Adnan said.. Sounds to me that someone is desperately trying to justify his inclusion in the team. Discovered after they came to L.A. that he had a shoulder injury?????? ------------------------------------- Tushar is one of the best we have. If he picked up an injury in the last minute, it is a bad thing for him and definitely bad for the team that was picked and finally bad for the league. He is definitely not one to get a free trip to LA or wherever...definitely has better things to do. Why are picking on Tushar? If you want answers, you should learn to give them. I have been asking for financials from you, but have only got silence so far.
Adnan said... Tango, watch it and don't talk to your father in such a tone. -------------------------------------- What a dignified reply from an "experienced" player. You are absolutely right.. "There is no substitute for experience".
Adnan said... Post your personal financial records on the blog and I will do the same. ------------------------------------- If I spent money on something that affected the entire 800 member cricket community, I definitely would. I dont want your grocery bills, all I want to see is how much you spent on this lawsuit that affected me. I think I have that right!!
Adnan.. as I have mentioned before, this blog is not for personal attacks on fellow mates and especially not their family members. Please ensure that the line is not crossed. I am deleting the some of the comments you made.
Hello All, This is my first year in MCC and I have been always thinking of participating in this blog but I am sorry to say that this blog has not been portraying a good picture to someone who is new to MCC.
===================================lol, Adnan is like a 'paagal kutta', will bite anything and everything he sees :) ============================ Jaggi, you consider this dignified?
Guys.. i certainly do not desire to be the blog cop and track down on people who makes these comments. I do not have the time to go through every single comment and decide if people crossed the line or not. We have to learn to be more discpilined and ignore comments when certain individuals cross the line.
I beleive most of us here make the point without being abusive. There are wonderful ideas that are shared that will help us get better as a league.
last year before going to l.a open challenger played against st.louis where tushar got hurt. as you know shohil alvi was playing that game and he knew tushar got injured. i bet tariq even knew that tushar got injured and he wasn't able to performe with bat or bowl. even after l.a he missed out couple of games for challenger where he didn't bat or either bowled. he wanted to go there to have fun, so he went. i don't know about he went there on his own expense. other hand bhavesh was picked to go l.a even though he didn't had a good performance last year. managment did made a mistake last year. they could have picked daxx or mahesh instead of those 2. daxx has ability to contribute at any given sitiuation. it's just my opinion. daxx and darshan been fanstastic in 20 over night games. they been scoring a runs in night games rather than bhavesh. tushar is good but he was injuired. tushar is perfect player for 20 over games cause he can bat as well as bowl good.
Wow, I am surprised to read lot of things in the blog and I was completely shocked to read that this league went through a lawsuit.
I thought the league just needed a better structure of organizing divisions where every team gets a fair chance to compete against each other to eliminate this so called fake superiority phobia that majority of the A div players have, who are merely pretenders. I am going to fade away from this for now and get back to the surprise lawsuit news.
I didn't know this much politics existed home away from home to promote Cricket in this land. This is a not-for-profit organization which can secure sufficient funds to promote and expand Cricket if everybody works collectively.
I command those who sees mismanagement and raises the voice (Adnan should be respected for that). True democracy is built on such voices. I also command the management who is willing to devote lot of their personal time to such not-for-profit ogranization out of their interest and hobby to serve Cricket. Life is too short and a sacrifice of any time should be treated as priceless. It has no boundaries for its values. The opportunity cost is limitless.
First of all when the ogranization becomes too big its very hard to micro-manage. I am sure Tariq does his best to oversee the operation and he shouldn't be solely liable for any abuse or conflicts. In true management sense Tariq should be left alone to focus on expansion and his team should be in charge to tackle day to day operations.
The best solution I see is the league should consider appointment of BOD (Board of Directors) whereas, electing 8-10 independent board members to meet once every month and discuss problems, financials and other areas for betterment of Cricket. This BOD's will have full access to overlook financials and board members should be independent of the presidents team with only President and Secretary eligible for member of BOD.
Everybody needs to think outside the box and if the top agenda of the league is to prmote cricket then the differences must be resolved within closed doors. When the dirt spills outside to the level of courts and lawyers it is a bad representation on the face and it can be harmful to the level that it can dissolve.
Every one's Ultimate goal should be to have fun, & playball.
By the way on the side note best player I rate in this league is 'Ashvin' from Purdue. The guy has true cricketing sense and makes everyone around him better. He guy possesses great energy level as well as perfect cricketing strokes all around the field.
If I spent money on something that affected the entire 800 member cricket community, I definitely would. I dont want your grocery bills, all I want to see is how much you spent on this lawsuit that affected me. I think I have that right!! ;):):):):):):):):))):):):):):):):): you do spend your money that affects the entire 800 member cricket community...when you pay your dues! why not take this up to the administration of this league who chose to goto court instead of simply showing how your money is being spent? you have that right don't you? VP, we all have made choices we live with, this time TA and his cronies made the wrong one! Now the entire league has to foot the bill. is that fair? i think your anger is channled towards the wrong direction. what we need in this league is transparency,and that will never happened until the current regime is in power! we need to break up this hold and give equal power to each team. no one person should have that much control. if we want to build a successful organization it has to start from the top! we need to make a change in 08!!!!
================================ The best solution I see is the league should consider appointment of BOD (Board of Directors) whereas, electing 8-10 independent board members to meet once every month and discuss problems, financials and other areas for betterment of Cricket. This BOD's will have full access to overlook financials and board members should be independent of the presidents team with only President and Secretary eligible for member of BOD. ================================= Playball you have my vote for presidency. Creating Board of Directors is easy. BoD can be cosnisted of 4 Captains from Div II teams who finished as top 4 and 4 teams from Div I. These members will serve for the period of 2 years and will be responsible for running the organization. The president should concentrate on promoting the league and making sure MWCC is represented at regional and national level.
I have added a video panel to the blog. These are random videos from Youtube/Google Videos that have "midwest cricket" somewhere in the description. So, if you add videos please make it a point to say "midwest cricket" somewhere in your text description. I believe the most recent video will be automatically posted on top. I wanted to add the Satha and Shahid Munir interviews ( both of which are on google videos) to this, but if I add their names to the tag, we also get non-cricket clips up here. I will keep playing with this and hopefully we will get it right. If not, this will go right on top of the last experiment..MCClive (RIP).
chro.. by no means am I happy with the current management. There is no doubt that it is highly inefficient. I for sure will tell me team to vote for change. I think Adnan is a good player, but just do no like the way he has approached things. He jumped on Akbar's bandwagon just to prove a point. 40K spent by the mgmt & the ?? spent by Adnan is a ridiculous amt to be given to the lawyers.... akbar was definitely the wrong horse for United to back. There is no doubt that he will be better than the current mgmt but who wouldnt be? His current childish statements makes me wonder how seriously I should take his statements.
so milw won looks like st louis didnt like their trip up north this wkend and milw is the top team with 4-0 after being near the bottom last season and also being bowled out for a really low score v pak i cant rem the exact # 30something.
Also, any teams interested in a batsman (or so I'd like to believe!)? I'd really like to play the nite tourney this year, and I'm not sure that Phoenix is going to put up a team. So wanted to see if any of the other teams have any room for me.
SIUE ground has long thick grass in the outfield..very few boundaries are possible.Also bowling is done only from one end as the other end is very uneven. We had pretty heavy winds when we played..
SIUE ground has long thick grass in the outfield..very few boundaries are possible.Also bowling is done only from one end as the other end is very uneven. We had pretty heavy winds when we played..
It was fun reading all the blogs I missied. You all keep beating dead horses to anounce their squads. You are not gona get it. Here is the reason why, You guys will kill em when you see DA squad and they ain't afford that right now. Who ever Adnan selects is up to him as it's their monies. My problem is that "MWCC don't look well if it's not a strong team and performs poorly". If MWCC does not hold a trials then who knows what we will get and If we see a DIV 1 Team only you will find a bunch of Disgrunted Div 2 guys. (paying for something they are not benefitting from).
SIUE, We need direction to this ground posted on the Web page. What this about playing from one end. How can we allow this to happen. If the ground is not fit to paly from both ends I say sell it and get a good one or they can travel all their games or fix it. MWCC has budgeted funds to fix grounds, how come we can't spend a few bucks to fix this one?? The teams that have played there needs to send a report in so management can look into and fix the problem?.
Law 2 - Substitutes and Runners, Batsman or Fielder Leaving the Field, Batsman Retiring, Batsman Commencing Innings Law 2 shall apply subject to the following: 2.1 Law 2.5 - Fielder absent or leaving the field Law 2.5 shall be replaced by the following: If a fielder fails to take the field with his side at the start of the match or at any later time, or leaves the field during a session of play, the 1 umpire shall be informed of the reason for his absence, and he shall not thereafter come on to the field during a session of play without the consent of the umpire. (See Law 2.6 as modified). The umpire shall give such consent as soon as practicable. If the player is absent from the field for longer than 8 minutes: 2.1.1 the player shall not be permitted to bowl in that innings after his return until he has been on the field for at least that length of playing time for which he was absent. 2.1.2 the player shall not be permitted to bat unless or until, in the aggregate, he has returned to the field and/or his side’s innings has been in progress for at least that length of playing time for which he has been absent or, if earlier, when his side has lost five wickets. The restriction in Clauses 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 above shall not apply if the player has suffered an external blow (as opposed to an internal injury such as a pulled muscle) whilst participating earlier in the match and consequently been forced to leave the field. Nor shall it apply if the player has been absent for very exceptional and wholly acceptable reasons (other than injury or illness). In the event of a fieldsman already being off the field at the commencement of an interruption in play through ground, weather or light conditions or for other exceptional circumstances, he shall be allowed to count any such stoppage time as playing time, provided that he personally informs the umpires when he is fit enough to take the field had play been in progress.
NW, Why me.. I will like to see the leaders do it and ASAP. Just for fun I will post mines later. Up to two years ago I use to Brag about how good and efficient our league was compare to all other leaguse. NY, Florida even the West coast & Canada. None could match what we do. Lots of my friends check MWCC web page to see how we are doing. Over the last weekend I had some New York Friends in town. Man I was sorry I opened my big mouth to talk about MWCC. One told me MWCC is S***S these days. You have become like our leagues, Looks like your monies are spent for other reasons than cricket. Another asked how come we always send a shi****Y team to LA if we are this big and doing so well. I said I ain't the selector and not in management. And we have people in this league talking about how USACA is run. Man i feel bad but I have to stick it out for the betterment.
well i understand. but there either you can sit outside and crib about everything mgmt do( probably they deserve it) or pressure them to do the right thing. you can put up like 30 people here so we all can talk about it. i bet mgmt will see it and they will be pressured to do at least something right.
so why dont you take the initiative. since you are going to stand up for president.
i thought jaggi tried his level best to convince mr. president last yr on number of things (all star, regionals, auditing the finance report etc..)and failed. so if he was in the management and still could not get TA to move a muscle, what are bunch of guys with no names going to achieve.
Ok Here is my 15 on the books as of today bar no injuries. Sohail Alvi Afroze Siddiqui Asif Mahmood Satha Maninder Bola Shahid Munir Mehul Shani Suresh Paul Raheel Madhu Redhi Jack Challenor Daxx Ruchir Bhavesh Amin Rup... Manager/player if no injures or withdrawals this will be the squad on the plane to LA. If you think anyone on this squad should not go, Name his replacement and give credentials?
so why not invest some money and invite professional cricketers??? that will set the league on fire we can learn how to play with and from some of the really great cricketers? ex windies ex india/paki they are everywhere and will almost do anything for money!!
Tango, Remember LA is not just the LA open, A lot of US cricket events are held there and managment don't see eye to eye with USACA. So we have a lot of Midwest so call teams show up. Even the LA open we feel the best team is not going??. We need to form a Core team and fill in the blanks to make the core stronger. Take a look at any sports and you will see a team is built around a core know as franchise players.
that will set the league on fire we can learn how to play with and from some of the really great cricketers? ex windies ex india/paki they are everywhere and will almost do anything for money!! --------------------
n like anhonestq said u need one more spinner, may be a spinner allrounder instead of ruchir who has pace but i dont think at this stage deserves a place in mcc all star team. spinner-batsmen u can include are samarth or bakshi.
I went with Raheel instead of him. If I include him then out goes Raheel. We got a couple weeks more to see which of the two is in more form a a bowler and the better goes.
1. Afroze: I don't know why everyone is in love with this fellow. He's a decent player, but All Star? please. I'd replace him with Bhavneet/Kamran. 2. Ruchir: 20 over game, we can't afford to have someone who bowls all over the place. I'd rather have Nilesh/Sanjay from the Challengers. 3. Bhavesh: How? Why? Because he has one good game you put him on the All Star team? I'd replace him with someone like Samarth. 4. Madhu Reddy: Good bat, but we have better. How can you leave out Ajit. The guy is the best batsman in our league.
btw. Whose your wicket keeper? How about Mahesh Parikh? (assuming Todd is not available). I'd take out one spinner. Don't really need more than two spinners. Bola and Asif are enough.
How do you leave Imran Syed out and still manage to have some pretty mediocre players? Those of us who have played against Imran certainly know what he is capable of. The guy has played on elite level and was terrific last year. He has also scored two 50s in last three matches.
Sohail keep wicket, Satha can keep also. Ruchir, I have never seen this guy bowl, everytime I look up on this blog one of you talking about how good and quick he is. He is young and we will give hima a chance. now he is no good?? make up your minds. Madhu is an excellent alrounder and that is why he is on the squad. Bhavesh..Ihe can't bowl then we can re-consider spinner alrounder?
Rup, I'm not sure who I'd take out from your team, but I agree with Tango. I cant imagine a team leaving Chicago without Ajit and Nilesh on board.These two would easily make it into most good league teams in the country. They are both extremely talented, have tons of experience and have a great work ethic. Romeen
So I forgot, Mehul may not go if Adnan's statement hold true. In come Nilesh. Who is anther good spinner in MWCC..We got Asif??. And don't tell me he chucks??. Romeen i hear ya..Tough to leave out those guys but we can only take 14.
we should have vareity in spinners also........... asif, bola, samrath is 3 left-arm-spinners...... make up ur mind.... or rather ur prioriy..... asif first, then ?????????????
afroze is not a bad pick...... quick runnig-between-wickets, brillant fielding and quiet descent off-spinner...... bhavneth is maybe best leg-spinner in our leauge, plus one of the best bat??? dax and mahesh (keeper) are best 2 player in challenger...... criminal to leave them out........ if bhaves not bowl (we all know why), he bat down in the order these days for challenger! u want number 9 batsman who can't bowl???
imran is in........ prize for most run in last season, plus fast hitting...........
i want no fast bowler........ better medium pacer with brain...... our 'fast' bowler no match for profesional...... give me nilesh (best yorker), satish, mehul, etc any day over ruchir and raheel (only pace )..........
Lindsy Lohan is top 100 maxim celebrity list..and Alba is not...
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Rup, how about more players form divisionII? How about Lakshmi from IIT and Yasin from Giants. Not many people know about either of the above mentioned players, but these cats can play.
I say we make Lindsay Lohan our Assistant manager.. I'm sure Rup wouldn't mind that either.. We'll have a lot of support going to LA too....hey I'm on the next plane..
You can never pick to suite every one. My objective to try and put together the best team and then replace as see fit for future tours Or we can put all these guys on a bus and drive to LA.
So after all of this it can be safe to say that only an all star game between the divs and Alba & Lohan present will let us know whos needs to be on the team??
i would only consider Imran (AAA) and Sharat (MUCC) for wk bat....mahesh past prime and todd not playing at all these days......Phoenix/Purdue/AAA/MUCC how you rate these two wk...they cmae from div 2.....div 1 what you guys think.
Ok Decan, We can only take 14 players. The pure batsmen I picked I feel are better than the ones you mentioned. As you can see I selected more alrounders as I feel this is a good quality to perform well in 20/20 tours.
I just thought of clarifying an incident that was reported by Mehul.
I (or Capitol CC) don't know all the rules and regulations of the MWCC with regards to allowing the opponents to practice on the pitch prior to the game or between the game. When we played United CC on Sunday, after they had batted, they were practicing on the pitch. We had informed them (through Sadiq) not to practice on the pitch. Typically, when a pitch is laid for a game, the teams (home and away) do not practice in the middle whether its a jute or a turf surface. However, I've had seen some teams practicing in the middle at WP on a game day. Years back, when we had gone out in the middle to practice at WP prior to the game, we were told not to practice and we thought it was the rule. If this is not the rule, then we will allow the away teams to practice on the pitch. I believe management can clarify this.
I don't agree with Mehul's comment about being "unsportsmen like conduct". Just because they were denied to practice on the middle does not label us unsportsmen like conduct. After you had batted for 44 overs and you want to practice in the middle does not make any sense. I think unsportsmen like conduct is when a batsmen out caught behind is not walking out, the leg umpire not giving run out and stump when the batsmen is way out of the crease, etc!
Is there a rule pertaining to this incident at all. I remember Jaggi posting ICC rules but are there any MCC rules..? Since we have we have quite few very varied pitches in MCC like CCI, Peoria CC, Collinsville, Whitewater, Hanover, Heritage, Springfield, washington I think every pitch behaves different IMHO..and opposition should be allowed to practice at the beginning b4 the toss is done..but once toss is done no more practicing on the pitch..what do bloggers think..any opinions..
"After you had batted for 44 overs and you want to practice in the middle does not make any sense."
Practicing and warming up are completely different. If you would have noticed only the bowlers were warming up and bowling with no batsman at the other end. Are you suggesting that teams who bat first do not warmup in the break since they have gauged the nature of the pitch, and if that is the case you should have no problem in letting the other team "practice" on the main pitch. Unsportsmen like conduct is when one tries all there means to win a match. Players walking without waiting for umpire's decision are rare in this league and even at international level and honestly am not too much in favor of that. Umpires are there for that reason. I want to see somebody walking when the game is on line and one wicket is remaining.
Regarding warming up in the outfield is concerned, Rup, the outfield at Capitol and even at other places are pretty uneven and one is sure to injure himself if he tries to take a full run up and bowl. Like I said before, we have never encountered this ever before and personally did not expect this. Both teams practiced for about half hour before the game started and during the break at white water during our game with MUCC. I would really like the management to clear up this issue/rule asap.
Is there anyone out there that think ICC will create a new rule to allow practice on the wickets before you play so you can see how the pitch behaves. Grow up guys it ain't gonna hapn!!! Even just running and bowling distorts the pictch conditions. Practice is done before game day. Warm ups, you find a nice little piece of level land that ain't gonna break your neck and you do your warm ups. This is my understanding of Warm ups. Also there is a reason for a toss???. If you win it and not sure what the pitch will do then you make your decision based on your uncertainty..this way you will see what you are looking for..hopefully?. If team allow it great.. ICC you will never be allowed to warm up on the pitch once the toss is spun. Call me un-sports???? if you like.
Rup, In mcc we do not have any natural turf wickets that would get "Altered" due to practice on it ..Guest teams should be allowed like Cricket said..before the toss and then no more practicing after..even the team coming second to bowl after lunch..
Its my pesonal..I do not know if there is rule related to this in MCC rule book ..
well if you want to compare this to icc rules you are sadly mistaken my friends!!! there is a certain level of professionalism maintained at icc level which does not exist here. if a team that has never seen the ground in their life travles for over 3 hours and wants to test the bounce, and the host team wants to restrict that, that is very unsportsman like. especially if there is no rule there... just to be pricks you don't want to allow the team? or are they messing something up? which is it? the host team has every right to deny them but it is not very courteous and you have to live with that.
================================ I (or Capitol CC) don't know all the rules and regulations of the MWCC with regards to allowing the opponents to practice on the pitch prior to the game or between the game. ================================= There is no rule in MWCC ground rules that restricts teams from practicing on the main pitch. Had there been one, Sadiq would have acted at his own discretion, instead of reacting to Captiol's claim.
Since most of the pitches cannot be altered due to practice, I personally have no issues if teams want to practice.
I dont think we have any particular rule for this and when things like this have happened in the past, we look up to ICC's rule book. If ICC does not allow teams to practice on the pitch between innings, then I would assume that rule will apply to us.
If you need an official explaination, please send an email to management@midwestcricket.org
Update on the night tournament: Tariq told me that there are only 8 teams who have confirmed participation. Shiraz, who is the VP of night tournament, should be sending out an email soon.
All those teams that are thinking of putting up a team, send an email to management at the earliest.
Yes, barobar, barobar, Capitol is completely at fault here. You are right….kadak dikra. But your team shouldn’t blame Sadiq. Sadiq sajjan dikro che….sajjan manne, peaceful. He’ll always listen to the side with the louder voice.
I can't believe some of my senior players saying distortion does not happen to the wicket if you practice on it. Imagine 4 guys runing in and bowling from one end for 10 mins 20 ball each. this equals 13 over and 2 balls. on jute you are tellimg me the matting stays the same??. on turf may not have much but it does settle down the more you run on it. If it's soggy then you will have mud on the turf? then you all want to know if ICC has rule. When have you ever watched international cricket and see practice on the playing pitch. My gosh!!! you get kicked out for running on the restricted area when you are bowling. or mabe all those securities surrounding the pitch till the game start is there as a Joke. At least for once let not try to tamper with this part..Need rules!!!!let not be jokers.
Rup In way you are right about it. But this practice is not like full run ups (atleast I haven't seen any one doing that) just few step loosener balls. I don't think it would effect any..but having said that it should be before the toss so that conditions remains same after that for both teams..no practice between either at lunch break or something. I did see few teams arrive real early @10:00 am or so practicing on our wicket at PCC. No issue here as it is astro. But we do should have a rule to cover this situation so we don't have to point fingers later like you suggest
we are playing club cricket and host teams need to make sure to do their best to keep the guest teams just happy; meaning at the end of the day should feel they have played a good, clean, competitive game on a good wicket whether its win or loss..
rup, you are kidding right? jute on concrete is going to get affected by 13 overs (though, i can't imagine people bowling 13 overs before the game). These mattings last full season. Also, i don't think that the matting is going to get loose. rup you have no point. ICC rule is for turf wickets which can get easily damaged.
Rup, This is a courtesy thing. Do you think they are getting an advantage? afterall the host team know the pitch's every nook and cranny. is that not an advantage. the jute is held by nails... come on now ho can you mess that up? plus icc allows a regulation pitch right next to the playing pitch for warmups. lets no make this thing a bigger issue then it is.
from all reports they won fair but they have some talent so thats expected.. As I said they cheat only when they are under the GUN... Good job Pak.. you all play us in a few games.... I heard beamer are legal for that game go all cheaters dont come in
lol come on fast you got all sensitive i was just playin w u. i havent seen a lot of pak i guess just had 1 game against them that i played in and they just make a lot of noise etc. but i didnt think they were tryin to cheat.
Make up your minds. Stop flip flop and let home field advantage be what it's suppose to be and mean. May be the league needs to build practice wickets on all it's grounds so you all can get your a game on when called upon. If you batted you know what the ball does, if you bowl you know what the bal does so why the hell you need to be practicing during game time. for all you guys who want to practice get you but at the park at 8 am so you practice to start at 10 am. Do this and a few of you may be too tired to play. practice Stars????
---- Years back, when we had gone out in the middle to practice at WP prior to the game, we were told not to practice and we thought it was the rule. ----
sound like capital also like to practice in middle pitch........ but since they are scold for this in chicago (i.e. wrongly scold) they also scold chicago team for this.......... nothign to do with wicket, only to do revenge...... two wrong = 1 rite ????????
-------- Jaggi said... Since most of the pitches cannot be altered due to practice, I personally have no issues if teams want to practice.
I dont think we have any particular rule for this and when things like this have happened in the past, we look up to ICC's rule book. If ICC does not allow teams to practice on the pitch between innings, then I would assume that rule will apply to us. -------
Thats kind of how I looked at it too - it didnt actually seem that big a deal to me at the time (I was obviously wrong :-)
In actual-cricket terms, of course, you dont ever get to practice on the pitch at all. Ever. Not just ICC, but this applies even to club matches where Ive played/seen (ie in India, where we played on turf wickets). For obvious reasons. We happen to play here on non-turf wickets where damage may not be an issue, so its a little different.
I too dont think there is an MCC rule per se. When there isnt a specific MCC rule, I personally think we go to the default international-cricket rule, for everything, in our games. This applies to 2-fielders-in-catching-position during the first 13 overs (which I always enforce) and so on too. If there is no specific MCC directive, the base ICC directive applies, IMHO.
Its all very relaxed, relatively, at our level. People practiced at the start of the game even on the pitch, as they often have - nobody really objected to it. United batted first, and then during lunch-break their bowlers were practicing on the pitch too... and someone from Capitol pointed it out to me, asking if it was permissible (he actually just mentioned it in passing, while we were grabbing food :-) By law I dont think it is, and so I went and mentioned it to the United bowlers. Frankly I didnt consider it a very big deal - if you want to only warm up, IMHO you can find a flat piece of ground anywhere (even in Kennedy Park) to run in, bowl a few full-pace balls etc. It doesnt have to be on the pitch, where you can get used to runups etc (which could, theoretically, negate some home-field advantage if nothing else. But there doesnt have to be a *reason* for it anyway, the Law is the Law, IMHO you follow it to the letter no matter the reasoning).
In all the time Ive umpired in this league this hasnt really come up before, most teams dont usually practice on the pitch during lunch-break. I understand United tries to do things in a more professional way than most (for which they have my respect - they practice before games, they stretch, they warm up, they arrive at even away-games an hour early etc... this means I have to wake up at bloody 5:30 am to umpire their away games, but even so, I admire the reason behind their approach :-) Given United's approach to the game, it stands to reason that theyd want to practice before their bowling on the pitch itself at lunchtime, in optimum conditions. However, I do think if the opposition was to object, by law they have that right - I think theyd have that right at Washington Park too, not just in Springfield, where there is no home-field advantage for anyone.
And again, I didnt think it was *that* major a thing anyway. I agree with Satha in that part of his post at least - calling it "unsportsmanlike" is a bit of a stretch, to me. As he said, not walking after edging a ball or a batting-side leg-umpire not giving stumpings and/or run-outs is far more unsportsmanlike in actual cricketing terms, but it is a regular part of our league, nobody even pretends thats going to change, everyone accepts it without protest, and participates in it. Those are far more egregious forms of unsportsmanlike conduct than not allowing the opposition to practice in midpitch during lunch-break IMHO (and those are transgressions that *everyone* commits, every single team in our league, nobody is pure enough to cast the first-stone in this regard). We can have a civil discussion about this topic (and come up with a solution, with management hopefully making a ruling) without throwing around accusations of being unsportsmanlike, hopefully.
---------- straight_drive said... can anyone from united comment on satha's batting since this is the first big score he has hit in div 1. ----------
Not from United (and not particularly popular with them, as above posts have made clear ;-)... but I umpired the game.
To me, Satha's inning was, as I said once before, pretty Satha-esque. He came in at about 20/2 or some such (chasing 222), and it was 20-ish/2 off probably 8 or so overs. It was soon 40-odd for 4. (Surjeet looked pretty good, he is very young too, but he tried to pull from outside off and spooned it up, shouldnt have played that shot, he had driven very well thru covers only a few balls earlier).
United brought back Mehul as soon as Satha came in (Mehul, angered by the not-allowed-to-practice controversy, bowled a fantastic first spell with no luck - he went past the outside edge I think like 7-8 times in the first 3 overs, but failed to catch the edge, while giving up about 2 runs!). But Satha only played a ball or two from Mehul and got a single and was at the other end (pity, cos I was looking forward to watching that contest :-) Then Samarth was brought on, United's other strike-force.. and he induced a cut from Satha in his first over that was well struck but straight to Faisal at cover... who dropped it! (This was at 50-odd for 4; Rizwan, who everyone in Div1 knows well, said "I hope youve dropped the match", to much laughter except from poor Fais :-)
After that, Satha played his usual innings. Samarth bowled beautifully, fantastic spell, bowled a lot to Satha and had a spell of 5 overs, 1/8! It was terrific bowling, probing line outside off, varying speed and flight, beautiful spin bowling... and Satha played him confidently and warily, giving the bowler ultimate respect and taking no chances. Dhiraj at the other end bowled the best Ive ever seen him bowl (and Ive seen Dhiraj for 3 years now, including when he opened the bowling for IIT - he has always been very quick and hostile, but this time it was with seam-movement and with great control, excellent spell).. and Satha played him with confidence and caution too, and a few more runs.
In general, thats what characterised his innings (as usual, in the Satha innings Ive seen). He was in control, after that early chance he played every ball according to merit. The good balls he respected and defended; the decent balls he worked for singles at will; the bad balls he got he took full advantage of, creaming them for fours or completely cleanly-struck sixes. Its the way youre *supposed* to bat :-) He gave the good bowler bowling a great spell (Samarth) full respect (Samarth ended 9 overs, 1/14), not trying to wildly hit good balls that could have gotten him out. He played the very fast guy bowling very well with respect too, working the singles when he could (Dhiraj). The bad balls by anyone he punished (as attested to by 6 fours and 3 sixes - one four driven thru cover, one four smacked over the offside, two sixes murdered a long way over midwicket). And he ended up scoring 76 runs off 71 balls as a result, without ever appearing to hurry at any point in time :-) He did the same in Div2 as well - but when bowlers sometimes bowled more poor balls, the 76 might have come off 50 balls instead of 71 :-) The basics in cricket are always the same, you should play the ball according to merit, really, and he epitomises that.
The asking rate had risen towards 8/over, but with Satha there it was always doable (it was 85/5 after 27 overs). Then there were 14 scored off the next over, 10 after that, 9 after that, 7 after that. Satha's last 32 balls saw 4 fours and all 3 of his sixes (and all under control - the bad balls were just all punished to the maximum. And *everyone* bowls bad balls, you just have to be good enough to wait for them, and good enough to take advantage of all of them when theyre bowled... and almost nobody is).
Finally, with the asking rate down to just under 7/over, the wily Adnan was brought on to bowl his tempting high-tossed near donkey-drops to complete the fifth bowlers quota. Satha decided that, with Samarth and Mehul still having 6-7 overs left between then, this was when he had to capitalize and bring the asking rate down further. He went after Adnan, hitting him for 2 and 4 off the first 2 balls... and the third ball slow-tossed-up-ball he came down the track and lofted it flattish to longon, and Samarth judged it to a nicety and held it 3-4 yards inside the ropes. (The non-striker, disappointed, had not even run to cross over... and next man in was captain Madan, another big-hitter. His first ball was high, slow-tossed, spinning marginally in, and Madan went right across his stumps, tentatively decided to defend rather than attack because it was the first ball... and missed it completely, being struck on the backfoot in front of middle stump. Two wickets in two balls, and the match effectively ended right there).
Anyway. It was a fun game, Mehul bowled an excellent spell with no luck whatsoever, Samarth bowled a beautiful spell of left-arm-orthodox spin, Dhiraj was fast and hostile, Satha played an excellent innings. It was fun to watch, and the game was back and forth and in doubt till about 10 overs were left in the match.
In the end, United were a little too strong, and are now 3-0. Capitol fought well, but are slightly hampered by the fact that a few of their good players (students at the univeristy) are away for a lot of the summer until August or so. And Capitol are also hampered by the fact that the schedule-makers have done them no favours - they started with defending champs Pak Gym, then got St Louis (3-0 until this weekend), then United (currently 3-0), and now Challengers :-)
-------- Romeen said... Rup, I'm not sure who I'd take out from your team, but I agree with Tango. I cant imagine a team leaving Chicago without Ajit and Nilesh on board.These two would easily make it into most good league teams in the country. They are both extremely talented, have tons of experience and have a great work ethic. Romeen -------
I agree with this.
While I think Rup selected a pretty good team, we all have our own opinions... and I disagree with more than a few omissions :-)
First, Id never pick a team without Nilesh Patel from Challengers. The first name written on the list to go to LA is obviously Shahid Munir... but IMHO the second might well be Nilesh Patel! One of the best pacemen in our league, and a very good bat as well. We had a team go to LA last year too, we have past performances we can look at - we won only 1 match, and that was due to Nilesh's batting! (We were about 60/6 when he made a rapidfire 50+ that won the match for us IIRC). Overall, I dont have the stats for the last LA Open at hand, but I seem to remember him being the best overall paceman we had in terms of runs/over!
Second, I think, if he is fit, we need to take someone like Wade Allen from Milwaukee. Long known as one of the best pacemen in our league, he is back and playing well this year (when not injured), and bowling pretty damn well. Sorry, Rup, but Id take Wade even over Jack :-) I umpired Wade the first game of the season this year, and he had 9-1-17-4 - and was quite terrific. He then hurt him foot and was out the last 2 weeks. But this weekend he played against St Louis, and had 7-0-29-1 (bowling, presumably, to Suhail, one of the best batsmen in our league). Thus overall he has 5/46 so far this season in 16 overs (2.8 runs/over). Not much of a sample size, but Id probably pick him for LA anyway, if he is healthy. He has good pace, gets terrific bounce, and is probably harder to score quickly off than anyone in our league.
Then, you have the batsmen. Last year in Division One, the highest rungetter was Imran Syed - 501 runs, 3 centuries, and a major-league six-hitter. Hard to leave him out for 20/20 cricket, really. And Bhavneet Sarna was the 2nd highest runggetter and highest average (473 runs, 52 average), and he is a fine legspinner (on an LA Open surface that requires spinners). I wouldnt leave him out either.
It is also hard to leave out people of the calibre of Ajit and Irfan Sohail with the bat, or Satish Reddy (as an allrounder). They have consistently good performances over several seasons and have obvious ability, that should count for plenty IMHO. And Kiran too - highest rungetter 2 years ago, 4th highest rungetter last year. He may not be a wild slogger of the 20/20 style, but when you play bowling of the calibre of Ambrose etc in LA, does anyone think wild sloggers opening the batting is actually going to work? :-)
Ajit and Nilesh are our leagues brigh stars and having been shining for a while, year after the year with any possibility of dimming. They have got the hunger, talent and experience to rescue any team from perils of loss Another big advantage of Ajit is he is lefty as every bowler know how difficult it is to switch especially in a short game like 20/20 Nilesh's nippy bowling is well suited for turf wickets and is fine alrounder with his winning knocks last time at LA I think he should be part of the team at the same time lets us not put the fielding on the back burner short games like these quick fielding and innovative field placements is the keys to victory IMHO.....
so y do you keep saying practicing? nobody is doing an hour of practice, its about running and bowling few balls. Did i make myself clear now? ========================= Still not clear honest.. Warm up is still not defined as running and bowling on the pitch to play on.
As I stated before selecting a team is not easy. There is always going to be good people left behind but that the way it is. Because you are the 1st or 2nd highest run scorer in 45 over does not auto qualify's you for 20/20. Same for bowling. I had Nilesh on my first pick then i replaced him with Mehul. Did not select Ajit cause I think the guys i picked as bat were better 20/20 bats. Imran Syed love to take him. on my first pick but replaced him with Bola. Wade, Does not play much cricket and that's why I did not pick him. I have been to LA on sevral tours all different in nature. I can say i have a good feel of how the wickets play and so I selected the team based on knowledge of the grounds and the players selected.
---------- straight_drive said... does anyone know if milw cc has picked up new players they have a perfect start to season 4-0 and last season they were near the bottom. --------
Not "new" new players... but some returnees who have played for them in the past :-)
First of all, MCC has always been a very talented team IMHO - often one of the more talented teams around, but never really did justice to their talent. Last year was especially bad, when they missed some players, and then played horribly too, and seriously underachieved. They always had too much ability to be in the relegation-zone IMHO.
In bowling they have always had Asif, the finest spinner in the league by a margin IMHO. When Wade is around (he's played 2 out of 4 games this year), he is one of the best pacemen in the league. That by itself is quite a combination, not many bottom-of-Div1-last-year-teams have players like that!
Late last season, when they began winning a few games (and so avoided relegation etc), MCC had picked up a few more decent players - Khawar, Rizwan, Hasnain etc. Those guys are there this year too.
Thus, in the bowling now, you have Wade for pace. He is backed up by Farukh (who has been around a while).. then Rizwan and Hasnain both bowl useful steady pace too, as does Lloyd. And *then* you have Asif and Shakir (Asif doesnt have to come and bowl in the first 13 overs nearly as often now, big difference there). The last 2-3 years, when MCC could put up near-200 on their ground, they would win those games fairly often - that is even more true now.
In terms of batting.. Romesh Kadlec has, IMHO, long been one of the more talented batsmen in the league and a very pretty strokeplayer (talent, as in, I always thought he had league-all-star type ability, even), but he has never done justice to his ability in terms of numbers. He always used to get himself out. This year he has fixed that at least early in the season - 2 fifties in 4 games, and #2 rungetter at the moment. Then you have Kabir - a *very* good player who has been in-and-out for MCC the last 3 or so years (last year he didnt play a single game. But Jaggi will remember him - 2 years ago, at Hanover Park, he made a century in a 20 over game against Tigers! I once umpired a game in which Romesh and Kabir hit United - including Mehul - for almost 60 in the first 5 overs of a 45-over game, so I have a *lot* of respect for their abilties!) Kabir is back this year, a destructive top-order batsman, and a medium-pacer who gets banana-swing. Then you have Asif himself (in better form this year with the bat, he hasnt made many runs in 2 years). Then Khawar - picked up very late last season, a bit of a hitter, but a good enough batsman to get a century against Flames last year IIRC. And *then* you have the guys who were always there - Lloyd, Shakir, Riaz etc. The batting has usually been the Achilles Heel for them, but it is improved this year (I hear they might still get Amit Patel back too, which would be another nice addition for them if it happens - he was a pretty steady-looking bat a year ago).
And then MCC has been playing more sensibly too I think (at least they have in the 2 games Ive umpired so far). Theyve been starting slow, making sure they dont collapse, and then accelerating with wickets in hand at the end... on that ground, if they can put up 180+, thats a very competitive total. And you should get 180 if you bat all 45 overs. It will be interesting to see how this works for them the rest of the season - many difficult games (Pak Gym, Wildcats etc) are still left, after all.
Cricketwallah said... But Jaggi will remember him - 2 years ago, at Hanover Park, he made a century in a 20 over game against Tigers! -----------------------------------
Yeah, I remember that game. He was brilliant that day...scored close to 150 in a 20/20 game. Towards the end, he hit everyball out of the park... great timing and amazing hand eye coordination. He also a scored a century against us back in 03 in a day game.
Correct me if I am wrong, but, I think the league banned him for playing in ACC. Its good to have that kind of talent back.
all talk how good nilesh and daxx and about their consistancy. but look at their spells againts PURDUE which is not a very good batting side Dakshesh Patel 4 1 21 0 0 2 Nilesh patel 6 1 28 0 0 3
We can get to know other bloggers, talk cricket and even bitch about the management, conspire against them...whatever..:-)
The point is to know each other and hence we can be more courteous on the blog.
You dont have to give up your nicks, just come on over.
I was thinking of meeting @ Chasers, which is a sports bar in Niles, about 10 miles north of the city. Why Chasers, kinda better location for people from the burbs..
More ideas for locations are welcome.
mail me @ shekhs.aravind@gmail.com for directions and reservations, I'll hold the place.
=========================== can anyone from united comment on satha's batting since this is the first big score he has hit in div 1. ================================= Game summary posted on www.unitedcricket.org
Satha, The drive will worth it my friend. A batting track it is. The last time i was there, I was going along fine. a couple of boundries under my belt, A few bad balls (freebee's) and acouple of chances from the keeper then i went for a s*x of the skipper got caught and my innings was over. Can't wait to be back on this track and this time i will leave the skipper alone!!!. Sheks I wil try to sse if i can make it today. Thought this was going to be next week. Had plans already
Rup, This is for next week, sorry about the confusion. Tonite, we are going to Springfield. We have a double header this weekend, Vs. St. Louis on saturday and Vs. Capitol on Sunday.
The party is still on for next friday @ Chasers.... If we have enough, then we can reserve the inside area, where a greek GODDESS (you got to see her to believe it) will serve you some scrumdelicious drinks... Otherwise, we'll just hang out at the patio..
Interesting piece of news today regarding practicing on pitch or the 'square'.
During the innings break of 2nd day of the 2nd test between Eng and WI, Harmison and Plunkett were seen bowling near the edge of the square under supervision of Allan Donald. The match referee stopped it immediately, but no penalties were imposed. Thought Mehul, Satha, Rup and Sadiq bhai would be interested in this. http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/engvwi/content/current/story/297322.html
I think Sadiq bhai wrote a summary of sorts earlier. We won the toss and batted, Rashid bhai opening was caught behind off Nasir early, while Imran at the other end was in great touch, he kept hitting 1-2 boundaries per over. After a brief spell from Yousuf bhai, Moin (the 16 yr old kid, his name is not Amin) replaced him and pitched it too short, some deliveries were bowled at good pace but generally he lacked direction and was punished by Imran. Kiran was brought into the attack and he struck with the very first ball which was a beauty an inswinger to Irfan which came from well outside off stump to clip the bails. That brought Hassan bhai and Imran together and they shared an outstanding partnership in the middle of the innings. Hassan bhai in particular looked in great touch for the first time this season and played some great back foot shots. Kiran continued bowling without further luck as his 5 overs were dispatched for 63.
Imran was dismissed for 61 trying to hit Yousuf bhai out of the park and missing it completely. Shahid was next up and he started in brutal fashion hitting 34 in no time but was snapped up (ct behind) by Venkat who probably bowled the best spell of all Flames’ bowlers – his well flighted leg spinners were hard to get away (9 ovs, 1-35). There was a mini wobble as Ali and Mazhar Rana fell in quick succession but Hassan bhai stood firm at one end and when the bad ball came it went out of the park (5 x 6). He finally reached his 100 and retired hurt soon after at 105 due to fatigue and dehydration. Farman bhai hit 3 6’s in one over and myself and Asad hit a 6 a piece to raise the total to 313.
With the forecast of “scattered thunderstorms” we decided to get 20 overs out of the way first as we had 130 in 20. I cut my run up by 8-10 paces and me and Farman bhai raced through the overs, however Kiran and Fahad, the Flames’ openers did not try to score at all in those early overs and were content to just defend or take singles. My first 5 overs went for 7 runs and Farman bhai trapped Fahad lbw. That brought Dr. Rafiq to the crease who was mad at the openers’ go slow and started throwing his bat at almost everything. Shahid dropped short and was pulled for 6 and then edged over the slips for another 4, but Dr. Rafiq tried one shot too many and Shahid’s clever slower ball had him caught behind. Kiran and the new batsman Venkat consolidated afterwards and Flames never really went for the chase difficult as it was – they did play some shots later on esp off Bakshi and the scoring picked up, but then both batsmen fell to catches from Irfan off Rashid bhai and Imran. I was brought back and took 4 middle/lower order wickets in my 2nd spell and the match just petered out, Flames ending up with 193 at the end.
367 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 367 of 367lol, Adnan is like a 'paagal kutta', will bite anything and everything he sees :)
addy....
just tell how tushar lying and you picking your buddies for your teams are related...i will shut up
Adnan said..
Sounds to me that someone is desperately trying to justify his inclusion in the team. Discovered after they came to L.A. that he had a shoulder injury??????
-------------------------------------
Tushar is one of the best we have. If he picked up an injury in the last minute, it is a bad thing for him and definitely bad for the team that was picked and finally bad for the league. He is definitely not one to get a free trip to LA or wherever...definitely has better things to do. Why are picking on Tushar? If you want answers, you should learn to give them. I have been asking for financials from you, but have only got silence so far.
Adnan said... Tango, watch it and don't talk to your father in such a tone.
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What a dignified reply from an "experienced" player. You are absolutely right.. "There is no substitute for experience".
addy losing it. take a chill pill
Adnan said... Post your personal financial records on the blog and I will do the same.
-------------------------------------
If I spent money on something that affected the entire 800 member cricket community, I definitely would. I dont want your grocery bills, all I want to see is how much you spent on this lawsuit that affected me. I think I have that right!!
jaggi jaggi.....where are you....addy is abusing our sacred blog
"Your Mother did not think so."
Adnan is in fantasy land. Why does everyone call you the 40 year old virgin?
Adnan.. as I have mentioned before, this blog is not for personal attacks on fellow mates and especially not their family members. Please ensure that the line is not crossed. I am deleting the some of the comments you made.
Hello All,
This is my first year in MCC and I have been always thinking of participating in this blog but I am sorry to say that this blog has not been portraying a good picture to someone who is new to MCC.
anyway guys Blog away...
===================================lol, Adnan is like a 'paagal kutta', will bite anything and everything he sees :)
============================
Jaggi, you consider this dignified?
Adnan Baig
United Cricket Club
dude, I never called you a mad dog, I said, you are LIKE a mad dog.
Its not a personal attack, just an observation.
Tango, I am not a guy who understands how to play with words.
Please do not adress me anymore.
Adnan Baig
United Cricket Club
Guys.. i certainly do not desire to be the blog cop and track down on people who makes these comments. I do not have the time to go through every single comment and decide if people crossed the line or not. We have to learn to be more discpilined and ignore comments when certain individuals cross the line.
I beleive most of us here make the point without being abusive. There are wonderful ideas that are shared that will help us get better as a league.
i am signing off...peace in mind y'all. jaggi congragulation on solid performance on sunday
last year before going to l.a open challenger played against st.louis where tushar got hurt. as you know shohil alvi was playing that game and he knew tushar got injured. i bet tariq even knew that tushar got injured and he wasn't able to performe with bat or bowl. even after l.a he missed out couple of games for challenger where he didn't bat or either bowled. he wanted to go there to have fun, so he went. i don't know about he went there on his own expense. other hand bhavesh was picked to go l.a even though he didn't had a good performance last year. managment did made a mistake last year. they could have picked daxx or mahesh instead of those 2. daxx has ability to contribute at any given sitiuation. it's just my opinion. daxx and darshan been fanstastic in 20 over night games. they been scoring a runs in night games rather than bhavesh. tushar is good but he was injuired. tushar is perfect player for 20 over games cause he can bat as well as bowl good.
Wow, I am surprised to read lot of things in the blog and I was completely shocked to read that this league went through a lawsuit.
I thought the league just needed a better structure of organizing divisions where every team gets a fair chance to compete against each other to eliminate this so called fake superiority phobia that majority of the A div players have, who are merely pretenders. I am going to fade away from this for now and get back to the surprise lawsuit news.
I didn't know this much politics existed home away from home to promote Cricket in this land. This is a not-for-profit organization which can secure sufficient funds to promote and expand Cricket if everybody works collectively.
I command those who sees mismanagement and raises the voice (Adnan should be respected for that). True democracy is built on such voices. I also command the management who is willing to devote lot of their personal time to such not-for-profit ogranization out of their interest and hobby to serve Cricket. Life is too short and a sacrifice of any time should be treated as priceless. It has no boundaries for its values. The opportunity cost is limitless.
First of all when the ogranization becomes too big its very hard to micro-manage. I am sure Tariq does his best to oversee the operation and he shouldn't be solely liable for any abuse or conflicts. In true management sense Tariq should be left alone to focus on expansion and his team should be in charge to tackle day to day operations.
The best solution I see is the league should consider appointment of BOD (Board of Directors) whereas, electing 8-10 independent board members to meet once every month and discuss problems, financials and other areas for betterment of Cricket. This BOD's will have full access to overlook financials and board members should be independent of the presidents team with only President and Secretary eligible for member of BOD.
Everybody needs to think outside the box and if the top agenda of the league is to prmote cricket then the differences must be resolved within closed doors. When the dirt spills outside to the level of courts and lawyers it is a bad representation on the face and it can be harmful to the level that it can dissolve.
Every one's Ultimate goal should be to have fun, & playball.
By the way on the side note best player I rate in this league is 'Ashvin' from Purdue. The guy has true cricketing sense and makes everyone around him better. He guy possesses great energy level as well as perfect cricketing strokes all around the field.
Go Cricket
Playball
If I spent money on something that affected the entire 800 member cricket community, I definitely would. I dont want your grocery bills, all I want to see is how much you spent on this lawsuit that affected me. I think I have that right!!
;):):):):):):):):))):):):):):):):):
you do spend your money that affects the entire 800 member cricket community...when you pay your dues! why not take this up to the administration of this league who chose to goto court instead of simply showing how your money is being spent? you have that right don't you? VP, we all have made choices we live with, this time TA and his cronies made the wrong one! Now the entire league has to foot the bill. is that fair? i think your anger is channled towards the wrong direction. what we need in this league is transparency,and that will never happened until the current regime is in power! we need to break up this hold and give equal power to each team. no one person should have that much control. if we want to build a successful organization it has to start from the top! we need to make a change in 08!!!!
http://www.midwestcricket.org/asp/LeadingBats.asp
VERY COOL! Ask and ye shall recieve!!!
Now what about the bowling?
See i'm making good suggestions...
Missed all the fun today though!
================================
The best solution I see is the league should consider appointment of BOD (Board of Directors) whereas, electing 8-10 independent board members to meet once every month and discuss problems, financials and other areas for betterment of Cricket. This BOD's will have full access to overlook financials and board members should be independent of the presidents team with only President and Secretary eligible for member of BOD.
=================================
Playball you have my vote for presidency. Creating Board of Directors is easy. BoD can be cosnisted of 4 Captains from Div II teams who finished as top 4 and 4 teams from Div I. These members will serve for the period of 2 years and will be responsible for running the organization. The president should concentrate on promoting the league and making sure MWCC is represented at regional and national level.
Adnan Baig
United Cricket Club
I have added a video panel to the blog. These are random videos from Youtube/Google Videos that have "midwest cricket" somewhere in the description. So, if you add videos please make it a point to say "midwest cricket" somewhere in your text description. I believe the most recent video will be automatically posted on top. I wanted to add the Satha and Shahid Munir interviews ( both of which are on google videos) to this, but if I add their names to the tag, we also get non-cricket clips up here. I will keep playing with this and hopefully we will get it right. If not, this will go right on top of the last experiment..MCClive (RIP).
chro.. by no means am I happy with the current management. There is no doubt that it is highly inefficient. I for sure will tell me team to vote for change. I think Adnan is a good player, but just do no like the way he has approached things. He jumped on Akbar's bandwagon just to prove a point. 40K spent by the mgmt & the ?? spent by Adnan is a ridiculous amt to be given to the lawyers.... akbar was definitely the wrong horse for United to back. There is no doubt that he will be better than the current mgmt but who wouldnt be? His current childish statements makes me wonder how seriously I should take his statements.
so milw won looks like st louis didnt like their trip up north this wkend and milw is the top team with 4-0 after being near the bottom last season and also being bowled out for a really low score v pak i cant rem the exact # 30something.
when can we expect the L.A. open list of players?
Any word on Abid Laheri nite tournament?
Will there be an all time bowling list as well?
TIA
Any news on the night tourney?
Also, any teams interested in a batsman (or so I'd like to believe!)? I'd really like to play the nite tourney this year, and I'm not sure that Phoenix is going to put up a team. So wanted to see if any of the other teams have any room for me.
adnan why dont you name a hypothetical 11 that you would pick if u were the only selector for mcc.
Can someone post comments on SIU ground under grounds blog thresd please? Either IIT, Continental or Chicago CC any one..
Thanks
Madhu Reddy
PCC
adnan,
why dont you disclose your team for LA open?
Hey Madhu..
SIUE ground has long thick grass in the outfield..very few boundaries are possible.Also bowling is done only from one end as the other end is very uneven. We had pretty heavy winds when we played..
Raju
IIT
i think mgmt should announce LA open probables ASAP. i dont think tariq is going to stand up next year for precidency. he is ignoring everyone.
Raju said...
Hey Madhu..
SIUE ground has long thick grass in the outfield..very few boundaries are possible.Also bowling is done only from one end as the other end is very uneven. We had pretty heavy winds when we played..
-----------------------------------
Raju that sounds like crappy playing conditions.
Hi ..
In our last match, a player from opposition team came on the ground during the 34th over of the innings and claimed that he can still play.
I know this situation will never occur in International Cricket ... but what does MCC rule has to say about it ...??
alpesh,
did umpire tell he can play?
It was fun reading all the blogs I missied.
You all keep beating dead horses to anounce their squads. You are not gona get it.
Here is the reason why, You guys will kill em when you see DA squad and they ain't afford that right now.
Who ever Adnan selects is up to him as it's their monies. My problem is that "MWCC don't look well if it's not a strong team and performs poorly".
If MWCC does not hold a trials then who knows what we will get and If we see a DIV 1 Team only you will find a bunch of Disgrunted Div 2 guys. (paying for something they are not benefitting from).
SIUE,
We need direction to this ground posted on the Web page.
What this about playing from one end. How can we allow this to happen. If the ground is not fit to paly from both ends I say sell it and get a good one or they can travel all their games or fix it.
MWCC has budgeted funds to fix grounds, how come we can't spend a few bucks to fix this one??
The teams that have played there needs to send a report in so management can look into and fix the problem?.
Rup,
alright lets say that true. be a pressure group (in this case, individual). you name about 30 probables for LA open. how about that?
Alpesh.. we follow ICC's rule for players showing up late..
http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/rules/odi_playing_conditions.pdf
Law 2 - Substitutes and Runners, Batsman or Fielder Leaving the Field, Batsman Retiring, Batsman Commencing Innings
Law 2 shall apply subject to the following:
2.1 Law 2.5 - Fielder absent or leaving the field
Law 2.5 shall be replaced by the following:
If a fielder fails to take the field with his side at the start of the match or at any later time, or leaves the field during a session of play, the 1
umpire shall be informed of the reason for his absence, and he shall not thereafter come on to the field during a session of play without the consent of the umpire. (See Law 2.6 as modified). The umpire shall give such consent as soon as practicable.
If the player is absent from the field for longer than 8 minutes:
2.1.1 the player shall not be permitted to bowl in that innings after his return until he has been on the field for at least that length of playing time for which he was absent.
2.1.2 the player shall not be permitted to bat unless or until, in the aggregate, he has returned to the field and/or his side’s innings has been in progress for at least that length of playing time for which he has been absent or, if earlier, when his side has lost five wickets.
The restriction in Clauses 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 above shall not apply if the player has suffered an external blow (as opposed to an internal injury such as a pulled muscle) whilst participating earlier in the match and consequently been forced to leave the field. Nor shall it apply if the player has been absent for very exceptional and wholly acceptable reasons (other than injury or illness).
In the event of a fieldsman already being off the field at the commencement of an interruption in play through ground, weather or light conditions or for other exceptional circumstances, he shall be allowed to count any such stoppage time as playing time, provided that he personally informs the umpires when he is fit enough to take the field had play been in progress.
NW,
Why me.. I will like to see the leaders do it and ASAP. Just for fun I will post mines later.
Up to two years ago I use to Brag about how good and efficient our league was compare to all other leaguse. NY, Florida even the West coast & Canada. None could match what we do.
Lots of my friends check MWCC web page to see how we are doing. Over the last weekend I had some New York Friends in town.
Man I was sorry I opened my big mouth to talk about MWCC. One told me MWCC is S***S these days. You have become like our leagues, Looks like your monies are spent for other reasons than cricket.
Another asked how come we always send a shi****Y team to LA if we are this big and doing so well.
I said I ain't the selector and not in management.
And we have people in this league talking about how USACA is run. Man i feel bad but I have to stick it out for the betterment.
well i understand. but there either you can sit outside and crib about everything mgmt do( probably they deserve it) or pressure them to do the right thing. you can put up like 30 people here so we all can talk about it. i bet mgmt will see it and they will be pressured to do at least something right.
so why dont you take the initiative. since you are going to stand up for president.
i thought jaggi tried his level best to convince mr. president last yr on number of things (all star, regionals, auditing the finance report etc..)and failed. so if he was in the management and still could not get TA to move a muscle, what are bunch of guys with no names going to achieve.
"Another asked how come we always send a shi****Y team to LA if we are this big and doing so well."
I don't think the teams we sent to LA were shitty. You can't expect our guys to defeat professional cricketers.
Ok
Here is my 15 on the books as of today bar no injuries.
Sohail Alvi
Afroze Siddiqui
Asif Mahmood
Satha
Maninder Bola
Shahid Munir
Mehul Shani
Suresh Paul
Raheel
Madhu Redhi
Jack Challenor
Daxx
Ruchir
Bhavesh Amin
Rup... Manager/player
if no injures or withdrawals this will be the squad on the plane to LA.
If you think anyone on this squad should not go, Name his replacement and give credentials?
anhonest....that will make mgmt think twise
nice team...i should say but didnt bhavesh had problems last time?
so why not invest some money and invite professional cricketers???
that will set the league on fire we can learn how to play with and from some of the really great cricketers? ex windies ex india/paki they are everywhere and will almost do anything for money!!
You have only one spinner in the squad. you will need more, Bhavneet, Samarth
Tango,
Remember LA is not just the LA open, A lot of US cricket events are held there and managment don't see eye to eye with USACA. So we have a lot of Midwest so call teams show up. Even the LA open we feel the best team is not going??.
We need to form a Core team and fill in the blanks to make the core stronger.
Take a look at any sports and you will see a team is built around a core know as franchise players.
that will set the league on fire we can learn how to play with and from some of the really great cricketers? ex windies ex india/paki they are everywhere and will almost do anything for money!!
--------------------
can i get couple of them for baby sitting:))))
if you are rich$ enough to pay 10gs for a babbysitter.
I choose Bhavesh cause he get runs from the word go.
Not a bad spinner either. one bad day does not make it all bad days.
i thought he was called for throwing. otherwise he is a good player.
Rup,
no wicket keeper? or is Suresh Paul a wicket keep?
rup you have not included nilesh from challengers who was the star last time.
n like anhonestq said u need one more spinner, may be a spinner allrounder instead of ruchir who has pace but i dont think at this stage deserves a place in mcc all star team. spinner-batsmen u can include are samarth or bakshi.
yep, nilesh could replace dax,jack or raheel.
i would pick nilesh instead raheel.
straight,
samarth in not a batsman at that level and bakshi throws
also how about imran from muslim he was highest scorer last time n hits lots of 6s?
I went with Raheel instead of him. If I include him then out goes Raheel.
We got a couple weeks more to see which of the two is in more form a a bowler and the better goes.
Well I'd replace four guys.
1. Afroze: I don't know why everyone is in love with this fellow. He's a decent player, but All Star? please. I'd replace him with Bhavneet/Kamran.
2. Ruchir: 20 over game, we can't afford to have someone who bowls all over the place. I'd rather have Nilesh/Sanjay from the Challengers.
3. Bhavesh: How? Why? Because he has one good game you put him on the All Star team? I'd replace him with someone like Samarth.
4. Madhu Reddy: Good bat, but we have better. How can you leave out Ajit. The guy is the best batsman in our league.
btw. Whose your wicket keeper? How about Mahesh Parikh? (assuming Todd is not available). I'd take out one spinner. Don't really need more than two spinners. Bola and Asif are enough.
if we take out bhavesh and afroze we dont have off spinners
Afroze is a spinner? since when?
actually i forgot. i would take rup out too. not to be disrepectful. ;)
but you can still be the manager.
no chance, Rup won't be anyone's 'Banda' this time :)
Tango said...
Afroze is a spinner? since when?
---------
for a while now
:))
How do you leave Imran Syed out and still manage to have some pretty mediocre players? Those of us who have played against Imran certainly know what he is capable of. The guy has played on elite level and was terrific last year. He has also scored two 50s in last three matches.
ND,
that way, I am also a spinner :)
Not a very good one, I must add.
yeah, imran deserve a place.
Sohail keep wicket, Satha can keep also.
Ruchir, I have never seen this guy bowl, everytime I look up on this blog one of you talking about how good and quick he is. He is young and we will give hima a chance. now he is no good?? make up your minds.
Madhu is an excellent alrounder and that is why he is on the squad.
Bhavesh..Ihe can't bowl then we can re-consider spinner alrounder?
Okay Rup, your the boss.
Rup,
I'm not sure who I'd take out from your team, but I agree with Tango. I cant imagine a team leaving Chicago without Ajit and Nilesh on board.These two would easily make it into most good league teams in the country. They are both extremely talented, have tons of experience and have a great work ethic.
Romeen
"Sohail keep wicket, Satha can keep also."
Anyone can keep, even I can keep. They aren't all that good behind the wickets. I'd rather have someone whose kept well throughout.
"Ruchir, I have never seen this guy bowl, everytime I look up on this blog one of you talking about how good and quick he is. "
Good, yes, quick, definitely. But he has a hard time controlling his line. I'd replace him with someone more consistant.
"Madhu is an excellent alrounder and that is why he is on the squad."
No doubt, but we have better players in the league. Why go for Lindsey Lohan when Jessica Alba is waiting for you?
I like the lohan/ alba analogy.
I'm not so sure that Madhu will, though. :)
u r forgetting mehul is going to be playing for UCC LA team, so you have a spot there for nilesh
since when did sohail alvi become a 20/20 player? maybe for 50 overs.
need a lot of young blood remember there are 2 games in one day.
how about setting up games between mwcc V UCC LA team. that would generate a lot of interest!!!
So I forgot,
Mehul may not go if Adnan's statement hold true. In come Nilesh.
Who is anther good spinner in MWCC..We got Asif??. And don't tell me he chucks??.
Romeen i hear ya..Tough to leave out those guys but we can only take 14.
we should have vareity in spinners also........... asif, bola, samrath is 3 left-arm-spinners...... make up ur mind.... or rather ur prioriy..... asif first, then ?????????????
afroze is not a bad pick...... quick runnig-between-wickets, brillant fielding and quiet descent off-spinner...... bhavneth is maybe best leg-spinner in our leauge, plus one of the best bat??? dax and mahesh (keeper) are best 2 player in challenger...... criminal to leave them out........ if bhaves not bowl (we all know why), he bat down in the order these days for challenger! u want number 9 batsman who can't bowl???
imran is in........ prize for most run in last season, plus fast hitting...........
i want no fast bowler........ better medium pacer with brain...... our 'fast' bowler no match for profesional...... give me nilesh (best yorker), satish, mehul, etc any day over ruchir and raheel (only pace )..........
Romeen,
by the way..
Lindsy Lohan is top 100 maxim celebrity list..and Alba is not...
Celebrity Blog Entries // Blog Post Tag Search // Page 5 ...Tag Search Results For 'celebrity' ... Lindsay tops the list of Maxi's top 100 Hottest females of 2006! 1. Lindsay Lohan Tabloid bloodsuckers have been ...
www.blogcatalog.com/post-tag/celebrity/5 - 25k - Cached - Similar pages
hehehe..Funny...
Madhu
lol...Madhu, nice one.
Okay Rup...lets make Madhu captain.
Rup, how about more players form divisionII? How about Lakshmi from IIT and Yasin from Giants. Not many people know about either of the above mentioned players, but these cats can play.
OK Madhu, purely hypothetical question, who would you rather go out with, lindsey or jessica?
lets forget what maxim's says.
I say we make Lindsay Lohan our Assistant manager..
I'm sure Rup wouldn't mind that either..
We'll have a lot of support going to LA too....hey I'm on the next plane..
Jessica Alba......no brainer...
time_pass, Lindsay Lohan is a drunkard, thats always a plus...so think again!
You can never pick to suite every one.
My objective to try and put together the best team and then replace as see fit for future tours
Or we can put all these guys on a bus and drive to LA.
drunk gal?? She might even pass out..
I'll stick with Jessica Alba..
Romeen,
Depends on color of the hair they got that day ..and my personal preference for the evening...hehe....
Madhu
There is nothing like a hot drunk chick;-)
So after all of this it can be safe to say that only an all star game between the divs and Alba & Lohan present will let us know whos needs to be on the team??
i would only consider Imran (AAA) and Sharat (MUCC) for wk bat....mahesh past prime and todd not playing at all these days......Phoenix/Purdue/AAA/MUCC how you rate these two wk...they cmae from div 2.....div 1 what you guys think.
can anyone from united comment on satha's batting since this is the first big score he has hit in div 1.
Rup,
What do you think about
Ajay Gandhi - IIT
Mushir Laliwala
Hari Kiran Gogisetti - QCKings
they were top of the chart entire last year.
I never saw Ajay,i witnessed Hari last year when we played them in Moline, he is pretty good allrounder, Mushir is an excellent bat .
Deccan
Ok Decan,
We can only take 14 players.
The pure batsmen I picked I feel are better than the ones you mentioned.
As you can see I selected more alrounders as I feel this is a good quality to perform well in 20/20 tours.
test
it ain't easy. is it RUP?
btw guys, if we fantisize about going out with lindsy and jessica why only one? let accomadate both of them in good old 3some
sharat is not upto that mark at all. i would pick mahesh anyday. way ahead of anyone
I just thought of clarifying an incident that was reported by Mehul.
I (or Capitol CC) don't know all the rules and regulations of the MWCC with regards to allowing the opponents to practice on the pitch prior to the game or between the game. When we played United CC on Sunday, after they had batted, they were practicing on the pitch. We had informed them (through Sadiq) not to practice on the pitch. Typically, when a pitch is laid for a game, the teams (home and away) do not practice in the middle whether its a jute or a turf surface. However, I've had seen some teams practicing in the middle at WP on a game day. Years back, when we had gone out in the middle to practice at WP prior to the game, we were told not to practice and we thought it was the rule. If this is not the rule, then we will allow the away teams to practice on the pitch. I believe management can clarify this.
I don't agree with Mehul's comment about being "unsportsmen like conduct". Just because they were denied to practice on the middle does not label us unsportsmen like conduct. After you had batted for 44 overs and you want to practice in the middle does not make any sense. I think unsportsmen like conduct is when a batsmen out caught behind is not walking out, the leg umpire not giving run out and stump when the batsmen is way out of the crease, etc!
No one should be allowed to practice on the wicket once the toss is spun. Period.
Warm ups..that's what the outfield and sourrounding are for??.
dont worry satha,
ina case you haven't notice, UNITED are bunch of cry babies
how come teams like MUCC never upload their scorecard when they lose?
mgmt should do something about it
Is there a rule pertaining to this incident at all. I remember Jaggi posting ICC rules but are there any MCC rules..? Since we have we have quite few very varied pitches in MCC like CCI, Peoria CC, Collinsville, Whitewater, Hanover, Heritage, Springfield, washington I think every pitch behaves different IMHO..and opposition should be allowed to practice at the beginning b4 the toss is done..but once toss is done no more practicing on the pitch..what do bloggers think..any opinions..
"After you had batted for 44 overs and you want to practice in the middle does not make any sense."
Practicing and warming up are completely different. If you would have noticed only the bowlers were warming up and bowling with no batsman at the other end. Are you suggesting that teams who bat first do not warmup in the break since they have gauged the nature of the pitch, and if that is the case you should have no problem in letting the other team "practice" on the main pitch. Unsportsmen like conduct is when one tries all there means to win a match. Players walking without waiting for umpire's decision are rare in this league and even at international level and honestly am not too much in favor of that. Umpires are there for that reason. I want to see somebody walking when the game is on line and one wicket is remaining.
Regarding warming up in the outfield is concerned, Rup, the outfield at Capitol and even at other places are pretty uneven and one is sure to injure himself if he tries to take a full run up and bowl. Like I said before, we have never encountered this ever before and personally did not expect this. Both teams practiced for about half hour before the game started and during the break at white water during our game with MUCC. I would really like the management to clear up this issue/rule asap.
Mehul
Is there anyone out there that think ICC will create a new rule to allow practice on the wickets before you play so you can see how the pitch behaves.
Grow up guys it ain't gonna hapn!!!
Even just running and bowling distorts the pictch conditions.
Practice is done before game day. Warm ups, you find a nice little piece of level land that ain't gonna break your neck and you do your warm ups. This is my understanding of Warm ups.
Also there is a reason for a toss???. If you win it and not sure what the pitch will do then you make your decision based on your uncertainty..this way you will see what you are looking for..hopefully?.
If team allow it great.. ICC you will never be allowed to warm up on the pitch once the toss is spun. Call me un-sports???? if you like.
Rup,
In mcc we do not have any natural turf wickets that would get "Altered" due to practice on it ..Guest teams should be allowed like Cricket said..before the toss and then no more practicing after..even the team coming second to bowl after lunch..
Its my pesonal..I do not know if there is rule related to this in MCC rule book ..
Madhu Reddy
PCC
well if you want to compare this to icc rules you are sadly mistaken my friends!!! there is a certain level of professionalism maintained at icc level which does not exist here. if a team that has never seen the ground in their life travles for over 3 hours and wants to test the bounce, and the host team wants to restrict that, that is very unsportsman like. especially if there is no rule there... just to be pricks you don't want to allow the team? or are they messing something up?
which is it?
the host team has every right to deny them but it is not very courteous and you have to live with that.
================================
I (or Capitol CC) don't know all the rules and regulations of the MWCC with regards to allowing the opponents to practice on the pitch prior to the game or between the game.
=================================
There is no rule in MWCC ground rules that restricts teams from practicing on the main pitch. Had there been one, Sadiq would have acted at his own discretion, instead of reacting to Captiol's claim.
Adnan Baig
United Cricket Club
Since most of the pitches cannot be altered due to practice, I personally have no issues if teams want to practice.
I dont think we have any particular rule for this and when things like this have happened in the past, we look up to ICC's rule book. If ICC does not allow teams to practice on the pitch between innings, then I would assume that rule will apply to us.
If you need an official explaination, please send an email to management@midwestcricket.org
Update on the night tournament: Tariq told me that there are only 8 teams who have confirmed participation. Shiraz, who is the VP of night tournament, should be sending out an email soon.
All those teams that are thinking of putting up a team, send an email to management at the earliest.
Mehul,
Yes, barobar, barobar, Capitol is completely at fault here. You are right….kadak dikra.
But your team shouldn’t blame Sadiq. Sadiq sajjan dikro che….sajjan manne, peaceful. He’ll always listen to the side with the louder voice.
Ps. My Gunglish is a little weak.
I can't believe some of my senior players saying distortion does not happen to the wicket if you practice on it.
Imagine 4 guys runing in and bowling from one end for 10 mins 20 ball each. this equals 13 over and 2 balls.
on jute you are tellimg me the matting stays the same??.
on turf may not have much but it does settle down the more you run on it. If it's soggy then you will have mud on the turf?
then you all want to know if ICC has rule.
When have you ever watched international cricket and see practice on the playing pitch. My gosh!!! you get kicked out for running on the restricted area when you are bowling. or mabe all those securities surrounding the pitch till the game start is there as a Joke.
At least for once let not try to tamper with this part..Need rules!!!!let not be jokers.
Rup
In way you are right about it. But this practice is not like full run ups (atleast I haven't seen any one doing that) just few step loosener balls. I don't think it would effect any..but having said that it should be before the toss so that conditions remains same after that for both teams..no practice between either at lunch break or something. I did see few teams arrive real early @10:00 am or so practicing on our wicket at PCC. No issue here as it is astro. But we do should have a rule to cover this situation so we don't have to point fingers later like you suggest
we are playing club cricket and host teams need to make sure to do their best to keep the guest teams just happy; meaning at the end of the day should feel they have played a good, clean, competitive game on a good wicket whether its win or loss..
Madhu Reddy
PCC
rup nothing happens to jute matting and if it gets a little out of place you can always put it back in afterall we do that week after week anyways.
rup, you are kidding right? jute on concrete is going to get affected by 13 overs (though, i can't imagine people bowling 13 overs before the game). These mattings last full season. Also, i don't think that the matting is going to get loose. rup you have no point. ICC rule is for turf wickets which can get easily damaged.
rup is correct you all like to bend the rules too much for you all benefit..
Rup,
This is a courtesy thing. Do you think they are getting an advantage?
afterall the host team know the pitch's every nook and cranny. is that not an advantage. the jute is held by nails... come on now ho can you mess that up?
plus icc allows a regulation pitch right next to the playing pitch for warmups. lets no make this thing a bigger issue then it is.
fast n furious is back. did pak gym cheat recently? lol
bent drive,
from all reports they won fair but they have some talent so thats expected.. As I said they cheat only when they are under the GUN...
Good job Pak.. you all play us in a few games.... I heard beamer are legal for that game go all cheaters dont come in
lol come on fast you got all sensitive i was just playin w u. i havent seen a lot of pak i guess just had 1 game against them that i played in and they just make a lot of noise etc. but i didnt think they were tryin to cheat.
bent drive I was playing too..
dude its all good
lol lol
Make up your minds.
Stop flip flop and let home field advantage be what it's suppose to be and mean.
May be the league needs to build practice wickets on all it's grounds so you all can get your a game on when called upon.
If you batted you know what the ball does, if you bowl you know what the bal does so why the hell you need to be practicing during game time.
for all you guys who want to practice get you but at the park at 8 am so you practice to start at 10 am. Do this and a few of you may be too tired to play. practice Stars????
rup u need to understand difference between practice and warmup first and then write 15 lines about it.
honest I do understand the diff the question should be do you??
"if you bowl you know what the bal does so why the hell you need to be practicing during game time"
so y do you keep saying practicing? nobody is doing an hour of practice, its about running and bowling few balls. Did i make myself clear now?
----
Years back, when we had gone out in the middle to practice at WP prior to the game, we were told not to practice and we thought it was the rule.
----
sound like capital also like to practice in middle pitch........ but since they are scold for this in chicago (i.e. wrongly scold) they also scold chicago team for this.......... nothign to do with wicket, only to do revenge...... two wrong = 1 rite ????????
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Jaggi said...
Since most of the pitches cannot be altered due to practice, I personally have no issues if teams want to practice.
I dont think we have any particular rule for this and when things like this have happened in the past, we look up to ICC's rule book. If ICC does not allow teams to practice on the pitch between innings, then I would assume that rule will apply to us.
-------
Thats kind of how I looked at it too - it didnt actually seem that big a deal to me at the time (I was obviously wrong :-)
In actual-cricket terms, of course, you dont ever get to practice on the pitch at all. Ever. Not just ICC, but this applies even to club matches where Ive played/seen (ie in India, where we played on turf wickets). For obvious reasons. We happen to play here on non-turf wickets where damage may not be an issue, so its a little different.
I too dont think there is an MCC rule per se. When there isnt a specific MCC rule, I personally think we go to the default international-cricket rule, for everything, in our games. This applies to 2-fielders-in-catching-position during the first 13 overs (which I always enforce) and so on too. If there is no specific MCC directive, the base ICC directive applies, IMHO.
Its all very relaxed, relatively, at our level. People practiced at the start of the game even on the pitch, as they often have - nobody really objected to it. United batted first, and then during lunch-break their bowlers were practicing on the pitch too... and someone from Capitol pointed it out to me, asking if it was permissible (he actually just mentioned it in passing, while we were grabbing food :-) By law I dont think it is, and so I went and mentioned it to the United bowlers. Frankly I didnt consider it a very big deal - if you want to only warm up, IMHO you can find a flat piece of ground anywhere (even in Kennedy Park) to run in, bowl a few full-pace balls etc. It doesnt have to be on the pitch, where you can get used to runups etc (which could, theoretically, negate some home-field advantage if nothing else. But there doesnt have to be a *reason* for it anyway, the Law is the Law, IMHO you follow it to the letter no matter the reasoning).
In all the time Ive umpired in this league this hasnt really come up before, most teams dont usually practice on the pitch during lunch-break. I understand United tries to do things in a more professional way than most (for which they have my respect - they practice before games, they stretch, they warm up, they arrive at even away-games an hour early etc... this means I have to wake up at bloody 5:30 am to umpire their away games, but even so, I admire the reason behind their approach :-) Given United's approach to the game, it stands to reason that theyd want to practice before their bowling on the pitch itself at lunchtime, in optimum conditions. However, I do think if the opposition was to object, by law they have that right - I think theyd have that right at Washington Park too, not just in Springfield, where there is no home-field advantage for anyone.
And again, I didnt think it was *that* major a thing anyway. I agree with Satha in that part of his post at least - calling it "unsportsmanlike" is a bit of a stretch, to me. As he said, not walking after edging a ball or a batting-side leg-umpire not giving stumpings and/or run-outs is far more unsportsmanlike in actual cricketing terms, but it is a regular part of our league, nobody even pretends thats going to change, everyone accepts it without protest, and participates in it. Those are far more egregious forms of unsportsmanlike conduct than not allowing the opposition to practice in midpitch during lunch-break IMHO (and those are transgressions that *everyone* commits, every single team in our league, nobody is pure enough to cast the first-stone in this regard). We can have a civil discussion about this topic (and come up with a solution, with management hopefully making a ruling) without throwing around accusations of being unsportsmanlike, hopefully.
c8w
very nice sadiq. we missed reading ur postings.
why dont you talk about LA open too. u can weigh on RUPs team
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straight_drive said...
can anyone from united comment on satha's batting since this is the first big score he has hit in div 1.
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Not from United (and not particularly popular with them, as above posts have made clear ;-)... but I umpired the game.
To me, Satha's inning was, as I said once before, pretty Satha-esque. He came in at about 20/2 or some such (chasing 222), and it was 20-ish/2 off probably 8 or so overs. It was soon 40-odd for 4. (Surjeet looked pretty good, he is very young too, but he tried to pull from outside off and spooned it up, shouldnt have played that shot, he had driven very well thru covers only a few balls earlier).
United brought back Mehul as soon as Satha came in (Mehul, angered by the not-allowed-to-practice controversy, bowled a fantastic first spell with no luck - he went past the outside edge I think like 7-8 times in the first 3 overs, but failed to catch the edge, while giving up about 2 runs!). But Satha only played a ball or two from Mehul and got a single and was at the other end (pity, cos I was looking forward to watching that contest :-) Then Samarth was brought on, United's other strike-force.. and he induced a cut from Satha in his first over that was well struck but straight to Faisal at cover... who dropped it! (This was at 50-odd for 4; Rizwan, who everyone in Div1 knows well, said "I hope youve dropped the match", to much laughter except from poor Fais :-)
After that, Satha played his usual innings. Samarth bowled beautifully, fantastic spell, bowled a lot to Satha and had a spell of 5 overs, 1/8! It was terrific bowling, probing line outside off, varying speed and flight, beautiful spin bowling... and Satha played him confidently and warily, giving the bowler ultimate respect and taking no chances. Dhiraj at the other end bowled the best Ive ever seen him bowl (and Ive seen Dhiraj for 3 years now, including when he opened the bowling for IIT - he has always been very quick and hostile, but this time it was with seam-movement and with great control, excellent spell).. and Satha played him with confidence and caution too, and a few more runs.
In general, thats what characterised his innings (as usual, in the Satha innings Ive seen). He was in control, after that early chance he played every ball according to merit. The good balls he respected and defended; the decent balls he worked for singles at will; the bad balls he got he took full advantage of, creaming them for fours or completely cleanly-struck sixes. Its the way youre *supposed* to bat :-) He gave the good bowler bowling a great spell (Samarth) full respect (Samarth ended 9 overs, 1/14), not trying to wildly hit good balls that could have gotten him out. He played the very fast guy bowling very well with respect too, working the singles when he could (Dhiraj). The bad balls by anyone he punished (as attested to by 6 fours and 3 sixes - one four driven thru cover, one four smacked over the offside, two sixes murdered a long way over midwicket). And he ended up scoring 76 runs off 71 balls as a result, without ever appearing to hurry at any point in time :-) He did the same in Div2 as well - but when bowlers sometimes bowled more poor balls, the 76 might have come off 50 balls instead of 71 :-) The basics in cricket are always the same, you should play the ball according to merit, really, and he epitomises that.
The asking rate had risen towards 8/over, but with Satha there it was always doable (it was 85/5 after 27 overs). Then there were 14 scored off the next over, 10 after that, 9 after that, 7 after that. Satha's last 32 balls saw 4 fours and all 3 of his sixes (and all under control - the bad balls were just all punished to the maximum. And *everyone* bowls bad balls, you just have to be good enough to wait for them, and good enough to take advantage of all of them when theyre bowled... and almost nobody is).
Finally, with the asking rate down to just under 7/over, the wily Adnan was brought on to bowl his tempting high-tossed near donkey-drops to complete the fifth bowlers quota. Satha decided that, with Samarth and Mehul still having 6-7 overs left between then, this was when he had to capitalize and bring the asking rate down further. He went after Adnan, hitting him for 2 and 4 off the first 2 balls... and the third ball slow-tossed-up-ball he came down the track and lofted it flattish to longon, and Samarth judged it to a nicety and held it 3-4 yards inside the ropes. (The non-striker, disappointed, had not even run to cross over... and next man in was captain Madan, another big-hitter. His first ball was high, slow-tossed, spinning marginally in, and Madan went right across his stumps, tentatively decided to defend rather than attack because it was the first ball... and missed it completely, being struck on the backfoot in front of middle stump. Two wickets in two balls, and the match effectively ended right there).
Anyway. It was a fun game, Mehul bowled an excellent spell with no luck whatsoever, Samarth bowled a beautiful spell of left-arm-orthodox spin, Dhiraj was fast and hostile, Satha played an excellent innings. It was fun to watch, and the game was back and forth and in doubt till about 10 overs were left in the match.
In the end, United were a little too strong, and are now 3-0. Capitol fought well, but are slightly hampered by the fact that a few of their good players (students at the univeristy) are away for a lot of the summer until August or so. And Capitol are also hampered by the fact that the schedule-makers have done them no favours - they started with defending champs Pak Gym, then got St Louis (3-0 until this weekend), then United (currently 3-0), and now Challengers :-)
c8w
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Romeen said...
Rup,
I'm not sure who I'd take out from your team, but I agree with Tango. I cant imagine a team leaving Chicago without Ajit and Nilesh on board.These two would easily make it into most good league teams in the country. They are both extremely talented, have tons of experience and have a great work ethic.
Romeen
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I agree with this.
While I think Rup selected a pretty good team, we all have our own opinions... and I disagree with more than a few omissions :-)
First, Id never pick a team without Nilesh Patel from Challengers. The first name written on the list to go to LA is obviously Shahid Munir... but IMHO the second might well be Nilesh Patel! One of the best pacemen in our league, and a very good bat as well. We had a team go to LA last year too, we have past performances we can look at - we won only 1 match, and that was due to Nilesh's batting! (We were about 60/6 when he made a rapidfire 50+ that won the match for us IIRC). Overall, I dont have the stats for the last LA Open at hand, but I seem to remember him being the best overall paceman we had in terms of runs/over!
Second, I think, if he is fit, we need to take someone like Wade Allen from Milwaukee. Long known as one of the best pacemen in our league, he is back and playing well this year (when not injured), and bowling pretty damn well. Sorry, Rup, but Id take Wade even over Jack :-) I umpired Wade the first game of the season this year, and he had 9-1-17-4 - and was quite terrific. He then hurt him foot and was out the last 2 weeks. But this weekend he played against St Louis, and had 7-0-29-1 (bowling, presumably, to Suhail, one of the best batsmen in our league). Thus overall he has 5/46 so far this season in 16 overs (2.8 runs/over). Not much of a sample size, but Id probably pick him for LA anyway, if he is healthy. He has good pace, gets terrific bounce, and is probably harder to score quickly off than anyone in our league.
Then, you have the batsmen. Last year in Division One, the highest rungetter was Imran Syed - 501 runs, 3 centuries, and a major-league six-hitter. Hard to leave him out for 20/20 cricket, really. And Bhavneet Sarna was the 2nd highest runggetter and highest average (473 runs, 52 average), and he is a fine legspinner (on an LA Open surface that requires spinners). I wouldnt leave him out either.
It is also hard to leave out people of the calibre of Ajit and Irfan Sohail with the bat, or Satish Reddy (as an allrounder). They have consistently good performances over several seasons and have obvious ability, that should count for plenty IMHO.
And Kiran too - highest rungetter 2 years ago, 4th highest rungetter last year. He may not be a wild slogger of the 20/20 style, but when you play bowling of the calibre of Ambrose etc in LA, does anyone think wild sloggers opening the batting is actually going to work? :-)
c8w
c8w would u take satha to LA? he can open with sohail n can scorer faster than kiran without slogging.
I agree with Romeen, Cricketwallah
Ajit and Nilesh are our leagues brigh stars and having been shining for a while, year after the year with any possibility of dimming. They have got the hunger, talent and experience to rescue any team from perils of loss Another big advantage of Ajit is he is lefty as every bowler know how difficult it is to switch especially in a short game like 20/20 Nilesh's nippy bowling is well suited for turf wickets and is fine alrounder with his winning knocks last time at LA I think he should be part of the team at the same time lets us not put the fielding on the back burner short games like these quick fielding and innovative field placements is the keys to victory IMHO.....
does anyone know if milw cc has picked up new players they have a perfect start to season 4-0 and last season they were near the bottom.
so y do you keep saying practicing? nobody is doing an hour of practice, its about running and bowling few balls. Did i make myself clear now?
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Still not clear honest.. Warm up is still not defined as running and bowling on the pitch to play on.
As I stated before selecting a team is not easy. There is always going to be good people left behind but that the way it is.
Because you are the 1st or 2nd highest run scorer in 45 over does not auto qualify's you for 20/20. Same for bowling.
I had Nilesh on my first pick then i replaced him with Mehul. Did not select Ajit cause I think the guys i picked as bat were better 20/20 bats. Imran Syed love to take him. on my first pick but replaced him with Bola.
Wade, Does not play much cricket and that's why I did not pick him.
I have been to LA on sevral tours all different in nature. I can say i have a good feel of how the wickets play and so I selected the team based on knowledge of the grounds and the players selected.
cricketwallah Welcome back we did miss indeed some good reading material in past several days nice match description and very nice comments
Also Satha welcome back too its always nice to get your perspective on things;)
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straight_drive said...
does anyone know if milw cc has picked up new players they have a perfect start to season 4-0 and last season they were near the bottom.
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Not "new" new players... but some returnees who have played for them in the past :-)
First of all, MCC has always been a very talented team IMHO - often one of the more talented teams around, but never really did justice to their talent. Last year was especially bad, when they missed some players, and then played horribly too, and seriously underachieved. They always had too much ability to be in the relegation-zone IMHO.
In bowling they have always had Asif, the finest spinner in the league by a margin IMHO. When Wade is around (he's played 2 out of 4 games this year), he is one of the best pacemen in the league. That by itself is quite a combination, not many bottom-of-Div1-last-year-teams have players like that!
Late last season, when they began winning a few games (and so avoided relegation etc), MCC had picked up a few more decent players - Khawar, Rizwan, Hasnain etc. Those guys are there this year too.
Thus, in the bowling now, you have Wade for pace. He is backed up by Farukh (who has been around a while).. then Rizwan and Hasnain both bowl useful steady pace too, as does Lloyd. And *then* you have Asif and Shakir (Asif doesnt have to come and bowl in the first 13 overs nearly as often now, big difference there). The last 2-3 years, when MCC could put up near-200 on their ground, they would win those games fairly often - that is even more true now.
In terms of batting.. Romesh Kadlec has, IMHO, long been one of the more talented batsmen in the league and a very pretty strokeplayer (talent, as in, I always thought he had league-all-star type ability, even), but he has never done justice to his ability in terms of numbers. He always used to get himself out. This year he has fixed that at least early in the season - 2 fifties in 4 games, and #2 rungetter at the moment. Then you have Kabir - a *very* good player who has been in-and-out for MCC the last 3 or so years (last year he didnt play a single game. But Jaggi will remember him - 2 years ago, at Hanover Park, he made a century in a 20 over game against Tigers! I once umpired a game in which Romesh and Kabir hit United - including Mehul - for almost 60 in the first 5 overs of a 45-over game, so I have a *lot* of respect for their abilties!) Kabir is back this year, a destructive top-order batsman, and a medium-pacer who gets banana-swing. Then you have Asif himself (in better form this year with the bat, he hasnt made many runs in 2 years). Then Khawar - picked up very late last season, a bit of a hitter, but a good enough batsman to get a century against Flames last year IIRC. And *then* you have the guys who were always there - Lloyd, Shakir, Riaz etc. The batting has usually been the Achilles Heel for them, but it is improved this year (I hear they might still get Amit Patel back too, which would be another nice addition for them if it happens - he was a pretty steady-looking bat a year ago).
And then MCC has been playing more sensibly too I think (at least they have in the 2 games Ive umpired so far). Theyve been starting slow, making sure they dont collapse, and then accelerating with wickets in hand at the end... on that ground, if they can put up 180+, thats a very competitive total. And you should get 180 if you bat all 45 overs. It will be interesting to see how this works for them the rest of the season - many difficult games (Pak Gym, Wildcats etc) are still left, after all.
c8w
tango,
wanna predict this week outcome?
here are the teams i would predict to go through to playoffs
1. PAK GYM
2. CATS
3. challengers.
4. United
5. milwaukee.
6. st louis
7. muslim
8. purdue
most likely ROYALS and AAA will be relegated.
c8w,
wanna pick urs?
im looking forward to pak v wc and st louis v challengers this wkend all 4 are top teams.
Cricketwallah said... But Jaggi will remember him - 2 years ago, at Hanover Park, he made a century in a 20 over game against Tigers!
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Yeah, I remember that game. He was brilliant that day...scored close to 150 in a 20/20 game. Towards the end, he hit everyball out of the park... great timing and amazing hand eye coordination.
He also a scored a century against us back in 03 in a day game.
Correct me if I am wrong, but, I think the league banned him for playing in ACC. Its good to have that kind of talent back.
c8w,
give us your perspective on the leading batsmen >2000 runs list.
Gautam Khera there is a name from the past.
guys,
all talk how good nilesh and daxx and about their consistancy. but look at their spells againts PURDUE which is not a very good batting side
Dakshesh Patel 4 1 21 0 0 2
Nilesh patel 6 1 28 0 0 3
neand if you have followed cricket you will know that everyone has a bad day once in a while even bradman made ducks.
can webmaster add leading bowlers list with over 100 wickets also
straight...
relax. just trying to start a conversation. its getting boring on the blogs
Tell you what fellas...
We get together and party next friday!
We can get to know other bloggers, talk cricket and even bitch about the management, conspire against them...whatever..:-)
The point is to know each other and hence we can be more courteous on the blog.
You dont have to give up your nicks, just come on over.
I was thinking of meeting @ Chasers, which is a sports bar in Niles, about 10 miles north of the city.
Why Chasers, kinda better location for people from the burbs..
More ideas for locations are welcome.
mail me @ shekhs.aravind@gmail.com for directions and reservations, I'll hold the place.
Please no haters...
Shekhs,
Is this one on Milwaukee Ave just north of Dempster??
Don't mind stopping by there as some nice waitresses serving you.
You got it Rup!
Most of the waitresses there are HOT...
The owner is an Acquaintance, who also serve some really good greek and American food.
Shekhs.. unfortunately, will not be able to make this one buddy. Thank you for taking the initiative.
Not a biggie..
Someone has to do it.. :-)
Lets see the response though...
Shekhs,
Love to be there but too far of a drive.
Can you score there? I meant batting....:-)
Satha,
Its a batting track, you can score a good one.. :-)
We'll party this weekend anyways...we'll be there tomorrow nite..
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can anyone from united comment on satha's batting since this is the first big score he has hit in div 1.
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Game summary posted on www.unitedcricket.org
Adnan Baig
United Cricket Club
Satha,
The drive will worth it my friend.
A batting track it is. The last time i was there, I was going along fine. a couple of boundries under my belt, A few bad balls (freebee's) and acouple of chances from the keeper then i went for a s*x of the skipper got caught and my innings was over.
Can't wait to be back on this track and this time i will leave the skipper alone!!!.
Sheks I wil try to sse if i can make it today. Thought this was going to be next week. Had plans already
Rup,
This is for next week, sorry about the confusion. Tonite, we are going to Springfield. We have a double header this weekend, Vs. St. Louis on saturday and Vs. Capitol on Sunday.
The party is still on for next friday @ Chasers....
If we have enough, then we can reserve the inside area, where a greek GODDESS (you got to see her to believe it) will serve you some scrumdelicious drinks...
Otherwise, we'll just hang out at the patio..
Interesting piece of news today regarding practicing on pitch or the 'square'.
During the innings break of 2nd day of the 2nd test between Eng and WI, Harmison and Plunkett were seen bowling near the edge of the square under supervision of Allan Donald. The match referee stopped it immediately, but no penalties were imposed. Thought Mehul, Satha, Rup and Sadiq bhai would be interested in this.
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/engvwi/content/current/story/297322.html
Raheel.. realize its a bit late, but can u give a quick update on your game against the Flames.
Also, what did you think of the 15 year kid -Amin.
guys lets predict the weekend match, some good gamed in Div 1. Tango etc?
I think Sadiq bhai wrote a summary of sorts earlier. We won the toss and batted, Rashid bhai opening was caught behind off Nasir early, while Imran at the other end was in great touch, he kept hitting 1-2 boundaries per over. After a brief spell from Yousuf bhai, Moin (the 16 yr old kid, his name is not Amin) replaced him and pitched it too short, some deliveries were bowled at good pace but generally he lacked direction and was punished by Imran. Kiran was brought into the attack and he struck with the very first ball which was a beauty an inswinger to Irfan which came from well outside off stump to clip the bails. That brought Hassan bhai and Imran together and they shared an outstanding partnership in the middle of the innings. Hassan bhai in particular looked in great touch for the first time this season and played some great back foot shots. Kiran continued bowling without further luck as his 5 overs were dispatched for 63.
Imran was dismissed for 61 trying to hit Yousuf bhai out of the park and missing it completely. Shahid was next up and he started in brutal fashion hitting 34 in no time but was snapped up (ct behind) by Venkat who probably bowled the best spell of all Flames’ bowlers – his well flighted leg spinners were hard to get away (9 ovs, 1-35). There was a mini wobble as Ali and Mazhar Rana fell in quick succession but Hassan bhai stood firm at one end and when the bad ball came it went out of the park (5 x 6). He finally reached his 100 and retired hurt soon after at 105 due to fatigue and dehydration. Farman bhai hit 3 6’s in one over and myself and Asad hit a 6 a piece to raise the total to 313.
With the forecast of “scattered thunderstorms” we decided to get 20 overs out of the way first as we had 130 in 20. I cut my run up by 8-10 paces and me and Farman bhai raced through the overs, however Kiran and Fahad, the Flames’ openers did not try to score at all in those early overs and were content to just defend or take singles. My first 5 overs went for 7 runs and Farman bhai trapped Fahad lbw. That brought Dr. Rafiq to the crease who was mad at the openers’ go slow and started throwing his bat at almost everything. Shahid dropped short and was pulled for 6 and then edged over the slips for another 4, but Dr. Rafiq tried one shot too many and Shahid’s clever slower ball had him caught behind. Kiran and the new batsman Venkat consolidated afterwards and Flames never really went for the chase difficult as it was – they did play some shots later on esp off Bakshi and the scoring picked up, but then both batsmen fell to catches from Irfan off Rashid bhai and Imran. I was brought back and took 4 middle/lower order wickets in my 2nd spell and the match just petered out, Flames ending up with 193 at the end.
my bad.. I meant to say Moin. Thank you for correcting me.
Scorecard suggests that Flames played only 40 overs and Yousef Bhai and Tariq did not bat. Did they get injured?
Yousuf bhai had a family emergency and had to leave just as the 2nd Inns started and I guess Tariq bhai didn't come out to bat.
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