USA Cricketer : Steven Taylor, Ryan Corns, Sushil Nadkarni

USA Cricket: 2013 ICC WCL Division Three Report Card Part 3 - Outlook for USA's 50-over future

openingbat — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:22:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Click here for Part 1 - Team Grades and Part 2 - Player Grades

Part 3 - Outlook for USA’s 50-over future

1. Sort out the coaching situation – According to multiple team sources, Robin Singh was furious when talking to the team over the phone from India after USA lost to Bermuda on the last day of round-robin play. It’s hard to understand why he was furious though. Was it because he took a bigger paycheck from the Mumbai Indians to be in India instead of with USA during the Division Three tournament?

Singh is understood to have spoken to the team or team management after every match in Bermuda. Coaching by conference call is no way to coach. At the U-19 and men’s level, USA’s only successes under Robin Singh and his crew have been a second-place finish last September at ICC WCL Division Four and against ICC Americas competition, which is the least competitive standard USA encounters in international play.

Image (right) - Robin Singh, pictured during a match-day training session at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament in Florida, has USA way down the totem pole on his list of coaching priorities. Will he commit fully to USA or should USACA search elsewhere? [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

It is very hard to understand why Robin Singh is paid a princely sum for his services when the USA Cricket Association is an administrative pauper. A cash-strapped governing body certainly should be able to find a less expensive coaching option that will get them more value, specifically someone who is based in the USA and is willing to work with the players on a more consistent basis locally. Singh is paid to more or less be a chaperone on tours or as was the case in Bermuda, to consult by telephone rather than in person because he has higher priorities in India.

USACA needs to put their foot down once and for all to make Singh choose between coaching USA or sticking with his other commitments in Twenty20 franchise leagues around the world. If he wants to make more money coaching with the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League or the Khulna Royal Bengals in the Bangladesh Premier League then that's a perfectly normal decision. Coaching USA should be someone's first priority though, not their third, fourth or fifth.

2. Choose a new captain – Steve Massiah took over the role from Richard Staple as USA captain at the ICC Americas Division One tournament in August 2006. There are currently 42 international teams that USA has either played against from 2006-2013, been at the same tournament as USA in that time or are currently ranked above USA in the global 50-over rankings. Of those 42 teams, only three still have the same captain in 50-over cricket: Argentina (Esteban MacDermott), Papua New Guinea (Rarua Dikana) and Tanzania (Hamisi Abdallah).

It’s worth noting that not only has every ICC Full Member changed their 50-over captain in that time, but also every one of the High Performance Program Associate teams. Having a new captain is not necessarily a reflection of a regression in skills from the incumbent. It’s about having fresh ideas and fresh styles, trying something different when the status quo has not achieved desired results.

Image (left) - Steve Massiah, pictured batting against Uganda, has been USA captain since 2006, during which USA has failed to reach the ICC World Cup Qualifier in two consecutive World Cup qualification cycles. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA has effectively stood still in the global rankings since Massiah became captain. As a result of their 10th place finish at the 2005 ICC Trophy under Staple, USA was due to participate in 2007 ICC WCL Division Three in Australia before an ICC suspension dropped them down to Division Five. USA has since clawed back into Division Three twice. They were relegated from Division Three in 2011 and are now stuck there after a third place finish in 2013 instead of advancing to the 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier. Prior to Massiah becoming captain, USA had participated in every single ICC Trophy, the former name of the ICC World Cup Qualifier, from 1979 through 2005. In seven years under Massiah's captaincy, no progress has been made and USA has arguably gone backwards after failing to reach the ICC World Cup Qualifier, let alone the main event, during two World Cup qualification cycles ahead of the 2011 and 2015 ICC World Cup.

Massiah is USA’s all-time leading scorer in one-day cricket and provided solid contributions at Division Three against Italy and Oman. However, his leadership has become stale and captaincy appears to have had some drain on his batting. He has not scored a century in tournament play since 2006. He doesn’t command a place in USA’s T20 team, let alone a spot as captain, with a T20 average of 11.00 in 14 games. So it’s conceivable that Massiah might not be a participant in any ICC tournament for two years when the next Division Three tournament is anticipated to take place in 2015. The time is right to make a change.

There are a few players who are good candidates to be USA’s captain in both formats. Sushil Nadkarni has been USA's vice-captain for several years and served as captain of the T20 team in the UAE last year. Orlando Baker led USA well in March at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One T20 and has plenty of experience under his belt.

Image (right) - After leading USA to an 8-0 record in March at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament, Orlando Baker would make a good choice to become USA's captain across all formats. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA could also choose to go in a different direction and adopt policies that countries such as Hong Kong and Nepal have employed by naming a much younger player as captain to give them time to ease into the role. In that scenario, Steven Taylor would be the obvious choice. Taylor served as vice-captain to Baker in March during the ICC Americas tournament. He will most likely be captaining the USA U-19 team in Canada this July and has previously captained the USA U-15 squad in 2009 so he is already gaining plenty of experience in leadership positions. It might be good for Baker or Nadkarni to be the captain for the next few years though until Taylor or another up and coming player like Ryan Corns, who captained USA during one of the two T20s against Canada during the Auty Cup tour in November, is ready to take over the mantle.

3. Commit to a core squad, one with better balance focused more on specialist batsmen and bowlers instead of an overload of allrounders and one-dimensional sloggers– USA's selection snafus were chronicled on DreamCricket.com well before the squad took part in Division Three. Taking a much closer look at the composition of USA's squad, they went to Bermuda with only three specialist batsmen: Massiah, Nadkarni and Rashard Marshall. The rest of the 14-man squad was made up of two wicketkeepers, four allrounders and five bowlers. It is almost impossible to win a tournament with such an unbalanced squad.

Taking the field with only three specialist batsmen, USA was basically forced to pick all four allrounders - Baker, Timroy Allen, Barrington Bartley and Japen Patel - in their starting eleven every game during the round-robin phase. Several members of USA’s management touted the fact that USA could bat to number 10 with Neil McGarrell and Elmore Hutchinson down the order, but that meant nothing if the players taking up those spots throughout the order are bits and pieces batsmen rather than full-fledged specialists. The truth is that having so many allrounders created the illusion that USA's batting contained more depth than there actually was. It also meant that no matter what, it would be near impossible for Danial Ahmed or Naseer Jamali to get a game in place of one of the allrounders because it would make USA's batting even thinner.

The unbalanced squad selection came back to bite USA by the end of the tournament, especially when Nadkarni was out with an injury in the final round-robin match against Bermuda. USA was not a team playing with six specialist batsmen in their usual starting eleven, let alone did they have the luxury to call upon a reserve specialist batsman. When Nadkarni couldn't play, USA sent out a starting eleven consisting of two specialist batsmen, two wicketkeepers, four allrounders and three specialist bowlers. It should surprise no one that they lost.

This was why dumping players like Aditya Thyagarajan and Aditya Mishra ahead of the tournament was a mistake. Specialist batsmen who can dig in and rotate the strike rather than relying on fours and sixes to score all of their runs would have been very handy to have against Uganda and Bermuda but they were nowhere to be found.

Although Marshall is a specialist batsman and Allen an allrounder, they have similar batting styles as does Bartley. Marshall demonstrated against Oman that he can knock the ball around for singles, but all three are heavily reliant on clearing the ropes to score the majority of their runs and they sometimes struggle to adjust if the match situation calls for a different method of scoring. At most, two players who play in that style can afford to be in the middle order and not three. Japen Patel playing at number nine and not bowling means he is not capable of holding down a spot in the team on his batting or bowling alone, let alone as an allrounder. Two of those spots in the starting eleven could have gone to specialist batsmen or one each to a batsman and a bowler like Danial Ahmed.

Overall, USA made six changes to the squad that advanced from Division Four in Malaysia. Nepal, the Division Four champions, only made one change to their squad for Division Three in Bermuda. Changing almost half the squad that gained promotion for USA into Division Three was a radical maneuver and clearly didn’t pay off. Meanwhile, Nepal stuck to their core group and wound up Division Three champions.

Image (left) - Aditya Thyagarajan is one of several veterans whose presence was sorely missed in Bermuda at 2013 ICC Division Three. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

The respective squad selections by USA and Nepal from 2012 ICC WCL Division Four to 2013 ICC WCL Division Three are a microcosm of a much deeper issue. From 2008 ICC WCL Division Five in Jersey - the first tournament that USA and Nepal ever played against each other - to 2013 ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda, Nepal has used 26 players in 81 games in 50-over and T20 cricket. Meanwhile, USA has used almost three times as many, 67 players, across 90 games in 50-over and T20 cricket (see list at end of section three). The list of 67 does not include four other players - Abhijit Joshi, Glen Hall, Hemant Punoo and Josh Dascombe - who either toured with USA's senior team without appearing in a starting eleven or played for USA in unofficial/warm-up matches. USA has picked 52 players that have appeared in 50-over and/or 20-over cricket plus an additional 15 players who have appeared solely in 20-over cricket. Nearly half of those players, 30, were picked for a single tour in that timespan. This means that USA has used more players for a solitary tour experience than Nepal has used for all of its tours combined from 2008-2013.

Those numbers, 67 total players and 30 one-and-dones, are absolutely staggering figures. It can’t be blamed on lack of availability for players to get time off from work or school classes either. It simply comes down to USACA’s lack of vision and planning, with almost no continuity from tournament to tournament.

USA only had five players in their squad for Bermuda that participated in the previous Division Three tournament in Hong Kong in 2011. Clearly, experienced hands like Thyagarajan and Shuja were missed more than anyone in Bermuda, but the services of others who were part of the team in Malaysia such as Mishra, who was USA’s T20 vice-captain in 2012, and Corns were also missed. More continuity and faith in a core group could have led to better results.

Looking elsewhere, a model Associate Member like Ireland has more or less used the same core group of players over the last few years which unsurprisingly has been a recipe for success. From the 15-man squad that was picked to go to the 2011 ICC World Cup, 11 were named in the squad that will play two ODIs against Pakistan later this month. The four who weren’t – Andre Botha, Nigel Jones, Boyd Rankin and Albert van der Merwe – are absent because all four have retired from international cricket. Regardless of the fact that the majority of Ireland’s players are contracted professionals and USA’s are amateurs with either classes or jobs to attend on a daily basis, Ireland’s administration has shown faith in a core group of players and stuck with them.

From the start of the 2011 ICC World Cup, Ireland has used a total of 19 players in ODIs and T20s. Essentially, Ireland has had 11 core players from 2011-2013 and has committed itself to developing four players to replace the four who retired since the 2011 ICC World Cup. Meanwhile, USA has used 50 players in official one-day and T20 matches from 2011-2013. Ireland and Nepal's consistent selection policies have been rewarded with on-field success while USA's fluctuating fortunes are a reflection of their inconsistent, mercurial, haphazard and scatterbrained selection policies.

Players USA has used in official matches since 2008 listed in alphebetical order
Note - Players who only appeared in a single tour from 2008-2013 are listed in bold italics

George Adams, Danial Ahmed, Quasen Alfred, Timroy Allen, Imran Awan, Orlando Baker, Barrington Bartley, Adil Bhatti, Ryan Corns, Robert Cresser, Lennox Cush, Kevin Darlington, Jignesh Desai, Sudesh Dhaniram, Akeem Dodson (wk), Dennis Evans, Durale Forrest, Karan Ganesh, Bhim George, Muhammad Ghous, Adrian Gordon, Hussain Haidar, Elmore Hutchinson, Moazzam Imtiaz, Naseer Jamali, Nasir Javed, Howard Johnson, Ritesh Kadu (wk), Asif Khan, Bilal Khan, Rahul Kukreti (wk), Rashard Marshall, Steve Massiah, Neil McGarrell, Ashhar Mehdi (wk), Stu Mills (wk), Aditya Mishra, Masood Mohamed, Andy Mohammed, Shahid Munir, Nauman Mustafa (wk), Sushil Nadkarni, Kumar Nandalal, Amir Nanjee, Japen Patel, Mital Patel, Timil Patel, William Perkins (wk), Steve Pitter, Abhimanyu Rajp, Gowkaran Roopnarine, Saqib Saleem, Greg Sewdial, Niraj Shah, Samarth Shah, Hammad Shahid, Usman Shuja, Saami Siddiqui (wk), Charan Singh, Nicholas Standford, Timothy Surujbally, Steven Taylor (wk), Aditya Thyagarajan, Anand Tummala, Clain Williams, Carl Wright (wk), Saurabh Verma.

4. Find at least one sponsor for the national team – USA and Oman were the only two teams in Bermuda not to have a sponsor on their jerseys. The USA jerseys themselves were flimsy, with the lettering on the jersey of at least one player falling off halfway through the tournament. Last year, USACA apparently had a brief arrangement with Reebok to have their jerseys provided but that deal has since dried up. It’s hard to believe that a USA national team in any sport has to pay for their uniforms instead of being paid by a major apparel sponsor to wear that sponsor’s logo, but that is the situation USACA continues to find itself in.

Although USACA cleverly presents several business entities as “USACA Partners” on their web site, USACA doesn’t have any genuine sponsors. An ideal business tie would be with one of the many domestic airlines in the USA. Since 2011, USACA has had two board members who are employees at a pair of major airlines, United and American. Such a sponsorship might help defray costs of flying players in and out of Florida for camps, trials and domestic tournaments.

One of former USACA CEO Don Lockerbie’s failures was in not securing any sort of sponsorships in the five to six-figure range. Lockerbie overestimated USA’s market value and kept seeking million dollar deals which never appeared. Although he played a major role in linking USACA with New Zealand Cricket and other investors to form Cricket Holdings America LLC, that partnership has so far done little to advance cricket in the USA financially or developmentally.

Image (above) - Uganda had a sponsor, Mehta Group, at 2013 ICC WCL Division Three. Meanwhile, USA was without corporate support for yet another international tournament. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

There’s no reason why USACA should not be able to find a bank sponsor, airline sponsor, hotel sponsor, automobile sponsor and/or a beverage sponsor in addition to a separate corporation or business as a title sponsor for all of its endeavors. Securing sponsorships is supposed to be Darren Beazley’s calling card. USA’s stakeholders will see over the next few years if he lives up to his billing in that regard.

Reaching the 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier might have made it easier for Beazley to secure a sponsorship and finishing in the top four would have almost made it a slam dunk because USA would have then qualified for the ICC High Performance Program, which would have carried admission into the Intercontinental Cup as well as ODI status. USA would have then had a guaranteed number of fixtures each year outside of ICC tournaments. Another domino effect of that would have been an incentive to give a handful of USA’s younger players such as Taylor, Allen and Muhammad Ghous central contracts with any sponsorship funds that could have flowed in.

Instead, USA will now be without a 50-over ICC tournament until at least 2015 and if USA doesn’t finish in the top six at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in November, USA will not participate in a single 50-over or 20-over ICC tournament in 2014. It’s nearly impossible to award a USA player a central contract when they may only be playing a handful of games a year. It’s also hard to secure sponsorship when a team has only a handful of non-televised fixtures to display a sponsor’s logo on a jersey on the field, meaning the opportunities are limited for the sponsor to get exposure and a return on their investment. That makes Beazley’s job much harder, but not impossible.

[Views expressed in this article are those of the author who was present at all of the team's matches at 2013 ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda. If you have differing views or opinions, we respect those views and urge you to provide your feedback - both positive and negative - in the comments section.]

USA Cricket: 2013 ICC WCL Division Three Report Card Part 1 - Team Grades

openingbat — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:18:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Part 1 - Team Grades

Batting – C+: USA had the tournament’s highest scorer after the group stage and overall in Steven Taylor. They also had eight of the 12 highest partnerships in the tournament, with two century stands and seven half-century stands overall. Unfortunately, USA’s batting lacked the overall consistency from the beginning to the end of the tournament as well as from the top to the bottom of the order.

The team scored one century and eight half-centuries, but also compiled eight ducks. The first wicket partnership of Taylor and Orlando Baker produced 125 runs on the first day, USA’s best ever partnership against Nepal, but after that the first wicket partnership averaged just 6.20 the rest of the tournament.

Image (left) - Steven Taylor acknowledges his USA teammates after reaching 100 against Nepal on the opening day of the tournament. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA’s best opening tandem in 50-over cricket is Taylor and Sushil Nadkarni. Although USA has had a long established strategy of slotting Nadkarni down the order against Nepal, there was no reason why he should not have been opening in the other matches he played. USA coach Thiru Kumaran stated after Nadkarni missed the crucial round-robin showdown against Bermuda that, “Sushil getting injured and not coming in, maybe that could have affected us a little bit. Being an important game, we didn’t have our best player, our best opener there.”

If Nadkarni is USA’s best player and best opener, it stands to reason that he should have been opening throughout the tournament but he never opened the batting once for USA and that hurt them in the end. The most surprising pair sent out to open was Japen Patel with Taylor against Uganda. Patel is a player who has shown some improvement with his batting and USA’s administration is eager for him to develop, but he has no business batting above Nadkarni under any circumstances, let alone open above him.

USA’s best partnerships of the tournament came for the third wicket where they averaged 71.83. Baker and Taylor produced USA’s best partnership from that spot in the third place game, 156 runs against Bermuda. USA also had half-century stands for the third wicket against Nepal (Taylor and Nadkarni), Italy (Massiah and Nadkarni) and against Bermuda in the last round-robin game (Baker and Dodson).

USA’s middle to lower order partnerships were strong when the pressure was off in the third place game against Bermuda and after a huge platform had been set against Nepal, but otherwise the segment of the game where Aditya Thyagarajan usually specializes in fell apart for USA in his absence. They averaged 14.17 for the fifth wicket and 6.83 for the sixth wicket in the tournament. USA put up a 93-run unbeaten stand for the seventh wicket against Nepal, but in the other four group games they averaged 12.50 for the seventh wicket. Thyagarajan’s ability to put together partnerships in the middle and lower order was sorely missed especially against Oman, Uganda and Bermuda.

Worst of all was the cardinal sin committed by not batting out all 50 overs against Uganda. It cost USA by the end of the tournament when the net run rate tiebreaker came into play. The team shot themselves in the foot multiple times in that match with foolish shots to get out and displayed an inability to rotate the strike. The game plan appeared to be for batsmen to slog their way out of trouble or get out doing it. Uganda scored 92 runs off ones and twos in that match while USA could only manage 36 runs off singles and doubles. No matter how difficult the pitch was in the second innings, that’s poor.

Overall, USA benefitted greatly from missed chances by their opponents. The tournament could have turned out much worse for USA had they not had such good fortune at the crease, although USA more than repaid it in the field against Bermuda. Opponents committed less drops than USA in the field, but USA punished their opponents more for each drop. USA's opponents conceded 14 missed chances during the group stage, but USA seized an extra 354 runs off the misses. Four times a USA batsman finished not out after being dropped. After the first time a batsman was dropped, USA averaged 44.25 extra runs. The most valuable second chance USA had during the group stage was when Oman goofed up a runout opportunity when Rashard Marshall was on 12. The bowler dislodged the bails without the ball in his hand and Marshall went on to win the match for USA by making 72 not out in a two-wicket win.

Bowling – B: USA’s bowling unit performed well for most of the tournament with their only glaring letdown coming during the Christopher Douglas ambush in the last group match against Bermuda. USA allowed just three half-centuries during the tournament, but allowed eight half-century stands during the event, including two in that crucial match against Bermuda. Neil McGarrell was tied for first atop the wickets list after the group stage with 12.

Image (right) - USA fast bowler Elmore Hutchinson on his approach to the crease. Hutchinson finished second on the team with 10 wickets in the tournament. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA’s opening bowlers were good at making early breakthroughs. The opposition averaged 13.50 for the first wicket and twice the opposition lost their first wicket without scoring. But the biggest opening stand came at the worst possible time for USA, 43 by Bermuda in their upset win on the last day of round-robin play. The opposition’s best partnerships were for the fourth wicket with an average stand of 37.00 including two-half century stands produced by Bermuda and Uganda. Each of those stands could have been curtailed had USA converted catching or runout opportunities provided to them in the field.

USA also lacked a killer instinct to wipe out the tail, something they have struggled with in the past, as Steve Massiah’s preferred method of captaincy is to let a match drag on rather than go for the kill. As a result, the ninth wicket stand for the opposition averaged 27.40. Noteworthy partnerships of 44 and 41 were produced by Nepal and Oman, something that turned out to be crucial by the end of the tournament when the net run rate tiebreaker came into play.

Fielding – F: USA missed 24 definite chances in the tournament (19 drops and five missed runouts), an average of four per game, while numerous other runout half-chances were missed in the field. Many teams have varied levels of batting and bowling skills, but the two things that every international side can do to narrow any gap against their opponent is to outwork them with fitness and fielding. USA always lags behind in both areas and it keeps their opponents in games.

USA had 19 missed chances during the group stage with the chances coming off 10 batsmen. On six occasions in the group stage, USA gave the same player multiple lives and on three of those occasions they dropped a player three times in one innings. After a batsman’s first missed chance, USA gave up an average of 24.33 extra runs to that player during the group stage, conceding a total of 219 runs overall after missed chances in their first five games. On average, USA conceded an extra 36.50 runs per game in the group stage on missed chances.

The costliest miss came against Nepal, when number seven batsman Sharad Vesawkar was dropped on 0, the first of three extra lives he was given, and made 72. USA’s fielding was horrendous against Bermuda, with six definite missed chances and many more half-chance runout opportunities lost. At 2012 ICC WCL Division Four in Malaysia, Singapore began a frantic chase on the last day against USA by stealing sharp singles at will in the first nine overs. A direct hit by Ryan Corns in the 10th over put Singapore on notice that they could no longer keep challenging USA in the field the way they had been and suddenly the pressure shifted onto Singapore as USA strangled the scoring rate.

All it would have taken was a single runout in the first 15-20 overs to put off Bermuda from stealing those sharp singles at the National Stadium on the final day of round-robin play in Hamilton. USA’s fielders did not score a direct hit the entire afternoon, whether or not a batsman had his bat across the line, and on multiple occasions fielders panicked under pressure by choosing the wrong end to throw to. Many other opportunities could have been converted with an accurate throw to wicketkeeper Akeem Dodson over the stumps. Instead, throws short-hopped into his feet or were wide enough of the stumps that he had to dive just to save them from turning into extra runs on overthrows. USA finally converted a run out in the 35th over, by which time Bermuda had run away with the match. Bermuda reached the target in the 45th.

Fitness – C-: USA’s fitness was good in the early stages of the tournament, but flagged as the tournament continued and was a contributing factor in their losses to Uganda and Bermuda. Taylor was well conditioned at the start of the tournament and his 162 against Nepal was chanceless.

However, he appeared to be weighed down by wicketkeeping on top of opening the batting as the event wore on. The team’s flagging fitness had a definite impact against Bermuda with so many sloppy fumbles, misfields, misfired throws and drops. It’s not as if Bermuda’s fitness was much better with two batsmen, Douglas and Stephen Outerbridge, struggling through their innings while cramping up. Yet they managed to find a way past it while USA was hampered.

USA will have plenty of time to work on their fitness though. By finishing out of the top two in Bermuda, their next 50-over ICC tournament won’t be for another two years.

Coming up in Part 2 - Player Grades

[Views expressed in this article are those of the author who was present at all of the team's matches. If you have differing views or opinions, we respect those views and urge you to provide your feedback - both positive and negative - in the comments section.]

USA Cricket: Baker looks forward to captaincy challenge at 2013 ICC Americas Division One T20

openingbat — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:44:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Veteran allrounder Orlando Baker says he’s ready for the opportunity to captain a young USA side at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament, which begins next Monday in Lauderhill, Florida at the Central Broward Regional Park. USA kicks off the tournament against Suriname at 10 a.m. on March 18 and Baker says he’s ready to take on more responsibility, not just as a captain but by bringing his talents to the fore with bat and ball as well.

“It’s a good feeling. It’s always a pleasure when you’re captaining your country so it’s an honor,” Baker told DreamCricket.com. “I’m looking forward to leading from the front. I’ve been around for a while now and I know a lot rests on my shoulders. I’m looking forward to take this opportunity to really showcase my talent and show what I can do. It’s always a challenge but I’m just going to go ahead and put my right foot forward and keep working hard.”

Image (right) - In 2010, Orlando Baker combined with Aditya Thyagarajan to produce the highest partnership for USA in Twenty20 matches, an unbroken 99-run stand for the seventh wicket against Ireland in Abu Dhabi. [Courtesy: Daniela Zaharia/USACA]

Baker previously captained USA in 2008 at the West Indies Cricket Board Cup 50-over tournament in Guyana. USA failed to win a game in that event, but the tournament provided opportunities for non-first choice players to get exposure such as Timroy Allen who made his USA debut against Barbados and took 1 for 26 in eight overs. Baker says he wants the players to enjoy themselves on the field and not feel pressure but at the same time they’ll need to adjust quickly to the demands of an ICC qualifying tournament that features eight games in seven days for USA.

“As you know, Twenty20 cricket is not a game that you have too much time,” Baker said. “I think new guys who are coming in, they have to learn pretty fast. There’s a few senior players – myself, Elmore [Hutchinson], [Barrington] Bartley comes back into the team – and then you have Ryan Corns there, Japen Patel, guys who have been around. I think myself and those guys have to really carry the bulk of the work in this tournament. A lot is gonna depend on me as a senior player and the captain but maybe one or two guys will rise to the occasion.”

With several first choice players missing out on this tournament in order to have enough time off work for 2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three next month in Bermuda, USA’s Twenty20 squad includes a few fresh faces competing in an ICC tourney for the first time and one in which their endurance and conditioning will be severely tested. The top two teams out of Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Suriname and USA will advance to the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE. Only six out of this 14-man squad were part of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier squad that played a grueling nine matches in 11 days in the UAE.

The fast bowling department looks particularly thin for USA without Allen and Usman Shuja. With only 14 caps, Hutchinson is the senior fast bowler in the squad and as a result, fellow left-arm seamer Naseer Jamali is expected to get plenty of opportunities after debuting in The Auty Cup last November. However, there are no specialist pacemen besides them in a spin heavy bowling unit.

On the batting side, Steven Taylor is the only man in the squad who has been a significant contributor with the bat over the past year and the absence of Sushil Nadkarni, USA’s leading scorer from 2012, creates a big hole to fill. Rather than be worried about the overall inexperience, Baker says this is a chance for younger players to push for a regular spot and increase the level of competition within the national team.

Image (left) - Steven Taylor will be looking for a good foil at the top of the order in the absence of Sushil Nadkarni. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

“There’s a lot of guys there,” Baker said. “You can’t really say someone will fill Sushil’s role. It’s just that somebody has to open with Steven. There’s a lot of guys, Timmy [Surujbally] who has come in as an opener. You have Ryan [Corns] who has batted up the order for the US before. You have young [Nicholas] Standford, even myself. When we get to Florida with Robin [Singh] the coach and the management staff, I think we’ll get to that point when we get there.”

“I’m not worried about the depth,” Baker said. “I think guys have been waiting for the opportunity. I’m looking forward to guys standing up and try and grab the opportunity, try and push the players in the squad for Bermuda. That’s the challenge these guys have ahead. They have to come here and perform. They’ve been given a chance. A lot of people have been calling for younger guys in the US team. You look at this team and it’s a really young team. This is their chance and they have the opportunity to showcase themselves and push their claims.”

The format of the ICC Americas tournament was a single round-robin event in 2011, but that has been revised in the region as a result of Canada not participating in this year’s tournament due to automatic qualification for the World Twenty20 Qualifier after a top-six finish in the same event last year. Instead of a six-team ICC Americas event with everyone playing each other once across six days, this year will see five teams all playing each other twice for a total of eight matches per team crammed into seven days. Although it will be taxing, Baker says there is a silver lining with more players getting more chances to show their stuff on the field and have as much time as possible out in the middle.

“It’s gonna be really tough. There’s going to be a lot of cricket. I think the players themselves have gotta take care of themselves,” Baker said. “If you look back at the [2012] tournament in Dubai, it was really tough. We’ve been getting a program. Robin sent out a program over the last couple of months for guys to be working on physically so I’m expecting everyone to be ready come March 17. I welcome the opportunity. It’s a challenge but I welcome the opportunity to play more games. At least you get to see more players. Players get more opportunities so I welcome the challenge. It’ll be tough but as I said if each individual player is following the training program, the physical program, they should be ready come March 17.”

“I’m not feeling pressure. I’ve played a lot of cricket over the years for the US and outside of the US before I became a member of the team. I’m just looking forward to the challenge. I like challenges. It’s something that I always look up to. I think when I have challenges, that’s when I get the best out of me. I’m looking forward to it. I’m not worried about pressure or worried about senior guys who aren’t there because at the end of the day we all have to perform.”

DreamCricket.com will have live coverage for all of USA’s matches at the 2013 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament beginning with the opening contest on Monday, March 18 against Suriname. Coverage begins at 9:30 a.m. EST with the first ball scheduled to be sent down at 10 a.m.

USA Cricket: 2012 ICC WCL Division Four Report Card Part 2 - Player Grades

openingbat — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:35:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Click here for Part 1 - Team Grades

Player Grades

Sushil Nadkarni – A-: USA’s vice-captain finished as the leading scorer at the tournament with 238 runs at 47.60 and two half-centuries. His century stand with Steven Taylor to open the tournament against the host side set the tone for a solid event. He top scored for USA in three of the five games he played. His highest score, and the highest score at the event by a USA player, was his 84 in the group game against Nepal. If he had been able to bat to the end to score a century and take the team to victory, it would have been perhaps his greatest knock in a USA uniform, but he fell just short thanks to a spectacular catch by Binod Das at backward point.

Nadkarni’s fitness has waxed and waned over the last couple of years depending on the tournament. It was definitely waxing at this event where he looked much slimmer than he was at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in March. Nadkarni and Timroy Allen were the only USA players who never looked tired while at the crease. He was a spritely fielder inside the circle as well, regularly flinging his body along the turf to save runs.

Image (right) - Sushil Nadkarni completes a cut shot against Malaysia. Nadkarni finished as USA's leading scorer for the second tour in a row. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

Steven Taylor – B+: The youngest player in the squad may have taken over the mantle from Nadkarni as USA’s most intimidating batsman during this tournament. He finished second overall in the runs list behind Nadkarni with 216 at an average of 36.00 and a strike rate of 104.85. He scored half-centuries against Malaysia and Singapore. The only game he really failed to get going was in the final match against Nepal where he made just 11.

While he had several explosive starts, Taylor somehow managed to get out just when he appeared set to destroy the opposition. He looked tired toward the end of the tournament, particularly in the ways he got out against Nepal so fitness may be something he should focus on, particularly if he is committed to keeping wicket. He finished with six catches and a stumping, but also missed two stumping chances.

Steve Massiah – C-: The reinstalled captain struggled to get going on a day when batting looked easy for everyone else against Malaysia, then looked even more out of sorts against spin versus Denmark. He made his highest score of the tournament against Nepal with 41 coming in at number five, but the batting order was mangled for that match to accommodate him after his early troubles against spin. USA wound up paying for it by the end of the match despite an 89-run stand between him and Nadkarni that put the team on the brink of victory. He finished as USA’s fourth highest scorer on the week with 121 runs at 24.20, but generally did less with more opportunities at his disposal than other batsmen.

In the past, Massiah has typically been one of USA’s most reliable fielders, both on the ground and in the catching department. At this tournament though, he looked a step behind, grassing three catches against Nepal and missing a golden opportunity for a run out early against Denmark. He was also responsible for a slow over rate against Denmark that prevented USA from using some of their more desired options later in the innings though he did well leading the side during a hectic second innings against Singapore by going to spin within a few overs after play resumed following a rain delay.

Aditya Thyagarajan – C-: USA’s leading scorer in 2010 had a lukewarm return from injury at this tournament. He top scored in the team’s warm-up match win over Denmark with 48 coming in at number four, but then managed just 35 runs in four innings during the live matches. He didn’t seem to respond well after being shuffled around the batting order to accommodate others, batting at three different positions for his four innings.

Image (left) - Aditya Thyagarajan in action against Denmark at the Selangor Turf Club. Thyagarajan had a rough return to the national team after missing more than a year due to injury, making 35 runs in four innings. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

He played for the team against Malaysia, going to slog after entering with six overs to go and wound up getting out for 2. He failed against Denmark, then got out cheaply again in a situation that appeared tailor-made for him with 10 overs to go against Nepal. His 21 against Singapore might not look special on paper, but it was part of a vital 59-run stand, providing the anchor at one end to allow Allen to swing away at the other. Thyagarajan also gets credit for his fielding. In a team full of butterfingers, he held on to three solid catches running in from the boundary and never dropped a chance.

Aditya Mishra – C-: Mishra was one of USA’s best batsmen in March at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, but overall in this event he was inconsistent and mixed two decent innings with two failures. He provided a solid late boost against Malaysia scoring 25 off 14 balls and along with Taylor tried to score as quickly as possible against Tanzania to lift the team’s net run rate, which made a huge difference by the end of the tournament. He had two sloppy failures against Denmark and Nepal in the group stage and then threw away his wicket in the final against Nepal after getting a decent start. He’s a batsman who can be classified as a team player after being rotated into three different batting positions to suit the needs of the team, although it wasn’t always to great effect for him personally.

A greater cause for concern for him is his fielding. Along the ground he is okay and generally puts in some good efforts to slide or dive to save balls from going over the boundary. In the air though, he is poor at judging the flight of the ball coming off the bat and it leads to bad mistakes, such as when he ran in from the rope against Nepal for a chance against Paras Khadka only to see the ball go over his head before landing inside the rope and bouncing over for a boundary.

Orlando Baker – C: Someone who didn’t do a lot wrong, but didn’t set the world on fire either on this tour. Baker stabilized USA with help from Allen against Denmark after a middle order collapse, but the pair never got a proper chance to bring USA completely back into the contest once rain intervened. He failed after being thrust into the opening slot against Nepal in the group game and then was somewhat harshly dropped for it. Recalled for the final against Nepal, he showed that he still has some gas left in the tank by grinding out 39 to top score with Nadkarni in the defeat. He finished with 66 runs at an average of 33.00 on tour, USA’s fourth best average in Malaysia.

With the ball, he wasn’t used that much, but took three wickets in 15 overs, a strike rate that other players in the squad would have gladly traded for. He dropped two chances that came his way, a sharp one at square leg against Nepal and a reflex return chance against Malaysia. He also missed a chance to run out Subash Khakurel on 99 in the group game against Nepal and fluffed a stumping late in the final against Nepal after putting on the pads to relieve Taylor. The four misses by Baker summed up a forgettable tour in the fielding department for USA overall. However, the fact that Baker is willing to keep wicket if called upon in an emergency shows his unselfishness for the team.

Timroy Allen – A-: USA’s most dynamic player, Allen showed how much USA missed him last year in Hong Kong and again in the UAE in March. Came in with 15 overs to go against Malaysia and produced his best score in a USA uniform, 72 not out in 43 balls on his way to claiming the first of two Man of the Match awards in Malaysia. Allen topped the averages for USA in the event with 166 runs at 55.33. Had he come in at number seven with 11 overs to go against Nepal instead of number three in the fifth over of the chase during their group game, USA would have had a much better chance of winning that game.

Image (right) - Timroy Allen poses with his Man of the Match award after USA's win over Singapore that clinched a spot in next year's ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

In addition to topping the batting averages for USA, Allen took the most wickets with 10 at an average of 19.80, although he was slightly expensive going at more than five runs per over. Allen also had more chances put down off his bowling than anyone else. USA’s fielders dropped six chances off him and that had an effect on his numbers across the board. In the field, he’s not as energetic as he used to be. He took one catch and put down a sharp one at gully in this tournament. In general he looks more reserved when it comes to throwing his body around, mindful of how he aggravated a back injury in Italy two years ago while diving to stop a boundary in a 10-wicket win over Tanzania.

Ryan Corns – C: When given an opportunity, Corns responded quite well. His stats might not say so, but he was a valuable niche player on tour and has plenty of room to grow into a position where he can be a solid all-rounder for USA in the future. Selecting him as the lone left-arm spin option ahead of Asif Khan was a bold move as Khan is a better pure spinner, but Corns justified the move with some handy performances and the tour did a lot for his continued development.

Batting wise, Corns did about as well as could be expected when thrust into a role he is not suited for, coming in late in the innings to slog quick runs batting at number eight. He finished with 45 runs in three innings at an average of 15.00, his best contribution coming against Singapore with 24 in a tight match. Fielding wise, he needs to work on his throwing accuracy. He is very energetic fielding at point, but dropped a chance and missed two run out opportunities, including a crucial one against Nepal when Subash Khakurel was on 22, before finally converting one against Singapore.

Elmore Hutchinson – B-: Quietly was one of USA’s better bowlers on tour. Hutchinson had the best economy rate for any of USA’s pace bowlers at 3.90 in 40 overs, the second most overs bowled by USA behind Muhammad Ghous. He sometimes had trouble locating his line though, bowling a team-high 14 wide deliveries that went for 19 wide runs out of the 62 wide runs USA conceded. He finished with six wickets, tied with Ghous and Shuja for second on the team.

With the bat, he had USA’s sixth best average on tour, 17.66. Hutchinson scored 53 runs in four innings and was used as a pinch hitter against Tanzania, coming in at three to slog some runs when USA was looking to boost their net run rate. He showed good athleticism overall in the field and despite only taking one catch, never grassed any and always showed tremendous effort and hustle to save balls from going over the boundary.

Image (left) - Elmore Hutchinson bowling against Nepal at Kinrara Academy Oval. Hutchinson was one of USA's better bowlers in Malaysia and finished with the second best economy rate on the team behind Muhammad Ghous. [Courtesy: ICC/Peter Lim]

Abhimanyu Rajp – C-: Rajp was dropped after three games, which may have mystified many back home as he was USA’s second best wicket-taker at the time behind Allen, but his economy rate was frightfully high for a finger-spinner. Rajp shined at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier because it’s a format where a bowler can get away with trading off runs for wickets. A 7.55 economy rate in that event looked okay next to 10 wickets, which was good enough to tie for the team lead. However, a 5.73 economy rate standing next to five wickets in Malaysia was not good enough. Rajp has a learning curve to adjust to in 50-over cricket. He must strike a balance between being economical and attacking for wickets.

With the bat, he was bizarrely asked to bat at number three in the final against Nepal in his only appearance at the crease and didn’t score. Fielding wise, teams aren’t afraid to take him on in the circle and he missed a critical run out chance against Andreas Lambert of Denmark, but in the air he is one of USA’s sure-handed fielders. He got official credit for two catches but also took two other very crucial ones as a sub fielder in a tense battle against Singapore.

Usman Shuja – C: Shuja was named Man of the Match in an easy win over Tanzania after taking 3 for 14. Overall though, he was very average. In the other four games he played against Singapore, Denmark and twice against Nepal, he took just 3 wickets for 116 runs. While he was economical against Denmark, he struggled to make the most of the new ball when conditions were in his favor in that match, taking 1 for 20 in seven overs. Entering the tournament, he had a phenomenal record against Nepal with 14 wickets in six games at an average of 11.86 and an economy rate of 3.25. In the two matches USA played against Nepal in Malaysia, Shuja finished with 1 for 75 in 12 overs.

Shuja had multiple chances dropped off his bowling in the group game against Nepal, but in general was just not as effective as he usually is. His batting has also been marginalized by the current management. This is the same player who rescued USA from 20 for 7 against Oman and took them to a remarkable two-wicket win at Division Three in Hong Kong last year by scoring 43 not out. He is good enough to bat at number eight, definitely no lower than nine but he was sent in at numbers 10 and 11 in this tournament and responded by batting down to that level, scoring 4 runs in three innings.

Muhammad Ghous – B: After going through a sophomore slump in 2011, Ghous has bounced back during his third year with the senior team to be a dependable performer. He had the best economy rate for the team on tour with 3.62 runs per over in a team high 48.3 overs. He can sometimes look lethargic when not a lot is at stake, but put Ghous in a pressure-packed situation and he is very hard to rattle. He was chiefly responsible for the shift in momentum during the second innings against Singapore. After batsman Chetan Suryawanshi flew out of the gate following the rain delay, Ghous reeled Singapore back in by applying outstanding pressure. It didn’t take long for dot balls to turn into wickets.

Like Mishra, Ghous reacts very poorly when the ball comes off the bat in the air and it can result in some angst for his fellow bowlers. When the ball travels directly to him though, he is a solid catching fielder. He put down a difficult return chance in the final against Nepal, but took two catches during the tournament. He finished tied for second with Shuja and Hutchinson by taking six wickets, but also had three chances dropped off his bowling.

Andy Mohammed – Incomplete: Mohammed played two matches, batting just once at number four against Singapore in the final group game. He entered in the 21st over in a situation that called for pushing the ball around for singles and doubles to rebuild in the middle overs after both openers had been dismissed. Instead, he kept trying to slog Singapore’s spinners for six. He succeeded once before being caught on the boundary for 10. Mohammed needs to show greater maturity and awareness of match situations to get more opportunities in the future. In the field, he converted a run out chance against Tanzania and had a brilliant diving catch against Singapore to spark USA’s fightback in the field.

Akeem Dodson – Incomplete: Dodson only played one match, scoring 3 against Singapore. He took one catch behind the stumps but also missed a straightforward stumping. Regardless of whether he was fielding inside the boundary or wearing a 12th man’s pinnie outside of it, no one brought more positive energy to the team when they were at the ground than Dodson. He’s eager to improve and his attitude demonstrates he has unwavering commitment to the team, supporting the squad wholeheartedly whether he plays no match or every match.

Click here for Part 1 - Team Grades

Coming up in Part 3 - Outlook for 2013 ICC WCL Division Three

USA Cricket: 14-man squad officially announced for 2012 ICC WCL Division Four in Malaysia

openingbat — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 21:05:00 GMT

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

[Source: USACA Press Release]

USACA has announced a 14-man squad to participate in the 2012 ICC Pepsi World Cricket League Division 4 Tournament to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from September 3 to 10, 2012. Along with USA, the other participating associate countries are Denmark, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore and Tanzania.

The tournament will be round robin with each team playing each other once followed by playoffs and finals to determine rankings from 1-6. The top 2 finishers will be promoted to WCL Division 3 scheduled to be held in Bermuda from April 28 to May 5, 2013.

Looking for consistency and continuity, the selectors opted to retain a core of players that participated in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup Qualifier in the UAE in March and recalled five experienced players including Steve Massiah who has returned as captain.

The team is a good blend of experience and youth. However, undoubtedly, USA will be depending heavily on its younger players who have all come through the various regional youth programs and ICC U19 World Cup participation over the past six years.

USA is expected to arrive in Malaysia on August 28 for practice, training and acclimatization prior to the start of the tournament on September 3.

USA squad: Steve Massiah (captain, New York), Sushil Nadkarni (vice-captain, Central East), Timroy Allen (South East), Orlando Baker (Central East), Ryan Corns (Central East), Akeem Dodson (New York), Muhammad Ghous (Atlantic), Elmore Hutchinson (South West), Rashard Marshall (New York), Aditya Mishra (North West), Abhimanyu Rajp (South West), Usman Shuja (Central West), Steven Taylor (South East), Aditya Thyagarajan (South West).

Coach - Robin Singh

Assistant Coach - Thirunavukkarasu Kumaran

Bowling Coach - Nasir "Charlie" Javed

Physio - Akhtar Masood Syed

Manager - Shoaib Ahmed

Video Analyst - Sriram Somayajula

USA Cricket: 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier Report Card Part II - Player Grades

openingbat — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:47:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Player Grades

Sushil Nadkarni – C: The captain was USA’s leading run getter in the tournament with 187 runs and had a high score of 59 against Oman. He was USA’s top scorer in four games (Uganda, Oman, Kenya, Bermuda). However, his string of three consecutive ducks against Italy, Namibia and Ireland crippled the team’s chances in those games. He got a good ball against Italy, but hooking to deep square leg on his second ball against Namibia was not something you’d expect out of a senior player and neither was the way he ran himself out against Ireland.

As a captain, he was hamstrung because the team didn’t have enough preparation ahead of the tournament to figure out which bowlers would be best suited for certain roles such as bowling at the death. There’s nothing wrong with trying to think outside the box but some of the batting lineups were bizarre. Having Abhimanyu Rajp coming in at number three against Ireland was something straight out of Ripley’s, but one suspects the coaching staff had more to do with that than Nadkarni.

Image (right) - Sushil Nadkarni in action against Kenya. [Courtesy: ICC/Thusith Wijedoru]

Steven Taylor – B-: The youngest player on the team was quiet in the first three games in the tournament, but started to click against Ireland and from then on was one of USA’s best batsmen. He finished second on the team in runs with 179 at a strike rate of 117.76. He had plenty of good starts, but never reached 50. However, his top score of 40 came in USA’s win over Scotland, the biggest upset of the tournament.

He was also involved in USA’s best two partnerships of the tournament, teaming with Aditya Mishra on each occasion to score 78 for the first wicket against Scotland and 64 for the third wicket against Namibia. He used to struggle at junior level with carrying on after making a start but erased those issues at the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Ireland with a pair of centuries. He needs to focus on doing the same thing at the senior level. He also could have probably had a better time with the bat had he not been thrust into the wicketkeeper role by the second match. Taylor played six matches behind the stumps, taking four catches and completing two stumpings during the tournament but unless he shows significant improvement with the gloves he should really be playing as a specialist batsman.

Aditya Mishra – B: The vice-captain led the team in the group stage with 155 runs and finished third overall on the team at the qualifier with 169 runs, including two half-centuries. In the field, he dropped a sharp chance offered by Davis Arinaitwe of Uganda on the first day that had a major impact on the game and sometimes took poor routes to the ball trying to cut off runs, but took three catches overall in the tournament.

In some matches, he looked imperious and brimming with confidence at the crease. In others, he looked tentative and fidgety, which unsurprisingly led to two runouts, not to mention two more he had in the warm-up games ahead of the tournament. There was no middle ground. It usually only took one over to gauge which Mishra was at the crease in a given match.

Image (left) - Aditya Mishra during his match-winning 62 against Scotland. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket]

In the matches against Italy, Namibia and Scotland, the first Mishra appeared and carried the team just short of victory on two occasions. On the third, he scored 62 to lead USA to their best win of the tournament. It is worth noting though that he was the beneficiary of drops in the field in all three of those matches, but managed to make the most of the second chances. Nerves mysteriously seemed to get the better of him in the other five games. For that reason he was arguably USA’s most compelling and confounding player on tour.

Orlando Baker – C+: Given more responsibility with the bat than he had under Steve Massiah’s captaincy in July at the 2011 ICC Americas Division One Twenty20, Baker contributed a few good knocks against Italy and Namibia before playing a crucial support role to Mishra in the late stage of the chase against Scotland. His best score though was 39 against Bermuda, a disappointing stat considering the starts he got in several games. He finished with 130 runs in nine innings, one of only four USA batsmen to break past 100 at the qualifier.

With the ball, Baker took five wickets at an average of 20, which was the second best average on the team behind Ghous. His bowling was only used in four matches though. His strike rate of 15.6 was the best on the team for any bowler with a minimum of one over per team match. It could have been better had three catches not been dropped off his bowling, but he also dropped two chances and took no catches at the tourney. He has a knack for taking wickets and his bowling could have come in handy in some other games but it appeared Nadkarni wanted to keep him fresh for when it came time to bat.

Nauman Mustafa – F: For several years, Mustafa has been one of the best batsmen on the domestic scene, but he failed when it came time to transition his game to the international stage. Had there been a USACA Twenty20 National Tournament in January as originally scheduled, the North West Region had selected a squad in which they dropped Mustafa yet he was brought into the USACA selection camp that took place in Florida instead of the tournament. While it was felt there wasn’t much difference between the standard of keeping between him and incumbent Akeem Dodson, Mustafa’s batting is held in higher esteem than Dodson’s and that helped Mustafa earn selection as USA’s first-choice wicketkeeper heading into the tour.

This proved to be a major error in judgment by the selectors, especially since Dodson had won the Best Wicketkeeper Award at the 2011 ICC Americas Twenty20 Division One tournament in July. Mustafa was making his debut at 37, not exactly ripe for a wicketkeeper and it showed on the first day against Uganda. With just 123 runs to defend, every run mattered in the field but Mustafa gave away at least 10 behind the stumps through byes and other misfields.

He was promptly dropped for the next game against Italy, then recalled for the Namibia match where he was selected as a specialist batsman at number three and scored 0 off 4 balls driving loosely in the air to cover, the same way he got out against Uganda for 13 off 19 balls coming in at number five. When he was a fielder not behind the stumps, he wasn’t exactly fleet of foot. He scored 6 off 15 at number six playing as a specialist batsman against Ireland, then had another two matches on the bench before wearing the gloves against Scotland. He did an adequate job, taking three catches. Two days later against Bermuda, Mustafa scored 9 not out from 3 deliveries at number seven but had a sloppy performance behind the stumps in the first few overs in the field, an easy reminder as to why Taylor had taken over the gloves for most of the tournament. Mustafa was then dropped again for the final day against Hong Kong.

Before the tour began, USACA Cricket Committee chairman Ahmed Jeddy told DreamCricket.com, “We expect a good result,” when asked what he thought of the team’s chances in the qualifier. “Winning it and qualifying for the World Cup is a good result for us.” If the mindset was to try and win now, then perhaps selecting Mustafa for the tournament was worth a gamble.

Image (right) - Nauman Mustafa, seen here against Scotland, entered the tour as USA's first choice wicketkeeper, but only wore the gloves in three of USA's nine matches at the qualifier. [Courtesy: ICC/Ian Jacobs]

However, halfway through the tournament after the team had lost its first four games in Group B, Jeddy told the Associated Press, “I really don’t care what the results of this tournament will be. I want people to look at this team in two years.” If this team was being selected with the future in mind, to groom players and get them experience to set them up for the next few years, 24-year-old Dodson should have been in the team and not been dropped in favor of Mustafa. Dodson didn’t set the world on fire with the bat playing for USA last July in Florida, but he couldn’t have done much worse than Mustafa did with the bat or gloves in the UAE.

Going back to the ICC Americas tournament in July, Mustafa was selected in the original 14-man squad before the administration intervened to remove him in favor of Nadkarni. The coaching staff in the UAE showed little faith in his wicketkeeping after the first match and he never had a clearly defined role afterward, batting in four different positions in his four innings at the tournament. Those things weren’t his fault. USA’s wicketkeeper position has been poorly handled over the last two years and the indecisiveness over who should be in the role both before and during the tour cost the team badly in the UAE.

Ryan Corns – C-: Corns scored 10 off 12 balls and took 1 for 27 in the field against Uganda before sitting out the next three matches with a groin injury. He had initially been ruled out for the rest of the tournament, but came back to play against Oman and played every match the rest of the way. However, he was clearly not 100%. He only came to the crease three more times after the first game but was a disappointment overall with the bat, scoring 27 runs at an average of 9.00.

Despite his problems with the bat, he showed great promise with the ball, taking four wickets in 13 overs at an average of 25.25 and an economy rate of 7.76. That might not sound special, but Corns was one of the bowlers who suffered through a series of drops, with three catches put down off his bowling including a key chance against Uganda that Taylor misjudged coming in from the long on boundary.

Corns took a step back with the bat in the UAE, but a step forward with the ball. Once he gets the balancing act right, he will be a very handy all-rounder for USA at the senior level just as he was at the Under-19 level.

Adil Bhatti – D: Bhatti scored 34 not out off 11 balls in the final warm-up game against Denmark and also took five wickets in three warm-up games, including 4 for 38 against Namibia. But when the live matches got underway he only bowled five overs and took just one wicket which came in his first over of the first game against Uganda. His 21 in that match was also his top score for the tournament. He added just 54 runs in seven innings after that. Five of his eight innings came at number seven but he struggled in the position, whether he was tasked with trying to give USA a late innings surge or helping rebuild when the team was in trouble.

On most days, his fielding was good, not great, as he typically patrolled either the midwicket or cover boundary. He finished with three catches, but also had three drops although one of them was a tough chance against Namibia where he did well just to get to the ball. Bhatti typically demonstrated a positive attitude in everything he did. His effort never seemed to waver and he consistently tried his best. At this level though, trying isn’t good enough. His number one priority should be to sharpen his batting.

Elmore Hutchinson – C+: Team management seemed confused how best to utilize Hutchinson throughout the tournament. He batted at four different positions (three, six, eight and nine). On the bowling side, he opened, came on at first change, but was also the fifth, sixth and seventh bowling option used depending on the match.

Image (left) - Elmore Hutchinson celebrates the dismissal of Ireland's Paul Stirling, who was the number one scorer at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. [Courtesy: ICC/Barry Chambers]

Despite all the shuffling around, he finished with six wickets, tied for third on the team with Usman Shuja. His best performance came against Ireland when he took 3 for 22, including the wickets of Paul Stirling and Gary Wilson, for the best figures of a USA bowler in any match at the qualifier. He then top scored in the second innings with 29 at number nine. He was also a crucial player in the match against Scotland, taking 1 for 10 in two overs before scoring 19 off 20 balls at number three in USA’s successful chase. Hutchinson was adequate in the field, but did have two drops. He’s still a bit unpolished, but showed signs that he could be a solid contributor in future tournaments both for his bowling and batting.

Asif Khan – D: He was supposed to be USA’s frontline spinner, but only managed to take one wicket in 17 overs during the qualifier. That sole wicket came in his very first over of the event against Uganda. His main problem on tour was trying to find consistency. He only bowled one over against Italy in which two boundaries were hit off him. Against Namibia, he was hit for four boundaries in his first over, but then came back and bowled a maiden in his second spell. Against Ireland he went for 10 runs in his first two overs, then 25 in his next two.

In his last match of the tournament, he took 0 for 24 against Scotland and had Scotland’s top scorer, Jan Stander, dropped off his bowling. After the chance was put down, Khan applauded Muhammad Ghous for putting in a sliding effort. Khan then grinned and shook his head as if to say, “Nothing’s going my way.” He still managed to finish second in economy rate for USA with 7.23 runs per over, but his inability to take wickets resulted in him being dropped for the final two games.

With the bat, Khan topped USA’s averages on tour with 42 runs at 42.00. This came primarily from his 35 not out off 29 balls at number six against Italy when he nearly took the team across the line. He top scored for USA that day, but struggled to get the ball away in the last two overs and the team eventually lost by eight runs. Curiously though, Khan was not one of the nine batsmen used the next day against Namibia at a time when USA could have definitely used him in their chase. He came in at number five against Scotland and was in the middle when the winning runs were scored. Overall, it was a disappointing tour for Khan, but hopefully he will bounce back for USA at ICC WCL Division Four.

Abhimanyu Rajp – B+: Rajp entered the tour behind Khan and Ghous in the spin bowling pecking order and sat on the bench for day one against Uganda. After a reshuffle for day two against Italy, he made his debut and took a wicket on his very first delivery, setting the tone for the rest of his time in the tournament. While he never had a big haul, Rajp was USA’s most consistent performer with the ball and finished tied for the team lead with 10 wickets at an average of 21.90.

Image (right) - Abhimanyu Rajp bowling against Scotland. Rajp tied for the team lead with 10 wickets at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. [Courtesy: ICC/Ian Jacobs]

His fielding was usually sharp. He took six catches, the most of any player on the team at the tournament including wicketkeepers. Three of them were off his own bowling. Rajp was also decent with the bat. His 59 runs were the seventh most on the team and came at an average of 11.80. He nearly pulled off a stunning win against Italy after hitting a four and six off the first two balls of the final over before USA fell short by eight runs.

The only noticeable drawback in his game was a tendency to try to buy wickets. He averaged 1.00 boundary or six conceded per over, the highest rate on the team for bowlers with a minimum of nine overs (one over per team game) at the qualifier compared to 2.31 dot balls per over, which was fifth on the team for bowlers with a minimum of nine overs. These are minor adjustments he can make but he should be an even bigger contributor for USA in 50-over cricket when ICC WCL Division Four comes around.

Usman Shuja – C+: Stood out as being USA’s fittest player on tour, Shuja has perhaps the most professional approach to the game of any player on the team and as a result is also one of the most durable players USA has had for the last several years. He was one of only four players on the team to play all nine matches at the qualifier, which is even more remarkable because he’s an opening pace bowler.

He was wicketless in the first three games, but started to hit his stride against Ireland, taking 1 for 16 in three overs. He was named Man of the Match for his spell of 4-1-9-1 against Oman, even though Nadkarni scored a half-century in the first innings. His best figures came against Scotland, with 3 for 39 in the team’s upset win although it could have been 4 for 35 if not for a drop on the last ball of the innings. Shuja also had another chance put down off his bowling on the last day against Hong Kong.

Image (left) - Usman Shuja in his delivery stride vs. Ireland. [Courtesy: ICC/Barry Chambers]

Overall he took six wickets, tied with Hutchinson for third on the team but his average of 33.16 and strike rate of 27.30 were ahead of only Bhatti and Khan. He bowled two of USA’s four maidens and his 2.78 dot balls per over was the best rate of any bowler for USA at the qualifier, but he also conceded 0.99 boundaries or sixes per over, the second highest rate behind Rajp for bowlers with a minimum of one over per team game.

Shuja should have been batting at number eight and definitely not lower than nine. After scoring 8 not out and 8 in the first two matches coming in at nine and eight, Shuja was hardly seen again on the batting side until he scored 14 at number nine on the final day against Hong Kong. He was underutilized in this regard, but the coaching staff was keen to try out different combinations. Shuja will continue to be a key player in the next few years as USA rebuilds in an attempt to climb back up the Associate ladder.

Muhammad Ghous – B+: After two subpar tournaments in 2011, Ghous bounced back in a big way in the UAE and was arguably USA’s standout bowler on tour. He tied for the team lead in wickets with 10 and had USA’s best economy rate of 6.00 runs per over. He bowled the most dot balls at the tournament for USA with 83 and had the second most dot balls per over for bowlers with a minimum of one over per team game with 2.59 behind Shuja’s 2.78. He also had the team’s lowest rate of boundaries or sixes allowed per over with 0.63, well below just about everyone else, a sign that he bowled very few loose deliveries and that teams struggled to get him away all tournament.

Ghous’ fielding was hit or miss. He was given more opportunities to field inside the circle on this tour especially after Corns was injured in the first game. When he was at point, Ghous was very active and did well to save runs by diving and throwing his body around. He was even involved in a run out while fielding at point in the Scotland game. Curiously though, he doesn’t always show the same desperation to save runs while fielding on the boundary. He looks particularly disinterested when fielding at third man or long leg on the boundary and in general is slow to react to the ball off the bat when fielding anywhere along the rope. That seems to be the only flaw in his game, but one that can be corrected with better habits developed at club level.

Japen Patel – Incomplete: Patel joined the tour as an injury replacement for Gowkaran Roopnarine and wound up playing four games. He took 3 for 29 against Oman, the worst batting side at the tournament and the only team to go winless in the group stage. He was rocked for 19 runs in his only over against Kenya and 17 runs in his only over against Hong Kong, a more accurate reflection of his bowling abilities. He bowled 36 legal deliveries in the tournament and 33% of them were hit to or over the boundary.

He also looked out of his depth on the batting side, scoring 11 runs in three innings. He had two drops in the field against one catch. If he is going to make it in the side in the future, it has to be with his batting but he needs a ton of work to improve.

Andy Mohammed – Incomplete: Was the reserve batsman on tour. Despite early injuries to Corns and Roopnarine, Mohammed wound up playing only two games at the qualifier. He scored 18 not out off 18 balls at number six against Namibia. He entered in the 15th over at a time when the team needed at least one boundary per over to stay in the chase, but Mohammed struggled badly to get underneath the ball or get in a position at the crease to try to clear the ropes and that seemed to doom his chances of selection for the rest of the qualifier.

His only other game was against Kenya, where he came in at number three and again struggled against their pace attack, scratching together 3 off 12 balls before getting out. He also had a drop in the field later in that game. Mohammed’s frustrations probably grew when Patel, who was not in the original squad, played ahead of him in the games against Oman, Scotland and Hong Kong. It meant that USA was playing three all-rounders (Baker, Bhatti, Patel), two of which were barely used for their bowling. However, based on his two performances, Mohammed is another who needs to work very hard to improve his batting.

Gowkaran Roopnarine – Incomplete: Juicy was edged out in the starting XI for the opening match by Steven Taylor. When he got his first chance in the game against Italy, he promptly injured a hamstring in the third over fielding on the boundary at third man. He scored 2 off five balls coming in at number nine later in the loss before being declared out of the tournament and replaced by Patel. It was an unfortunate experience for a player who worked hard in the last year to get back into the team.

Coming up in Part III - Looking ahead to ICC WCL Division Four

Click here to read Part I - Team Grades

USA Cricket Association announces 14-man squad for 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier

openingbat — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:58:00 GMT

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USACA Media Release

The United States of America Cricket Association announced 14 players squad for the ICC World Cup Qualifier 2012 to be held in UAE in March 2012.

The Squad:

Abhimanyu Rajp
Adil Bhatti
Aditya Mishra – Vice Captain
Asif Khan
Azurdeen Mohammed
Elmore Hutchinson
Gowkaran Roopnarine
Khawaja Shuja
Mohammad Ghous
Nauman Mustafa
Orlando Baker
Ryan Corns
Steven Taylor
Sushil Nadkarni – Captain

The following players are in reserve: Japen Patel, Naseer Jamali, Akeem Dodson and Timothy Saurajbali [sic].

Mr. Mark Johnson has been selected as coach, Mr. Asif Mujtaba as assistant coach, Mr. Naser Javed Charlie as Bowling Coach, Mr. Robin Singh as technical advisor, Mr. Akhtar Syed as physical therapist and Mr. Shoaib Ahmed as Manager.

I would like to thank Mr. Selwyn Caesar, Chief of Selection Committee and all selectors for doing a wonderful job in selecting the squad; it’s an excellent blend of experience, leadership, talent and youth, said Ahmed Jeddy, Chairman, USACA Cricket Committee.

USACA Cricket Committee