USA Cricketer : USA Cricket Association

USACA's control over USA cricket erodes further

openingbat — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:27:00 GMT

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By Venu Palaparthi

All talk and no action

After winning a controversy marred election that saw the present leadership emerge with the support a majority of only fifteen leagues that were allowed to vote, USACA has not exactly been sweeping U.S. cricket popularity polls.

'USACA’s goal is to expand dramatically the audience for cricket in the United States and to make cricket attractive to players and spectators from all parts of American society,' USACA said in its press release the day after the election.

USACA subsequently published its 100-day plan and hinted at efforts to reach out to the leagues via virtual townhall meetings. The plan also noted that its Compliance Management Committee would 'reach out and help all leagues comply' within 60 to 120 days.

Following that, in his first letter to USA cricketers upon being named to the post, USACA's Interim CEO, Nabeel Ahmed, said, "One of my major responsibilities as the CEO is to unify various factions in different regions of the country."

Over 120 days have passed since the publication of the 100-day plan. In true USACA style, it's bridge-building has been all talk and no action. And USACA's trust deficit remains.

USACA's 3-D formula - Deny, Decline, Disengage

With the necessary evil of elections out of the way, USACA appears to have gone back to its "3-D" formula of deny, decline and disengage. National tournaments have not been held in over a year and the USACA website has gone cold.

ICC, the game's international governing body, continues to behave as if all is well at USACA. Ironically, in his report on governance, Lord Woolf wrote that the ICC "has a heavy responsibility to adopt the highest standards."

Also, three leagues that were prevented from voting in the election but whose leaders have had long-standing ties with the present leadership have decided to let bygones be bygones and have rejoined the bandwagon.

Before you start to imagine a glow of congeniality surrounding USACA, it's worth pointing out that four fully compliant leagues have become ambivalent towards USACA. In fact, three of these leagues - Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board, North West Cricket League and Minnesota Cricket Association - have formally expressed support for the American Cricket Federation (ACF), the new organization that has set for itself the lofty goal of "upholding and promoting cricket’s values of transparency, inclusiveness and fairness."

A country divided

By this website's estimates, fewer than 345 clubs or teams are now part of the extended USACA family. The Lone Star State, Texas, has become a USACA bastion - all three Texas leagues remain affiliated with USACA and two of the directors on the national board are from Texas. Florida comes a close second with USACA enjoying the support of leagues that represent 82% of Florida's clubs or teams.

Picture above: In large swathes of the country, USACA has little or no support. Place a cursor on the map to find out estimated % of hard-ball teams or clubs that are affiliated with USACA. [Source: DreamCricket.com]

Outside of Florida and Texas there is hardly any state where USACA can claim authority over cricket. In four of the eight regions - North East, South West, North West, and Central East - USACA does not enjoy the support of at least three leagues needed to constitute a valid region. Similarly, USACA's influence is vastly diminished in Atlantic Region and in New York Regions.

For a majority of USA's leagues and clubs that play hard-ball cricket, USACA has remained as mysterious as Bigfoot - evidence is hard to come by of the organization's existence. By DreamCricket.com's estimate, over 705 hard-ball cricket clubs or teams in the U.S. operate outside of the USACA framework.

By all accounts, ACF is gathering momentum. Just last week, the ACF announced that it had received a formal expression of support from a 12th hard-ball cricket league. According to DreamCricket.com's calculations, the 12 leagues that have expressed support to ACF represent 385 clubs or teams. ACF appears to be gaining strength in New York, New Jersey, New England, Southern California, North West and the midwest.

The unaffiliated

By DreamCricket.com's estimates there are 321 clubs or teams that are not affiliated to either USACA or ACF. These are teams or clubs that have neither paid USACA dues nor have expressed support to ACF. Of these, 209 teams or clubs belong to ten leagues that were part of USACA until their recent disqualification.

A majority of these former USACA leagues have no interest in rejoining USACA. Four of these leagues have informally expressed openness to joining ACF but are awaiting approval of their member clubs to formally express support to ACF.

The remaining 112 clubs have never been integrated with the cricketing fabric - these include clubs and leagues that are thriving in places like Omaha (NE), Pittsburgh (PA), Iowa and Hawaii.

Meanwhile, the ACF is working hard to create an organization that is more representative and inclusive than USACA. ACF's steering committee has held weekly conference calls and the various sub-committees have held meetings of their own. ACF's most recent press release noted that its Constitution Committee had completed a draft of the Constitution of the organization, and that ACF was proceeding with incorporation in Maryland.

ACF is also set to present its first national tournament over the Columbus Day weekend in Los Angeles. The inaugural T20 tournament, hosted by SCCA, will see the participation of a majority of the leagues that have expressed solidarity with ACF.

So there you have it. Some 303 years after USA's first recorded cricket match at the James River plantation, and 47 years after the formation of the national board, this is a country where the national governing body is not recognized in 34 states and does not represent well over 66% of the nation's existing cricketers.

USA Cricket: A fool's paradise

openingbat — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 03:28:00 GMT

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By Venu Palaparthi

In 2010, The Pearls Cup T20 series between New Zealand vs Sri Lanka in Florida was derided as a “flop show” and the pitch received a C-grade by many observers. At DreamCricket.com, we were not so cynical.

We drank the Kool-Aid.

DreamCricket.com's reporting in 2010 described "Destination USA" as a new product that needed a lot of shaping and evolving. “Where many previous cricket boards, individual entrepreneurs and business conglomerates have had little success, the current bunch of people behind The Pearls Cup have been able to give that product an initial shape and feel,” DreamCricket.com reporter Gokul Chakravarthy wrote.

In product-speak, it was a proof of concept.

When Andy Bull wrote in The Spin that the “average American sports fan has no need for, or interest in, cricket, whether it is Twenty20 or Test," we countered that “one series cannot convert Americans into screaming cricket fans!”

Following the latest set of T20 matches between West Indies and New Zealand in Florida, the detractors are once again bashing USACA and CHA. Tom Melville, the highly regarded cricket historian, wrote in a column last week: “Show me the Americans!” He argued that the strategy - “If we just keep staging these matches sooner or later the Americans will come around to the game” - just isn’t working.

USACA would like for us to see the Lauderhill matches through the same self-congratulatory prism that they are viewing it through. Gladstone Dainty, USACA President and CHA Chairman, said: "As we continue to have more international matches and look to start a T20 league in the USA next year, we anticipate seeing more involvement from Americans in the sport."

ICC too appears to have arrived at a similar conclusion. “[By] successfully staging these fixtures in Florida, the WICB and NZC as Full Members of the ICC have made a key contribution to the ongoing process of building domestic awareness in our Great Sport," Tim Anderson, ICC's Global Development Manager said.

To be fair, USACA, ICC, WICB, NZC and CHA deserve praise for a well organized tournament in Florida. The turnstiles were busy, the pitch behaved better and the West Indies posse were sufficiently entertained by Chris Gayle and his mates. But it would be tenuous to draw any conclusions about an increased interest and "more involvement from Americans" in the near-term. It will take more than neutral venue cricket to achieve that.

Following the Pearls Cup in 2010, we were led to believe that the two development prongs - "Project 2015" and "American Cricket" - would also become a reality, and that those initiatives would successfully propagate cricket across USA. We drank the Kool-Aid in 2010. We are not so gullible now.

One long slumber-fest.

On the sidelines of The Pearls Cup in 2010, Michael Gale, now the First VP of USACA but then just a spectator, told DreamCricket.com: “US cricket has finally woken from a slumber, stretched its limbs and joined the real world of international cricket. There are individuals and entrepreneurs in the US that will start to wake up and start investing. We should see events like this as the norm going forward and not exception. I hope we can all support in a positive way to our [collective] future.”

If Michael Gale didn't find himself on USACA's board now, he would probably agree that last two years have just been another long slumber-fest for USACA.

Yes, the cricketing fabric has expanded – cricket's foot soldiers have worked hard at promoting cricket in schools, universities and cities across USA - one new ground, one new coaching clinic, one new tournament, one new umpiring seminar, one new school, one free cricket kit, one summer camp at a time.

Very little of that credit belongs to USACA.

Other than the two Destination USA events, occasional hope-inducing announcements about CHA, and one or two one-off initiatives which have received praise, I cannot think of a single long-term initiative that can be attributed to USACA. The organization has generally bumbled forth, while also contriving to be inaccessible and incommunicative.

If USACA woke up intermittently, it was not to help the volunteers but to throw obstacles at them - evidence is abundant, just look at the news from last year e.g. the national T20.

On the governance front, things were even worse, with USACA waking up way past the rooster's call on the basic requirement of an election. The regional and national elections, were not only delayed, they were marred by controversy on an unprecedented scale. Leagues and entire regions were thrown in limbo, appeals were dismissed by a farcical committee, formal complaints by the so-called non-compliant leagues remain unheard. Not surprisingly, USACA’s national league membership map is thought to have more holes than Swiss cheese.

Déjà vu all over again.

USACA's single-minded focus from former CEO Don Lockerbie's time to the present has been to advance the commercial deal with CHA. The prevailing wisdom was that the resulting financial well-being and grants to leagues would bring about greater alignment and harmony.

Promises were made in town hall meetings of funds that were to be distributed in 2012 - but those funds have generally remained a mirage, and will likely remain so for leagues that are out of favor (or 'non-compliant' if you prefer). Recently, a ‘league administration grant’ was bestowed on just a handful of 'compliant' leagues.

Naturally, for the cricket community across USA, it is a case of deja vu all over again. A new interim CEO just announced plans to "present to the board a clear road-map for the development of cricket at all levels with short-term and long-term goals." USACA's website advertises an imaginary "U-15 national tournament" starting tomorrow (July 13) at a location to be determined (screenshot at right). Elsewhere, the national youth chairman, Michael Gale, has written to the league presidents asking for their 'personal engagement' for the development of youth cricket.

The country should own cricket.

The intelligent and erudite Kumar Sangakkara said it best following the series in Florida in 2010: "The final vindication of cricket in any country is that the country owns it. They feel that they are an intrinsic part of it. They have that pride in and that feeling of 'this is my team these [are] my players who are walking out playing for us.' So, it’s very important [to have] an awareness program that spreads the word of cricket right throughout the US. Those are the things that really matter at the end."

A lot needs to be done for USACA to successfully create such an awareness across USA.

First, it must communicate better. It must stop playing favorites at the regional and national level. It must introduce processes that are sustainable. It must recognize and support grassroots efforts. It must channel the entire system to assist in the execution of a long-term vision. Above all, USACA must truly and sincerely strive for inclusion and must acknowledge and undo the wrongs that were committed.

Otherwise, we will continue to live in a fool's paradise.

[Opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of DreamCricket.com]

Candidates announced for USACA elections

openingbat — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 03:27:00 GMT

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USACA announced the 'executive board nominees' for the election to be held on April 14, 2012. This latest announcement follows two recent developments that are expected to play a major role in this election.

Following a board meeting on February 26, 2012, thirty three leagues were deemed ineligible to vote in this election as a result of a ‘compliance review.’

The second development is the audacious immediate offer of $2000 'administrative grant' to each of the fifteen leagues recently certified by USACA as vote-eligible. This grant was announced just days before the list of nominees was made public.

Thanks to these recent developments, it is now widely believed that Gladstone Dainty (picture at right) is a shoo-in for another three-year term as President.

If Dainty wins, he will be in the driver’s seat for two organizations that will shape the destiny of USA cricket. DreamCricket.com just received a document this week in which Gladstone Dainty is listed as the Chairman of Cricket Holdings America LLC.

Ram Varadarajan, Kenwyn Williams and Mahammad Qureshi are all in the presidential race as expected. All had announced their candidacy some months ago. A notable surprise is that the name of Nabeel Ahmed is missing from the list of nominees. Ahmed’s campaign issued a press release as recently as March 6 in which he called himself ‘a concerned cricket fan and presidential candidate.’

Five candidates are in the fray for First Vice President including three members of the outgoing board - Ahmed Jeddy, Krish Prasad and Michael Gale. Mahammad Qureshi and Shahid Ahmed are the remaining two candidates. It is interesting to note that both Ahmed Jeddy and Michael Gale are from the Central West region.

For the Second Vice President too, there are five candidates. Ahmed Jeddy is in the reckoning for this post along with the incumbent - Rafey Syed. The remaining three candidates are North West’s Hemant Buch, Mahammad “MAQ” Qureshi and Charles Peterson.

For secretary, the candidates are John Aaron and Kenwyn Williams. John Aaron served as Secretary until he was suspended after criticising Dainty in an article that appeared on several websites. He subsequently resigned from his post. His opponent Mr. Williams recently sent out an email offering a free iPad3 to first ‘10 of the 15 league presidents that can vote.’

In September 2011, John Thickett told ESPN CricInfo: "The organization is going very much from a mom and pop to much more of a real organization. The national organization has to become more efficient and get better administrators involved in different activities and roles.” Thickett’s wish may have been granted for his own spot. Running against him is Professor Gangaram Singh, who is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at San Diego State University.

Here is the list of nominees announced by USACA:

President: Gladstone Dainty, Kenwyn Williams, Mahammad Qureshi, Rammohan Varadarajan
1st Vice President: Ahmed Jeddy, Krish Prasad, Mahammad Qureshi, Michael Gale, Shahid Ahmed
2nd Vice President: Ahmed Jeddy, Charles Peterson, Hemant Buch, Mahammad Qureshi, Rafey Syed
Executive Secretary: John Aaron, Kenwyn Williams
Treasurer: Gangaram Singh, John Thickett

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Michael Gale and Ahmed Jeddy are both from the Central West Region and not the South West Region.

We made a lot of strides - USA Cricket's President Gladstone Dainty

openingbat — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 23:25:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna

After a banquet held by USACA at the 2010 Senior Nationals in Lauderhill, Fla., Gladstone Dainty sat down with Peter Della Penna for 30 minutes to discuss some of the current topics and issues relating to USA Cricket.

Here is Part 1 of the transcript of that interview from November 20. The final part will appear on Monday.

PDP: What can you tell us about what’s happened in the board meeting so far today?

GD: I would say that it was a very productive meeting. We had some issues like the commercial opportunities. We made a lot of strides on a lot of issues.

PDP: What other issues would you say you made strides on?

GD: Well, the commercial opportunity for one. We made a lot of strides on that. The board approved or ratified the actions of the commercial committee. I would say that was the key thing because it’s been occupying many of us for a while now. We see it has something that is key to the survival of United States cricket at that level, the high that we’re trying to take it to.

PDP: I know all the people here would have noticed that Don Lockerbie’s not here. Why is he not here? He wasn’t at the stadium yesterday and he’s not here today obviously.

GD: Well I’m sure you got a press release from the secretary that Don and us have parted ways and we wish him well.

PDP: Why? Was this a mutual thing or why is he no longer part of the organization?

GD: Well you know getting into details about personal issues, that’s not my style and I don’t think that should be discussed of anybody that’s professional. That was a personal issue and there’s a confidential aspect of that that I won’t get into that. But we’re not together anymore. He’s not together with USACA.

PDP: But what I’m asking is was that a USACA decision or was it that he left on his own. Was he fired, was he dismissed or was this mutual?

GD: We’re just not together anymore.

PDP: When did this take effect? When was this decision made?

GD: Well that, we parted ways on November 19, yesterday.

PDP: Friday?

GD: Friday.

PDP: What does that mean then in terms of the CEO position? Is there now going to be a search to replace him with a new CEO?

GD: Absolutely.

Pic: A search will commence to replace Don Lockerbie (Right).

PDP: And what will you be expecting from the new CEO?

GD: Well, we are expecting to have somebody who would lead the organization. We’ve got a lot of developmental issues to address. We have a lot of financial issues to address, creating a good revenue stream, and to… those are the key because we are trying to get that conveyor belt type of operation going where things are going so development is very key. It costs a lot of money and administratively with Don being there we realized that having a full-time person is very important so we’re trying to get not only a CEO but hopefully we can get resources to increase our professional staff.

PDP: And by how much would you be looking to increase your professional staff by?

GD: Well it depends on the type of funding we are able to put together and the convincing we are able to do to our stakeholders. The regions, etc., are important in this that this should be a full-time job or a part-time job for people rather than a volunteer some time situation.

PDP: The situation regarding the Western Region position. I know I’ve seen emails that have been passed along and there have been reports put out online in terms of who is the representative. We saw here tonight when Manaf [Mohamed] got up and asked the board members to recognize themselves, Raj [Padhi] got up and recognized himself as the board member from the Western Region. Has that issue been resolved? Is he official the board member from the Western Region? What is Gangaram Singh’s status?

GD: Well Raj Padhi is the board member for the Western Region. That is what was decided by the board. What has also happened is that at this meeting we had planned to split that region anyway. So effective tomorrow night, we will put into place a mechanism to have the North West Region and the South West Region.

PDP: That’s official? There will be two?

GD: There will be two regions, but in terms of the issue with Gangaram and Raj, Raj Padhi is the director of the Western Region and he sat in the meeting and represented the Western Region.

PDP: Did Gangaram Singh sit in the meeting?

GD: No.

PDP: He did not, at any point in time?

GD: No.

PDP: With the two new regions being created, when will there be… what is the process that’s going to take place?

GD: There’s going to be within 60 days, USACA is going to have, these two seats will be… we have a process with elections. It’s going to be 60 days before because we don’t want this to be a closed situation. It’s going to be just what’s advertised. Everybody’ll know that there’s two vacant seats that they have the opportunity.

PDP: Two vacant board seats?

GD: Yes.

PDP: And then the positions regional secretary, regional chairman, all those positions.

GD: Yeah, all of those are gonna be.

PDP: So does that mean then the positions in the current Western Region, all of those people will have to run in the next election within those regions. So there’s people currently in the Western Region from the South West territory and there’s people on the Western Region board currently from the North West section of the territory, those people will all still have to run again within their own region territories?

GD: Yes.

PDP: And Raj will have to run again if he wants to get the North West position?

GD: Yes.

PDP: What is being done in terms of the Under-19 tournament? What is the status of that? Has that been discussed at all at the board meeting?

GD: We’ll discuss that tomorrow but what is in place, we’re keeping that date. You know Christmas… It’s in December, I think the 18th or the 11th, something like that, we’re having that tournament in December.

PDP: In terms of camps for the men’s team before Hong Kong, how…

GD: We’re gonna have a camp. I don’t know the date, we haven’t set a date yet. We’re gonna have a camp. We’re having some issues with cash. We plan to solve that problem within the next day or two but it’s part of it, we’re going to have a camp.

Pic (Right): File photo of Steve Massiah holding the Division IV trophy

PDP: When, you mentioned within the next 60 days the Western Region will have a set of elections for the two new regions that are going to be created, what about the broad USACA elections. Do you know when that will be, the next set of elections?

GD: Quite possibly we’ll discuss that tomorrow. Our governance issues are going to be discussed tomorrow. Quite possibly we’ll discuss it.

PDP: Is there anything else you didn’t get to today that is of major relevance that is going to be brought up and discussed tomorrow.

GD: Governance encompasses a lot of things. The board members might have stuff. I try not to be judge or whatever, I chair the meeting and that’s what I do. Everything we discuss is important and they might have things but we have governance. We need to talk about the constitution, the way it’s structured, etc. That’s the important, that’s what it is.

PDP: Was anything resolved in terms of deciding if Nabeel [Ahmed]’s 1st Vice President’s position will be left vacant?

GD: We’ll deal with that tomorrow. We did read his letter of resignation. There was no objection to his resignation.

PDP: Are you concerned that because of Nabeel’s resignation and Don Lockerbie no longer being a part of the organization, are you concerned that that might present an image to the ICC and to other countries and to other people involved in potential commercial opportunities and future commercial opportunities, that that might present an image of instability?

GD: Well, you’re always concerned about your image, especially when people leave. But in any organization, you have change and I mean to say that change for better or for worse sometimes people are uncomfortable with it. But once you know the facts surrounding these departures, then… you know it’s not as… the organization will continue. We’re moving… a lot of decisions we had today were unanimous decisions. The board is moving forward and the departure of those two gentlemen certainly doesn’t put us in a position of crisis. We wish both of them well and we will continue to function and make great strides. We made great strides. We’ve made great strides over the last few years and especially this year so we’ll continue to make great strides.

PDP: How would you consider, how would you evaluate the whole current status and the whole current state of affairs within USACA both on and off the field? I know you mentioned talking in your speech to everyone who was gathered here tonight that progress on the field has been better than the progress off the field. How would you assess the whole state of affairs within US cricket?

GD: I would say that we are a maturing organization. We are not quite matured. I feel confident that maturity will come sooner rather than later. I feel that for many of us this whole cricket thing and the way we are doing it is that we are addicted. It’s certainly not about the money, it’s not about the glory, it’s not about the power. Sometimes when you have addiction, it’s like it makes you a little irrational. Sometimes we can be very irrational. But with all of this, we’ve been improving on the field in terms of our on field capability and with additional administrative capability and financial capability, it will provide the remedy for some of the immaturity.

PDP: When you said what you said earlier about on the field has been ahead of off the field, what needs to happen for the off the field administrative things and performance to catch up to the performance of the team on the field.

GD: Well what needs to happen off the field, we need to have more cricket. We need to improve our facilities and certainly we need to create an organization that’s kinder and gentler to the volunteers who are trying to do a job. I mean to say we should strive for perfection but we know how difficult that is and especially with the sacrifice people are making, we should be more appreciative of that rather than trying to create an atmosphere or have a development mentality where it’s the last man or the last woman standing rather than a lot of people standing and holding hands and laying a foundation for things to come.

I would say last but not least, this is a United States of America organization and you look around, we have a lot of United States citizens but our foundation is still immigrants in developing immigrant cricket. We’ve got to be more aggressive in terms of getting Americans to participate and to share the joys of this great game.

PDP: For the youth level, you mentioned about trying to get more Americans involved. We saw a lot more American-born talent for the 2010 U-19 World Cup. For the USA as part of that team, half that squad was born in the US and the other half of the squad mostly was raised in the US. Some of those players, even though they weren’t born here they are citizens now.

With the U-19 Americas Tournament coming up that’s supposed to be in February, a lot of people feel that, fans and players and some administrators, that there has not been a lot of attention paid to help the Under-19 players and help people at that level out and help that team out in order to improve on the performance from the 2010 World Cup team to improve for the 2012 cycle. Do you feel that enough attention has been paid to the Under-19 squad especially considering that this tournament has been postponed?

GD: We’re paying attention, but we do not have the resources to give full attention. A lot of attention, but we do not have the resources to develop the talent and to do all of the things which are necessary. We’re certainly very short in that because we don’t have the resources, but we’re paying attention. I mean to say the tournaments, we’re still having national tournaments. We’re still trying to encourage regions to play the Under-19 talent and groom the young kids because it ties with the regional tournaments. So hey, we’re paying a lot of attention so I don’t know how people can say we’re not paying attention.

PDP: But are you concerned that because these resources that you say have been holding the team and the development of the team back, are you concerned that that might affect the performance of the team should they qualify for 2012 or do you think that it would cause them to not qualify for the 2012 Under-19 World Cup so that instead of building on the progress of the team making it in 2010, do you think they would be taking a step back?

GD: Well a couple of things, let’s get a couple of things straight here. Now we’re not satisfied with the amount of resources we happen to be giving to the team. But this year we have dedicated or we have spent more, we have provided more resources than we’ve ever provided for youth cricket, okay. So it’s all relative. Are we providing as much resources as India and Australia and the West Indies? No. But we’ve provided more than we’ve ever provided but still we need to provide more.

Pic (Right): Ryan Corns (pictured right) awaits his turn to play for USA. President Dainty said that USA had made 'significant progress in terms of having young people play with the seniors'. [Courtesy ICC]

PDP: What have you? What has been provided this year then compared to the past?

GD: Well first of all we had the Under-19 team go to New Zealand. We’ve been very… we had our Under-19 tournament you understand. We’ve fought and made significant progress in terms of having young people play with the seniors, okay, so that in itself… And over the past year we also had the qualification. The tournament is not like before when you win and you automatically go. Remember we had the 10-nation qualification and then we had to go to the World Cup. So we have been providing that.

PDP: But those are ICC events, the Americas and then the World Qualifier that was also in Canada.

GD: No, but although they are ICC events, they cost us money. With the camps, you understand what I’m saying. The cost for camps, the ICC when they provide resources they provide for instance they would say, ‘Hey, you get a ticket out of New York. You pick one place,’ and with a country like a United States of America, we gotta get hotel rooms and fly players to that. So although the ICC would say that they pick up all the costs, it can still cost us $10,000-12,000 or more just for that additional thing. So just like I said tonight, we’re not complaining. The more you win, the more you have to put up, but then it lifts the profile and we’ve got to take advantage of that and get more resources. So we’ve been winning. Now the idea whether the team will outperform or we build up on that, to me it’s like college sports. Something like Under-19 because of the restrictive nature, it’s not like you’re having the same players.

You have a period where you recruit and not recruit. Now as you would notice, we only maybe have about four kids, four or five kids from that team who are eligible for this year. So we’ll be bringing new kids. Their level of performance or whatever, we don’t know. But it will be certainly a very young team in terms of experience we’ll be sending there. We will prepare them to the best of our ability, or even beyond our ability, but to say that… this is not like the Dallas Cowboys or the Redskins where you can use the same people. We are restricted by who we play so it’s not the same guys going back there to play.

PDP: In saying you’ve spent a lot more on resources for last year’s team and the money that’s been spent you’ve raised the bar, do you feel that because the bar has now been raised, it’s difficult to get back up to that level again?

GD: Oh no. The bar has been raised. I’m not trying to put unnecessary pressure on these kids because at that age, we would like to win and win everything. But we are also very committed to is producing well balanced young people. We’re not going to play a kid only to win, you understand. Part of it is a teaching process. So the expectation, we’re going there to qualify for the World Cup. So is Canada, so is Bermuda, so is Cayman or whoever else and I feel sure that we will qualify but hey we’re not putting pressure and say we’ll this is the only thing. That’s win at all costs. We’re committed to winning and that’s it but we don’t expect not to be among the top two. The last two Under-19 World Cup elimination tournaments we participated in, we actually went to the World Cup, the last two. We missed one of them because of the issue there with the ICC, but we’ve done well. The last time was not the first time we went to the World Cup. We went to the World Cup before.

PDP: Last time I talked to you, you mentioned the women’s team too. You’re trying to prepare them by potentially getting Pakistan. How realistic is that?

GD: Well, Pakistan are now apparently not going to the West Indies until August or September so we’d have to do something before. We’re working on that. We’d certainly still like to get them, but we’re not going to have [the USA women’s team] waiting until August or September. We’re gonna have our tournament and we’re talking about having them have a tour. We want them to be active.

PDP: In terms of the partnership and having New Zealand come here in May and talking with John Thickett in the article that I had his quotes where he said there’s potentially this commercial partnership that will involve New Zealand, you just mentioned the West Indies. Canada got to participate in the West Indies domestic Twenty20 competition this past summer and not the US. What is being done, or is anything being done, to improve the relationship with West Indies which is the Test playing team within the Americas region? What is being done?

GD: We have a great relationship with the West Indies.

Pic (Right): Dainty said that his board would work more 'aggressively' with organizations such as USYCA which was approved as an affiliate member of USACA. In the picture, Dainty visits the Cardinal Gibbons cricket program [Picture Courtesy USYCA]

PDP: Why is Canada then getting opportunities and the USA not?

GD: I speak with the President of the West Indies board very frequently and the CEO of the West Indies board, a great man. That thing with Canada and the T20 or whatever, once again we were preparing to go to Italy at the same time so it made the West Indies board easier, made the decision easier to invite Canada rather than the United States. At the time, we were contacted and we didn’t necessarily decline, but they knew that it would present a financial hardship because you gotta remember the players we have, they’ve got jobs.

PDP: Next year, they’re talking about inviting teams from England and also inviting Canada back again. Is USA potentially, has USA been approached to be included?

GD: Potentially they are discussing.

PDP: How realistic would that be?

GD: I don’t know. I know they’ve already announced those teams that are coming. That tournament is in January. You know what we’re doing in January so once again it’s going to be difficult.

PDP: I know [USA] had the matches against Jamaica in May. Are there any other things potentially in the future in terms of playing with West Indies domestic teams, Barbados, or Jamaica or Trinidad & Tobago?

GD: Well from time to time if only because of proximity, we can play any teams from the Caribbean. But do we have something definitely? Do we know who we are playing next year? No, but we definitely we’re playing somebody.

PDP: What about, one last thing, the teams within the Americas Region, I know I remember reading stuff in the last year or two about trying to build a better relationship in terms of playing more consistently against Canada or Bermuda in 50-over matches, scheduling 50-over matches and scheduling an annual series outside of the Americas competition. Is any progress being made with that or is that a possibility?

GD: Well, like I said, we’ve been playing a lot of cricket and playing a lot of cricket with guys who are not professional cricketers, a lot of these guys got jobs and you know that in this country it’s one or two weeks vacation. In one tournament they can use that up. Until we maybe have the resources where we put people there professionally and we know that they’re there and we can play every week or every day, but at this particular time we’ve got just like the full Test playing countries, their future tours tournament or whatever, they’re complaining about their schedule, etc. So I would say our first obligation is to meet the ICC mandated participation tournaments which also gives us the opportunity to raise our standing, and then of course we have to be very selective with what else we participate in if only because we don’t have the resources to make these guys professional.

Coincidentally, one of the major decisions we made today is that a couple of youth organizations, one of them in Atlanta led by Lada Bedi, also Jamie Harrison’s group, they made an application for affiliate membership. We approved it and we will be working very aggressively.

What we need to do if only because of the numbers they’re claiming, we will work aggressively with them to convert that into more active participation in mainstream US cricket.

USA Cricket 2010 Eastern & Western Conference - Top Performers and All-Tournament XI

openingbat — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:47:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna

The USACA 2010 Eastern and Western Conference Tournaments that took place in Los Angeles, Calif., and Atlanta, Ga., from September 17-19 gave an opportunity for many players around the country to present their case for inclusion in USA’s squad for ICC World Cricket League Division 3 in Hong Kong. The best performers are being recognized by this writer in an All-Tournament Team.

The All-Tournament Team is a combined list of players from the Eastern and Western Conference Tournaments. The list has been compiled based on three days of cricket witnessed by the author in Atlanta as well as information obtained from multiple sources about performances that took place in Los Angeles.

Pic (Right): South West were Western Conference champions by a mile. [Courtesy: Theo Mavro]

When compiling the list, several factors were taken into consideration. First and foremost are the statistical achievements of the players involved since they are the most tangible proof of a player’s contributions to their team. As such, there will be players left off the team who may be viewed as more talented than players who made the team, but just did not perform that well over the three days.

Second, when choices between players with similar stats became close, more weight was given to performances against better opponents. For example, a player who scored runs or took wickets in a match against New York or South West, who finished in first place in their respective conference, was deemed to have turned in a more impressive performance compared to runs or wickets against the last place team in their conference.

Third, these two factors are combined with what I saw with my own eyes and from information obtained from sources in matches where I was not present. This was not just the runs or wickets they took, but how they did it. It includes match situations and technique exhibited, as well as the talent they had surrounding them which could have affected how they performed.

Finally, I tried to select a balanced team. If the five highest wicket takers in the tournament turned out to be spinners, not all five would stand a chance of making the team as there needs to be pace bowlers to support them. Likewise, if the four highest scorers in the tournament were opening batsmen, only two of them can be slotted into a role on an All-Tournament Team as an opener.

1. Nauman Mustafa (wicketkeeper), North West – The classy right-hander, Nauman (pictured right) stood head and shoulders above a competitive field of wicketkeeper-batsmen by notching 102 against the defending Western Conference champion Central East team. He finished first among all wicketkeepers and was tied for fifth overall in runs for the weekend.

2. Glen Hall, New York – Hall was the MVP of the Eastern Conference for being the catalyst to New York’s success. New York won the toss and batted first in each game with Hall providing the platform to achieve victory on all three days. He finished as the top run scorer in Atlanta.

3. Ryan Corns, Central West – The 20-year-old brought up the highest score of the weekend in style, scoring 119 in only 77 balls against North West. The pressure was on to perform heading into the final day and Corns (pictured left) delivered in emphatic fashion. He also took 3 for 81 in 27.5 overs of left arm orthodox-spin.

4. James Crosthwaite, North West – No bowling attack was spared from the batting brilliance of Crosthwaite, who arrived in the USA this year from Australia and plays his club cricket for Microsoft CC in Seattle. Crosthwaite scored a half-century in each game and finished as the leading run scorer on the weekend with 247 runs. He won’t be eligible to play for America for another few years, but could be a prolific performer for USA if he sticks around long enough to qualify.

5. Aditya Thyagarajan, South West – The linchpin of any middle order he plays in, Thyagarajan scored 84 runs in two innings without being dismissed on his home turf in Los Angeles. True to form, he took his team out of trouble against Central West to seal a 4-wicket win. South West was 76 for 5 chasing 167, but Thyagarajan scored 62 not out at number five to take his team across the line.

6. Durale Forest, Atlantic – A solid all-rounder, Forest was Man of the Match in his team’s victory over South East with 46 not out and nearly took Atlantic to a win over New York with 62 when he was last man out in a 17-run loss. He also took two wickets bowling tidy fast-medium pace. He tied for fifth in runs on the weekend and could have scored many more were it not for his appalling level of fitness.

7. Neil McGarrell (vice-captain), Atlantic – The cagey left arm spinner (pictured at right) showed off his vast experience during the weekend with a very economical display, taking 7 wickets at under 10 runs per wicket with an economy under three runs per over to receive the Best Bowler award in Atlanta. He also contributed 49 runs in two innings down the order.

8. Mehul Dave (captain), South West – The Tournament MVP in Los Angeles (pictured left) put the clamps on the opposition in the middle overs with his medium pace and was a big reason why South West allowed the fewest runs in Los Angeles. North West’s 170, which included 73 from Crosthwaite, was the highest total scored against South West. Dave turned in figures of 5 for 51 in 22.2 overs during the weekend.

9. Adrian Gordon, New York – Gordon edges out North East’s Srinath Rajagopalan to take one of the fast bowling slots in the starting XI. Each player had an identical average and economy rate, but Gordon was able to bowl his team to victory with a golden five-wicket haul, taking four of the last five wickets to fall in a dramatic 17-run win over Atlantic. He finished with six wickets on the weekend for the Eastern Conference champions.

10. Abhemanyu Rajp, South West – The former 2006 U-19 World Cup vice-captain for USA (pictured right) turned in a record setting performance against Central East, taking 7 for 35 with his off-spinners. He finished with the most wickets on the weekend, claiming nine scalps for the Western Conference champions. Despite his talent, it’ll be difficult for him to break into the USA squad at the moment with a glut of off-spinners currently in the team.

11. Kevin Darlington, New York – The ever reliable Darlington looked nearly untouchable in the two games he played. He imposed himself on South East with 5 for 14, ending their chase before it had a chance to get started. His average of 5.83 runs per wicket is by far the best of any bowler in the top 10 for wicket takers on the weekend, as is his 2.33 economy rate. He is the total package for a limited overs pace bowler.

12^th Man: Srinath Rajagopalan, North East – One of the few bright spots on the only winless team at either tournament, Rajagopalan nearly took his team to victory with 4 for 21 against Atlantic. He finished with eight wickets on the weekend, the most for any pace bowler, but also gave up the most runs of anyone in the top 10 for wicket takers and was tied for the worst economy rate.

13^th Man: Asif Mehmood Khan, Central East – When batsmen from the other three teams in the Western Conference were surveyed for the most impressive and difficult bowler they faced, without hesitation the answer every time was Mehmood. In a 3-run win over Central West, he bowled 10 overs, including 4 maidens, on his way to taking 3 for 12 as Central West defended 172. In that game, he claimed the key wicket of Corns and then the high run scorer Rahul Kukreti to spark Central West’s collapse. In all, he took five wickets in three games at an economy of 2.90 runs per over.

14^th Man: Hussain Haidar, South East – This mystery spinner has a leg-spinner’s action but bowls off-spin. Batsmen have an extremely difficult time reading him and it results in plenty of wickets. He took seven in three games to tie for third on the weekend. However, his fitness needs to be addressed before he can seriously be considered for higher honors.

Eastern Conference U-19 Player for the Future: Zain Ali Syed, South East – The MVP of last month’s U-19 Eastern Conference Tournament in Connecticut, Syed only played one match in Atlanta, but made a huge impression by top scoring for his team with 34 runs against tournament champion New York. He showed no fear in the face of the best pace attack in the tournament and comfortably stroked the ball around the ground right from his first delivery. After the match, USA captain Steve Massiah spent several minutes talking to him to give him some more tips.

Western Conference U-19 Player for the Future: Abbas Jafri, Central West – Jafri turned in the highest score at the U-19 Western Conference in Los Angeles last month with 139 against South West. He had a shaky start in the senior tournament this past weekend with a duck against Central East, but against the tournament champion South West squad, he scored 40 and earned high praise from several members of the opposition.

Top 5 Players in Contention for Selection to USA Senior Team

1. Ryan Corns – The future is now. Corns didn’t bang down the selection door this weekend, he took a flamethrower to it when he torched North West’s bowling attack on Sunday.

2. Asif Mehmood Khan – For the second year in a row, he has had a very solid showing in the Western Conference and has emerged as a top candidate to fill a left arm spinner’s role that the team is desperately seeking.

3. Nauman Mustafa – USA could use an experienced keeper-batsman as insurance in case Carl Wright’s dip in form continues.

4. Neil McGarrell – The former Guyana captain with Test match experience playing for the West Indies has age counting against him, but could be considered as a left arm spinner if Mehmood is not up to scratch.

5. Glen Hall – He toured with USA in February, but only made it onto the field as a substitute fielder. However, his solid form could see him getting another opportunity.

Most Wickets

1. A. Rajp, South West, RA off-spin – 9 for 96 in 27 overs with 4 maidens

2. S. Rajagopalan, North East, RA medium – 8 for 131 in 26.2 overs with 1 maiden

T3. N. McGarrell, Atlantic, LA orthodox-spin – 7 for 60 in 22.5 overs with 2 maidens

T3. H. Haidar, South East, RA off-spin – 7 for 90 in 28 overs with 3 maidens

T3. T. Patel, South West, RA leg-spin – 7 for 119 in 29 overs with 2 maidens

T6. K. Darlington, New York, RA fast-medium – 6 for 35 in 15 overs with 3 maidens

T6. D. Thomas, New York, RA fast-medium – 6 for 76 in 24 overs with 5 maidens

T6. N. Javed, South East, RA leg-spin – 6 for 94 in 28 overs with 1 maiden

T6. A. Gordon, New York, RA fast – 6 for 107 in 21.3 overs with no maidens

T6. S. Verma, North West, RA leg-spin – 6 for 122 in 30 overs with 3 maidens

Five-Wicket Hauls

A. Rajp, South West – 7 for 35 vs. Central East

K. Darlington, New York – 5 for 14 vs. South East

A. Gordon, New York – 5 for 43 vs. Atlantic

Most Runs

1. J. Crosthwaite, North West – 247 runs in three innings, 82.33 AVG, three 50s

2. G. Hall, New York – 171 runs in three innings, 57.00 AVG, two 50s

3. R. Corns, Central West – 152 runs in three innings, 50.67 AVG, one 100

4. F. Ullah, South East – 127 runs in three innings, 42.33 AVG, one 50

T5. N. Mustafa, North West – 126 runs in three innings, 42.00 AVG, one 100

T5. D. Forest, Atlantic – 126 runs in three innings, 63.00 AVG, one 50

7. J. Desai, Central West – 104 in three innings, 52.00 AVG, one 50

8. R. Singh, South West – 92 runs in two innings, 92.00 AVG, one 50

T9. A. Mehdi, Central East – 89 runs in three innings, 29.67 AVG, zero 50s

T9. A. Mishra, Atlantic – 89 runs in three innings, 29.67 AVG, zero 50s

Centuries

R. Corns, Central West – 119 vs. North West

N. Mustafa, North West – 102 vs. Central East

Half-centuries

J. Crosthwaite, North West – 87 vs. Central East; 87 vs. Central West; 73 vs. South West

F. Ullah, South East – 80 vs. North East

R. Singh, South West – 79 not out vs. Central East

S. Malik, Central East – 71 not out vs. Central West

G. Hall, New York – 68 vs. Atlantic; 54 vs. South East

R. Bhardwaj, North West – 66 vs. Central West

J. Patel, South East – 64 vs. Atlantic

Aditya Thyagarajan, South West – 62 not out vs. Central West

D. Forest, Atlantic – 62 vs. New York

J. Desai, Central West – 60 vs. South West

Arjun Thyagarajan, North West – 58 not out vs. Central East

R. Kukreti, Central West – 54 vs. Central East

J. Singh, North East – 54 vs. Atlantic

S. Rajagopalan, North East – 52 not out vs. South East

[Views expressed in the article are those of the author. These are not the official views of views of USACA or its selectors. If you have differing views or your own Tournament XI, you can comment here or send us your comments via email to content@dreamcricket.com]

USA Cricket 2010 National Tournament Day 3: NY & South West go undefeated to win titles; Atlantic & North West also advance

openingbat — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:26:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna in Atlanta (with additional reporting by Sandra Ibarra in Los Angeles); File photos courtesy ICC

Glen Hall set a solid platform for the third day in a row before Kevin Darlington (Picture at right) decimated South East’s lineup to give New York a 69-run win on Sunday at McNair Middle School at the USACA Eastern Conference Tournament in College Park, Ga. Darlington was named Man of the Match after taking 5 for 14 on the way to an undefeated performance for New York, who won the tournament title for the second consecutive year.

“I thought it was a very fulfilling victory,” said New York captain Steve Massiah. “We played some very positive cricket in both departments, in the batting and bowling, and overall I thought the success of the youngsters was good to see.”

New York won the toss for the third day in a row and elected to bat first in a match that was reduced to 40 overs due to flight arrangements for the teams. Akeem Dodson fell softly for 3 to make it 14 for 1 when he guided a short and wide ball from medium pacer Ken Singh straight to Anand Tummala at gully. Massiah then joined Hall and the two put on a very solid 54-run stand for the second wicket. Massiah in particular looked set for a century until he threw his wicket away for 36, lofting a full delivery from Tummala to Zain Ali Syed at mid off.

Andy Mohammed came in and quickly moved along to 17, but spin bowler Hussain Haidar entered the attack and caused problems straight away. Mohammed never seemed able to pick him and before long he gave Haidar the charge in desperation but was beaten badly in flight to be out stumped, making the score 109 for 3 in the 20^th. Haider struck again when he fooled Barrington Bartley, who played all around a full ball to be bowled for 4 and the score became 123 for 4.

NY vs. South East Post Match Interview with Steve Massiah from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

Nasir “Charlie” Javed struck three times to put New York in a big hole at 143 for 7 after 31. His first victim was Hall, who top edged an attempted sweep that came down into the hands of Singh at slip for 54. Cameron Mirza then tamely chipped a return catch to go for 8 before Nicholas Standford was out LBW for a second-ball duck.

Andre Kirton was very unlucky to be runout without facing a ball to reduce New York to 146 for 8. Denison Thomas stroked a delivery from Timothy Surujbally down the ground for what should have been two runs. As Kirton returned to the non-striker’s end for the second, the throw came in from Moazzam Imtiaz and Surujbally clearly knocked off the bails before he had received the ball. Despite protests from both batsmen, Kirton was given out. To make the scene even more bizarre, New York was then assessed five penalty runs for cursing at the umpires, but that ruling was overturned during the innings break after it was determined that the umpires did not follow protocol by giving New York an official warning before awarding penalty runs to South East.

Adrian Gordon was bowled for 12 on the second ball of the 39^th over by Imtiaz. Three balls later, Thomas was runout for 31 going for a quick single and New York was all out for 185 in 38.5 overs.

Even though the target was not the biggest of the weekend, New York’s experienced bowling attack made them heavy favorites to defend it and they followed through in a big way. From ball one, Darlington bowled like a man possessed and in his second over he had Surujbally out for 3, beaten for pace going for a hook, sending a top edge to square leg where Mirza took the catch to make it 7 for 1.

Thomas took the second wicket, outsmarting Farhat Ullah with a slower ball that Ullah fell over trying to sweep and was bowled for 13 to make it 17 for 2. Darlington then removed Tummala without scoring, as a flat footed swish was edged to Dodson behind the stumps. Anthony Sahadeo didn’t fare a whole lot better, producing a similar shot to give Thomas a catch at second slip to be out for 1 and South East was trembling at 19 for 4.

Thomas struck again as he took his second with another slower ball. Ricky Nayar was out for 7 after he hit a full toss straight to Standford at mid on to make it 27 for 5. One run later, Darlington accounted for Japen Patel as the batsmen slapped a short and wide ball to Kirton at point, who dove forward to take a superb catch and Patel walked off for 2.

Syed and Imtiaz brought some respectability to the scorecard for South East by putting on 43 runs for the seventh wicket. The 19-year-old Syed looked very impressive stroking the ball around the ground, playing the pace bowlers in particular with tremendous confidence. His performance made the decision to leave him out of the lineup for South East’s previous two games look terribly mystifying, especially since he was the MVP of the U-19 Eastern Conference Tournament in Connecticut last month.

Just when both men started to give hope to South East, Imtiaz grew impatient and in an attempt to up the run rate against the left arm spin of Kirton, he tried to sweep a full ball and missed to be struck in front and was given out LBW for 15. Syed finally departed for a top score of 34 when he launched Kirton straight to substitute fielder Stuart Mills coming in from long off to make it 93 for 8.

Adrian Gordon bowled Singh for 22 before Darlington returned late for a second spell and on the last ball of the 33^rd over, he got Haidar to edge a delivery to Bartley in the slips for 5 to end the match as South East was bowled out for 116.

In the game between Atlantic and North East at Creel Park, Atlantic hung on to win by 4 runs. With the win, Atlantic finished in second place at 2-1 to qualify for the national championship due to be held in November. Jay Singh scored a half-century in defeat for North East, who finished the tournament winless.

At the post-tournament awards ceremony, Hall was named the Best Batsmen of the Tournament for leading the run tally with 171 runs in three innings with two 50s during the weekend. Neil McGarrell of Atlantic was named the Best Bowler after tying for the tournament lead with seven wickets, including a best performance of 4 for 18 in 7.5 overs against South East. Hall was also named Tournament MVP.

In Los Angeles, several outstanding individual milestones were reached in the final two matches of the USACA Western Conference Tournament. South West finished the tournament undefeated after a 7-wicket win over Central East.

The bowling star of the day was Abhemanyu Rajp, who took 7 for 35 to lead the way in bowling out Central East for 150 in 40 overs before South West chased down the target with more than 20 overs to spare. Rajp’s figures are believed to be a USACA National Tournament record.

“I bowled and bowled and bowled,” said Rajp. “I gave two runs, three runs average every game. I was causing trouble, but I wasn’t getting any wickets and finally all the wickets came through.”

In the other game at Woodley, Central West defeated North West by 3 wickets to get their first win of the tournament, but it was North West who finished in second place and qualified for the national championship with a superior net run rate. North West posted 266 for 5 in 50 overs as James Crosthwaite contributed his third half-century in as many games, scoring 87 to lead North West.

In reply, Central West put in a valiant effort to surpass North West on net run rate, but the task was out of reach in the end. Central West needed to pass the target inside of 33 overs to succeed in overtaking North West and Ryan Corns (Picture at right) led the charge by turning in the highest score of the weekend, smoking 119 in 77 balls coming in at number three.

“I was just seeing the ball really good and coming out the middle of the bat,” said Corns. “The runs just kept flowing and flowing and flowing and then we lost one or two wickets. Orlando Baker came in and I said to him from now it’s pretty much a Twenty20 game, we have to go for it.”

When he departed, the score was 178 for 4 in the 29^th over with way too much work left to do in the run rate equation. However, he made a strong impression on all those who were present, including USA national team coach Clayton Lambert.

At the post-tournament awards ceremony, Rajp was named the tournament’s Best Bowler for nine wickets in three games. Crosthwaite was named Best Batsman after a phenomenal 245 runs in three innings with three 50s. South West captain Mehul Dave was named Tournament MVP for his economical bowling performances. Dave bowled 22 overs and took 4 for 49 in three games.

Match Scorecard

New York vs. South East

New York won by 69 runs

New York won the toss and elected to bat

Man of the Match: Kevin Darlington

New York Batting

Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal

G Hall 54 91 2 1 ct Singh b Javed

A Dodson+ 3 5 0 0 ct Tummala b Singh

S Massiah* 36 34 6 0 ct Syed b Tummala

A Mohammed 17 18 2 0 st Sahadeo+ b Haidar

B Bartley 4 14 0 0 b Haidar

C Mirza 8 17 0 0 ct & b Javed

D Thomas 31 28 1 1 runout (Imtiaz)

N Standford 0 2 0 0 LBW Javed

A Kirton 0 0 0 0 runout (Imtiaz/Surujbally)

A Gordon 12 24 0 0 b Imtiaz

K Darlington 1 2 0 0 not out

Total Extras 19 (0 no balls, 1 bye, 0 leg byes, 18 wides)

Team Total 185 all out in 38.5 overs

Fall of Wicket: 14/1 (Dodson), 68/2 (Massiah), 109/3 (Mohammed), 123/4 (Bartley) 134/5 (Hall), 143/6 (Mirza), 143/7 (Standford), 146/8 (Kirton), 183/9 (Gordon), 185/10 (Thomas).

South East Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets

K Singh 7-1-41-1

A Tummala 8-0-41-1

M Imtiaz 4.5-0-26-1

H Haidar 8-0-27-2

N Javed 8-0-33-3

T Surujbally 3-0-16-0

South East Batting

Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Dismissal

T Surujbally 3 12 0 0 ct Mirza b Darlington

F Ullah 13 14 1 1 b Thomas

A Sahadeo+ 1 15 0 0 ct Thomas b Darlington

A Tummala 0 8 0 0 ct Dodson+ Darlington

V Nayar 7 8 0 1 ct Standford b Thomas

J Patel 2 7 0 0 ct Kirton b Darlington

Z Syed 34 46 3 0 ct sub (Mills) b Kirton

M Imtiaz 15 27 2 0 LBW Kirton

K Singh 22 34 2 0 b Gordon

N Javed 4 16 0 0 not out

H Haidar 5 16 0 0 ct Bartley b Darlington

Total Extras 10 (5 no balls, 0 byes, 0 leg byes, 5 wides)

Team Total 116 all out in 33 overs

Fall of Wicket: 7/1 (Surujbally), 17/2 (Ullah), 18/3 (Tummala), 19/4 (Sahadeo), 27/5 (Nayar), 28/6 (Patel), 71/7 (Imtiaz), 93/8 (Syed), 110/9 (Singh), 116/10 (Haidar).

New York Bowling Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets

K Darlington 7-1-14-5

D Thomas 8-2-32-2

A Gordon 8-0-41-1

A Kirton 8-0-26-2

S Massiah 2-0-3-0

Ram Varadarajan in the news

openingbat — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:19:00 GMT

Ram Varadarajan (unsuccessfully) ran for President of USA Cricket Association in 2008 but has mostly played a non-political behind-the-scenes role as a benefactor of worthy initiatives since that time. In April, Ram launched a monthly call but, due to unspecified commitments, the calls have been put on hold.

Yesterday, Ram and the company he co-founded, Arcot Systems, were in the news.

Here is an excerpt from Business Week:

CA Technologies said Monday that it is paying $200 million to acquire Arcot Systems Inc., a privately held company that provides authentication and fraud prevention software, in a move to boost its security offerings. Arcot's products, offered via onsite software or through its own hosted servers, help prevent fraudulent transactions for about one million online credit card transactions each day. The all-cash deal is expected to close by the end of September.

"Identity is a critical area for security whether you're talking about in-house or the cloud, and with 120 million identities verified by our solutions today, we bring a strong, solid recurring revenue base as well as sources of new growth opportunities for CA Technologies," said Ram Varadarajan, Arcot president and CEO, in a statement.

USA Cricket - Where to from here?

openingbat — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:06:00 GMT

By Rohan Chandran

The dust has settled on the U-19 World Cup, and it’s about time that we started looking critically at where we are, and what we need to do.

What went wrong in New Zealand?

It doesn’t take any great cricketing understanding to deem the tournament a failure for the USA U-19 squad. It was indeed a failure, and an abject one at that, but the failure is less on the part of the young boys who went out to New Zealand and so much more a reflection on the older men who are responsible for their cricket, and for cricket in the US as a whole. It is they who must hold up their hands and accept responsibility, and there is little doubt that it will be they who most pointedly do not do so.

The fault lies not just with the players, but with what was around them. It should have been no surprise to anyone that batting was the biggest technical problem in New Zealand. That is, quite brutally, the nature of the game. A mediocre bowler can bowl one long hop every over, and you can still keep the opposition under 300. A batsman is finished the first time anything goes wrong. That the coaching staff failed to consider this simple reality ahead of time, indicates that they were not worthy of their positions, plain and simple.

The fact of the matter is that our 19 year olds are lacking cricketing experience and acumen that their peers in Australia possess. What the boys needed was to be guided along a path that would compensate for the cricketing nous and experience that we simply don’t and can’t have in our environment.

Tactics, physical readiness, mental approach to the game – we’re not going to become Test cricketers overnight, but we can certainly learn to approach and play the game the right way, and give ourselves a chance to showcase our natural talent.

So what do we need to do? Here are my thoughts:

Realism

Thinking long term is always going to be fundamental to achieving something in our cricket. We tend to tie our hopes and expectations to the players we know and love – the ones we play with every Sunday. That mentality needs to be shed, and shed fast. If we’re going to do something sustainable for our cricket, then it is going to be the next generation and the one after that who get the glory, not us. A false dawn here and there, and we’ll keep coming back to square one.

The USA U-19 coach went on the record saying that he went to New Zealand expecting to win a few games against the bigger nations. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with a coach thinking positive and being optimistic. The problem is that when you abandon realism, you fail to prepare for what you are actually going to confront. Until we realize and acknowledge the level of our cricket, and the yawning chasms that we have to cross, we are unlikely to put anything in place that helps us raise that standard.

Administration

Our administration, top-down and bottom-up, is an unmitigated disaster, and continues to be so in so many ways. There are flickers of hope that sporadically shine across the country, but we are dominated by an environment of self-aggrandizing ego-fuelled politics, and that’s being generous.

Quite simply, too few people are honestly thinking about cricket and its long term future, and too many people are thinking about how themselves, and their nearest and dearest, can benefit.

Unfortunately, with the current global interest in the US as a cricketing destination and minor cricketing power, the incentive to operate in this manner has only increased.

We desperately need to get professional and get accountability into the mix. Transparency of operation is paramount – every appointment, every decision, should be open to public scrutiny and able to withstand that analysis. This is easier said than done, but if we’re serious about this, we have to start with a clean slate. Bring in people who have relevant experience, professional skills that can be leveraged, and crucially, where possible, no direct skin in the game.

Infrastructure and Development

This is really the bottom line when it comes to putting cricket, or indeed any sport, on the road to long term success. Quite simply we have no infrastructure and no path for cricket development, and we need to focus strongly on setting that straight.

We will give ourselves a chance for success when we’re able to identify a talented 13 year old and groom him so that not only does he do a job at the age group level, but most importantly, he develops to a peak in his mid to late twenties and becomes a long-term contributor at the senior national level. When we can point to a few players who have followed that path, then we can point to a system that nurtures and develops cricketing talent.

Instead what we have is two separate and distinct cricketing worlds. One of them is for U-19 cricket, and the other for so-called adult cricket. The composition of the senior national squad tells a story. It doesn’t matter so much that none of the players were born in this country – we are after all a nation of immigrants.

What is telling is that not one of the players was developed in this country. And not one of the players from the 2006 U-19 team is in the picture, and really, nothing more need be said to illustrate the problem.

Our U19 squads, both regional and national, should be playing together through the year, every year. The opposition doesn’t have to be other international teams, as the objective is to have them learn how to play the game. At 19 and 20, we aren’t going to create cricketing talent out of nowhere, but what we can do is help them evolve into thinking cricketers, for as you go up the ladder, it is in the mind (with temperament, strategy and tactics) that games will be won and lost.

I would actually advocate the creation of a national U-23 squad that should play against the national senior team and against regional senior teams every year. This would help keep our U-19s in the game beyond their U-19 days, and with the right guidance and mentorship hopefully help turn them into cricketers that can serve the country for a long time.

In parallel, we need to focus on cricketing fundamentals at the grass roots levels. Forget about trying to jazz up the game with white balls and colored clothing – let’s look at getting cricketers to play the basic game properly in the first place. The party stuff can come later, or elsewhere. Yes, we absolutely need proper pitches and outfields, but we also need cricket balls that swing, and bowlers and batsmen who can learn to deal with that. We need to have youngsters understand that a properly compiled 30 may actually set you on the way to a far better cricketing career than the slogged 50, and we need to follow through on that.

Foster quality cricket, create some continuity for the youngsters and a lot of what Peter Della Penna raised in his excellent article back in November 2009 will be addressed as a consequence.

Selection

Selection is going to be controversial at the best of times, and it’s even harder in our environment. Once again, short-termism and politics are controlling how we pick our teams, and we simply plan to worry about tomorrow if and when the sun rises again.

The first thing we need to address in our selection, particularly at the senior level, is the objective of a team. It’s very easy for an established cricketing nation to simply select the best team to win each game or tournament as it comes. For one that is seeking to establish itself on the world stage, the challenges are a lot greater. It’s not sufficient to simply try and win today, because you need to prepare to win tomorrow and the day after to maintain a certain standing in the game.

This may be my most controversial contention, but I submit that the US needs to be willing to dare to make some short term sacrifices in order to reap the long term rewards.

Peter Della Penna nailed this one too in his aforementioned article. Our stated objective today is to make it to the 2015 Cricket World Cup. In my eyes, the objective really should be to ensure that we can make it to the 2019, 2023 and 2027 World Cups without having to worry about it unduly as we get closer to those events.

Doing that, however, starts today. It starts with everything else I’ve talked about, but it also starts with picking players with an eye to the future. Just as a quite random example, taking Saqib Saleem to Nepal would have done a lot more for US cricket than taking Sudesh Dhaniram, regardless of how good Dhaniram is.

There’s plenty of experience in the team in the form of the likes of Massiah, Thyagarajan, Usman Shuja and others. Take a few thirty year olds to lead on the field, surround them with the exuberance of youth, and all of a sudden, you’ll not only be developing those individuals, you’ll be showing every cricket playing youngster in the country that there is something to strive for. You will naturally create a pipeline, and that pipeline will keep flowing. No longer will you have to pray weekly that a few more good cricketers leave India, Pakistan and the Caribbean and come to the US to seek their fame and fortune. You’ll already have them.

The second thing we need to radically alter in our selection, this time particularly at the youth level, is the type of player we select. We need to recognize the substantial difference between cricket in our local leagues, and cricket at a higher level. We have to learn to look beyond the statistics, and look at the sort of cricketer who is worth the long term investment. Often times we’ll find that the guy scoring thirties every week is actually going to be a better performer at a higher level than the one bludgeoning his way to big scores on a cow pasture with the aid of sloppy fielding and short boundaries. We need to look at how players think, how strong they are mentally in both comfortable and challenging situations. In short, we need to look at their core cricketing skills – but I’m not even sure that today, we understand what core cricketing skills are!

Coaching

The thing to understand is that positive cricket does not equate to slogging or bowling bouncers galore. It means playing with intelligence, it means applying pressure throughout, it means bowling to take wickets, and batting to score runs. Sounds simple in writing, but it can only be put into practice when youngsters are given the appropriate foundation. Coaches in local leagues need to start teaching our youngsters how to bowl for wickets, how to field aggressively, and how to bat assertively without losing your head.

We need to be able to identify young talent around the country. We need coaches and cricketing mentors who can train them in how to play the game. Instead of celebrating small achievements with excessive hyperbole, we need to make sure the youngsters understand that they have a long road ahead of them, and then guide them along the way. We need proper coaches who can actually resolve technical flaws at an early stage. We need proper coaches and leaders who can help cricketers understand how to play the game. As I keep saying, it’s a mental game when you step up a level, and that is where we are sorely lacking.

Conclusion

There is a long, long way for US cricket to go, but for the first time, even if it might be for all the wrong reasons, we have a global vested interest in our success. Opportunity is knocking, and if we have the guts to do so, we can take full advantage of it. Build something sustainable, and our epitaphs will read “left a lasting legacy that allowed cricket to flourish in the USA” rather than “had a drink at Lord’s with Clive Lloyd and Sunil Gavaskar.” I hope I’m not alone in thinking that it’s the first one that reads better.

An unedited version of this article was originally published on the author's FourthUmpire blog.

[The author captained Hong Kong U-19 from 1990-1992, and played with the senior squad in 1991-92 before moving to the US, where he has played with Stanford CC ever since. He was also the first person to join Simon King in running CricInfo back in early 1993, traveling the world as a journalist and commentator.]

USA Senior Cricket team announced for Dubai and Nepal

openingbat — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:19:00 GMT

Source: USACA Media Release

The United States of America Cricket Association today released its Senior Men’s USA team selected to compete in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier and World Cricket League Division 5 tournaments in Dubai, UAE and Nepal, respectively.

The full squad is Timroy Allen, Imran Awan, Orlando Baker, Lennox Cush, Kevin Darlington, Sudesh Dhaniram, Glen Hall, Rashard Marshall, Steve Massiah (Capt.), Sushil Nadkarni, Usman Shuja, Aditya Thyagarajan, Saurabh Verma, Clain Williams and Carl Wright. Officials: Imran Khan (Manager), Clayton Lambert (Coach), and Akhtar Masood Syed (Physio).

Following a weekend long rigorous training camp at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida last month, under the watchful eyes of USA national coach Clayton Lambert, and New Zealand’s Hamish Barton, USA Cricket Association 2nd VP and Director of Cricket Operations Sheikh Manaf Mohamed today made public the list of players and officials selected to travel from New York to Dubai on February 1st and return from Nepal on March 1, 2010.

In Dubai, the USA will have practice sessions at the Sharjah Stadium on February 4th and 5th, before a practice match at the Abu Dhabi Stadium on February 6th. Another practice session is scheduled for February 8th, before the round-robin of matches in the World Twenty20 Qualifier begins in Dubai on February 9 through 11, with the Semi Finals and Finals on February 12 and 13 respectively.

The USA squad will leave Dubai for Nepal on Valentine’s Day, February 14. The squad will have three days of practice, before participating in round-robin matches from February 20 through 27, with a rest day on February 25th. The squad will leave Nepal two days later for the journey back home, arriving in New York on March 1st.

This is one of the first times that the USA will have its Men’s senior team and its Under-19 squad participating in back-to-back international tournaments outside of the USA. The USA Under-19 squad is currently in New Zealand preparing to participate in the ICC Under-19 World Cup and is expected to return home at the end of this month. The United States of America Cricket Association today released its Senior Men’s USA team selected to compete in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier and World Cricket League Division 5 tournaments in
Dubai, UAE and Nepal, respectively.

The full squad is Timroy Allen, Imran Awan, Orlando Baker, Lennox Cush, Kevin Darlington, Sudesh Dhaniram, Glen Hall, Rashard Marshall, Steve Massiah (Capt.), Sushil Nadkarni, Usman Shuja, Aditya Thyagarajan, Saurabh Verma, Clain Williams and Carl Wright. Officials: Imran Khan (Manager), Clayton Lambert (Coach), and Akhtar Masood Syed (Physio).

USA's Best Cricket Grounds: Central Broward Regional Park at Lauderhill - An ICC Approved Venue

openingbat — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:34:00 GMT

Click here for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth articles in this series, which explores the best grounds in USA selected on the basis of the ground's setting, the passion that went into creating the ground, and the pitch and outfield quality. If you know of more grounds - private or public - please email us at content@dreamcricket.com

Reader Comments

By Peter Simunovich

When the International Cricket Committee, the governing body of world cricket, endorsed the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida, the historic occasion went by virtually unnoticed by the United States cricket community.

When the ICC stamped its approval on the field, which is commonly known as just Lauderhill, it sanctioned the field to hold matches against the Test playing countries, who have full membership with the ICC.

This is a major breakthrough for the United States Cricket Association, which under the leadership of Don Lockerbie, the Chief Executive Officer, has been given a new approach and facelift as the US tries to climb up the ICC ladder from an Associates member.

Manaf Mohamed, the USACA Second Vice President and Director of Cricket Operations, said the ICC certified Lauderhill after an application for official status by Broward County in March last year. Broward County owns the field.

He said that the ICC approved the field when extensions to two locker rooms for privacy and additional comfort for players, umpires and officials in the main pavilion had been given the go ahead.

Chad Singh, who is in charge of Special Projects with Broward County, told DreamCricket.com in an interview that the plans have already been approved and construction would begin soon. He said the project would be carried in house by the county and there would be no extra costs.

“It will be more spacious, more storage room for the players and it will be state of the art. It will be a lot more comfortable for the players. We want the cricketers to have a great time here when they come,” said Singh.

The plans were inspected by Jeff Crowe, the former New Zealand Test player, now an official with the ICC, in November last year and finally approved by the ICC in December.

“This is means that we can hold official ICC endorsed matches,” said Mohamed. “This is a big step for us because we can now attract the Test playing teams. We can also use it as a home field and as a camp for the national team.”

Mohamed said a plan to have 12 practice nets at Lauderhill also had been approved. Part of a long range strategy is to have a media center and press box built at the field. But he said the immediate policy was to get international matches played there.

Lockerbie has been in discussions with several Test playing countries after he made a trip to London during the Test match between England and Australia at Lord’s.

The USACA board has a vision of having all its operations under one roof with Lauderhill being a strong option at the moment.

Lauderhill has three fields with the main one having four turf wickets while the other two have an artificial pitch. The main field has 5,000 seats, but this can be increased with 15,000 temporary seats for a capacity crowd of 20,000.

During the season up to 10 teams from the South Florida Cricket Alliance and the Florida South East Cricket League play at Lauderhill.

Soccer, rugby, netball and lacrosse are also played at the Lauderhill complex.

In another development, the USACA is considering moving the senior tournament in October between New York, South East, Central East and South West regions from Houston, Texas, to either Lauderhill or Woodley Park in Los Angeles, California.

Mohamed said a USACA committee, which oversees national and international matches, preferred the tournament, which is scheduled from October 9 to 11, to be played on turf wickets rather than an artificial pitch, which Houston has.

He said a decision would probably be reached in about a week.

Click here for past articles on this park:

Lauderhill Cricket Stadium - A White Elephant?

USA gets a cricket stadium in Lauderhill, Florida

Photos Courtesy: DeRose Consultants

Lockerbie invites ICC member countries to play in USA

openingbat — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 17:10:00 GMT

By Peter Simunovich

Don Lockerbie, the CEO of the US Cricket Association, has revealed that two major cities in the US have approached him to get information on what they need to do to attract top cricket playing countries and International Cricket Conference approved tournaments.

The information they wanted, he said, was related to the size of fields, seating, turf wickets, accommodation, nets and practice areas.

The cities, said Lockerbie, realized the potential growth and popularity of cricket at level and how it would benefit the local economy and create part time work. “I am not trying to be evasive,” said Lockerbie. “I just can’t name them at the moment.”

It is all in the early stages and he did not want to provide any other information until firm decisions are made.

“They (the two cities) recognize how important and what an attraction the top teams will be when they play here,” he said.

Over the past month, Lockerbie has had conversations and correspondence with five full members of the ICC about playing the US national team in a T20 competition in late April next year as a lead up to the ICC World T20 tournament in the Caribbean, beginning in late April next year.

Each of the countries, which he would not name, have shown “tremendous interest,” he told DreamCricket.com in an interview, and were waiting for formal invitations, which, he said, would be sent out next week. There have also been discussions with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) about playing here. This may include former Test players competing.

Lockerbie said it was still early to discuss what format the event would be played if countries accepted invitations from USACA.

He said the US has not yet qualified for the World T20 tournament and to do this the US must finish in the top two of an ICC T20 qualifying event in Dubai beginning in October this year before making the trip to the Caribbean.

If the US qualifies and, say, three nations accept invitations to play the tournament it could turn into a four-team competition where teams would play each other twice. Lockerbie said that countries who decided to play here could also use the USA tour as a training camp for the World T20 tournament.

The matches probably would be played at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Lauderhill, near Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Lockerbie said the matches in Florida would all have the endorsement of the ICC.

“We are trying to be a good member and offer the top cricket playing countries the opportunity to provide competition for the US national team,” he said.

If everything falls into place then it would be the first time that a full member country of the ICC would play on US soil for the first time in a meaningful match against the US national team.

“A lot of things have to be sorted out,” said Lockerbie, “but we have made it clear that we are in the neighborhood and are absolutely hungry for first class competition and to help promote the game in the US.”

It would also give the US national team a taste of world class competition and what is required to perform on the field against the best in cricket.

Asked what the chances were for the event to get the go ahead as a lead up to the ICC World T20 tournament in the Caribbean, he said: “It is a very serious initiative and the chances are better than 50-50.”

He added: “In some places these games (if they happen) will be treated as warm up games, but it is history making.”

Washington, D.C. tourney provides alternating current of fortunes

openingbat — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:12:00 GMT

By Peter Della Penna

The USACA Eastern Conference Tournament in Washington, D.C., which took place from July 17-19, threw up a wild mix of on field performances and off the field obstacles, combining the strange with the sublime over the course of the weekend.

Speaking on the occasion, Gladstone Dainty, the President of USACA, called the weekend a great success. “We had some good performances,” said Dainty. “We achieved our objectives and we got an opportunity to see a lot of good cricketers perform.”

Gladstone Dainty interview from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

New York Region was bowled out for 119 and lost by 5 wickets in their first match on Saturday, but came back to win their final two games by 9 wickets each to earn the tournament title. Steve Massiah, the captain of the New York Region and the US National Team, finished as the leading run scorer in the tournament with 151 runs in three innings while only getting out once.

“I must thank my teammates for the wonderful support over the last three days because we basically came from third place to number one and that’s a great accomplishment,” said Massiah after New York defeated the Atlantic Region on Sunday to win the title on run rate. New York got major contributions from several players including Glen Hall, who scored a century in the team’s victory over the Director’s XI on Saturday. On Sunday, Kevin Darlington won the Man of the Match award for his top order demolition of the Atlantic team, finishing with 3 for 16 as Atlantic was bowled out for 82. This followed up on his 4 for 35 against South East on Friday.

South East, who finished as the runner-up due to the tiebreaker of net run rate, even though they had the same record as New York and beat them on Friday, also had some brilliant performances. Captain Nasir “Charlie” Javed finished as the leading wicket-taker in the tournament. Timroy Allen took both Man of the Match awards for each South East victory. On Friday against New York he took 4 for 28 and scored 13* to finish the match while on Sunday he took one wicket and finished 39* as part of a match-winning 88 run eighth wicket partnership with Anand Tummala in South East’s victory over Director’s XI by 2 wickets. Finishing second has left them hungry to come to Houston for the USACA National Championship in October gunning for the title.

“We learned a few lessons here as a team and as an individual I did learn a couple of lessons,” said Tummala, who finished with 3 wickets and 113 runs, including one half-century in the tourney. “I think cricket is a game which makes an individual make mistakes. The fewer mistakes you make, the better cricketer you are. So I’ll try and minimize the mistakes, what happened here. As a team I think we are gelling really well and I’m sure we will be a force to be reckoned with in Texas.”

Atlantic went from being 2-0 and in the driver’s seat to win the title on Sunday to a third place finish after the loss to New York. However, Gowkaran Roopnarine’s 70 in 79 balls against South East was one of the most scintillating innings of the tournament.

Meanwhile, the Director’s XI squad gave an opportunity for some of the top youth players on the east coast to test themselves against some of the nation’s best. The team, comprised mostly of Under-19 players, put up some respectable efforts in the tournament against three teams that had at least 11 current or former players on the US National Team playing for the regional squads, including six for New York. This made 18-year old Azurdeen “Andy” Mohammed’s century against the New York squad on Saturday all the more impressive.

“I thought we’ve played against some pretty decent players but young Mohammed played a great innings yesterday,” said Massiah. “I mean for someone his age, and I mean we have a pretty experienced attack, and he batted brilliantly. I think his innings over the last three days stood out.”

It wasn’t all fun and games though. Before and during the tournament, there were definitely some issues which were a cause for concern.

First was the fact that the North East Region pulled out of the event only days before it was supposed to begin. According to an official from USACA, the North East Region couldn’t come up with a budget necessary to finance a team to send to Washington, D.C. As a result, the Director’s XI squad was pulled together at the last minute - an opportunity that the young boys utilized

The lunches for the first two days of the tournament were brought to the grounds more than an hour after the scheduled innings/lunch break for the matches. But according to the President Dainty, that didn’t mean the lunches were late. “The lunch was supposed to be at four o’clock. It got here around four o’clock. I don’t know that they had a set time for lunch.”

When pressed further as to why the lunches were scheduled to be ready from the caterers at 4 o’clock when 50 overs would be done at around 2:30 p.m. for each match, Dainty maintained his position. “I don’t know. I just brought the lunch when it’s supposed to be here. I don’t know. So what you’re saying there is news to me. We had a pretty good idea. We told the restaurant when we wanted it and I went and picked it up and that’s it.”

Most of the players were left frustrated with the circumstances, not to mention being out of energy. In the Atlantic vs. South East match on Saturday, the innings break started at 3 p.m. while lunch arrived at around 4:30. As a result, the first drinks break in the second innings lasted about 20-25 minutes so the players could eat, even though an official lunch break had already been taken in between innings.

South East was playing the tournament without the participation of any players from the Georgia Supreme Cricket League (GSCL) even though a team of the best players from the GSCL won the South East Region Inter-League tournament. It remains to be seen if a full strength side will be sent from the South East to the USACA National Championship in Houston.

The on field behavior of some of the teams was also questionable, with prolonged and intimidating appeals directed towards the umpires which did not go down well with several USACA representatives who were present. The nadir was the five run penalty awarded to South East to end the final match of the tournament against Director’s XI because of wicketkeeper Carl Monroe’s use of “obscene language” despite several warnings to stop, according to umpires Nelson Hutchinson and George Richards. But most people agreed it was not the way a match should be decided, including the players from South East.

“I’m sure the umpire must have given them a few warnings before he took the decision of penalizing them with five runs,” said Tummala. “That’s not the right way to decide the game, especially for a young team, but I’m sure the quality of umpiring, what we’ve had in the last few days has been exceptionally good… There must have been something really bad out there which forced the umpires to take this kind of decision. That’s not the right way, that’s not how this great game of cricket should be decided, but discipline, there has to be a barometer that has to be followed.”

The fan support got bigger over the course of the weekend, but overall, it was not very high. However, that was not really of an immediate concern to Dainty before the weekend began.

“To tell you the truth, our focus has really not been about turnout,” said Dainty. “It’s about presenting the players with an opportunity to play a higher level of cricket. In terms of the fans and marketing for fans, I have no way of calculating or predicting because that was not a focus in terms of putting this together. We want to have tournaments where very good players are competing against each other.”

However, by the end of the weekend, Dainty was very hopeful that when the overall quality of play rises in America, as it has been over the past year with the organization of more competitive tournaments, the fans will start to come.

“Well I think that good cricket, we need to have good cricket more frequently,” said Dainty during a separate interview at the conclusion of the tournament. “Cricket people are connoisseurs. They understand the game. They know the game. If you present them with an inferior product, it turns them off. But I think that over the past few days, the word was spreading.”

Hopefully, the word is spreading to Minneapolis. The USACA Western Conference Tournament will be featuring more of the best talent in the United States. The South West, North West, Central West and Central East will be competing with the top two finishers joining New York and South East in Houston this October. A good blend of youth and experience will be on hand, just as it was in Washington, D.C. Several stars will be in attendance from the U-19 and senior levels and by having the tournament in Minneapolis, USACA is hoping to spread the game and bring awareness to cricket outside of the major centers of the Western Conference like Chicago and Los Angeles.

The South West will feature Aditya Thyagarajan, who is a regular member of the US National Team, while the Central West has selected Ryan Corns in their squad. Corns was one of the stars of the U-19 National Tournament over Memorial Day weekend in Brooklyn, N.Y. and continued to showcase his dazzling all-round skills for Team USA’s U-19 squad at the ICC Americas U-19 Regional Qualifier in Toronto at the start of July.

The complete awards presentation ceremony of the USACA Eastern Conference Tournament 2009 from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

USA Cricket Eastern Conference: Bizarre final day sees New York win title

openingbat — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:26:00 GMT

By Peter Della Penna

New York Region demolished the undefeated Atlantic Region by 9 wickets, their second 9 wicket victory in a row, to become the USACA Eastern Conference tournament champions. South East Region finished second after defeating Director’s XI by 2 wickets in what was an extraordinary string of events on the final day’s play.

“Our main objective today was to win and win big,” said New York captain Steve Massiah. “I thought the guys rose to the occasion. Darlington was brilliant up front and was ably supported by everyone else. It was a total team effort. I must thank my teammates for the wonderful support over the last three days because we basically came from third place to number one and that’s a great accomplishment.”

The Atlantic Region won the toss against New York and elected to bat first at Chillum Park on a bright and sunny Sunday morning. However, things turned dark and gloomy immediately as Gowkaran Roopnarine played on to Kevin Darlington four balls into the match to make it 1/1.

Darlington and Massiah Post Match Interview vs. Atlantic from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

From there, the downward spiral was fast and furious. Siddharth Mehta came in next and was run out trying to pinch a single to square leg. Barrington Bartley threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end to see Mehta gone for 9 making it 15/2.

The score reached 23 when four more wickets fell for seven runs. Aditya Mishra was caught behind by Akeem Dodson off Darlington while Charan Singh lasted seven balls before driving Dennison Thomas to Glen Hall at cover for a duck. Claine Williams was Darlington’s third wicket, once again caught behind by Dodson for 6.

“My mindset was to bowl that good line and length, try to hit the top of off stump and let the ball do the rest,” said Darlington. “This wicket is a pretty placid one and there’s not much room for error. So I just tried to keep the ball close to the top of off stump and that did it for me today.”

Two balls later, Muhammad Yousuf tried to get off the mark with a quick single but was run out by Hall, swooping in from midwicket and firing a direct hit to the non-striker’s end for another bagel in the Atlantic runs column.

Kiran Patel was next as he was caught behind by Dodson off George Adams for 6 to make it 42/7. Atlantic then put on 24 runs for the eighth wicket, their biggest partnership of the innings, as Muhammad Asad Ghous and Durale Forest tried to breathe life into the innings. But New York continued to suffocate Atlantic and eventually Forest was bowled by the spin of Bartley for 22. Imran Awan struck back to back fours before being out next ball to Adams for 8 as he edged one to Dodson for the keeper’s fourth dismissal.

Adrian Gordon came in and hit a four to get off the mark, but the innings ended when Ghous chipped Bartley to Lennox Cush at midwicket for 12 as Atlantic was bowled out for 82 in 27.3 overs. Ghous and Forest were the only two to cross double figures but even Forest got help as he was bowled off a Thomas no-ball on eight, then bowled again on the free hit which followed.

New York made short work of the target. Glen Hall came out and smashed two fours and a six to get to 15 off six balls. On ball number seven, he received a neck high full toss that he tried pulling but dragged onto his stumps. However, neither umpire signaled no-ball and Hall had to go to make it 18/1.

Massiah then joined Dennis Evans and the two set about putting on a batting exhibition with some elegant strokeplay. The covers and fine leg were the favored areas, especially as Atlantic captain Awan refused to put a fine leg in place despite bowling a consistently wayward line into the legs of the New York batsmen with eight men on the off side.

New York reached the target in 9.1 overs as Evans finished not out on 22 and Massiah remained unbeaten on 38. Darlington was named Man of the Match for his three wicket burst at the start of play.

Over at William Wirt Field, the youthful mix in Director’s XI put up a lionhearted effort against South East posting 199 in 44 overs. However, experience proved too much in the end as Anand Tummala and Timroy Allen’s 88 run eighth wicket stand helped win the match for South East by 2 wickets. The winning runs were awarded when the umpires signaled five penalty runs. The two officials, Nelson Hutchinson and George Richards, gave the five penalty runs claiming that Director’s XI wicketkeeper Carl Monroe “used obscene language.”

Allen and Tummala Post Match Interview vs. Director's XI from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

Director’s XI had their chances though. After Vaibhav “Ricky” Nayar fell to make it 96/6 in the 21st over, Director’s looked to be in the driver’s seat. However, a costly missed stumping chance came back to haunt Director’s XI in the final result.

Akhil Sehgal was bowling to Anand Tummala on the last ball of the 25th over with the score on 110/6. Tummala danced down the track and tried to hit him through the off side but was beaten in flight. Monroe collected the ball cleanly, but he fanned the stumps while swinging his arms around to break the bails. By the time his second effort connected, Tummala had his bat back in the crease. Tummala was on 9 at the time.

Rasheed had Ken Singh out clean bowled for 10 three balls later to bring Allen to the crease. Allen was on 2 in the 29th over with the score 116/7 when he sent a half volley from Kavishwar Bridgepaul in the air straight to mid off at chest height. It went right through the fielder’s hands and all the way to the boundary.

Allen and Tummala then settled down and took the match away from Director’s XI by playing smart cricket and rotating the strike against the spin of Rasheed, Keon Lake and Andy Mohammed.

Tummala was finally out for 50 with the score at 198/8 after he top edged a pull shot off Sehgal and Monroe waited for the ball to come down behind the stumps. Tummala had just crossed the boundary walking off the field when all of a sudden the entire Director’s XI squad followed him off with Allen, who finished not out on 39.

“They didn’t say anything as such when we were batting,” said Tummala. “But when we heard that we got five penalty runs I was relieved because I was intending to be there until the last run was scored and come out not out.”

Rasheed Post Match Interview vs. South East from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

After the match, Director’s XI coach Mahadeo Ajodhi implied that Monroe swore at himself in frustration for missing the stumping chance that led to an extra 41 runs for Tummala and that is where the “obscene language” was heard by the umpires.

“Well the players were talking to themselves,” said Director’s XI coach Mahadeo Ajodhi. “I was outside, I don’t know what happened inside, but it still had no outcome on the game. I think the game should be played. The kid was saying that he didn’t say the bad word to anybody. He was mad between himself. He did not direct it at anybody and the umpire overheard that and that’s what the penalty was he said.”

Coach Mahadeo Ajodhi Post Match Interview vs. South East from Peter Della Penna on Vimeo.

The day’s results saw a three-way tie for first place created at 2-1 between Atlantic, New York and South East. New York was announced tournament champion with a superior net run rate and South East named runner-up. Atlantic, who came into the day undefeated, was placed third and as a result will be left out of the USACA National Championships in Houston this October. Director’s XI failed to win a match despite some superb individual performances over the weekend.

USACA Eastern Conference Tournament Unofficial Scorecard
New York vs. Atlantic
New York won by 9 wickets
Atlantic won the toss and batted
Man of the Match: Kevin Darlington

Atlantic Batting

Batsman        Runs    Balls    4s    6s    Dismissal
G Roopnarine        0    3    0    0    bowled Darlington
A Mishra        8    10    2    0    ct Dodson+ bowled Darlington
S Mehta        9    8    2    0    run out (Bartley)
C Williams        6    13    1    0    ct Dodson+ bowled Darlington
C Singh        0    7    0    0    ct Hall bowled Thomas
D Forest        22    49    2    0    bowled Bartley
M Yousuf        0    2    0    0    run out (Hall)
K Patel            4    15    0    0    ct Dodson+ bowled Adams
MA Ghous        12    46    0    0    ct Cush bowled Bartley
I Awan            8    5    2    0    ct Dodson+ bowled Adams
A Gordon        4    6    1    0    not out
Total Extras        9
Team Total         82 all out in 27.3 overs

New York Bowling     Overs-Maidens-Runs-Wickets

K Darlington        7-1-16-3
G Adams        9-1-38-2
D Thomas        8-0-21-1
B Bartley        3.3-1-5-2

New York Batting

Batsman        Runs    Balls    4s    6s    Dismissal
D Evans        22    20    3    0    not out
G Hall            15    7    2    1    bowled Gordon
S Massiah        38    29    6    0    not out
L Cush
R Marshall
A Dodson
D Thomas
B Bartley
K Ganesh
G Adams
K Darlington
Total Extras        8
Team Total        83/1 in 9.1 overs

USA Cricket Association begins search for commercial partners

openingbat — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:51:00 GMT

According to a Media Release by Rushmans, the sports event management company, USA Cricket Association (USACA) has formally issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the formation of Twenty20 format USA Premier League and the wider commercial development of cricket in the country.

It was also announced that Nigel Rushman, Chairman of Rushmans, will serve as commercial advisor to USACA. Nigel is a well-known figure in the international business of sport and has been involved with high profile events including rugby and cricket world cups. More recently, Nigel was Event Director of the ICC CWC West Indies 2007 Inc with the responsibility of implementing the Event Management, Security, Media Management, Accreditation and Volunteer Programmes.

USACA's RFP has a deadline of August 7th for receipt of proposals and is expected to create a transparent playing field for all those who wish to participate in development of cricket in USA.

This move demonstrates the new USACA CEO, Don Lockerbie, is keen on harnessing the commercial potential of professional cricket. This could provide much needed funding for USACA's development objectives such as infrastructure development and Project 15, which aims to make USA a top-15 cricketing nation by 2015.

Among the services sought by USACA in its Request for Proposals are:

1. Identifying potential partnerships and securing corporate sponsorships;

2. Developing and managing major cricket events as part of USACA’s ‘Destination USA’;

3. Strategically planning and implementing a Twenty20 Professional League;

4. Negotiating TV / Radio broadcast rights for USA cricket events;

5. Developing and managing the public relations and media management of USACA;

6. Developing and managing a profitable website and social networking platform;

7. Creating merchandising deals with an online store to attract 15 million cricket fans known to live in the USA;

8. Creating and managing VIP/ Sponsor hospitality and travel programmes for ICC and USA Cricket events;

9. Developing and implementing other revenue generating programs for USACA.

In the Media Release, USACA Commercial Advisor Nigel Rushman said: “The commercial potential of cricket in the United States is widely recognised and that was underscored by the number of approaches USACA has received from many significant and prestigious organizations ranging from broadcasters to promoters and sports marketing companies.

“This process will enable us to consider all the proposals on the table and select the ideas and form the partnerships which are most beneficial to USACA, to the development of cricket in the USA and to the partners themselves.

“Cricket is a truly global sport which has been liberated by developments in the media. The success of the IPL in South Africa is evidence of that.

“We are confident that, with the right partners, the USA can host a world class Premier League which will fill grounds and attract massive television and online audiences. That is good news for the future of the sport in the USA and the growth of cricket worldwide.”

1895 Cricket match between Mrs. Hazen's School and Rosemary Hall - A Historic First For Interscholastic Girls Sports

openingbat — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:11:00 GMT

By Venu Palaparthi

In 1895, the girls from Rosemary Hall, a girls preparatory school founded by Mrs. Caroline Ruutz-Rees of England defeated girls from Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls (popularly known as Pelham Hall) in a cricket match played at Wallingford, Connecticut.

There is no official record of this first ever match but New York Times referred to the victory of Rosemary Hall in the 1895 girls cricket match when the Rosemary girls visited Pelham Hall a year later.

This contest where the winner took home a "light blue banner," became an annual tradition, and is the oldest known interscholastic sporting event for girls in USA for any sport.

Indeed, girls played sports before 1895, but these were intramurals. A basketball match was played between girls of Montclair High and Horace Mann of New York City in 1897. But the Pelham Hall versus Rosemary Hall cricket match preceded both this basketball match and the Girls Interscholastic Athletic League, which was formed in 1900.

In fact, a photo is said to exist in the Pelham Library in a book titled The Pelham Manor Story 1891 - 1991 written by James B. Saunders, who wrote "Young ladies of Mrs. Hazen's School (Pelham Hall) dropped their bat and ball long enough to pose for the photographer before engaging the girls of Rosemary Hall in a serious contest of cricket." Mr. Saunders also wrote, "Results of the game are lost in history."

Mr. Saunders need not have despaired. Thanks to New York Times, there is a more detailed record of the Pelham Hall versus Rosemary Hall inter-school match for 1896, which DreamCricket.com has tracked down.

In a story filed on November 14, 1896, Times noted: The Esplanade lawn at "Prospect Hill was the scene here today of a winter contest of a most unusual kind." The writer was quite taken by the novelty of it all and went on to describe the occasion vividly. "Bareheaded and wearing sweaters and short skirts, daughters of some of the most prominent men in the country defied the cold, wintry wind. With enthusiasm and skill the twenty-two bowled, batted, and fielded. A large crowd, chiefly composed of Pelham's most fashionable folk, witnessed the game. Excitement ran high, for last year the Pelham Hall girls journeyed to Wallingford and were defeated by the Rosemary cricketers. Today the losers on that occasion struggled successfully to win back the light-blue banner they lost in Connecticut."

"The weather, the waving of ribbons and banners, and the college cries would have done justice to a Yale-Harvard football match," the reporter wrote. Rosemary Hall won the toss and put Pelham to bat. With 15 in the first innings and 21 in the second innings, Annie King, captain of Pelham, was the highest scorer on the day. Miss King, the daughter of John King Jr, the Vice President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, also took 7 wickets with the ball. Pelham Hall scored 81 in the first innings and 51 in the second. Rosemary Hall was dismissed for just 26 in the first innings and were defeated by a 69 run margin after they collapsed for 37 in the second innings.

Shouts of "Hurrah, hear us call; Hazen, Hazen, Pelham Hall," were heard around the ground and the blue ribbon was won back by the girls of Pelham Manor.

The contest between the girls of Pelham Hall and Rosemary Hall continued for several years. In 1898, Rosemary Hall hired a women's cricket coach - her name was Mrs. Hulseberg and she was perhaps the first women's cricket coach in USA.

The Pelham Hall, founded by Mrs. Emily John Cunningham Hazen, closed in 1915. Rosemary Hall continues to this day as Choate-Rosemary Hall after its merger with Choate. One way to celebrate their historical achievement by restarting the tradition there.

Rosemary Hall

Pic Courtesy: Choate Rosemary Hall

Mrs. Hazen's School (Pelham Hall)

Picture Courtesy: Blake Bell