet as CCA Champions took on DreamCricket Academy, based in New Jersey. The CCA Champions were fresh off a dominating batting performance against Challengers. On this occasion Neil Tagare (76) their most prolific batsman, the Champions' young Tandulkar, combined for a opening partnership of 119 runs with M Buch (35) aided by weak fielding on the part of DreamCricket Academy. That is when Richard Ramrattan broke through taking Buch’s wicket caught and bowled. Vivek Narayan captured Neil Tagare’s wicket after the Champions posted their second consecutive century opening partnership in the tournament.

Hirsch Solanki (8) moved the score along briskly before he was run-out. At this point, Richard Ramrattan established himself as the strike bowler for DreamCricket Academy match as he enticed Mihir Athavale(11) and A Murthy(1) into giving up their wickets, tempted by his flighted balls to be stumped by the alert wicket-keeper and captain for the championship game V. Barbhaiya. This left Khasigwala (7) and Darthy not out at the end for a total of 146 which included just eight runs in extras, a testament to DreamCricket Academy's tidy bowling.

In response DreamCricket Academy put on 20 for the first wicket. Opener Vivek Narayan (9) was tempted out of his crease by the right-handed spinner Mihir Athavale and stumped by wicket-keeper Vijir. S Kripilani (4) put up less resistance being caught by Bhise off A Ghirnikar’s bowling. Ryan Ardvind (4) batting number 3 was also out cheaply as DreamCricket Academy failed to get traction in their batting.

G Sharma (10 not out) and Richard Ramrattan(8) had good innings but DCA scored just 41 with 29 extras for a final innings score of 70 as the over allotment ran out.

CCA Champions lived up to their name with the strongest batting line-up in the tournament. DreamCricket though handily beaten by 77 runs were the most dangerous bowling side, giving away the least extras of the tournament while defending and winning with low scores. On this occasion the bowlers were dominated by the batsman, particularly right-hander Neil Tagare of Champions who with his big frame, strong forearms and supportive family will be a batting force to be reckoned with in future.

Neil Tagare was by far the most dangerous and aggressive batsman in the Under 13 tournament. Mohak Buch was the most economical bowlers for Champions with just 2 runs and over while A Ghimkar was the leading wicket taker with 2 for 14 in four over for the Champions best bowling average of 7.

Under-17: All Stars vs CCA Champions

Spartans Ground June 24th: U17 CCA All Stars 124 lost to CCA Champions 125/3 by 7 wickets.

The Under 17 Tournament play started on June 24th at the Spartans Cricket Club ground in San Jose. It was hoped that an east coast team might participate but no team materialized. The U17 tournament was played between three teams, the CCA Champions, CCA Challengers and the All Stars drawn from Northern California league teams. The All Stars opened the Under 17 US Invitational against CCA Champions with a depleted team. The Under 17 age group remains hard to capture for cricket events as school pressure for college entry is tough at that age and cricket has yet to achieve National Collegiate Athletic Association scholarship status.

The All Stars scored 124(29 extras) with Ramnarine 25 and wicket-keeper Z.Sattur 38 scoring the majority of runs. The CCA Champions A.Watave, brought on late as number 8 bowler, ripped through the All Stars side with 5 wickets for 11 runs-an impressive performance earning a 2.20 run bowling average.

The CCA Champions replied with A Talwalkar (21) and A Buch (20) putting on 45 for the first wicket. Batting number 3, A. Watave’s 43 not out in 58 balls broke the back of the All Stars team as he combined in a 57 runs partnership with A Buch. Champions captain V.Suni scored 6 before by Nazeer off V.Sehgals’s bowling for 6 runs. Singh, Ramnarine and Sehgal were the wicket takers for the All Stars and Sehgal ended with 1wicket for 8 runs in 3 overs-the best bowling performance for the All Stars. The Champions A.Watave was definitely man of the match taking 5 for 11 and scoring a match-winning 43 not out.

Santa Clara Cricket Club Ground June 25th: CCA Challengers 53 all out lost to All Stars 54/0 by 10-wickets

On June 25th, the U17 CCA Challengers played the All Stars at the Santa Clara Club ground and lost by ten wickets. Challengers were all out for 53 and the All Stars captain J.Singh scored 39 runs in 25 balls including three 6’s while his opening partner Z.Zadoo(2) remained content to anchor the partnership. The slaughter lasted less than two hours.

Under-17 Championship Match

Santa Clara Cricket Club June 27th: All Stars 180/5 defeated Champions 115 by 65 runs

While the CCA Under 13 Champions side dominated the competition things played out differently at the Santa Clara Cricket Club ground where the Under 17All Stars took on the CCA Under 17 Champions team.

Put in to bat by Champions, the All Star team changed their line-up from the previous game with the addition of players not previously available owing to school constraints during the week. Openers, J Singh(38) and Z.Zadoo(9) posted a strong partnership of 52. Singh dominated the Champions bowling as he saw Pradhan off with two consecutive 4’s in the first over. Bowling fast from the other end A Buch bowled unchanged in his eight overs. He had Singh caught by Watanave to break-up the 52 run opening partnership in his seventh over- a wicket-maiden.

The All Stars strong batting continued with R.Ramnarine (20) and wicket-keeper Sattaur(54) adding 17 for the second wicket and 30 for the third. CCA Captain P.Suri enticed both batsmen into giving up their wickets as Ramnarine was caught by Buch and Sattaur stumped. The All Stars batting showed its depth as S.Abudlghani scored 17 runs before he was caught by Buch off Vardarajan’s bowling with the score on 136. Sattaur(54) was the last All Star wicket to fall with the score on 173. There were just 20 extras in 40 overs given by the CCA Champions as the All Stars closed their innings at 180/5.

In reply the Champions were all out for 59 with Watanave (20) P. Singh (16) and D.Parikh (16) their top-scorers as the rest of the team combined for just seven runs. Wickets taken by the All Stars were evenly distributed with openers Akhtar and Niazi taking 2 for 32 and 2 for 23. J Singh took 2 for 25, S.Abdulghani 2 for 13 while S.Sehgal had the best bowling spell of all, with just 2 runs off 4 overs ending with a 2.00 average, by far the most economical outing of the All Star bowlers. The Champions were a stronger bowling than batting team and will need to hone their batting skills against top-notch competition if they want win. Amazingly the All Stars gave away over 56 extras as Champions were 115 all out in 34 overs. The Champions lost by 65 runs.

PostScript: Historical Resonance

Having watched the sixth CCA US Invitational Tournament one could clearly see cricket’s future in the US building on a strong foundation. Several names come to mind as potential future stars but they have their own story. Having earlier written the history of the Citrus Colony Cricket Club which existed from 1895 to 1900, the achievement of the California Cricket Academy has strong historical resonance. Located east of Sacramento, near Rocklin, a British colony grew up with its own club house and a strong interest in sports. Most residents came from India and grew fruit for a living. They played hard and as their cricket improved they took on the best California Cricket Association (founded at the Occidental Hotel on Montgomery Street in San Francisco in 1892) teams. Within six years the CCC sides were the best in California.

The CCA has had greater impact as it has leveraged internet savvy executives with strong management skills in conjunction with USACA sanctioned events such as the second US Women’s Trials. Citrus Colony did not have a schools program nor does the CCA but that is set to change with Vijay Pradhan’s leadership of the schools program. Vijay plans on using six certified coaches in the local schools combined with a summer camp to reinforce skills. Hitesh Lokanki the CCA webmaster has planned enhancements to the CCA website to make it more interactive for Vijay’s program.

The future looks bright for the CCA as it has shown the ability to attract strong successor leadership. Ajay Athavale who has succeeded Hemant Buch, has a clear vision for his organization but most importantly he remains a team player, modestly acknowledging the achievements of his executive team. This frankly I found most impressive and hopeful aspect of the whole tournament.

DreamCricket Fooglies Reunite for 2010 USA Independence TANA Cup 20/20

openingbat — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:30:00 GMT

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Fooglies in partnership with DreamCricket.com announced today that their team – the DreamCricket Fooglies, is one of the eight teams taking part in the Inaugural USA Independence TANA Cup 20/20 Cricket to be held in the Bay area, California from July 3rd-5th.

The TANA Cup 20/20 is being conducted by Northern California Cricket Association in the Bay Area.

Dreamcricket Fooglies team for TANA Cup 2010 comprises first class cricketers from major test playing countries, current Team USA cricketers and aspiring cricketers in U-19 and U-15 age groups. The Fooglies include -

James Crosswaite – Australian first-class cricketer
NC Aiyappa – Indian first-class cricketer and Royal Challengers Bangalore who won the first ever Scorpio Speedster challenge in India.
Sushil Nadkarni, Aditya Thyagarajan, Aditya Mishra – Current Team USA cricketers
Hammad Shahid - USA U-19 cricketer
Krish Goel – USA U-15 cricketer

About 5 years ago, a bunch of cricketers who happened to be friends off-field as well, formed the team ‘Fooglies.’ Back then, they played friendly fixtures and entered their team in several T20 tournaments. In 2007, Fooglies reunited as the DreamCricket Fooglies at the LA Open T20 where they reached the semis.

DreamCricket Fooglies comprises nine core players and several invited players. The team is managed and run by Arjun Thyagarajan and plans to participate in other tournaments around the country.

The team is looking forward to the contest and is excited about the prospects of the at the TANA Cup. “We have some highly talented cricketers and we are going to have a blast on and off the field. We have done well at the past LA Open and other T20 tournaments, but we never won it all. We expect to build on that performance, and win the TANA Cup this year,” Arjun Thyagarajan told DreamCricket.com.

“Fooglies come together for such tournaments for the cricketing and social aspect of it. For us, it is a weekend well spent. Competitive cricket during the day followed by post game social action!”

Speaking about the sponsors, he said “We would like to thank DreamCricket for sponsoring the ‘Fooglies’ for TANA Cup 2010. We chose DreamCricket as a partner because we believe in their motto - have fun, play well, never flinch!”

Kranthi Bayya, CEO of Dreamcricket.com, said her company was excited about supporting the Fooglies. “We appreciate the opportunity to reunite with the Fooglies. They are a high-energy team and they are going into this tournament with the right blend of talent and experience.”

DreamCricket Fooglies:

Sushil Nadkarni

Bat: Left Hand Top Order
Bowl: Right Arm Offie
Plays/Played For: USA, India U-19, Maharashtra

Aditya Misra

Bat: Right Hand Top Order
Bowl: Right Arm Leggie
Plays/Played For: USA, Atlantic Region, Karnataka

Aditya Thyagarajan

Bat: Right Hand Middle Order
Bowl: Right Arm Leggie
Plays/Played For: USA, SCCA, Hollywood CC, Karnataka, India U-19

James Crosswaite

Bat: Right Hand Middle Order
Wicketkeeper
Plays/Played For: Scotland, Australian Capital Territory, Australian Capital Territory U-19

Arjun Thyagarajan

Bat: Left Hand Top Order
Bowl: Right Arm Offie
Plays For: USA North West Region, NCCA, Santa Clara CC, Hollywood CC

NC Aiyappa

Bat: Right Hand Lower Order
Bowl: Right Arm Fast. Winner of 1st Scorpio Speedster contest in India clocking 137 KMPH.
Plays For: Royal Challengers Bangalore, Karnataka, SCCA, Hollywood CC, South Zone (Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy

Sujesh Pulikkal (Captain)

Bat: Right Hand Lower Order
Bowl: Right Arm Leggies
Plays For: NCCA, Santa Clara CC, Hollywood CC

Ritesh Kadu

Bat: Right Hand Middle Order
Wicket Keeper
Plays For: USA South West Region, Vidharba, SCCA

Nikhil Iyer

Bat: Right Hand Middle Order
Bowl: Right Arm Offie
Plays For: SCCA, Hollywood CC

Vijay Beniwal

Bat: Right Hand Middle Order
Bowl: Right arm fast

Plays For: USA North West (Captain), Microsoft Blues, NWCL

Hammad Shahid

Bat: Right Hand Middle Order
Bowl: Right arm fast

Plays For: USA U-19

Mukun Rajan (Vidarbha U-19)

Samarth Shah (USA North West, USA reserve)

Tarun Bhoomi Reddy (USA South West, SCCA)

Mandeep Dhillon (Canada, Punjab, SWR)

2010 Kirigin Cellars Invitational: NCCA trumps LA Invaders and Kirigin Tigers

openingbat — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:37:00 GMT

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San Jose, California, June 2, 2010

Some of the best cricketers in the Bay Area gathered among the vineyards of Northern California to participate in the 2010 Kirigin Cellars Invitational, a triangular series of 50-over and 20-over matches over the long Memorial Day weekend to combat a top team visiting from Southern California, the LA Invaders.

The Kirigin Cellars Invitational this year was a compact contest organized by the host, Dhruv Khanna, owner of Kirigin Cellars. Khanna invited the Northern California Cricket Association, an association in which Khanna has played his cricket since 1986, to field a team after securing the participation of the LA Invaders, a team organized by Khanna’s friend, Veman (Polam) Reddy from Southern California. Kirigin fielded the third team - the Kirigin Tigers.

All matches were played on the scenic Cabernet Cricket Field at Kirigin Cellars located in the southern part of Santa Clara County equidistant from downtown Morgan Hill and Gilroy.

Pic (Above): Match in progress at the extremely scenic Kirigin Cellars' Cabernet cricket ground.

In the first match, on Saturday, May 29th, a 50-over contest between NCCA and the visiting LA Invaders, the NCCA team proved emphatically dominant.  NCCA appeared intent to build on its record-setting win over the North-West Cricket League of Seattle-Portland in April 2010 (where NCCA’s opening bowler, Imran Khan took 5 wickets and caused NWCL to lose all-ten wickets for 19 runs).  Batting first again, NCCA ran up a score of 300 runs, with local favorite Sunny Singh smashing a quick 28 runs with 3 sixes as an opening batsman.  Sunny’s team-mates almost all pitched in with significant scores – Shiva Vashishat scored 77, Shantanu Divekar scored 53 and Saqib Saleem scored 48.

Taking 4 wickets, Imran Khan once again gutted the visiting team’s batting.  He was ably supported by Piyush Shanker who pitched the ball with robotic consistency, giving nothing away to the batsmen.  The LA Invaders, including Captain Tarun Bhoomireddy, and leading lights Ravi Timbawala and Nikhil Iyer, folded meekly putting 90 runs on the board.

Early the next (Sunday) morning, the visiting LA Invaders came back strong in its T20 match against Khanna’s Kirigin Tigers.  Kirigin Tigers posted a respectable score of 140 in 20 overs.  Recovering from two successive strikes by Timbawala to take out the Tigers’ opening pair, Majeed Mohammed and Kitty Kulwant each made significant contributions with the bat.  However, the LA Invaders knocked off the runs in 17 overs losing only 5 wickets in the process.  Captain Bhoomireddy was the highest scorer with some assistance from dropped catches by the Tigers.

Sunday afternoon, the LA Invaders, with the exception of Ravi Timbawalla, batted poorly again, posting a score of 89 runs all out in the T20 against NCCA.  In an unconvincing display of batting, based only in part on an experimental batting-order, NCCA managed to score the needed runs with the loss of 7 wickets and considerable heart-burn.  Sher Ali and Divekar remained unbeaten but the outcome may have been different had Bhomireddy held on to a difficult chance behind the stumps offered earlier by Ali.

On Monday, Memorial Day, NCCA added some youth-power to its side and rested some of its more experienced players.  It is not clear whether or not, going into the match, the young NCCA side expected to walk all over and otherwise trample on the wine-drenched Kirigin Tigers.  But that is not what happened.  NCCA was bowled out 70 runs (batting 12) with Jaggi Singh, Majeed Mohammed and Arsh Singh for the Tigers sharing the key bowling honors, and Prabhjot Gossal (substituting behind the stumps for an injured Khanna) and skipper Ayan Banerjee sharing the fielding honors.  The Tigers knocked off the runs in 7 overs for the loss of one wicket with Tigers bastmen, Prabhjot and Jodha Singh, doing most of the damage.

While NCCA (2-1) trumped the LA Invaders (1-2) and Kirigin Tigers (1-1) with their win-loss record in the tournament, NCCA’s batting clearly displayed some vulnerability in the NCCA’s second match against the Invaders and caused its pitiful loss to the Tigers.

The matches were sporadically attended by a smattering of spectators – 2 a-piece from the leading cricketing clubs in the area, Santa Clara and Cougars; and 5 Gilroy residents picnicked through the T20 matches clearly enjoying the contests.

Based on a reliable poll which revealed that the average cricketer in the Kirigin Invitational works out 2-3 times a week, and the up-and-down display of batting, bowling and field on display, it is clear that local cricket unsurprisingly, and like most other things in life, needs improvement. The gulf between local and first-class standards was demonstrated by a cameo first T20 over bowled by the LA Invaders' NC Aiyappa, a Karnataka Ranji Trophy player in which a leading NCCA batsman had great difficulty in persuading his bat to make any contact whatsover with the ball.

Take a bow, NCCA Junior Program

openingbat — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:51:00 GMT

By Peter Simunovich

Ganesh Sanap, President of NCCA

The Bay Area in Northern California is the home of the San Francisco Giants baseball and San Francisco 49ers football teams that have produced Hall of Famers like quarterback Joe Montana and centerfielder Willie Mays, both acknowledged as all-time greats.

It is also the home of the Northern California Cricket Association. Established in 1892, it is one of the oldest and largest cricket regions in the United States.

Right now the NCCA is celebrating the success of the North West Region's Under 19 win in the recently completed national tournament.

NCCA president Ganesh Sanap proudly says that 13 of the 14-man North West Region squad came from the NCCA, including three of the players in the national Under 19 All American team. And it was the second time in four years that the region had won the national title.

Owen Graham, Coach - NCCA

Sanap, who has a long association with the four-division and 40-team league as a player, volunteer, administrator and president, says the league's focus "has always been on youth." The philosophy is that they move up to a higher level and then pass on their knowledge, experience and tips to the youngsters. It is the trickle down effect.

But Sanap, 39, a computer developer, does not take all the backslapping from the success of the junior program in the NCCA. He is quick to talk about coach Owen Graham. "He has the Midas touch," said Sanap. "When he played with the Caribbean Cricket Club in the NCCA he had the most wins as a captain and player. No teams wanted to play against him.

"Owen led the San Francisco Freedom in the professional league in 2004 and led it to the national championship. He has a very good cricketing brain."

Graham, 42, played in semi pro and All Island leagues in the West Indies as an opening batsman, has a high profile as a coach in the NCCA, but he praised the administration. "I realize that it gets it right," he said.

Saad Khan, 19, a No. 4 bat and right arm off spinner, told DreamCricket.com: "People and coaches put in a lot of effort and work hard in the NCCA. Ganesh is recruiting players. Owen knows the game, man. He knows a lot about cricket.

"He's a good guy, has a positive attitude, and works hard with everyone and gives us confidence. He is available 24/7 and he will answer any questions."

Saad Khan, NCCA U-19 player

Sanap said: "Owen is always talking to players on the 'phone. We are trying to develop a cricketing brain and keep the Under 19 players together. The idea is unity and continuity. The players now play in A Division. It gives them experience and helps out teams when they might be short of players."

Sanap, who moved to the US from Mumbai, India, says the biggest reason for the youth program is that they players are "like a band of brothers. They are at each other's home, play as a team, are united and you will not find too many individuals in the team."

Graham admits: "There is something about me that goes well with the kids. They have a willingness to learn and I have a love and passion for the game."

He grew up during the West Indies golden era where he watched stars like Michael Holding, Colin Croft, Joel Garner and Andy Roberts play and he competed against the likes of Jeffrey Dujon, Jimmy Adams and Courtney Walsh. And to round this off he was coached by top Test batsman Rohan Kanhai.

Graham tries to teach his players how to understand the game, be relaxed and poised and to work hard on and off the field. "Discipline is very important," he says. "Practice hard and do what you are told."

Asked about his successful coaching methods, he said: "I don't look at it as a moral obligation. I enjoy the teaching and I hope to create a little legacy. I try to connect with the players, be like a father figure. I encourage them to play positive and aggressive cricket. They have good minds."

Saad, who is studying sociology, said his batting and fielding had improved under Graham's coaching. "He gives me more confidence. He says not to be afraid of the ball, be confident, be yourself and play your natural game."

Sarabjit Chadha - NCCA Volunteer

Saad added that Graham encouraged his players to be disciplined, "play by the rules, be who you are and don't bring anyone or another team down."

One of the unsung heroes in the success of the NCCA is Sarabjit Chadha, 40, who helped found the East Bay Cricket Club and still plays as an all-rounder. He said: "All the kids who play in the Under 19s in the NCCA should be thankful for Ganesh and Owen.

"The NCCA is Ganesh's baby. He works very hard and the kids get good coaching from Owen. I have watched him coach and he is pretty darn good."

A behind the scenes man, Chadha helps in organizing matches, looks after and develops players and fields, has a thankless job. But he loves the game and enjoys watching it continually grow.

It is all part of the success of the NCCA.