Midwest issues show cause notice to USA U-15 Cricketer

Midwest issues show cause notice to USA U-15 Cricketer
by DreamCricket USA
Jun 05, 2008

Midwest issues show cause notice to USA U-15 Cricketer

The Management of the Midwest Cricket Conference issued a 'show cause' notice to 6 of its members for representing a different league in a Regional Tournament. Included on the list was fifteen year old Abhijit Joshi, who recently scored four consecutive half-centuries playing for ICC Americas XI at the Clico International U-15 tournament.

Five of the named players are part of the United Cricket Club. The players, including Abhijit, were not part of the official Midwest team at the Central East Regional tournament.

Many cricketers in the Chicago region, including Abhijit, play in multiple leagues. In Abhijit's case, he plays for his academy team in the National Cricket League, which is run by his father (and coach) Chidambar Joshi.

Talking about his decision to play in the Midwest Cricket Conference, the region's toughest league, Abhijit is reported to have told his team mates - "I am very excited to play in the (MidWest) league among all the talented seniors. I am really looking forward to play in Division I."

"People should understand that this is not a disloyal act - it is not Kevin Pietersen turning up to play for UK because he did not get on the South African team. Playing for multiple leagues is a done thing in Chicago. A lot of my friends play in multiple leagues. We do this because we like to play more cricket than what just one league can afford. In my case, the two leagues also play a different format," one Chicago cricketer told DreamCricket.com. He said, "this phenomenon is so prevalent here that it is quite pervasive. The General Secretary of the American Cricket Conference, Khurram Syed, is also the President of the ICML league. And Khurram is the Chairman of the regional board as well."

A parent of a junior cricketer in New Jersey said, "Abhijit is an amazing cricketer and has put USA on the world cricket map. This kid deserves as much exposure as our system can provide. He should not be faulted for wanting to play with the best junior and senior players in the region, on the contrary, he should be encouraged to do so. My appeal to his management is - don't make a young cricketer's life difficult. It is hard enough for a 15 year old who aspires to play for USA. Each week, the kid needs to organize a ride to the ground, make time for the sport outside of his regular sporting activities due to the non-existence of school cricket, then he has to deal with all the other issues that plague USA cricket - poor infrastructure, rough weather, short season, lack of high level competition, etc."

Midwest gave until yesterday (June 4th) to the players to show cause to the league management stating "the reasons for their actions and why the league should not take appropriate actions as suggested in the rules." The "players have chosen to defy the league's conditions," the league said, adding that a decision on their suspension would be made by June 6th.

Interestingly, the presence of multiple leagues in the Chicago area serving many of the same cricketers came to the forefront in the recently concluded national election.

One league administrator said - "In the USACA election where a league enjoyed the same right to vote regardless of the number of non-overlapping players, or even the size of the league, I think that was a bad idea because it skewed that election, but that is a topic for another day."

"This is really about players who played for their other league in a regional competition. 'Dual citizenship' is a practical reality in Chicago cricket. The leagues and the region need to work together and resolve this in a manner that is not detrimental to the future of bright cricketers like Abhijit."