USA Cricketer : West Indies Cricket

USA Cricket: Abhimanyu Rajp's journey leads him from the land of Ludhiana to the USA National Team

openingbat — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 11:01:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna in (on Twitter)

It’s the second match of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier for USA and the game is five overs old when the captain decides to toss the ball to the debutant off-spinner. Under normal circumstances, it might be cause for feelings of nervousness to overwhelm a new bowler. Gripping the ball too tight could result in a half-tracker, clammy hands could cause the ball to slip out too early and result in a full toss, either ball probably winding up as a four or six for the batsman. Abhimanyu Rajp might have been a little nervous when bowling his first ball at the senior international level for USA, but he didn’t show it simply because he didn’t have the time.

“Normally you’re told, ‘You’re up next over,’ but Sushil didn’t do that,” Rajp said, referring to the moment his captain in the UAE, Sushil Nadkarni called his number. “He just tossed me the ball and said, ‘Abhi, come on.’ I was taken a bit by surprise so I didn’t have much time to think about anything.”

Moments later, Rajp landed one of his sharp spinning off-break deliveries right where he wanted it. The batsman, Italy’s Andy Northcote, played over the top of the good length ball and was struck on the pads.

“I think all of Abu Dhabi heard my appeal. As soon as I delivered that ball and hit Northcote’s pads I knew that I had him. That was really special.” It’s a moment Rajp says he’ll never forget, getting his first wicket on his very first delivery for USA. It’s just one of many special moments in the cricketing journey of Rajp.

Rajp was born in Ludhiana in Punjab, India, and like most kids took to the streets to play the game with his friends.

“When you’re growing up and you’re six years old, you don’t know who Sachin is or who Gavaskar was. You’re just playing for the fun of the sport. I had a good friend in my neighborhood and we were always just playing this game every day.”

One of Rajp’s older sisters says that as far as she can remember, she would always see him walking around with a cricket bat in his hands.

“When he used to go to the cricket camp, the willow bat used to be taller than him,” Milli Rajp said. “He was that tiny when he started.” While Rajp is known for his off-break deliveries now, he claims he began his cricketing career as a seam bowler who also kept wicket, but shifted to bowling spin in a fateful match while representing the Ludhiana Cricket Association in an U-12 tournament.

“We were playing on a pitch where the ball was turning square and our main spinner had finished all his overs,” Rajp said. “We wanted someone to spin the ball and I was keeping at the time. So I said I’ll take off my gloves and give it a try. I ended up being the second highest wicket-taker of that tournament bowling off-spin and that’s where I discovered I can spin the ball and should be a spinner and not a wicketkeeper.”

Rajp continued progressing through Ludhiana’s age group teams as a spinner. While his parents emphasized the importance of schoolwork, especially since his mother worked as an English teacher, both his mom and dad fully supported his cricket ambitions and paid for him to participate in summer cricket camps. Then in 1999, the family’s green card application was approved and in the summer of 2000 Rajp arrived in the USA as a 14-year-old.

But rather than have his cricket dreams dashed, they only seemed to grow stronger. The family settled in California’s San Fernando Valley with the cricket fields at Woodley close by in Van Nuys. Rajp joined Ventura Cricket Club the following spring and began playing with them for the next five seasons in the Southern California Cricket Association.

Image (right) - Abhimanyu Rajp bowls against Scotland at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. [Courtesy: ICC/Ian Jacobs]

Rajp went to try out for the USA U-19 team in 2003 prior to the squad traveling to the ICC Americas U-19 tournament, but was ineligible for selection because he did not meet the ICC’s four-year residency requirement. In the meantime, Rajp got connected with Ashok Patel’s US Cricket Academy and began going on tours with them to the Caribbean which provided valuable learning experiences for him over the next several years.

“I played a lot on those tours and you learn a lot,” Rajp said. “A cricket player has all this knowledge about what to do and how to do it, but the main thing is when to do it, when to apply that knowledge to the best of your abilities. It was just about when to set what kind of fields, what works for what bowler and for yourself, how can you do better against this batsman, what kind of field you should set for him, basically trying to understand all aspects of the game. You have coaches there but it’s your first time getting exposure to real turf and real stadiums. We had not played in those kind of facilities in the USA. Playing in your age group, the best way you can learn is playing with other players who don’t know anything. For young players, that’s the best experience you can get. You don’t know anything and they don’t know anything so you’re all learning together and trying to understand the game as a unit and that helps a lot.”

Rajp also gives a lot of credit to former USA player Reggie Benjamin for coaching him and other youth players locally in Southern California when there wasn’t a lot of activity going on at the national level for junior cricketers.

“Having Reginald Benjamin on my side over here, who used to be one of the main youth guys when the youth movement started, he was always here and he’s the one who started coaching us with the help of Nazim Shirazi,” Rajp said.

In 2005, Rajp went to another tryout for the USA U-19 team and this time managed to be selected. However, there was a lot of doubt whether or not he would get to play any games for USA since USACA had just been suspended by the ICC and the U-19 team’s participation at the ICC Americas tournament was in doubt.

“The communication was very hazy at that time. Nobody knew whether we were gonna go or not. A week before the tour we found out it was on. We’re going. The tickets are coming. The tickets came a couple days before we had to fly and then we went to Canada.”

Despite the hectic leadup to the tournament, Rajp says the team felt okay about their chances entering the first day of the 2005 ICC Americas U-19 tournament against defending champions Canada because most of the USA players had played with each other on the US Cricket Academy tours.

“The camaraderie had started a lot earlier than the 2003 tour so by 2005 everybody had a good idea of who was capable of what,” Rajp said. “When we landed, we basically had one day of practice and it was basically for the guys people hadn’t seen before and for the coach Larry Gomes to find out who was gonna be the off-spinner, the leg-spinner, the batsmen, the slip fielder.”

USA defeated Canada in the first match by 39 runs and never looked back on an undefeated run to the tournament title, clinching a spot at the 2006 ICC U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. Rajp was the standout bowler in Canada, taking a tournament best 11 wickets which included five-wicket hauls against Argentina and Bermuda.

In Sri Lanka, Rajp finished tied for the team lead in wickets with eight, which included 5 for 61 against New Zealand. Among the scalps he claimed in that match was future Test batsman Martin Guptill. USA also faced off against West Indies, Australia and South Africa in the group stage, whose squads contained numerous future senior international representatives including Kieron Pollard, Kemar Roach, Sunil Narine, Craig Kieswetter, Richard Levi, Usman Khawaja, Matthew Wade and David Warner.

“It was a real eye-opener for myself and my ability to bowl against the likes of David Warner and guys who are now at Test level,” Rajp said. “It was a surreal experience for us. By no means could we say we were better than them or as good as them in our ability, but we can say that if the players in the USA play every day like those players play then there is no reason why we can’t beat them. But because we are weekend cricketers, we got beaten at the end.”

“We were playing the West Indies with Kieron Pollard, Kemar Roach, William Perkins and we have them 8 for 2 in the first two overs and a dropped catch off William Perkins and we are feeling on top of the world because we are doing some major damage and after that catch was dropped [Perkins made 133]. Every game, we were in it for a certain amount of time because every team took us lightly. They thought, ‘USA? Who the hell is USA?’ but when we got on the field and started playing and started giving them heart attacks, that’s when they started getting serious that this is a team to be reckoned with and they had to play with more responsibility and not think it’s just an easy 50 or easy 100. That’s when the game got away from us because their talent was better than ours but our determination was probably better than theirs to get them to those points in those games.”

“If you analyze all three of those group games, we had 140 in 25 overs for the loss of two wickets against West Indies. What more do you want from an Associate team chasing 300? That doesn’t happen. South Africa we had them 101 for 5. We needed two more quick wickets and we could’ve had them out for 150. Australia we scored [148] against them and we had them 53 for 4 so a couple more wickets and we might have had them, but almost doesn’t count. That goes to show that we only played weekends. If we played every day, we could have beat some of these guys.”

Rather than be demoralized about losing all but one match in that tournament, Rajp says he came out of it gaining more confidence from the experience because of those moments when USA was able to stand toe-to-toe with the heavyweights.

“The one thing I took away from that tournament was that we belonged. We can do it at that level. Every time I think about that tournament, it’s made me realize that yes I can do it. I can bowl against these guys and get them out. I can get a five-wicket haul at a World Cup stage against a Test nation. I can do good.”

Despite his personal success at the junior level in Sri Lanka, Rajp had to bide his time before breaking into the USA senior side. He stayed on the outside looking in for six years and says he kept his spirits high after receiving encouragement from several national team players.

Aditya Thyagarajan, who has been a teammate with Rajp on South West Region teams and plays against Rajp’s Cosmos CC side regularly in the SCCA Division One competition, says that Rajp has become a more complete bowler in recent years after altering his approach to batsmen at the senior level compared to what he was doing at the Under-19 level.

“Over the last two or three years he has really improved and he’s understood the value as an off-spinner to bowl the ball consistently on one spot,” Thyagarajan said. “Like any talented youngster, he was trying to take a wicket every ball and that just doesn’t work at the senior level, especially when you’re an off-spinner or finger-spinner. So I kept talking to him over the years about how you need to improve your consistency. I think over the last two years I really saw him take that advice really well and the results have been very clear.”

In 2010, Rajp was the leading wicket-taker in USACA national tournaments including 7 for 35 in one match at the USACA Western Conference tournament in September of that year at Woodley as he hovered around the national team selection radar. However, he was passed over for both of USA’s squads at ICC tournaments in 2011. Rajp tried to be philosophical about it and remained patient.

“I am the kind of person who does not keep any expectations. Any time I’m playing cricket, I’m not playing to get selected for another team. I’m playing to do well for my team on that day,” Rajp said. “I never went out and said, ‘Why are they not picking me?’ I always think that when the time is right, it will happen. I didn’t take it in a bad way when they didn’t call me or select me because in the back of my mind I was always thinking this is not my time yet.”

Rajp’s time finally arrived in March when he got selected to go to the UAE for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. He delivered from the moment Nadkarni first tossed the ball his way against Italy right through to the end of the event as he finished tied with Muhammad Ghous for the team lead in wickets as both off-spinners took 10.

Image (left) - Rajp bowls against Italy in his first tournament match in a USA senior uniform this past march. [Courtesy: ICC/Ian Jacobs]

“I think Abhimanyu’s addition to the team has been fantastic,” Nadkarni said at the end of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. “I think for a long time we had Ghous who made an impact as soon as he came into the team. Now I feel like we have another bowler who can support Ghous and who is a wicket-taking option so I think Abhimanyu is a great addition to the team.”

Although he had the experience of playing against future Test players at the ICC U-19 World Cup in 2006, Rajp says playing in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier was a completely different experience.

“It was a real eye-opener. The level of competition is so much harder and higher than what we’re accustomed to playing in US club cricket culture,” Rajp said. “You have to be on the ball from ball one. There is no margin for error. You miss and they hit.”

“When you are coming in to bowl you better bet on your eye that the guy who is batting in front of you is ready to launch your first ball for six. If you are coming in to bat, you can bet that the first ball is either coming at your head straight to take your helmet off or to break your toe off. The intensity and focus that’s required is so much higher than you’re used to. You have to be completely focused.”

“I learned a lot from bowling against almost everybody. The quality of opposition that we were playing was obviously great quality. Bowling against them, every game I was learning more and more stuff about my bowling and how to bowl to such batsmen as Ed Joyce and Kevin O’Brien. I’ve never in my whole life bowled around the wicket. It was the first time in my life bowling around the wicket to Kevin O’Brien because I had taken the advice from Robin Singh and Mark Johnson telling me to try to come around the wickets to see if the batsman has a little tough time against you with those angles because I do get a lot of turn. That’s one thing I tried that worked and I never tried that. Small things like that make a huge difference at that level.”

Even though it was a Twenty20 tournament in March, the experience gained from bowling to players like O’Brien and Joyce will serve Rajp well as he gets ready to make his 50-over debut for USA at 2012 ICC World Cricket League Division Four next week in Malaysia. He continued his good overall form by claiming 3 for 33 in 10 overs in USA’s warm-up match against Denmark on August 30 and will look to keep it up in the live matches beginning on Monday against Malaysia.

While Rajp has experienced a tremendous amount of success on the field throughout his cricket career, he says none of it would have been possible without the support of his family. From the time he represented Ludhiana to his exploits for the USA at the junior and senior levels, they have been his biggest fans.

“Whatever I’ve achieved so far has been the blessing of my mom and my family,” Rajp said. “They’ve really supported me and helped me in a way that a family can. My dad, my mom, my sisters have been really influential in my whole life.”

Away from cricket, Rajp graduated from California State University, Northridge in 2010 with a degree in finance and began working for biotech company Amgen that same year at the company’s headquarters in Thousand Oaks. He also has a singing alter ego, recording under the name Musafir Ludhianvi as part of Suvah Entertainment whose other members include Brainstorm and Apartment E. The songs are sung in Punjabi and Hindi.

“Musafir Ludhianvi means a lone traveler from the land of Ludhiana,” Rajp says. “It’s a fun thing. I write my own songs and I sing. I’m not a good singer, I’m ok and the producers help me out a lot. We spend one day a week, we have a dedicated day that we go into the studio and have our sessions, whether it’s studio recording or writing lyrics or working on tracks or perfecting a track. All of us work. All of us have other commitments plus music doesn’t pay. It’s something that we are passionate for. Other than cricket, there’s another passion I have which is singing.”

Rajp became a US citizen in 2007 and while his music is a way for him to maintain a strong connection to his Indian roots, he is proud to be able to represent the USA on the cricket field. He’s still just 26 and if he continues the strong start he had for the senior team earlier this year, he could be representing USA on the cricket field for many years to come.

“Obviously this country has given me a lot so I owe a lot to this country, from cricket to making me as a person who I am today,” Rajp said. “You don’t get some of these opportunities back in your motherland, although I do love my motherland, but there’s pros and cons to everything. I still love India but there’s a lot that I owe to the USA and I’m very grateful that I’ve landed here and gotten through so many different feats in my life in the United States. Being able to represent the United States is also a privilege and an honor and a gesture for me to give something back to this country also by doing good for this sport in this country for this country. It’s my country and that’s what I want to do.”

WICB announces ticket prices for pair of T20I matches against New Zealand in Florida

openingbat — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:35:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

The West Indies Cricket Board has announced ticket prices for the two Twenty20 International matches to be played against New Zealand on June 30 and July 1 in Florida. Reserved chairback seats at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill will cost $30 while general admission tickets to sit or stand on the grass embankment will cost $20.

The prices are in similar range to the cost of tickets for the pair of Twenty20 matches two years ago at the same venue between New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The prices at that event, The Pearls Cup, were $35 for reserved and $22 for general admission for the first match which took place on a Saturday while Sunday ticket prices were $27 for reserved and $17 for general admission. A total combined attendance figure of 8,600 across two days wound up being the turnout.

Image (right) - The Central Broward Regional Park stadium in Lauderhill, Florida, is the venue which will host two Twenty20 Internationals between New Zealand and the West Indies on June 30 and July 1.

The WICB release stated that tickets will go on sale two weeks prior to the first match at each venue for the New Zealand tour. In addition to the two Twenty20s in Florida, New Zealand and the West Indies are scheduled to play five ODIs beginning on July 5 – two in Jamaica and three in St. Kitts – followed by two Test matches. The first Test will be in Antigua from July 25-29 before returning to Jamaica for the second from August 2-6.

New Zealand and West Indies to play pair of Twenty20 matches in Florida this summer

openingbat — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:15:00 GMT

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

New Zealand Cricket Media Release

West Indies Cricket have released the schedule for the upcoming BLACKCAPS tour with Twenty20 matches on 30 June and 1 July at Lauderhill in Florida launching the series.

The five One Day Internationals will be shared between Jamaica and St Kitts, with the first match on 5 July and final fixture on 16 July.

New Zealand will then face a West Indies Selection in a three-day warm-up match in Antigua ahead of the first Test on 25 July, before returning to Jamaica for the final Test on 2 August.

Image (right) - Central Broward Regional Park stadium in Lauderhill, Florida.

NZC Chief Executive David White said he was delighted the West Indies were able to take the Twenty20 component of the tour to the USA.

“Playing matches in Florida is great for the profile of cricket as Cricket Holdings America works towards forming a professional Twenty20 league and think West Indies Cricket should be commended for the hard work that has gone into scheduling the matches,” said White.

“We’re excited about the potential impact of this series for the development and growth of cricket in the USA.

“I’m thrilled that the BLACKCAPS and the West Indies can help increase exposure and show the locals how exciting Twenty20 cricket is.”

USA Cricket: 18 players shortlisted for USA U-19 team

openingbat — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 04:23:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna

According to a report published Thursday night on newyorkcricket.com, USACA has named a preliminary USA U-19 squad of 18 players from last weekend’s selection trials in New York. The final 14 that will compete in the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier must be submitted to the ICC by June 28.

Two players who were part of the USA U-19 squad that won the ICC Americas U-19 tournament in Florida last February did not make the final 18 – fast bowler Waleed Javed Karimullah and batsman Fahad Babar. Karimullah was the only player never selected in the starting XI in any of the USA U-19 team’s five matches in February while it was previously reported by DreamCricket that batsman Fahad Babar had withdrawn himself from consideration.

Image (right) - Steven Taylor in action at USA U-19 trials in New York on June 11. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket]

Aside from the 12 remaining players from February’s team, former USA U-19 vice-captain Greg Sewdial was named as expected in the list of 18 in his comeback from two surgeries on his left ankle. He was also joined by fast bowlers Sohaib Choudhry and Jasdeep Singh, left-arm spinner Prashanth Nair, all-rounder Amarnauth Persaud and wicketkeeper Prumjot Panesar.

Four players will be cut from the list of 18 to form the final 14-man squad. The 14-man squad will then play four 50-over warm-up matches against the West Indies U-19 in Florida next month before leaving for the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier, scheduled for July 28-August 9 in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

USA U-19 preliminary 18-man squad by region

Atlantic – Kalim Ahmed, Mital Patel, Jasdeep Singh

Central East – Sohaib Choudhry, Abhijit Joshi

Central West – None

New York – Cameron Mirza, Prashanth Nair, Amarnauth Persaud, Greg Sewdial, Trevor Singh

North East – None

North West – Prumjot Panesar (wk), Jodhbir Singh, Pranay Suri

South East – Steven Taylor (wk)

South West – Shayan Abdulghani, Salman Ahmad, Gurpreet Sandhu, Hammad Shahid

Director Stevan Riley hopes New York cinema audiences will catch "Fire in Babylon"

openingbat — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:37:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna

For a 20-year stretch from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, the West Indies were the dominant force in world cricket. Fans growing up in the current generation have missed out on the excitement and unique style they brought to the game, but filmmaker Stevan Riley has fond memories of calypso cricket filling up summers in the UK.

“As a youngster, I’d follow cricket when the West Indies turned up,” said Riley in a recent interview with DreamCricket. “There was just something, there was an excitement in the air in a summer when the West Indies would arrive and just the look of these guys, in their whites with their medallions. They just seemed a lot more imposing and threatening than the English lineup and so you sat up and paid attention because they were playing an exciting style of cricket and a lethal game as well. In many respects, you’d be watching just expecting very often for these English batsmen to get severely hurt and it made for sort of quite extreme viewing.”

All these years later, Riley was surprised that no one had taken an in-depth look at the cast of characters that made up one of the most successful teams in sports history. So Riley seized the opportunity to take on that responsibility and the result is an 82-minute documentary called “Fire in Babylon”, which will be making its North American debut at the 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York City from April 20-May 1.

Image (right) - "Fire in Babylon" poster. [Courtesy: "Fire in Babylon" Facebook page.]

“That they were the most successful team in sporting history meant that they deserved some attention, but then when you put on top of it the style of their play, the effects of that style, how it changed the game completely, the motivation behind it that they were in the era of the 70s and 80s when there was so much social and physical change, when you find out that the West Indies cricket team was essentially making a statement for black peoples worldwide in terms of reforming attitudes to rather primitive stereotypes that existed about the black community,” said Riley. “They proved I think indelibly the potential of the West Indies and that black people worldwide would not be dictated to and most clearly on the cricket field.”

Through the research and interviews he did with players from that era, Riley found that there was a strong influence from Rastafarian culture on the team. The title of his film comes from Rastafarian slang and he uses a Reggae soundtrack for his film, including three songs by Bob Marley.

“The film had a very much Rastafarian spirit to it,” said Riley. “Babylon is very much a Rastafarian word. Babylon refers to the kind of systems of oppression, wherever they exist, systems that hold people down on account of their race and color or any other kind of system of prejudice. The fire is clearly what was done to overturn that, disrupt that through the West Indies style of play.”

Riley spent a lot of the time researching the characters by reading biographies and essays about them to learn as much as possible. He also interviewed players from other countries who played against the West Indians of that era to gain more insight. But when it came time to edit the film, he opted against including those in the final product in order to tell the story from a strictly West Indian point of view.

“I interviewed a lot of opposition players, a lot of white players, but they don’t appear in the film,” said Riley. “It’s only the West Indians. I stripped it down to their voice so that the film would really allow us to enter into their perspective of that time.”

During his interviews with the West Indian players, Riley uncovered some of the hidden hardships and obstacles that the players had to overcome which were not publicized at the time.

“In terms of the discoveries, some of them were quite shocking and these came out in interviews, things that weren’t actually in the books, about the level of racism that people encountered,” said Riley. “They’d have letters pushed under their door when they were in hotel rooms in Australia and in England, kind of really vile stuff, racist stuff, all designed to intimidate. They would face a lot of heckling and verbal abuse. You find this early on, it affected their motivation. I don’t think it made them hateful or cynical, but it certainly made them realize they had a definite point to prove.”

Despite the fact that the West Indians struck plenty of fear in the opposition, Riley was fascinated that they maintained good relationships off the pitch with players from other countries and that they had the capacity to forge dual personas as both mean and free-spirited.

“I was trying to find out could these fast bowlers, was it a contradiction that they could bowl a lethal ball that could potentially kill you and yet still be nice guys,” said Riley. “When I interviewed the opposition players, they were very fond of the West Indies guys even at the time. There was a definite spirit the West Indies brought to the game. Yeah they introduced a very aggressive tough style of cricket, but at the same time they also had another part of the West Indian brand or character trait, to play with a smile on your face and to really love the game. That was the contradiction that the West Indies team managed quite well. They would play terrifying cricket, but at the same time they were real crowd pleasers. They saw these guys were enjoying their game and they were lighthearted with it.”

“They were going to play cricket that was designed to win and through winning, they would prove themselves and get that respect. Several players like Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall, they’re some of the most adored in the game in cricketing circles as characters. You might have had some imposing or threatening characters, scary characters like Colin Croft and maybe Andy Roberts but even Andy I could tell when I interviewed him he seemed like a nice guy, fairly quiet, but obviously very thoughtful, determined and passionate about his cricket and dedicated to winning but a nice guy underneath. I don’t think any of these players were sort of like psychopaths. That is the stereotype of fast bowlers but they were all nice guys.”

It took Riley more than a year to produce the final product. The logistical hurdles of traveling from island to island or country to country to find and interview players took a bit of time to negotiate. However, getting all the rights to use footage, images and music was an even bigger mountain to climb.

“It was tricky because everyone is kind of spread out amongst all the islands and England,” said Riley. “Everyone’s got their professional commitments. It was tough pinning everyone down. I was out in the West Indies for five weeks moving between the islands and then did some other interviews in the UK, but I managed to get everyone that I wanted actually. All the key players in the team were interviewed so it really does tell their story collectively.”

“We had to spend about six to seven months getting all the music rights. There’s a lot of music and archive in the film and it took forever to bring that stuff in, I mean a real administrative nightmare. The video footage was spread amongst many different channels, the photographic between umpteen different photographers. Then there’s 30 music tracks in the film and they all needed clearing.”

The experience of making “Fire in Babylon” was completely different to “Blue Blood”, Riley’s 2007 documentary chronicling five students attempting to make the University of Oxford boxing club in order to square off against students from Cambridge. Riley says that he acted as a fly on the wall to capture the Oxbridge rivalry whereas “Fire in Babylon” was more of an archive piece, but he found both subjects equally enjoyable to make a movie out of and it’s one of the reasons he has dedicated his time to making sports documentaries.

“I’ve looked at other films and other projects not in the field of sport, but I’m a big sports fan and I think that sport is a very fertile ground for quite epic stories and inspirational stuff because there’s a lot of high drama in sport and in some cases it’s really underpinned by a bigger story and a deeper motivation so it’s a nice kind of arena to work within,” said Riley.

“Fire in Babylon” premiered at the London Film Festival in October. It also appeared at the Glasgow Film Festival in February and the Adelaide Film Festival in March. The first of four screenings at Tribeca will take place on Saturday April 23 at 8:30 p.m. Riley hopes that sports fans and non-sports fans in New York will view the film with equal satisfaction.

“I think it’s a good inspirational, feel-good story about a genuine triumph for the underdog,” said Riley. “There wasn’t really more a disenfranchised bunch than the West Indies, this small group of islands in the Caribbean with a tiny population, combined population less than Sydney in Australia, and yet they come out as world beaters and for so long. It’s the story of the most successful team in world history who came from the most humble beginnings. It’s a feel good film with a feel good soundtrack.”

"Fire in Babylon" to be screened at Tribeca Film Festival in NYC

openingbat — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:23:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna

Director Stevan Riley’s “Fire in Babylon” will be showcased at the Tribeca ESPN Sports Film Festival as part of the wider offerings at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City later this month. The 82-minute documentary focuses on the unprecedented success of the West Indies cricket team during the 1970s and 80s.

The movie was shown last October at the London Film Festival to excellent reviews and the screenings at the Tribeca Film Festival will mark the North American Premiere of the film. In addition to “Fire in Babylon”, there are six other sports documentaries scheduled to be shown during the festival that revolve around baseball, tennis, boxing, surfing, mixed martial arts and basketball.

“Fire in Babylon” will be screened on four separate dates in New York City. On Saturday, April 23 at 8:30 pm and Thursday, April 28 at 9:45 pm, the movie can be seen at Chelsea Clearview Cinemas located at 260 West 23rd Street. On Tuesday, April 26 at 1:00 pm, the movie will be shown at the AMC Loews Village 7 located at 66 Third Avenue. The last screening will take place on Saturday, April 30 at 5:00 pm at Tribeca Cinemas located at 54 Varick Street. Tickets for the matinee show on April 26 are $8 while all other screenings are $16.

Image (right) - "Fire in Babylon" poster. [Courtesy: "Fire in Babylon" Facebook page.]

Riley previously directed a 2007 sports documentary titled “Blue Blood” about the boxing rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge in the UK. That movie made its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The Tribeca Film Festival was formed in 2002 by a group including Robert De Niro in an attempt to revitalize the TriBeCa neighborhood of lower Manhattan in the wake of 9/11. Now in its 10th year, it is recognized as one of the biggest and most successful film festivals in the world.

For more information about “Fire in Babylon”, visit www.fireinbabylon.com. For more information about the Tribeca Film Festival, visit www.tribecafilm.com.

Cricket Canada gets invited to WICB Domestic T20. USA to stay at home.

openingbat — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:54:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna

On June 10, the West Indies Cricket Board announced the introduction of a domestic Twenty20 competition. The announcement declared that the July event will include the seven regional first class teams in the Caribbean as well as one international team. The winner of the tournament will go on to participate in the Champions League Twenty20 scheduled for September in South Africa this year.

Over the weekend, Cricket Canada posted a message on their web site announcing that they will be the international team participating in the competition. Meanwhile, members of the USA national team that defeated Canada on June 6 to win the first ever ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 championship will be playing club cricket!

Full credit should go to Cricket Canada for swooping in and seizing a golden opportunity to not only give enhanced competition to their country’s cricketers, but also present them a chance to qualify for a lucrative global tournament.

Many people who were in Florida for The Pearls Cup believed that having USA play three matches against Jamaica was a great thing for the preparation of the team before the ICC Americas Division One Tournament, especially since the USA squad was going to have six new players heading to Bermuda the following week. With the unavailability of several of USA’s first choice players for the games in Bermuda, those same players were omitted from the games against Jamaica. The result was that USA was outclassed by a Jamaica team that cruised to a series sweep.

It would have been very interesting to see whether or not a full strength USA squad could have defeated a Jamaica team that will be one of the seven regional teams in this West Indies tournament. The fact that USA lost all three games might have created a stronger case for the WICB to consider Canada ahead of USA for inclusion in the event.

At the same time, Jamaica and by extension the WICB, may have taken into consideration the fact that USA didn’t field their best eleven. The approach on the field in those matches was that USA was treating the series as a set of warm-up matches before jetting off to Bermuda rather than approaching it as a truly live contest in which they were desperate to notch a win against a first class team. In the two games that USA won the toss, they elected to field first. It was a clear sign that they were not confident they could bat 50 overs or 20 overs and that it was more important to make sure the young bowlers would have an opportunity to bowl their full complement.

Make no mistake, USA was in all three matches. In particular, they were in a very good position after the first innings of each Twenty20 game against Jamaica to win both matches. USA batted last in all three games, but at no point did they look remotely interested in making a dash at the targets set. If USA didn’t have the most serious attitude towards giving their guest the most competitive games possible, why should Jamaica stump for the WICB to invite USA to the West Indies? Jamaica could afford to not have their best players participate if they wanted to win, USA could not.

Of course, there are challenges involved for USACA that do not exist for other boards in terms of organizing and selecting teams. Several players who missed out on the Bermuda tour could not go because they could not miss another week of work so soon after having taken a month off for the team’s February tour of the UAE and Nepal.

However, they surely would have been able to miss a day to play against Jamaica for a weekend of games. Obviously that would have deprived some of the players who would be going to Bermuda of getting a chance to gel in their new roles so it is a tricky balancing act figuring out what was the right course of action.

It would have been fresh in the minds of WICB administrators though that Canada fielded a full strength outfit when they played Jamaica and the West Indies in the Jamaica Cricket Festival this April. Canada also sent their U-19 squad to St. Kitts in December ahead of the ICC U-19 World Cup in New Zealand for matches against the West Indies U-19 squad.

It is crucial that USA’s players become contracted professionals as soon as possible, something which Canada has already started to do. USACA CEO Don Lockerbie stated in an open letter in January that he wants to do this. In an interview for Dreamcricket.com in February, he claimed that along with hiring a full-time national coaching staff, professionalization of USA players “should happen in 2010.” The year is almost halfway gone, and it is not clear if contracts for players will be offered anytime soon.

USA defeated Canada to be crowned the best Twenty20 team in the Americas for 2010. Canada, the second best Twenty20 team in the Americas for 2010, will be vying for a chance to go to the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa when they participate in the West Indies Twenty20 tournament in July.

[Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.]

Marlon Samuels headlines Jamaica squad traveling to Florida

openingbat — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:49:00 GMT

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

By Peter Della Penna

Fresh off a two-year ban from cricket at all levels by the ICC, Marlon Samuels is one of four former West Indies Test players in a 13-man Jamaica squad that will be playing USA in three matches this weekend at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida. According to a roster obtained from USACA, the other three players with Test match experience who will be traveling to the Sunshine State are Wavell Hinds, Carlton Baugh and Donovan Pagon while Shawn Findlay is another player with international experience who made his ODI debut against Australia in 2008.

Samuels was suspended by the ICC after a West Indies Cricket Board inquiry into his association with a bookmaker in India during a West Indies tour there in January of 2007 found that he had "received money, benefit or other reward which could bring him or the game into disrepute,” according to a BBC report from May of 2008. His suspension ended on May 16 and he wasted no time by getting onto the pitch the same day at Sabina Park in Kingston for his local club Melbourne in the fifth round of the Jamaican SuperCricket League.

At 29 years of age, Samuels still has plenty of time to push his claims to get back into the West Indies squad and will look to create a big impression in front of an American audience that will include many Jamaican supporters in Fort Lauderdale. Samuels has played 29 Tests and 107 ODIs so far, with two centuries in each format to his name.

Hinds was part of the West Indies team at the recent World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, but could not retain his place in the squad that was picked on Monday to play against the touring South Africans. Hinds scored 5 coming in at number eight in a loss to Sri Lanka and then did not face a ball after entering at number seven with three balls to go in the first innings against India in his only action of the tournament. The 34-year-old has played 45 Tests and 119 ODIs for the West Indies, scoring five centuries apiece in those forms of the game with a career high of 213 at the top of the order in the drawn first Test against South Africa at Guyana in 2005.

Jamaica arrives in Florida almost six weeks after hosting the Jamaica Cricket Festival, where they played one 50-over and one Twenty20 contest each against Associate countries Ireland and Canada. Jamaica walloped Canada in both encounters, but after chasing down 230 against Ireland in their 50-over matchup, they fell short by 3 runs to Ireland in the Twenty20 contest.

Among some of the lesser known players, Danza Hyatt is in excellent form for Jamaica. He scored 104 vs. Trinidad & Tobago at the end of February to help seal Jamaica’s third straight championship in the West Indies four-day domestic competition. Hyatt notched 102 vs. Ireland in their 50-over fixture at the Jamaica Cricket Festival in April to lead his side to victory by six wickets. Four days later in a Twenty20 match against Canada, he scored 48 off 32 balls with 10 boundaries in Jamaica’s 63-run win. Hyatt also had a pair of half-centuries in a drawn three-day match against Ireland.

Jamaica is managed by former West Indies batsman Jimmy Adams and coached by Junior Bennett. They are set to arrive on Thursday, a day before they take on USA in a 50-over match beginning Friday at 10 a.m. at the Central Broward Regional Park stadium. Saturday’s Twenty20 match against USA is scheduled for an 11 a.m. start and will be followed at 3:30 p.m. by the first Twenty20 International on American soil between New Zealand and Sri Lanka. On Sunday, New Zealand and Sri Lanka will square off in another Twenty20 International at 12 p.m. followed by USA and Jamaica once more for the final Twenty20 match of the weekend at 4 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased at the Central Broward Regional Park stadium box office, Ticketmaster outlets, online at ticketmaster.com, or by calling 1-800-745-3000.

Jamaica touring squad –

Tamar Lambert (captain), Carlton Baugh (wk), David Bernard, Nkrumah Bonner, Bevon Brown, Shawn Findlay, Wavell Hinds, Danza Hyatt, Donovan Pagon, Andrew Richardson, Marlon Samuels, Krishmar Santokie, Gavin Wallace.

Manager Jimmy Adams & Coach Junior Bennett

The Tenth MCC Tour of USA - March of 2010

openingbat — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:12:00 GMT

A brief history of MCC Tours

In 1859, a team led by George Parr toured America, playing two matches at Hoboken, two in Philadelphia and one match at Rochester. This was the first overseas tour by any English side. The team, a composite English side that drew from several first class teams before the dawn of international cricket, featured several members of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC - the custodian of the laws of cricket). The MCC members that took part in that first tour including Alfred Diver, William Caffyn, Thomas Lockyer, James Grundy, and John Lillywhite. George Parr subsequently joined MCC in 1863. Thus began MCC’s long love affair with USA.

The 1859 tour was also instrumental in triggering a tradition of visits by international teams to USA including the first such tours by Australia (1878) and West Indies (1886). Matches versus Gentlemen of Philadelphia (GOP) formed the backbone of many of these tours, and in time, the GOP began to improve and sometimes defeat the visiting teams. This emboldened the Gentlemen of Philadelphia to undertake overseas tours themselves in 1884. On the 1884 tour, the GOP played seventeen games on their first tour of England, winning nine, losing four and drawing four.

The Harvard Crimson noted with satisfaction: “Barring a crushing defeat at the hands of the celebrated Marylebone Club, generally known as the "MCC," which numbers amongst its three thousand and more members, (almost every amateur cricketer of note in England), the record of the team was very creditable.” This was a USA team's first overseas match against the MCC.

In 1905, an exclusively MCC side toured USA - a forerunner for many such MCC tours. In 1959, MCC marked the 100th anniversary of the historic tour of 1859 by traveling to USA, playing matches against Philadelphia and Washington DC. To date, MCC toured USA nine times, including most recently in 2004 when they played seven matches at four venues including New York.

The 2010 tour of MCC (March 14th - 31st, 2010)

Fast forward to 2009, when a tour to North America was planned to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the 1859 tour of George Parr XI. That much anticipated tenth tour of MCC to USA was postponed and will now take place in March of 2010 (March 14-31). For the first time ever, this MCC side will not play any matches in Philadelphia, opting to play all its matches in California and Florida, endowed with better March weather and turf wickets.

Pic (Right): John Stephenson, MCC Head of Cricket (Coutesy: MCC)

Without referring to the historic nature of the tour, John Stephenson, MCC Head of Cricket said: "MCC’s 2010 touring schedule whets the appetite. More MCC Members are applying for tours than ever before, and our tours continue to prove themselves beneficial to both our players and, most importantly, cricket in the countries we visit."

MCC Tour of March 2010 - Tour Program

The visitors will land in Los Angeles on March 15th. After a day of rest on March 16, the MCC side will play an exhibition match against the Southern California Cricket Association (SCCA) on March 17th.

On March 19th, the USA Western Region team captained by Aditya Thyagarajan will play a 40-over match, to be played at Woodley Field. Reginald Benjamin will coach the Western Region side, Imran Khan, the Manager of Team USA will assist as manager and Ganesh Sanap of NCCA will be the scorer/statistician for the match. Following the match, the Hollywood Cricket Club will host a banquet honoring the MCC.

After playing a Twenty20 match against Hollywood CC on March 20th, the action will shift to the Bay Area where on Sunday, March 21st, a North West side captained by Vijay Beniwal will play a 50-over match against the visitors at the Santa Clara cricket ground on Benton Street. The region has also planned a banquet honoring the visitors that evening.

From the San Francisco Bay Area, the visitors will proceed to Sacramento where they will play a 30-over match against the home side on March 22nd. On March 24th, the MCC will offer coaching to the Western Region’s U-19 and U-15 probables at the Collins Elementary nets in Cupertino.

From California, MCC will travel to Florida, where they will play a Twenty20 match against a West Indian XI on Friday, March 26th. The tour will end with back to back 50-over matches against USA on Saturday (March 27) and a West Indian XI (March 28th). All three matches will be played at the Lauderhill Stadium, Central Broward. The composition of the Western Region, the North West team, Team USA and West Indian squads for the matches against MCC are not yet known and will be published on DreamCricket.com when they become available.

The MCC Squad

Name	Role	Represented
Frank Russell	Manager	Buckinghamshire CCC; Gerrards Cross CC
Michael Foster	Captain & batsman	Victoria; Reigate Priory CC
Rupert Swetman	Batsman	Old Brisotlians; Westbury CC
Shani Kamalia	Batsman	Shepherds Bush CC
Paul Bryson	Batsman	ECB XI; Cheshire CCC; Highfield CC
Torquil Deacon	Batsman	Romany CC
Karl Pearson	All-rounder	Herefordshire CCC; Gore Court CC
Paul Davidge	Wicketkeeper	Huntingdonshire CC; Godmanchester Town CC
Matt Friedlander	All-rounder	Boland; Northamptonshire CCC; Cambdridge MCCU; Cambridge Granta CC
Tom Bartram	All-rounder	Durham MCCU; York CC
Simon Montgomery	All-rounder	Prestbury CC
Paul Terry	Bowler	Chicester Priory Park CC
Will Hodson	Bowler	Durham MCCU; Castleford CC
Ajaz Akhtar	Bowler	Cambridgeshire CCC; Peterborough Town CC
Sid Poole	Umpire	Middlesex League umpire
Don Shelley	Scorer	Middlesex CCC scorer

Courtesy: MCC

MCC Tour Itinerary - Sunday 14 March - Wednesday 31 March 2010

Date(s)	Info/Match	Venue
Sun 14 March	Team meeting at Lord's	Lord's
Mon 15 March	Depart for LA, USA	Heathrow
Tue 16 March	Accliamatisation & nets
Wed 17 March	Coaching session MCC v SCCA (40 overs)	Woodley CC
Thu 18 March	Rest day
Fri 19 March	MCC v Western Region (40 overs) followed by banquet hosted by Hollywood CC	Woodley CC
Sat 20 March	MCC v Hollywood All Stars (20 overs) & transfer to San Jose	Woodley CC
Sun 21 March	MCC v North West Region (50 overs)	Santa Clara Cricket Ground, Benton Street
Mon 22 March	MCC v Sacramento (30 overs)	Sacramento
Tue 23 March	Rest day
Wed 24 March	Coaching in California	Collins Elementary, Cupertino
Thu 25 March	Transfer to San Francisco Fly to Miami
Fri 26 March	Coaching & MCC v West Indian XI (20 overs)	Central Broward
Sat 27 March	MCC v USA (50 overs)	Central Broward
Sun 28 March	USA v West Indian XI (50 overs)	Central Broward
Mon 29 March	Rest day
Tue 30 March	Depart for UK
Wed 31 March	Arrive back in UK

Past MCC Tours - Statistics (Courtesy of our stats partner - Cricket Archive)

G Parr's XI in North America 1859 (not officially an MCC tour - comprised of several MCC members)

Marylebone Cricket Club in North America 1905

Marylebone Cricket Club in North America 1907

Marylebone Cricket Club in North America 1959

Marylebone Cricket Club in North America 1967

Marylebone Cricket Club in United States of America 1990/91

Marylebone Cricket Club in United States of America 1992/93

Marylebone Cricket Club in United States of America 1999

Marylebone Cricket Club in United States of America 2000

Marylebone Cricket Club in United States of America 2004

West Indies looks to bring KFC Cup cricket action to USA

openingbat — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:01:00 GMT

The West Indies Cricket Board is planning to hold their regional ODI competition, the KFC Cup in USA, the Newsday newspaper in Trinidad reported yesterday.

KFC Cup will be played in USA

If these plans come to fruition, Ft. Lauderdale in Florida will host the KFC Cup - the first such occasion that a regional ODI competition will travel overseas. The newspaper also reported that USA and Canada may compete in the tournament. All matches are likely to be played in USA, which marks a departure from the usual practice of playing all the early rounds on one island and saving the final three matches for another venue.

The KFC Cup, played in the ODI format has been around since 1972 and has been called variously as Gillette Cup, Red Stripe Bowl, and KFC Cup. The tournament usually features six Caribbean teams - Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Windward Islands and one or two invitational teams.

USA took part in this tournament in 2000, it was called the Red Stripe Bowl that year, and it impressed with a win over Barbados by two wickets. Amjad Khan top-scored with 36 in a winning effort. Of course, USA did not leave an imprint and was never invited again. Canada took part in 1995 and in 2002.

Jamaica are the defending KFC Cup champions, and Lauderhill, also known as Jamaica Hill, will hope for a repeat performance. Talking about the prospects for the Broward County Stadium, Faoud Bacchus, former USA captain said, "I believe Lauderhill is strategically well-placed. We have all the facilities, hotels and attractions and it's only a short plane ride from West Indies." Bacchus, who played for West Indies in 19 Tests and 29 one-day internationals before moving to Florida in 1988, predicted that Lauderhill will be a major cricketing center.

Years later, a Caribbean tournament sponsored by an American company is all set to make his prediction come true.