NCCA's annual banquet and awards ceremony on Saturday, November 7th 2009 at Sunnyale (CA) was attended by the who's who of the Bay Area cricketing world.

Rajesh Singh of NCCA, November 10, 2009

NCCA's annual banquet and awards ceremony on Saturday, November 7th 2009 at Sunnyale (CA) was attended by the who's who of the Bay Area cricketing world.  Guests included Santa Clara council woman Jamie McCleod and former Glamorgan cricketer - Malcolm Nash.

Master of Ceremonies Robin Singh enthralled the audience with jokes, stories and snippets.  In his opening address, Ganesh Sanap, NCCA President, wasted little time and zoomed straight to his passion - youth cricket. Rajesh Singh, and Rajesh Suthar gave a brief update on Santa Clara, Union City kids' camp activities. 

Post Season Trophy, Awards, & Winners

The 2009 Raisinland Trophy Champions, juniors, and seniors were among the first ones to receive their team trophy. Mustangs deservedly won the trophy for 2009 NorCal T20 league champions, with Santa Clara Sox bagging runners up trophy.

Pic (Right):  Krishna Prasad, NCCA Division A MVP receiving the DIRECTV MVP of the Year award from Nigel Coutinho and Nithya Bayya of DreamCricket.com (More Photos)

By and large, individual performances were rewarded based on consistency for the entire season, and not occasional sparks of brilliance in a match.

The best batsman award went to Viral Vimawala from Berkeley. With an individual aggregate of 174 runs, Viral delivered more than Berkeley could have asked for. On his day, Viral was on fire. Jagat 's exhibition of individual flair, and natural bowling talent won him the best bowler award in the NorCal T20 league. Jagat's tally of 22 wickets was unmatched, and contributed greatly to Sox's elevated performance in the championship. He was a worthy winner of the most valuable player (MVP) of the year award, capping this year's tournament with a sensational show of 22 wickets, 4 catches, and 3 run outs. The MVP award serves to reward, and recognize the efforts in all departments of the game.

Gautam Gulati's bowling figures of 3 for 19 earned him the best bowler award in NCCA All Star Game. Legendary Sunny Singh's 87 solid runs contributed to his nomination for the best batsman, and MVP. Sunny's brilliant century also earned him the highest individual score award for 2009 Price Cup. In the gaiety and gallantry of his stroke play, Sunny personifies a complete batsman.

Youth Talent Awards

In the way Neil Tagare bats, bowls and fields, he symbolizes a complete youth cricketer. Neil's super calm composure, and ruthless, dominating batting style, supported with quality right arm leg spin bowling rightfully earned him the MVP for 2009 All Star U-15 championship.

In Shefath's fast bowling, one can see glimpses of several young test cricket fast bowlers of recent times. Sefath is known for destructive batting with several key performances under his belt. Little wonder then, Sefath was voted MVP for 2009 Independence Cup U-15 championship.

The most promising youth cricketer of the year 2009 award landed to Shiva Vashisht for his tally of 749 runs, 11 wickets, and 8 catches in the A-division. This award is in honor of Fardin Qayyumi, a brilliant, young, talented lad who died too young. 

Bank of India Cup, Price Cup Awards, Trophy, & Winners

The individual best bowling performance award for Bank of India Cup went to Deep Saini from Cougar's II. With 5 wickets in 4 overs for a mere 13 runs, only Deep could have bowled better than himself. He went on to score 129 runs, to cap the coveted MVP award.

East Bay got a taste of Central Valley's Harpal Singh's fiery bowling in the Price Cup. With match figures of 4-1-11-5, Harpal single handedly destroyed East Bay, earning a total of 9 wickets to capture all the bowling awards for 2009 Price Cup. Valley cricketers dominated batting awards for 2009 Price Cup. Ranvir Kumar garnered a total of 194 valuable runs for his team, and 3 important catches to bag the prestigious MVP award.

Regular Season League Trophy, Awards, and Winners

This year’s regular league season, D-division, witnessed an exemplary performance by Sukhwant Sekhon from Fresno. Sukhwant, at his peak, blasted 158 runs against United-II in a single match that earned him the highest individual score award. United's Sunil Chanan retaliated with a spectacular bowling performance of 8.2-0-19-5 that earned him the best bowling award. Sukhwant's consistent batting performance netted an aggregate of 471 runs, more than any other batsman in the D-division. No one matched his 30 wickets in the bowling department too. Little doubt then, Sukhwant was adjudicated best all-rounder for D-division. Such a multifaceted performance from a single individual is commendable.

C-division had its share of individual performances, fun, and excitement. Against Marin-II, Amitoj Ahluwalia from East Bay-II blasted his way to the highest individual score award with 142 runs in a single match. Rohan Chandran's demonstration of sensational performance was self evident in the bowling analysis which read 7.3-3-8-8, put it simply an unplayable bowling frankly speaking. It was the very best ever witnessed in a C-division match, and rightfully so Rohan grabbed the best bowling award. To get 8 wickets in 7 overs for 3 runs is not a feat I see over passed in near future. Nandu Iyer from Spartan had a total tally of 29 wickets beating every other bowler in the C-division. East Bay-II star batsman Rakesh Singh was rightly adjudicated the best batsman after an impressive haul of 454 runs besides of course contributing massively to the success of his team.

Nirav Shah from Davis delivered an unmatched, superlative bowling performance grabbing 24 wickets to bag the best bowling award in B-division. Nirav leading by example, attacked all the time delivering exemplary performance in pressure games. Indus-I’s Praveen Koka batted most consistently throughout the season scoring an impressive 686 runs, that speaks volumes of his talent, and hunger for runs to bring home the best batsman award for the season.

Both bowling, and batting awards for A-division were heavily skewed towards Santa Clara. Sujesh Pulikkal from Santa Clara spent more time this season refining his bowling to reap handsome rewards. At 29 wickets, nobody in NCCA’s A-division had better bowling stats than this guy for the year. Shiva Vashisht’s tally of 749 runs earned him the best batsman award for A-division. Shiva on several occasions throughout the season batted as if on fire. His possession of exceptional striking ability, and graceful batting style makes him a treat to watch. Sujesh, and Shiva contributed massively towards Santa Clara’s sensational performance in A-division.

Team Awards

Cougars won the coveted Bank of India cup, Valley staked claim for Price Cup. Cougars-II emerged overall victorious in D-division; Spartans were crowned C-division champions; Valley-II resurged with top honors in the B-division; the most coveted team award for A-division championship winners went to Cougars. It was a just reward for all their hard work, and preparation going into the season with a single-minded determination to top the table.

Central Valley, East Bay-I, East Bay-II, Tri-Valley were rewarded for exemplary behavior in the cricket field, as they claimed the most sporting award "Team of the year". What these teams exhibited on the field is commendable, and goes a long way to promote spirit of the game. Kudos to all team members for fostering such positive culture within the team, and across.

Umpiring Award

Umpiring is generally one of the toughest, but least rewarding, and high criticism job. Although, it's not humanly possible not to commit umpiring errors, players, coaches, audience, officials’ tolerance for umpiring mistakes is very low. By every measure of yardstick, Anuj Patel defied all odds to be rated NCCA’s top umpire for 2009.

Special Recognition

NCCA awarded trophies to several fraternity members for special contributions: Rajesh Suthar, Mahendra Patel, Owen Graham, Sarabjit Chadha, Malcolm Nash, Sriram Ramamurthy, Dashrath Sankhe, Dhruv Khanna, Anuj Patel, and Umesh Kelkar.  The recognition reflects countless hours of selfless dedication, outstanding service, and specific actions that demonstrated a pattern truly worthy of distinction.

The most praise went to president Ganesh Sanap for his tireless contributions to development of the game in Bay Area and an unflinching desire to transform cricket in general, youth cricket in particular!

Music, Dance, Magic Show

The awards ceremony was filled with colorful bhangra dance, solo mouth organ performance, and kids' favorite magic show.   Bashobi pulled one from under the hat, with a display of solo mouth organ performance playing yesteryear's popular Sholay number "Yeh Dosti Hum Nahin Todenge", much to the audience delight.  Kids enjoyed every moment of the magic show, which was very well organized.

NCCA's inimitable DJ was simply the best on his day, carting a unique compilation of various mixes of mood settings to perfect the entire atmosphere. The ambience was highly provocative of celebration, dance, and music.

The audience was rewarded with a star 3-D treatment: dinner, dessert, and drinks. They were soon celebrating, and dancing their way on a packed floor until late in the evening before calling it quits.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/ncalyouthcricket/NCCA2009AwardsNight_SnehaBanquetHall#

NCCA 2009 Banquet Videos :

Part One : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lzbBDL55Vo

Part Two : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIbAUGCSUFs

Part Three : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkkMkFOKHSg

Part Four : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdpob8AfpZQ

Part Five : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOUl92zJBqM

Part Six : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPtjZXvZaQA