Discussion for games played during weekend of June 2nd

Discussion and Prediction Board for games played during weekend of June 2nd

MVP of May - 07 Season

For the month of May-07, we had 22 games in Div-1, 34 games in Div-2 and 8 games in Div-30/30. We had 2 centuries in Div-1, 5 centuries in Div-2 and 1 century in Div-30/30.

Div-1MVP: Sohail Alvi(St Louis)

Sohail leads the division 1 table with 31 points. He is yet to be dismissed this season with scores of 91*, 53* and 35* for a total of 179 runs and has helped St Louis to a 3-0 season. Sohail is followed by the two members from the other 3-0 team: Milwaukee Cricket Club. Romesh Kadlec has 22 points, followed by Asif Mehmood with 21 points.

Div-2MVP: Suresh Paul(Advancers)

Suresh leads the division 2 points table with 31 points. He scored a total of 228 runs with one century - 138* and 5 and 85*. Suresh is followed by Sanjiv Patel with 25 points and Ajay Gandhi-IIT, Madhu Reddy- PCC, Nirav Nayak-Raiders and Vishal Patel-Raiders all with 22 points.

Div-30/30MVP: Nirav Patel-Deepark and Shahzad Rashid-Hammond

Nirav and Shahzad lead the div-30/30 points table with 23 points. Nirav scored 94 and bagged 5 wiks against South Barrington. Shahzad scored a century-100 and 84 for a total of 184 runs and bagged 2 wiks. They are followed by Hardik Patel - DeePark and Ahmed Lakhani - Strikers with 11 points each.

Discussion Board for games played during weekend of May 19th

Discussion Board for games played during weekend of May 19th

The role of the Captain???

Captains play a huge role in a team, not only for binding a team and helping get the right combination, but also for the strategic aspect of the game. The blame for a sub-par season / tournament falls on the captain and rightly so. A bad decision by a captain could result in a lost game. Not playing enough bowlers in a Test match, and although your team puts up a decent score, you can't get 20 wickets to win the game. Choose to bat second in the World Cup semi-finals on a newly laid out pitch, and then watch Sanath Jayasuriya turn the ball square and make you look like a fool! Don't know how to handle an English attack with reverse swing, and you lose the Ashes for the first time in 20 years! There are countless such instances of poor captaincy that come to mind.

But how often does good captaincy come to mind. Not often, simply because it could mean putting a short mid off in place and thus not allowing the opposing batsman to play his shots freely. So instead, he can't score at will, and then gets out after a sub-par performance, and your team wins the game. The captaincy is rarely credited, but a simple act like that could have huge implications on the game. Bringing on the spinners at the right time. Making subtle field placements. Changing your bowlers effectively. Having a strategy to implement if the opposition is going hammer and togs at you. Very few captains have shown true accumen for such a role. Great captains are but a few, and when they come around, everyone else is dwarfed by their presence. I think of people like Imran Khan who moulded the Pakistan team, Stephen Flemming who out-thought so many rivals, Steve Waugh who perfected the art of mind games, Saurav Ganguly who brought a fighting spirit and results to the Indian team, and Hansie Cronje who understood the fine art of angles and field placement. There are many more who I haven't mentioned, but who were great leaders.

But remember, a captain isn't necessarily a great player. Take Mike Bearly vs Ian Botham. The latter is one of the greatest all rounders of the game, but a poor captain. The former was a decent batsman, but an outstanding captain. Is Tendulkar a great captain, or just a great player? Can the same be said for Lara? Is Ricky Ponting a good captain? Or does he just have great talent around him?

Those are some of the things that I want to hear your opinions on. Also, what about our very own MCC league? Who is a good captain in our league? What makes him such a good captain? Is he a good leader? Does he understand the game? Are his field placements spot on? Does he take risks that often pay off?

Who would fall into the list of top 10 captains?

Live Score Updates: Need your help

This weekend please send score updates to mcclive(at)googlegroups.com during and/or after your game. If you subscribe to the service you can get the live scores in your email as they come in. Otherwise you can see them on the top-right corner of the blog. Note that the subject line in your email is what we see on the blog. Thank You.

update: Since this did not work in the manner it was envisioned, I have removed this group from the blog.

MCC Grounds

We have close to 20 grounds in our league including the 7 in Chicagoland. While Hanover Park has the best facility in the Chicagoland, it is a pleasure to play in St Louis and Mossville(home of PCC). Which ground do you like the most and which do you dislike and why? How have the grounds been this year so far?

Discussion Board for games played during weekend of May 12th

Discussion Board for games played during weekend of May 12th

MCC Live -- Real Time Scores - an experiment

There are weekends when I have sat at home waiting and wondering what the score was for my team and other games where my friends are playing. Today is one such. I'm sure many of you may have been in similar situations before. So, rather than wait and hope, I'm trying a new experiment on our blog that hopefully should help us get the game scores out sooner to folks like me who are sitting at home and changing diapers.

Here is what I have done. I set up a group called [mcclive(at)googlegroups.com]. I left it as an open group so that anyone can post a message by sending an email to the above address. Then I took an RSS feed of the messages and put it on a module on the upper right corner of the blog. So, if all goes well we should be seeing scores and news as they are posted. If you are at the ground please send emails with quick score updates to the above address.

You can also get these scores in your email capable phone/mobile device by signing up as a member for this group. You can control the messages from the group's settings. If people actually start sending messages to this address we may have a really cool feature - live score updates of all games. Let's see how this experiment goes.

Update: The live RSS Feed is not working. Can one of you IT Scientists please help me? I need the url of the message feed. I have tried it a number of times without success. If you know how to do this please post the url here. Thank You!

New Update: After much tweaking the live feed is working....except that it is not updating as new messages come in. While those who are subscribed will be getting the scores/news immediately in their inbox the blog window is getting updated slowly. I will keep testing and tweaking. If any of you know what the problem is please help.

Pick an umpire

Its a thankless job..this umpiring..but, lets be grateful to these brave souls who take the time and effort to do this. Who all deserve to be in a fictional MWCC Elite Panel?

Discussion Board: Weekend of May 5th

Discussion Board for games played during weekend of May 5th

We fight unto death... or maybe just the last wicket!!

Rivalry. It is an integral aspect to any competitive sport. No sport can really grab the imagination if there are no rivalries between teams / players. Because when there is a rivalry, the tension is palpable, the skill level a notch higher, and the effort that little bit more to win against your rival. And it's not just the players, but even the crowds that will get sucked up into the spirit of the moment and for that short period of time become a part of the game itself.

American football has rivalries - Packers vs Bears, Buccaneers vs Panthers, Colts vs Titans, Rams vs Seahawks, Ravens vs Steelers, and ofcourse, 'skins vs 'boys! Baseball has Yankees vs Red Sox, Yankees vs Mets, Cubs vs Cardinals, Cubs vs Whitesox, etc. And of course, cricket has it's share of rivalries - England vs Ozzies, All Blacks vs Ozzies, India vs Pakistan, South Africa vs Ozzies, and then the individual ones - Tendulkar vs McGrath, Tendulkar vs Shane Warne, Donald vs Dravid, Lara vs McGrath, Flintoff vs Ponting, Atherton vs Donald, Richards vs Botham, etc. This list is endless.

So, in our small world of the MCC, what are the big rivalries? Wildcats vs MUCC? Satha vs Rup? Pak Gym vs Muslim Gym? Madison vs AAA? Asif Mahmood vs Shahid Munir? Challengers vs Phoenix? Ok, so the last one might be a stretch, but from what I hear and see, it could build up into one. I'd love to read and hear about the rivalries from the opinion of memebers and bloggers. Individual, or team - whatever they are.

If nothing else, it'll spice up some of the games this season. Rivalries. Gotta love them......

New Intitiatives ??

Last year one of the most successful intiatives launched was the Midwest Cricketer Blog. It was a wonderful idea, giving members of the league a place to voice their opinions and to share insights. Hopefully, some of the ideas will lead to new initiatives this year as the league tries to build upon itself and improve it self.

One of the problems last year was that some of the good ideas came out too late. Too late to have the All-Star game. Too late to really have a fantasy league. Too late to have an MCC banquet. Ok, so scratch the last one from the list, but you get the point. Lets start that discussion early this year, and lets see if we can get some of those ideas in motion. Here is what I have so far:

1. All-Star game
2. Fantasy League
3. Improving the mats (astroturf anyone?) at Washington Park, and elsewhere
4. Holding an MCC Banquet this year
5. Weekly awards / recognition for outstanding performances
6. Greater dialogue with the Administration on league matters
7. Greater participation in externally held events
8. Mandatory Umpire's seminar / training to improve umpiring
9. Improving practice facilities, etc.
10. Cutting the grass on the grounds

What else do you guys think we should do to improve our league and the standard of cricket? Are we doing enough to expand the league? I think it would be great to get a bunch of ideas and pass them onto the management and then have them provide feedback on what they plan to do about them. So please, do suggest any ideas you have, build upon these ideas, but provide constructive suggestions that can be used and implemented.

written by Aditya Burman

Season 07

Welcome to Season 07. Hope you all had a great off-season.
I loved the world cup, even though Team India lost out the way they did. There were some amazing memories.. the spirit of the Irish, the monster called Hayden, Gilchrist's (and ponting) innings when it matters the most, Collingwood's catches, Gibbs six sixes, Malinga's spell to Taylor, Tamim and Ashraful's innings, ... I can keep going on.

Back to our league. There have been quite a few changes that I wanted to update you all on.

A few of you knew this earlier.. I officially stepped down as the General Secretary of our league at the second AGM. I have a lot of personal commitments for this year and didnt want to take up the role knowing that I couldnt do justice to it. I will be transitioning all my responsibilities to my replacement.

I switched teams this season. It was a hard decision to leave the Tigers after playing for 5 years. I have met some amazing people and will cherish their friendships. I will be playing for Phoenix.

People on the move(unconfirmed):
Athreya: Tigers to Phoenix
Vinod: Tigers to Wildcats
Anand: Tigers to Royals
Jaggi: Tigers to Phoenix
Naveen: Tigers to Phoenix
Venkat: PCC to Flames
Rupesh: Royals to Challengers
Sheks: No Stars to Challengers
Ankur: Flames to somewhere in the westcoast
Mateen: from Flames to United
Imran: from Chargers to NoStars
Farraz: NoStars to Acers

If you know more, leave a comment.