California Cricket Academy (CCA) has planned a huge cricket celebration to mark its fifth anniversary this year.

California Cricket Academy (CCA) has planned a huge cricket celebration to mark its fifth anniversary this year.

Over the last five years, CCA has successfully imparted high quality coaching to its students and many of its students now play in the best leagues in the region such as the NCCA. It should come as no surprise then that three of its students represented USA in the 2008 ICC Americas Under 15 event and that the regional Under 15 team are the national champions.

All that effort has not gone unrecognized. In 2006, it received the ICC Youth Development Volunteer of the Year Award. CCA won a Congressional Achievement award in 2007 from US Congressman Mike Honda.

Along the way, CCA has also organized or collaborated in two highly successful tours - one to India and another to England.

The focal point of CCA's fifth anniversary celebration is an Under 15 Cricket contest between USA Select and Canada Select teams. The USA Select team includes seven members of the USA U15 side whereas ten of the lads who will appear for Canada Select have represented Canada in the ICC Americas U15 tournament. The two sides will play two 40-over matches over the Thanksgiving weekend.

To round off the celebration, the CCA U15 and CCA U17 teams will play two Twenty20 matches against the visitors.

The four day event will take place in Cupertino and plans are underway to webcast some of the matches live via www.calcricket.org.

Talking about the event, Hemant Buch, co-founder of California Cricket Academy said: "We are delighted to be celebrating our fifth anniversary with an international fixture at home between USA and Canada invitational teams comprising some of the best players from both countries. We have had two international tours in the last twelve months and the boys are really benefiting from the international exposure we are providing."

Buch acknowledged the role of CCA's supporters, patrons and sponsors for their continued support. "Our sponsors have always stood by us through the last five years. And we appreciate their generous sponsorship of the USA Select versus Canada Select U15 event." Ashok Patel of USA Cricket Academy is the Platinum Sponsor. HSBC and Zee Sports USA have signed up as Gold Sponsors. Buch noted that negotiations were on with additional sponsors.

Speaking about the tournament, Aditya Sakhuja of HSBC said, "We are proud to be involved with grassroots level cricket in USA. We hope to build a strong relationship with cricketing community in the future as well."

For Zee Sports USA, which is increasing its international series coverage, including India vs England test and ODI series that begins on November 14th, 2008, the tournament presents an opportunity to spread the word about their channel accessible via Dish Network.

New Jersey based USA Cricket Academy's platinum sponsorship is a continuation of their longstanding support of junior cricket. Ashok Patel of USA Cricket Academy said: "We have a fraternal bond with all academies in USA including the CCA. We congratulate CCA on their fifth anniversary and we look forward to providing more such opportunities to junior cricketers across USA."

Cricket is all about traditions and those at the international level, such as Ashes, have played an important role in the growing popularity of the game. In fact, the first international cricket contest was a cricket match between USA versus Canada way back in 1844. As cricket progresses in USA, it is giving rise to new traditions and it is hoped that the USA versus Canada Under 15 series marks the start of a new tradition.

Teams

Ontario Academy Team (Canada Select U15)

Nitesh Kumar (Capt), Nikhil Dutta, Abbi Vaishnav, Jeevanjot Sidhu, BJ Kalsi, Bryan Henry (Vice Capt), Kesavan Juvarajan, Siddharth Mookerji, Stephan Rajasingham, Tristan Ali, Harmandeep Malhi, Talha Shaikh, Michael Jansz, Vidura Ratnayake, Tarun Doodram, Harmonjot Dhindsa.

Farouk Kirmani (Coach), Phillip Navaratne (Manager).

USA Select U15

Jason Fox, Jacques Gerber, Andrew Ajodhi, Stephen Shaw, Pranay Suri, Arsh Buch, Vikram Valluri, Krish Goel, Pranav Pradhan, Adhiraj Watave, Saurabh Deo.

CCA U-15 Team

Kapil.T (W/K), Dave Parikh, Rohan Gupta, Roshan Varadarajan (Captain), Venu Kanda, Immanuel Amirathraj, Rushab Sheth, Adyant Dutta, Aneesh Shandilya, Sandeep Peddada, Arun Chakraborty, Amar Risbud, Keshav.T

CCA-U17 Team?

Akash. J (captain), Navneet, Mihir Deo, Varun Valluri, Nishant Tenneti, Deep Sathe, Raman Nelakanti, Alok Mehta, Sagar Joshi (W/K), Anshuman Chakraborty, Vineet Parikh, Ankush Prakash.