--------- chally said... Now in MWCC which I renamed... MWPL - MidWest Political League... you are playing the team plus the umpires most times the umpire is a part of the team behind closed doors... and when he is not he did not see or he does not know... or he say let me call the league and find out.. but in reality he is calling a buddy talking in hindu and have us as ass... ---------
Jack,
As an umpire, I hope a lot of the above is just frustration at a tough loss, and not what you really believe :-)
Ive umpired you guys before a few times, you know that - you had a few wins when I umpired you last year, and one loss in the only game I umpired you this year in Madison. Ive never gotten the impression you felt this way about the umpiring you had seen in our league before (Not even after the Madison game)! You dont really feel umpires are part of the opposing team most of the time, do you? Rup has umpired before too, he'll tell you - when you go to umpire a game, honestly you never go in with any "political" mindset at all. Anyone can make mistakes (Simon Taufel, in my opinion by far the best umpire in the world currently, made *two* mistakes in the space of half an hour in the test match last week!), but I really doubt any of us umpires would have an ulterior motive behind any errors, I can honestly say with hand on heart at least that I never have.
Sometimes mistakes can be made, sometimes something may be missed, I dont know what you guys experienced in this match or earlier tihs year. As for calling the league... I myself have never called the league during a game for help on an umpiring decision, did one of your umpires really do that? The league isnt present at the game, I dont see what help the league can give with regard to any decision on the field at any time, it is purely the umpires job to make the call on the field IMHO.What exactly happened in this instance you were referring to? Iam curious to know.
Keep your heads up, guys. I know its been a tough season for you guys, but it happens - stick around, and Iam sure you'll do well next year again. I for one would hate to see you guys go anywhere, its always fun to umpire or watch your games (and, BTW, if you guys have no objection, Ive already asked to be assigned to umpire your game against Evanston to end this season, and am already looking forward to it :-)
Cricketwallah I have a great amount of respect for you... I must say you have been on wins and losses for us and I never felt you had any impact on any of our games. I look forward to you doing the evanston game it will be a cracker... If anyone wants to come see men but it on the line thats the game to come to. I am not talking out of frustration as I said we have to play the umpires too in this league I can name a few exceptions... the guy from flames awesome cant recall his name but he did the eagles Icc game, you of course and dont get me wrong I know umpires are going to make mistakes but man we have seen it all.. One umpire fake a call to the league pretending to get the call right(because he did not know what to do) but was talking to one of his buddies.. I tell you we have seen it all.. Now I must say captains can help out an umpire if he is not aware of something like but we get no breaks... Cricketwallah I must say when you did not do out semi final game against AAA last yr I was disappointed because I think you are one of thte better ones we have.
----------- Aditya said... We got biryani from Paradise for our game this Sunday. It was pretty decent. I stuck to the Chicken version... left all that ghaas phuus for the the Gujju bhais on the team. :-) It was decent. I wouldn't turn it down, now that I'd turn down biryani ever.... but it wasn't something to rave about. -------
I had really tried Paradise a handful of times 2-3 months ago, when it was still pretty new, and it was good then. But most restaurants are good when new I guess, to attract clientele early :-) (And by good, I only mean it was the best of its kind in the NW burbs - which isnt neccesarily saying much, cos there aint *that* much great food of that kind there :-) PeppernSalt is the only real other option, and its pretty ordinary IMHO).
As for your above comment, however, Adi...it reminds me of the time I had always told a friend that Usmaniya had the best biryani in town (an opinion I still hold). He went there, tried it, and came back and told me the chicken biryani was just ok, no big deal, didnt know what I had been raving about :-) And I said to him what I say to you - I have no idea what their chicken biryani is like, Ive never tasted it, and probably never will. I hold strong views about my favourite food in the whole world, and in my world biryani is always gosh biryani when I have a say in the matter. And when I say gosh I mean "goat" - even lamb biryani is only merely ok most of the time (even though many Chicago restaurants try to foist that on me). Iam talking Hyderabadi or Bombay style biryani, where they make real biryani, not some faux biryani where they put healthy things like veggies or white meat in it ;-) Red meat, rice, oil, as unhealthily made as is humanly possible - thats what is needed for a great biryani. And thats the kind of biryani that Usmaniya does better than anyone in town (and Paradise did a decentish job with too, the couple times I tried it).
Anyway. Enough of the Food Network commercial (what Samarth referred to this weekend as the "sahi pakau network")... back now to regularly schedule programming (of double entendres, lunch and dinner dates, Romeen's many and varied nefarious activities, and the occasional passing reference to the game of cricket).
Romeen I have been there..I was pretty impressed...with the Kabobs stuff...Spiciest I have eaten around here..Nice green chilli stuff and you see it when they make..It was pretty cool!
C8, Of course we have some good umpires in this league. I guess it's ICC luck that we get some poor ones. The problem here is too much desparity in the calls. Like i said, most of these guys go into reverse gear on the calls when it comes to us. I have complained to this league several times and a lot of top people have witnessed poor umpiring against us yet we seem to get poor umpires.
Or maybe it because of my badmouthing on MGT..Who knows but we are about to give up. Sorry but that's how we feel.
Sure..I love to man..I need to get the hang out places from you guys...We call it in hyd hindi "addas"..That will Fun..I am big fan of food..Especially Indian (not biased being Indian or anything) but I do think Indian food is the best. No words to explain when you eat good Indian food and it 'Just hits the SPOT' ..No entendre ideas there Romeen..
Rom: Been to Khan's tons of times, like it plenty - used to go there back in the day when it used to be in that smokly little location near Usmaniya, before their fire (that location is now Tikka Inn, BTW, opened only a couple weeks ago). Best kababs in town, bar none, IMHO (the chicken boti is their best probably). Also good gravy dishes, but they are no longer making biryani I think, or werent when I was last there a couple weeks ago. Their food has always been excellent and remains so - only the location has "improved" since their move. (In fact, the last time I saw Affan before yesterdays Rogers Park game was early in the season at Khan's I think - which means he has excellent taste in addition to being a fine cricketer :-)
Madhu: Been to Ghareeb Nawaz more times than I care to recount :-) Very good cheap food, really. Their biryani is one of the tastiest in town IMHO... but my problem with them is that they give it to you for only 4 bucks, and so skimp on the meat. Id be happier if it was 5 bucks and they didnt skimp on the meat :-) The taste of their biryani is quite terrific, but their meat-to-rice ratio isnt ideal to me (if youre less of a meat-eater than me, ie if youre in the remaining 99.9% of the world, then youd be very very happy with GN's biryani, probably). I think Usmaniya's goat biryani is very good for that reason - good flavour, but some of the best and tenderest goat in town in that dish (on a good day).
BTW, has anyone been to the newish Hyderabadi place on Devon, Chaarminar? I picked up a menu and it looked very interesting, and authentically Hyderabadi (I havent seen some of those menu items anywhere else in Chicago... I cant think of anyone else who has patthar-ka-gosh for example). But Ive never eaten there - has anyone got any opinions of it?
After reading these posts I must say that some (ICC) are fighting a difficult battle in getting fair umpires. You can come trying to get me after my comments but I love these guys and they need to be treated the same as we all deserve.
Man I am getting hungry reading this blog. Madhu, i was checking the score card and you got 11 wickets for your bowlers. Kiran had 3 and not 4. I don't know how you will correct that.
---------- Madew said... Sure..I love to man..I need to get the hang out places from you guys...We call it in hyd hindi "addas"..That will Fun..I am big fan of food..Especially Indian (not biased being Indian or anything) but I do think Indian food is the best. No words to explain when you eat good Indian food and it 'Just hits the SPOT' ..No entendre ideas there Romeen.. --------
Well, Usmaniya and Khans have great food... but I dont think they qualify as "addas", per se :-) Just places you go, eat really good food, and then leave. More "family style" restaurants.
If you want real addas, then Daata Durbar and Hyderabad House on Devon are more like it. Proper Hyderabadi addas they are too - where guys will come, eat, spend a few hours, have chai, hang out, play pool, and watch cricket on the TV. When India plays Pakistan especially, these places are packed and fantastic fun, with mixed crowds. And MCC is well-represented too, with most team members from Continental, the erstwhile MDS and Deccan Blues etc, occasionally Mateen from United, plus certain members of the umpiring fraternity ;-)
As for Indian food - its obviously very good :-) But I really dont know if there is any "best" per se. Iam kind of non-discriminatory in my food, and Ive had some awesome dishes from all over, really. There used to be a little Peruvian sandwich place in Rogers Park (now sadly closed) that I liked just as much as Khans, for example. The only time I was in Peoria this year (for the NoStars game), we stopped on the way back near Chilicothe (Route 29 and 17 IIRC), which had a quite fantastic barbeque place (called Sweet Willies or someting, I think - theyre from Mississippi originally. Their "delta style tamales" are like no Mexican tamales, but are quite terrific... theyre near you, you oughta try it). If youve tried Lao in Chinatown in Chicago, its awesome (especially the lamb with cumin, the chili chicken, the boiled beef in sczhewan sauce etc). And if youre playing in Washington Park... 10 blocks away in the best barbeque in Chicago (Uncle Johns), and 25 blocks away is the best jerk chicken place in Chicago. And if you have genuinely good jerk chicken, with the real authentic jerk sauce... thats as great a dish as you'll find in any culture, really.
--------- Rup said... C8, Of course we have some good umpires in this league. I guess it's ICC luck that we get some poor ones. The problem here is too much desparity in the calls. Like i said, most of these guys go into reverse gear on the calls when it comes to us. I have complained to this league several times and a lot of top people have witnessed poor umpiring against us yet we seem to get poor umpires. Or maybe it because of my badmouthing on MGT..Who knows but we are about to give up. Sorry but that's how we feel. --------
But thats just it, Rup - I think its much more just a matter of circumstance, or just mistakes being made. Not a conspiracy. I know I talk to Marghoob-bhai a couple times during the week, while he is setting up umpiring duties... and Iam sure he doesnt even know about you bad-mouthing management :-) With umpires its an availability factor, a convenience factor etc. (For example, he'll often have your own teammate Raj umpire Hammond games if he can... thats cos Raj lives in Hammond and so its convenient for him to umpire there :-) He may be a good umpire, but its convenient for him to umpire in Hammond rather than in Evanston, for example... and so he wont end up being assigned to Evanston much (or at all).
Note this week, for example - I dont know if your umpiring was good or bad, Madhu seemed to think it was decent while Jack was unhappy. But its a Peoria game... nobody is willing to travel from Chicago to Peoria to umpire, not on what MCC pays. The umpires must be found locally, its the only option. Now we arent in Peoria, so we know only 2-3 umpiring options there at any one time - those are the guys who take care of most of the Peoria games (PCC, Jolly Rovers etc).
Note, Iam not trying to pick on Peoria - there havent been complaints from there as such or anything, I think people say the umpiring is mostly ok there (the same logic above applies to all situations - Springfield, St Louis, Moline etc etc). But what Iam saying is, the same pool of guys is umpiring there - there isnt anyone specifically appointed (or not appointed) for any one visiting team or anything, no sort of conspiracy. Sometimes mistakes just happen I guess... and when a team wins one often has a tendency to forget about mistakes, but after tough losses they dont get forgotten so easily. I agree that the application of rules isnt always uniform from one game to the other - that standardization needs to be achieved by the league, in the sense that everyone is at least applying the laws in the same or similar way.
Obviously a lot of umpiring stuff needs to improve, along with a lot of other things. A lot of things have been planned, but lack of availability of people has made most of them unfeasible in the past :-)
Next year, hopefully... we always talk about next year, but really, hopefully, this time it can get done :-) That is, making every team contribute 2 umpires mandatory - I say paid, but mandatory, thus 100 games umpired right there in a season. And organized umpiring qualifying exams etc (California leagues have these, for example).. with it mandatory that within a year every team has to have at least 1 team-member pass this qualifying exam and be a qualified umpire for the league. If 50 people can pass this exam in a year, then the sheer number of qualified umpires who have the same reading of the rules will increase, and hopefully the standards can be more uniform throughout the league. But again, for all this, every single team will need to be made to step up, IMHO.
I want to know your answers for the 3 ques that Preetam asked referring to the Eagles-Jolly Rovers match ?? Regarding whether a batsman should compulsorily wear pads .. even if he does want to wear them ...
c8w you made some good points and I know for a fact winning teams then to forget it more than losing teams.. 2006 season we got some shit calls go out way but we were kicking ass so we complain but in the back of our head we knew it would have catch up to us and surely t did in playoffs... Now as for the pcc umpire behind the scenes pcc players have said to me he is bad but they cannot come out and say that because he is all they got... But i would have liked in a big game like yesterday the umpire be invisible. I was out there with him and they were bowling 14 inches outside off minimum I said thats cool with me once you are consistent.. ha was I fooled as we began to bowl the off stump line was no longer that.... Any way I am done with this I have a 20-20 game and I do not for one sec think about umpiring because our team does not have anyone hunting for our heads... Come sunday I will make a psychological mind change....where I have to make sure bat outside leg, bat and hope nothign hit my pads, make sure I do not edge the ball into the ground with the fear of being giving out wrongfully in the sport I so love... I play for fun but mostly I play for the love of the game I think its the best game out here...sadly MWPL has forced our players into thinking we are running for the white house... c8w you are a good man keep it up...
Chally..i can understand your frustation but i think that's enough. In your earlier comments you said that somebody from opposition met at 7-11 and told in hindi that umpire is bad and they asked umpire to give you out. So why not reveal that person's name so that ur buddy Madhu can clarify being a captain of PCC.
Btw hindi is the language and hindu is religion..so i am laughing with my miss ass about what you heard and understood in 7-11.
No offence meant, but too much of crying from ur part regarding ur teams performance this season.
************************ Now as for the pcc umpire behind the scenes pcc players have said to me he is bad but they cannot come out and say that because he is all they got... But i would have liked in a big game like yesterday the umpire be invisible. I was out there with him and they were bowling 14 inches outside off minimum I said thats cool with me once you are consistent.. ha was I fooled as we began to bowl the off stump line was no longer that.... ********************************** We never bad mouth umpires..,.We are proud of him..He had done umpiring with dignity...that is very wrong...to say that..To tell you truth we were at the receing end and have got bad decisions from him...No batsmen will be happy that he gotten out a LBW or a caught behind ...but we moved on when we had bad decision...Never complained...This is not the first game he has umpired..He is the same umpire who umpired your ICC Vs JR game also..Since you have WON that like you said..I don't think nothin got registered there...He has umpired more than 12 games I would say this year...he has been consistent and his judgement has greatly improved..He umpired IIT game..which was much closer than your game..Like I have stated definitely your catch is 50-50..chance..unless there is a third umpire it is very hard tell if its bump. It is split second decision..To the naked eye having you opened face of the bat to play the shot it appeared to have taken a top edge...and bump as you claim is not really visible to the naked eye..All I ask please because of one bad decision don't question the integrity of the umpire..Don't scrutize everything he did through out the game..I was there too just like you..and I haven't seen any bad wide balls that he didn't give you guys that he gave us....Umpiring is a just thankless job...He umpired both JR game yesterday and our game the very next day..in 100 heat index...Trust me he is one of our better umpires...If you have any positive feed backs please give to the management and he will get it will learn and make amendments..Quicker you learn that few bad decision happen doesn't matter which level its better..Like C8w alluded to you that in half hour period Simon Taufel who is professional umpire made 2 bad decisions and he admitted it...that he did..after seeing the replays...Its season ending loss for you I understand..but good teams always fight back..I personally feel you still have a great chance i fyou WIN all rest of your games..But thats me..We were in the same boat last year and we had to WIN last 6 games last year and WE did..Having seen your competitive spirit..please take your game to the next level and channel your frustrtion to see if ICC can WIN rest of the way..Good luck to you!
yourstruly it was an earlier game not the PCC game... Also I am done I cool trust me I rather lose to madhu than some other teams...
btw what language u all speak I dont know educate me... what ever language it was it was said in that...
Also PCC guys never said a word to the umpire on the field they play the game so please dont think they were on the field talking to the umpire.. they are really a cool bunch
chally said... Madhu all due respect.. I am not making it up... Madhu this is my situation.. I really wont care what the umpires did if it affected me and me only but it affects my team and team is big to me...
Anyway brother nuff love to you.. and your team I think your guyus are great group and if I had to lose a heart breaker I guess I rather do it to you guys.. Lets kiss and make up.. :):):)
speaking of food, any one knows where do we get good and authentic Gujarati food in chicagoland area...I know there's one in Bloomingdale (Army trail road), anything else?
Chally... No issue there bro..I was just trying to clarify on the commetns..that's all...I just wanted to make sure teams that come from Chicago don't think that all away teams have some kind of xfactor or Sixth sense working against them..I understand your team on the receving end this year of few bad decision..You have only played 3 away games so far..WON 1 lost 2...when loosing close games like that it hurts..and it does frustrate the team..but I think all us need to be littel reponsible and concentrate on talking or postings how to resolve root cause rather than poking at the cause itself...Like C8w who posted very informative postings about all the things that are being done to improve the umpiring standards and things in place to make umpires better...This is club cricket and we build upon as we move along through the years..Most umpires are pretty good...We travelled this year 5 games...Away umpires were pretty good and gave decent decisions...LBW are always bone of contention...no matter what...MWCC didn't get ANY LBW decision on turf wicket in LA..Both Asif and Amit will attest to that..When you r not there..its hard to comprehend how umpire saw it at that point of time...but I just want to make sure all the bloggers and MWCC folks who read this blog are clear on the umpiring issue..Also, for the last year rain curtailed game of 25 overs..we didn't have luxury of neutral umpire..that game was such a heart breaker for us..At that point we were 3 wins and 4 losses..
All I can say being in the league for quite a while (10yrs) umpire quality has gone up...Ask Rup when in back 1996-1998 we were providing our own main umpire (guy from playing 11! Yes..thats right)...for the away games..Only games in Chicago and playoffs had neutral umpires..I only wish you were there then to know how things were then and now..a very BIG difference..! Right now its like driving a cadillac on California Highway 1 man..Wish you guys the best and hope you keep the spirits up and get WINs rest of the way!
Sheks.. Exactly my point..You have nice luxury car meaning..we all the means and ways that are setup for umpiring improvements..Some one needs to drive the car to negotiate the curves..Still takes work..:-) I was in Ford Taurus..when I did that..It was just a awesome drive..I do thin Pebble Beach is the bluest water I have seen in a ocean..(People have told me Carribean gets really close)...but lone Lone Cyrus point was awesome..We spend a whole day just driving there..It sweet..You remember the 9th hole I think...There is green patch to tee off and then fairay is a island surrounded by ocean..It was cool man..Its the best drives..and Ofcoure Blue Ridge parkway in fall gets close..:)
Hey See ya tonight man..If rain God is merciful..!
Never been to Maldives man..People have mentioned about it...Its sort of like the Honeymoon getaway or something for Indian couples now..Also, Adaman islands seem to have opened up for Tourism now...Andaman was like our Alkatraz..I guess..:) One my friends got married recently and he went on trip on back waters of Kerala..He said..it was just awesome..:-) You know Vinay Cherian from PCC...he is from Trivandrum...
All this talk about who is better team and who will win playoffs,not to mention the gazillion discussion about umpires. At the end day it is one thing that controll it all. Here....
"A wellknown cardiologist dies and was given an elaborate funeral. A huge heart covered in flowers stood behind the casket during the service. Following the eulogy,the heart opened and the casket rolled inside. The heart closed,sealing the doctor in the beautiful heart forever. At that point,one of the mourners burst into laughter. When all eyes stared at him,he said"I'm sorry,I was thinking of my own funeral...I am a gynecologist."
Sheks.. I read in Readers Digest this one time..about this pick up line man.. This guy goes a girl in bar says "Baby! you got so many curves that I don't have breaks" Romeen there you go....:-) u just reminded me of that joke man.
whats that hole nubmer? The one I am talking about..where you have small patch of green for teeing off..and fairway is like 150-200 yards island with waves crashing..u saw that one..It was cool..
I didnt keep track of the holes Madew... :-) Honestly, I didnt check the hole # on that green....as I only started golfing last coupla years...would have been nice if I knew something about golf when I was actually there...
Wow....joo guys been busy this morning..... ------------ Madhu said: whats that hole nubmer? The one I am talking about..where you have small patch of green for teeing off..and fairway is like 150-200 yards island with waves crashing..u saw that one..It was cool.. -----------
I think its hole # 3. Mind blowing course that one. Would luv to play there.... -------- Re: Blue waters: Dude....Carribean waters are mind blowing; Antigua, St. Thomas, Martinique. Back waters of Kerala rock too; was there just last Dec. --------- Re: the PCC umpire...:) .....baah..no comments. :) --------- Ram: For Gujju food, prepare all your dishes like you would in the south indian style (spicy and hot) and then add 2 spoons of Sugar ! :)..maybe 1.....
But besides that Jhoopdee place in Schaumburg area, not aware of any other desi places. Mind you that place serves old crap at times.....had to go off on that guy once and finally stopped going there.
C8 said, But thats just it, Rup - I think its much more just a matter of circumstance, or just mistakes being made. ------------------------- This is why we sat down to contemplate what we should do. If its just mistakes then it should have ended due to all our complains but it looks like its getting worse. Then again why only mistakes against us. I don't recall anyone of our opponents complaing this year that they were given out wrong. We figure out we have got to take the umpire out of the equation by beating every team by a mile. then again this will never be the case. As always love your comments and you are one of the better umpires around.. keep up the positive work for MWCC. ------------------------------ Yours truly said, No offence meant, but too much of crying from ur part regarding ur teams performance this season. ------------------------------ Put your self in Jacks shoe. This year alone he has been given out 3 times wrongfully. he does not get LBW's when he bowls. Umpires have forced him to bat differently, in fact a lot of ICC players because of poor decisions. We are killing a good player/team here. any other team or players you would have a war on the field but ICC no, We accept the calls and move one though there may be an occasional grump. May be this is our problem we don't voice ourselve like some teams/players. This is where we can voice our views of what's going on as many can see it for the few who realy love what we are going through and think we are cryers.
Naren, Gonna cheer for us... right? You gotta cheer for the underdogs. Challengers are the defending champions and in fine form. THey even have a uniform dress code which looks pretty good. We are just a bunch of guys wanting to play with no uniforms. David vs Goliath. Our only hope is the pressure of expectations on the Challengers.....
Plus, they beat you last week. So, it should be an easy decision to cheer us.
Shekhs said, "lots of eye candy" "Honestly, I didnt check the hole" "I didnt keep track of the holes" C-mon Sheky, stop flip floping?? If you got lots of eye candy you have got to see at least one hole and don't tell me you forget these holes::: heheheheheeeeeee!!!!
I must say I have seen ICC play last year and I have seen Jack and Rup played and must say I am impressed at the abilities of these guys. Now if you got 3 outs that were given against a bats like Jack then I can see why you guys cannot get past teams this year.
That seems fishy as well. I am new to this whole thing but it seems Mid west must do something about their umpires and give some extra classes or re-freshers.
Reminds me of an umpire we had a couple of times when I was playing for Madison in 2005. Full toss above the waist was a no-ball only in some cases.... if he felt like it. If the batsman hit the ball, then it was fine. If the batsman had to duck out of the way in fear of his life, then it was a no-ball. It all depended on the degree of difficulty for the batsman.
The guy would give LBW for balls that pitched outside the leg stump, or even if it hit the pad outside the offstump when the batsman was clearly offering a shot, but it seemed to him that the ball was going on to the legs.
What can I say, except that I had to change my batting methods to suit his umpiring incompetence! I don't mean to sound too harsh, but mistakes I can understand. Plain ignorance is annoying.
Does this league have CERTIFIED UMPIRES? Meaning they qualify? I played east Coast and one must be Certified by the league. Visit Mass. League and see what I mean.www.mscl.org Under Umpires
It is unfortunate that such things happen in our league. Hopefully we are taking steps to prevent this in the future, but Agam, I can sympathize with your frustration. Hopefully, you will not experience such games any more for the rest of this season!
No answer to my question. Are umpires qualify or can anyone with some bacic cricket knowledge do the job. League must invest money to qualify umpires and give them skills to do each games.
Thanks. Umpires will always be in hot water in end but league must take care of their players. All umpires must be certified and that will make a better league. I talk from experience and would love to see that happeb because it is the start of a better league,trust me.
Rishi, I believe there is such a program.. Sreedhar from Eagles took initiative and coordinated sessions at the beginning of the season. These classes were conducted by an ICC certified umpire..
Looking at bigger picture.. lets give a break to this umpire bashing..
These guys are standing under 100 degrees sun for both the innnings.. giving up time with their families and their weekends to umpire.. it takes a certain level of motivation and a higher level of interest in the game to do this..
To add to Aditya's comments, Umpire training program was recently (May?) conducted by MWCC in Hanover Park and based on what I heard the participation wasn't that great. Unless more players sign up for the training program and eventually become certified umpires, the quality of umpiring will continue to be inconsistent and ordinary.
Umpiring is a thankless job.
We as a team faced few bad umpiring (main) calls this year, but then I will salute those guys for having the interest in umpiring games...there are some young guys who come for umpiring and they definitely need training. One can tell. We have to look at it as an improvement opportunity.
The way the opportunity is triggered is through match reports by providing constructive suggestions regarding the umpire.
Guys, Do not get me wrong. Players and umpires are in the field all day. Umpires make the call and players walk or keep going. Fair to both parties. I am sying that the more qualify a person is in being an umpire the more skills to make calls. But they will get crap anyways but still in comand as they players will have more respect for quality umpires.
more quality players from our league need to volunteer for umpiring...they aren't going to fall from heaven :)
If you are reading this and if you think you are a quality player, you may volunteer to get certified, otherwise, you have to live with what is available. You cannot force other quality players to umpire. Realization has to come from within.
Good points Ram. You see,in east,umpires get paid al least $150. I know players will pay $5 each per game,meaning umpire fees,as league does not pay umpires but league fees are less. Here league fees are higher,I gather,and umpires get paid less. Thus who will want qualify.So it must be the call of management.
To add to Aditya's comments, Umpire training program was recently (May?) conducted by MWCC in Hanover Park and based on what I heard the participation wasn't that great. ================================== It was scheduled at the day of WC final.
I have no problem if new management comes in and say umpire fees are up and they lower registration fees to give the umpires 125 a game. Once the umpires are trained I am cool. I have seen too many incompetent ones for the season. I may be willing to do 2 games next season.
Thats a mighty good reason for Gujju food...I'll check tonite...
None of the Gujjus I know eat @ a gujju joint...we all head to Devon at the slightest chance...mostly to DD, at least Tushar, Bhavesh and myself...thats where we go...
We used to go (i think those guys still go) once every week in the winter after Chasers....
I hate this. when ever ICC raise a concern it's bashing. give me a freaking break. Do i need to put it in black and white, bold lettes for you all to get my/ICC point. i am not asking for professional umpires cause we ain't got none. Given this, I can live with the umpire that makes his call the same way both sides. If he makes poor decisions it will be for both sides. Well, like i said for ICC there is a lot of reverse calls from what the opponenets get.(Do i need to explain my point anymore). Ram, Reality is what some of these umpires/people can't stand when it come to ICC.
Ok Ok no more umps bashing just hear this... MWCC provide fair umpire or equally unfair umpiring( once its consistent) ICC win the league 3 out of 5 years starting now... Who is in on this one? OK here are my odds..
Year 1: 3-7 Year 2: 1-2 Year 3: 5-4 Year 4: 3-1 Year 5: 2-1
Nice pot to be had here guys.... I will store all funds at a bank safe :) :)
After we win it all 3 out of 5 we will allow MWCC to go back to normal umpiring lol lol lol because we would have made out point and go into retirement happy travelling men
Can somebody pleeeese start a non-umpiring thread..... It was interesting in the beginning but now it seems to drag on like a Mrinal Sen Movie ( no offense meant Mrinal Sen admirers ).
Preetam/Shekhs, I will let you guys know by tomorrow early morning. I might have to go and pick up Rahul from his school during my lunch hours since it's his first day of school. Thanks.
Has anyone been able to clarify if we wil have the mini world cup. I have tried twice and no response from management. Who is willing to make a phone call as i thing we are paying a cell bill for this??
Guys. Tonight. It's Horizon vs Challengers in a key game. If Challenger's win, they are through to the next round. If Horizon wins, then depeding upon the Pak vs Chall outcome, it could go down to NRR. Either way, it should be a fun game of David (Hor) vs Goliath (Cha). Challenger's are the definite favourites having won it last year and looking good this year. Fortunately for us (Hor), the pressure is on them as everyone expects them to win and win big!
Got a question for my Muslim brothers out there. Is there a major Muslim holiday on Sept 4th of this year. Day after labor day?. I got a friend pulling this on me to cancell our plans. Need your help.
Nice try Sheky. You are last year's champions, and with Darshan in imperious form, Tushar bowling again and batting well, Sanjay looking deadly, Daxx the bowling star this year, Nilesh the perineal spearhead, Mahesh the batting maestro, and you the under-rated danger man, you can't try and take the underdog title in this one. You know that the big dog title in this game is yours alone and the pressure that goes with it.
Sheky, you guys are enjoying your manikchand based inspiration while i've been having sleepless nights about how to contain that explosive batting lineup and survive that attacking bowling lineup!
Ok, I jest, no sleepless nights for me, but you get the gist! :D
Explosive is all namesake Adi........its not like we are playing some ordinary team to begin with..
With Rup, Priyank, Jack, Madhu, Athreya and others, you really think we can just explode...I hope we can beat thw Wildcats highest score - 102 (cats - pun intended) :-)
Welcome back Shekhs. Nice. Try and even out the expectations and take a shot at the Cats! I like it. Looks like Romeen has decided to stay off the blogs.... ;-)
"Ok, I jest, no sleepless nights for me, but you get the gist! :D" ------------------------- Adi nice try.. you may get some of Romo's medicine soon. BTW..anyone heard or seen Romo today or was yesterday too much for him???
That restaurant on Army Trail (close to Bloomingdale RD int) is horrible...place is called Village Hut....I heard so many good reviews about it and then when i finally went to the place recently...I was really disappointed...its supposed to be "all you can eat(digest)" type of arrangement, but the quality of the food is not good. It must have been good when it first opened which explains the reason I heard the good reviews of people that went to it...but not any more.
Another place you can try for good food out in the suburbs...not sure if its authentic gujju food or not but definitely has good "home-cooked" taste quality ...and that is a small(tiny) desi store/restaurant place called Kohinoor. This place is on Maple ave, just east of I-355.
Cleo, thanks, my wife liked Village Hut, oh! Kohinoor...not great dude...have been there several times, not in recent years though...they make fantastic chappathis.
What do ya mean you will volunteer to ump 2 games next season? I thought all teams had to UMP 2 game voluntarily this season. I did 2 night games and 2 day games and I had a blast..not sure about the teams though :).... As far as quality of my umping, well you will have to ask the teams but I know I was way better than that Peoria ump (no offense, Madhu :)). Tell you what Jack, you ump one of our games next year and I will ump one of your games next year. Deal ?
For sure, We guys need to ump more...But would I rather golf on that free day or ump ?
BTW, Ram/Cleo, that Village hut was Jhoopdee before they changed the name. That place as I said before blows!
Ram, try out "Big Suchir" (not sure why they call it big but it has to be a gujju thing...big!) ...intersecction of 75th and 355. They got a decent Khatiavadi (Saurashtra) thali (khichidee, kadhee, bajree rotlaa, oondhio and a few other things) for about 6/7 bucks. Amongst, non-gujju stuff, try out their chili-idlee and vada paavs.
Anyone would be interested playing Wallyball (inside the raquetball court) during the off season? We're looking for 3-4 comitted players. The facility is located around Bloomingdale n Fullerton Rd in Glendale Hts.
We (few guys from Phoenix CC) normally start around end of Oct or early Nov to Feb. We play on Sundays from 8-11am. Let me know... Thanks.
----- Rishi said... Thanks. Umpires will always be in hot water in end but league must take care of their players. All umpires must be certified and that will make a better league. I talk from experience and would love to see that happeb because it is the start of a better league,trust me. --------
I dont think anyone doubts it would make for a better league, Rishi - but the problem is actually getting it to happen.
As an umpire, Id have no objection at all to raising the umpiring fees to 150 per game as you suggested :-) But lets face it, with the current financial situation of the league, it isnt feasible. Umpires are currently paid 60 bucks a game - you really think they can raise that to 150?? They raised it to 75 bucks a game last year... and after precisely 2 weeks (1 pay period), they reduced it back down to 60 bucks a game due to financial constraints! So the idea of attracting a better quality of qualified umpire by paying 150 is a bit of a non-starter, Iam afraid.
There should be certification, yes - but you need *people* for that! There is a severe shortage of people willing to umpire. Thats the biggest problem.
IMHO, the only solution is to make umpiring *mandatory* for every team in this league. In my opinion, it must be a responsibliity for each and every team.. if you want to play in this league, you have to umpire 2 matches. It ought to be paid umpiring, but you must do 2 matches, IMHO providing 2 umpires per match (that is, neutral square-leg umpire too!) And within 1 year you must have a qualified umpire on your roster, and within 2 years you must have 2 qualified umpires on your roster. If you cant fulfill your responsiblities, IMHO, you can play in a different league :-) That is *my* opinion on how to fix this problem. Honestly, I dont think its too much to ask - everyone gets a couple bye weekends a year anyway, all you have to do is provide 2 guys one of those weekends, and 2 guys another of those weekends (who may be different guys)! Most rosters are maybe 14-16 people... it means each player may have to umpire *one* game every *four years*!! That is surely not too much to ask.
Of course the league needs to organize things better etc (there was a training session this year for umpires, but it was on the day of the World Cup final as stated earlier - attendance was pretty poor, and I'll admit I myself had informed them I wouldnt be able to make it, I had plans made weeks in advance for that day, as many others did Iam sure). But that can be fixed easily - another couple training session next year in the offseason cant be hard to arrange. But there must be attendance - again, IMHO it must be mandated that each team has 1 qualified umpire by next year, so every team has to send at least 1 guy to the training session.
To me, thats the only way this problem will approach resolution. Otherwise people will still not want to umpire, there will still be a shortage of umpires, and so willing bodies get taken, without being certified. All this "volutary umpiring" stuff has been tried, and we've seen it fail - not enough volunteers are ever around. The only solution is to mandate it, IMHO.
Swetal: You would want to call me to know the weather around Hannover park I stay pretty close :-), i know u have better resources... Shekhs and Adi u guys are one a Cats Thrashing spree leave the poor guy Romo, he is cooling himself from yesterday i guess.... :-). I will be there for the game, sounds like there is something cold being severd after the game :-)...
Chally: I did not understand your odds man..3-7 for the first year going to 2-1, man ur team should be a world beater to have such odds against you... just joking buddy..
Ram, yeah they do have good chapathis...and their food is pretty bland....but still ok...of course only my opinion :) plus...i havent been there in a long while so dont know what state the quality of food is there now..
Thanks for the reply c8w. I heard many wonderful things about you as an umpire (based on reports on this site). You mentioned financial difficulties faced by league. Is that really the case? We all know that higher pay will attract the human mind,so umpires need better pay as well. Like I said,it all rolls back to management and what their priority is with spending.
Swetal: I would be there for the game, and there is a complimentary Cold Drink i guess from either Adi or Shekhs, and when Sameer is around we should not worry about the Cold Drink. Sameer:i would be in to play Volleyball in the winter..
Shekhs and Adi u guys are one a Cats Thrashing spree leave the poor guy Romo, he is cooling himself from yesterday i guess.... :-).
Naren, I'm not the one who made any comments on the Cats. Please go back and check! Maybe after we play them and win, but definitely not before. :) Because more than likely, I'd have to eat some humble pie later.
Second, Vikram from the Cats is supposed to be umpiring our game tonight, so another reason to stay on the Cat's good side!
That's right Shekhs, go ahead and make all the fun of the Cats that you want. I'm bringing some "biryani" for our wonderful umpire! hehehehe
I know this is a cricket blog, but since there has been alot of post on food...especially desi places...I wanted to ask if anyone has eaten at Banda-e-Nawaz place out in Oakbrook Terrace before...->howz the food and which items are a good pick (if any)?
Adi: I was not serious buddy about the Cat Thrashing, if u want to treat ur ump with a Biryani hmm i dont know how it goes...;-) only time will tell.. We are eating quiet a lot of pie the past few weeks so no more of pieeeeeeeeee :-(
Hey guys, I missed all the fun today! Didnt see any posts from nw and tango either. Hope to catch up with you guys tomorrow or thursday. Hope you guys have fun at/after the game ton ite.
how u all doin , last week in Div 1 looks like the upset week the biggest of all is St.louis/bears game which to me looks like there is still some life left in the bears or maybe st.louis is not as good as we might think. Then Capitol beat MCC which is not that big of a upset because MCC was traveling and asif is not there to help them so kudos to capitol. But know come to the favor of the week Purdue sit there 9 players against united whow and play with the whole new team so friendship of adnan with purdue guys really pay off and i know before the game that this game is going to be a set-up thats why in my earlier post i predict that purdue will sit out some of there guys but 9 players that is amazing so good luck to u all and keep living in the fake world it will come back to u sooner or later.
I know after my post all of ucc players and purdue players & fans will come and do some trash talk or maybe act innocent like pudue always do or maybe sadiq will post that there playoff start in the ohio league thats why they didn't go with their regulars but sadiq we r not stupid that was some as$ licking by purdue team & u r there to watch it & got paid too.( just kidding sadiq).
Samir_PhoenixCC said... shekhs said... n_w just called me fellas...said he will be there...has a surprise for Adi.. :-)
Shekhs, didn't Swetal say that he was gonna call you? hmmmmmm... :) jk ----------
ummh ? I think joo got jour wires mixed up. Narain had asked me to call him for Weather related questions; Shekhs didn't say I was gonna call neither did i say I was gonna call.....So, now, If I get hit by a bus or a bat, Samir....It is all your fault.
Challengers won by over 120 runs (IIRC - please correct me Adi/Madhu/Rup)
Challengers won the toss and elected to bat...
Darshan and Bhavesh exploded from the word go...
put up 10 runs an over until Bhavesh and Darshan got out in the 4th over or so..
Shital and Mahesh kept the aggresive scoring pace and held onto the wickets, with Shital hitting a coupla crisp shots, but lost his wicket in the frentic run scoring pace. Tushar joined Mahesh, and also joined the party, hit a coupla biggies before getting out.
Daxx joined the party and by then it was a crazy party...with Mahesh seeing the ball even before the bowler started his runup...he played some magnificent shots, well connected, well timed shots that disappeared into the orbit...
Daxx and Mahesh put up about 100 odd runs in less than 10 overs with daxx hitting some clean shots.
Mahesh was on 86 when he was bowled playing a lzay, tired shot.
Rest of the Challengers just kept the pace and ended up totalling 221.
In reply Horizon started off well by scoring 9-10 runs an over with Adi and Bola hitting some biggies. Horizon looked threatening until Bola got out to a brilliant runout from Tushar in the 5th over. Score was around 45. Athreya came in and played a coupla shots before getting stumped brilliantly by Mahesh off of Daxx. Adi was still hitting some big ones on the other end maintaining a good run rate...until he got bowled by Daxx. Rup, Madhu and Jack holed up trying to keep up the rate.. Horizon got bundled out in 12-13 overs (IIRC).
Brilliant knock by Mahesh and a good win for challengers!
Good game Horizon and thanks for being good guests! :-)
Sheks, Mahesh played a brilliant knock I have seen in a while! Just breath taking, jaw-dropping, scintillating, scathing, mesmerizing, pulsating..and all ing words that I can add..:-)Just plain clean hits to all over the park..Its fantastic display of power hitting by Challengers..Especially, Daxx and Mahesh..they both were on song...We thougth we had guys under check when u guys were around 78/4 in 8 overs, but Mahesh looks like he took upon himself to make sure...Challegers put a imposing total..Its treacherous chasing a high score like that in thick, wet out field... Horizons started out very well..Especially Adi was looking real good..with some good lusty hits..but Run-out of Mani, stumping of Athreya did put some pressure..and Lady luck ( you need her on day like this chasing formidable 222 runs) wasn't on our side..or should say you had Her by the neck never allowed her to come to our side..:) (Sheks you gotta tell us where she was:) taking all those sweet catches..:) Good luck to Challs and they seem to be overwhelming favorites...Its always a great experience to play Challs, learn new things and little tricks of the trade..:)It was simple cricket and well paced, placed innings..by Challs Best of luck to Challs..it was fantastic game...I only wish we can take it back..and start all over..but you guys were too good on this day!
I think you pretty much got the gist of the game. Mahesh and his clean hitting just took the game away from us. If it wasn't for him, Challengers would still have put up a competitive total of around 160-170 and it would have been game on. But Mahesh hit the ball so well, so cleanly, he didn't give a give a chance until he had crossed his 50 and he was the reason they got to 221. That was just too much to go after, and we had to go for the shots and it just didn't fall our way. Daxx too played a gem of an innings and bowled well to get a few key wickets, but to me the man of the match hands down was Mahesh Parkih. Great knock!
Looks like our night tourney is over, and there was no chance for David as Goliath went beserk!
I will say, there was a bit of friendly banter in the middle, but it was a fun game and we had a good time afterwards. Rup, you're a crazy man!
Also, just wanted to mention that Vik from the Wildcats had an outstanding game as the umpire. He was patient, made the right decisions, and checked before rushing into a call. I would have him umpire our games any day, except maybe when we face the Cats!! Thanks a lot if you read this message.
Romeen and sundries (narasimha), Got the Asterix and Tintin stuff yesterday..Adi and Sheks have a copy each...Anyone who wants it please contact them...? I have to deliver the Malgudi days for Sharath..Sharath r u in Milwaukee or in Calif...?
I would like to know who is doing the rain dance before all our matches?! 3 Rain-outs in the day matches, rain in the night match vs Challengers, severe t-storms forecast for tonight, showers forecast for Sun (match vs Chall)! 50% of our season has been spent watching the rain fall all over the ground(s).
770 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 401 – 600 of 770 Newer› Newest»Anytime you want Romeen.
WTF=WTC=WTS
WTC = what the cats?
approaching 250 comments today
WTC= what the chuck, we coined that 2months ago.
get with the program nw.
my bad doctor but now WTC more like WHERE THE CATS
Dont know where they are right now but they are coming to get ya...
:), in the playoffs hopefully
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chally said...
Now in MWCC which I renamed... MWPL - MidWest Political League...
you are playing the team plus the umpires most times the umpire is a part of the team behind closed doors... and when he is not he did not see or he does not know... or he say let me call the league and find out.. but in reality he is calling a buddy talking in hindu and have us as ass...
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Jack,
As an umpire, I hope a lot of the above is just frustration at a tough loss, and not what you really believe :-)
Ive umpired you guys before a few times, you know that - you had a few wins when I umpired you last year, and one loss in the only game I umpired you this year in Madison. Ive never gotten the impression you felt this way about the umpiring you had seen in our league before (Not even after the Madison game)! You dont really feel umpires are part of the opposing team most of the time, do you? Rup has umpired before too, he'll tell you - when you go to umpire a game, honestly you never go in with any "political" mindset at all. Anyone can make mistakes (Simon Taufel, in my opinion by far the best umpire in the world currently, made *two* mistakes in the space of half an hour in the test match last week!), but I really doubt any of us umpires would have an ulterior motive behind any errors, I can honestly say with hand on heart at least that I never have.
Sometimes mistakes can be made, sometimes something may be missed, I dont know what you guys experienced in this match or earlier tihs year. As for calling the league... I myself have never called the league during a game for help on an umpiring decision, did one of your umpires really do that? The league isnt present at the game, I dont see what help the league can give with regard to any decision on the field at any time, it is purely the umpires job to make the call on the field IMHO.What exactly happened in this instance you were referring to? Iam curious to know.
Keep your heads up, guys. I know its been a tough season for you guys, but it happens - stick around, and Iam sure you'll do well next year again. I for one would hate to see you guys go anywhere, its always fun to umpire or watch your games (and, BTW, if you guys have no objection, Ive already asked to be assigned to umpire your game against Evanston to end this season, and am already looking forward to it :-)
c8w
c8w match report for IIT's game with lucky XI ?? a dull game??
Madhu I agree with you..Even with 23 to win 1 wicket would have change the game...
Romeen,
"start pretty good"
"have had a slump lately"
"bounce back"
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How much is enough... as if suck was not enough::)LOL.
Swetal, any details about your match is much appreciated.
How is Moline team in general?
Thanks
Cricketwallah I have a great amount of respect for you... I must say you have been on wins and losses for us and I never felt you had any impact on any of our games. I look forward to you doing the evanston game it will be a cracker... If anyone wants to come see men but it on the line thats the game to come to.
I am not talking out of frustration as I said we have to play the umpires too in this league I can name a few exceptions... the guy from flames awesome cant recall his name but he did the eagles Icc game, you of course and dont get me wrong I know umpires are going to make mistakes but man we have seen it all.. One umpire fake a call to the league pretending to get the call right(because he did not know what to do) but was talking to one of his buddies.. I tell you we have seen it all.. Now I must say captains can help out an umpire if he is not aware of something like but we get no breaks...
Cricketwallah I must say when you did not do out semi final game against AAA last yr I was disappointed because I think you are one of thte better ones we have.
Rup, et tu brutus? :)
Man, nothing I say today will be taken seriously :)
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Aditya said...
We got biryani from Paradise for our game this Sunday. It was pretty decent. I stuck to the Chicken version... left all that ghaas phuus for the the Gujju bhais on the team. :-)
It was decent. I wouldn't turn it down, now that I'd turn down biryani ever.... but it wasn't something to rave about.
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I had really tried Paradise a handful of times 2-3 months ago, when it was still pretty new, and it was good then. But most restaurants are good when new I guess, to attract clientele early :-) (And by good, I only mean it was the best of its kind in the NW burbs - which isnt neccesarily saying much, cos there aint *that* much great food of that kind there :-) PeppernSalt is the only real other option, and its pretty ordinary IMHO).
As for your above comment, however, Adi...it reminds me of the time I had always told a friend that Usmaniya had the best biryani in town (an opinion I still hold). He went there, tried it, and came back and told me the chicken biryani was just ok, no big deal, didnt know what I had been raving about :-) And I said to him what I say to you - I have no idea what their chicken biryani is like, Ive never tasted it, and probably never will. I hold strong views about my favourite food in the whole world, and in my world biryani is always gosh biryani when I have a say in the matter. And when I say gosh I mean "goat" - even lamb biryani is only merely ok most of the time (even though many Chicago restaurants try to foist that on me). Iam talking Hyderabadi or Bombay style biryani, where they make real biryani, not some faux biryani where they put healthy things like veggies or white meat in it ;-) Red meat, rice, oil, as unhealthily made as is humanly possible - thats what is needed for a great biryani. And thats the kind of biryani that Usmaniya does better than anyone in town (and Paradise did a decentish job with too, the couple times I tried it).
Anyway. Enough of the Food Network commercial (what Samarth referred to this weekend as the "sahi pakau network")... back now to regularly schedule programming (of double entendres, lunch and dinner dates, Romeen's many and varied nefarious activities, and the occasional passing reference to the game of cricket).
c8w
sahi pakau network.
Good one Samarth!
Do you like khan BBQ, c8w?
Romeen
I have been there..I was pretty impressed...with the Kabobs stuff...Spiciest I have eaten around here..Nice green chilli stuff and you see it when they make..It was pretty cool!
M
C8w,
People have told me that Ghareeb Nawaz have very Hyd biryani closet to what we get in Hyd? Has any one eaten there..
M
Madhu, ghareeb nawaz is pretty good, but my fav is Khan BBQ. I eat there a lot, next time you are here, we can go pig out.
C8,
Of course we have some good umpires in this league.
I guess it's ICC luck that we get some poor ones. The problem here is too much desparity in the calls.
Like i said, most of these guys go into reverse gear on the calls when it comes to us.
I have complained to this league several times and a lot of top people have witnessed poor umpiring against us yet we seem to get poor umpires.
Or maybe it because of my badmouthing on MGT..Who knows but we are about to give up.
Sorry but that's how we feel.
Real test for Advancer is game against IIT.This match'll decide the true winner.
Till now they played only highly ranked team Chicago Giants though Advancers won but it was very close match.
Sure..I love to man..I need to get the hang out places from you guys...We call it in hyd hindi "addas"..That will Fun..I am big fan of food..Especially Indian (not biased being Indian or anything) but I do think Indian food is the best. No words to explain when you eat good Indian food and it 'Just hits the SPOT' ..No entendre ideas there Romeen..
M
Justcricketforfun...
You brought out a more relevant point and why this game should be cracker..Well Said..'"Real-Test" of a true Champion'...
M
Rom: Been to Khan's tons of times, like it plenty - used to go there back in the day when it used to be in that smokly little location near Usmaniya, before their fire (that location is now Tikka Inn, BTW, opened only a couple weeks ago). Best kababs in town, bar none, IMHO (the chicken boti is their best probably). Also good gravy dishes, but they are no longer making biryani I think, or werent when I was last there a couple weeks ago. Their food has always been excellent and remains so - only the location has "improved" since their move. (In fact, the last time I saw Affan before yesterdays Rogers Park game was early in the season at Khan's I think - which means he has excellent taste in addition to being a fine cricketer :-)
Madhu: Been to Ghareeb Nawaz more times than I care to recount :-) Very good cheap food, really. Their biryani is one of the tastiest in town IMHO... but my problem with them is that they give it to you for only 4 bucks, and so skimp on the meat. Id be happier if it was 5 bucks and they didnt skimp on the meat :-) The taste of their biryani is quite terrific, but their meat-to-rice ratio isnt ideal to me (if youre less of a meat-eater than me, ie if youre in the remaining 99.9% of the world, then youd be very very happy with GN's biryani, probably). I think Usmaniya's goat biryani is very good for that reason - good flavour, but some of the best and tenderest goat in town in that dish (on a good day).
BTW, has anyone been to the newish Hyderabadi place on Devon, Chaarminar? I picked up a menu and it looked very interesting, and authentically Hyderabadi (I havent seen some of those menu items anywhere else in Chicago... I cant think of anyone else who has patthar-ka-gosh for example). But Ive never eaten there - has anyone got any opinions of it?
c8w
After reading these posts I must say that some (ICC) are fighting a difficult battle in getting fair umpires. You can come trying to get me after my comments but I love these guys and they need to be treated the same as we all deserve.
Man I am getting hungry reading this blog.
Madhu, i was checking the score card and you got 11 wickets for your bowlers. Kiran had 3 and not 4. I don't know how you will correct that.
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Madew said...
Sure..I love to man..I need to get the hang out places from you guys...We call it in hyd hindi "addas"..That will Fun..I am big fan of food..Especially Indian (not biased being Indian or anything) but I do think Indian food is the best. No words to explain when you eat good Indian food and it 'Just hits the SPOT' ..No entendre ideas there Romeen..
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Well, Usmaniya and Khans have great food... but I dont think they qualify as "addas", per se :-) Just places you go, eat really good food, and then leave. More "family style" restaurants.
If you want real addas, then Daata Durbar and Hyderabad House on Devon are more like it. Proper Hyderabadi addas they are too - where guys will come, eat, spend a few hours, have chai, hang out, play pool, and watch cricket on the TV. When India plays Pakistan especially, these places are packed and fantastic fun, with mixed crowds. And MCC is well-represented too, with most team members from Continental, the erstwhile MDS and Deccan Blues etc, occasionally Mateen from United, plus certain members of the umpiring fraternity ;-)
As for Indian food - its obviously very good :-) But I really dont know if there is any "best" per se. Iam kind of non-discriminatory in my food, and Ive had some awesome dishes from all over, really. There used to be a little Peruvian sandwich place in Rogers Park (now sadly closed) that I liked just as much as Khans, for example. The only time I was in Peoria this year (for the NoStars game), we stopped on the way back near Chilicothe (Route 29 and 17 IIRC), which had a quite fantastic barbeque place (called Sweet Willies or someting, I think - theyre from Mississippi originally. Their "delta style tamales" are like no Mexican tamales, but are quite terrific... theyre near you, you oughta try it). If youve tried Lao in Chinatown in Chicago, its awesome (especially the lamb with cumin, the chili chicken, the boiled beef in sczhewan sauce etc). And if youre playing in Washington Park... 10 blocks away in the best barbeque in Chicago (Uncle Johns), and 25 blocks away is the best jerk chicken place in Chicago. And if you have genuinely good jerk chicken, with the real authentic jerk sauce... thats as great a dish as you'll find in any culture, really.
c8w
c8w, tried the daal ghosht at khan's? i'm addicted to it.
I love Lao too. The lamb cumin is awesome, so is the la la la spicy fish.
---------
Rup said...
C8,
Of course we have some good umpires in this league.
I guess it's ICC luck that we get some poor ones. The problem here is too much desparity in the calls.
Like i said, most of these guys go into reverse gear on the calls when it comes to us.
I have complained to this league several times and a lot of top people have witnessed poor umpiring against us yet we seem to get poor umpires.
Or maybe it because of my badmouthing on MGT..Who knows but we are about to give up.
Sorry but that's how we feel.
--------
But thats just it, Rup - I think its much more just a matter of circumstance, or just mistakes being made. Not a conspiracy. I know I talk to Marghoob-bhai a couple times during the week, while he is setting up umpiring duties... and Iam sure he doesnt even know about you bad-mouthing management :-) With umpires its an availability factor, a convenience factor etc. (For example, he'll often have your own teammate Raj umpire Hammond games if he can... thats cos Raj lives in Hammond and so its convenient for him to umpire there :-) He may be a good umpire, but its convenient for him to umpire in Hammond rather than in Evanston, for example... and so he wont end up being assigned to Evanston much (or at all).
Note this week, for example - I dont know if your umpiring was good or bad, Madhu seemed to think it was decent while Jack was unhappy. But its a Peoria game... nobody is willing to travel from Chicago to Peoria to umpire, not on what MCC pays. The umpires must be found locally, its the only option. Now we arent in Peoria, so we know only 2-3 umpiring options there at any one time - those are the guys who take care of most of the Peoria games (PCC, Jolly Rovers etc).
Note, Iam not trying to pick on Peoria - there havent been complaints from there as such or anything, I think people say the umpiring is mostly ok there (the same logic above applies to all situations - Springfield, St Louis, Moline etc etc). But what Iam saying is, the same pool of guys is umpiring there - there isnt anyone specifically appointed (or not appointed) for any one visiting team or anything, no sort of conspiracy. Sometimes mistakes just happen I guess... and when a team wins one often has a tendency to forget about mistakes, but after tough losses they dont get forgotten so easily. I agree that the application of rules isnt always uniform from one game to the other - that standardization needs to be achieved by the league, in the sense that everyone is at least applying the laws in the same or similar way.
Obviously a lot of umpiring stuff needs to improve, along with a lot of other things. A lot of things have been planned, but lack of availability of people has made most of them unfeasible in the past :-)
Next year, hopefully... we always talk about next year, but really, hopefully, this time it can get done :-) That is, making every team contribute 2 umpires mandatory - I say paid, but mandatory, thus 100 games umpired right there in a season. And organized umpiring qualifying exams etc (California leagues have these, for example).. with it mandatory that within a year every team has to have at least 1 team-member pass this qualifying exam and be a qualified umpire for the league. If 50 people can pass this exam in a year, then the sheer number of qualified umpires who have the same reading of the rules will increase, and hopefully the standards can be more uniform throughout the league. But again, for all this, every single team will need to be made to step up, IMHO.
c8w
Sadiq Sir ...
I want to know your answers for the 3 ques that Preetam asked referring to the Eagles-Jolly Rovers match ?? Regarding whether a batsman should compulsorily wear pads .. even if he does want to wear them ...
As per my knowledge .. he has to wear pads ..
c8w you made some good points and I know for a fact winning teams then to forget it more than losing teams.. 2006 season we got some shit calls go out way but we were kicking ass so we complain but in the back of our head we knew it would have catch up to us and surely t did in playoffs...
Now as for the pcc umpire behind the scenes pcc players have said to me he is bad but they cannot come out and say that because he is all they got... But i would have liked in a big game like yesterday the umpire be invisible. I was out there with him and they were bowling 14 inches outside off minimum I said thats cool with me once you are consistent.. ha was I fooled as we began to bowl the off stump line was no longer that....
Any way I am done with this I have a 20-20 game and I do not for one sec think about umpiring because our team does not have anyone hunting for our heads...
Come sunday I will make a psychological mind change....where I have to make sure bat outside leg, bat and hope nothign hit my pads, make sure I do not edge the ball into the ground with the fear of being giving out wrongfully in the sport I so love... I play for fun but mostly I play for the love of the game I think its the best game out here...sadly MWPL has forced our players into thinking we are running for the white house...
c8w you are a good man keep it up...
C8w are you doing the evanston game for the great food we expect to get :):) lol just messing with you man..
Chally..i can understand your frustation but i think that's enough. In your earlier comments you said that somebody from opposition met at 7-11 and told in hindi that umpire is bad and they asked umpire to give you out.
So why not reveal that person's name so that ur buddy Madhu can clarify being a captain of PCC.
Btw hindi is the language and hindu is religion..so i am laughing with my miss ass about what you heard and understood in 7-11.
No offence meant, but too much of crying from ur part regarding ur teams performance this season.
Chally..said
************************
Now as for the pcc umpire behind the scenes pcc players have said to me he is bad but they cannot come out and say that because he is all they got... But i would have liked in a big game like yesterday the umpire be invisible. I was out there with him and they were bowling 14 inches outside off minimum I said thats cool with me once you are consistent.. ha was I fooled as we began to bowl the off stump line was no longer that....
**********************************
We never bad mouth umpires..,.We are proud of him..He had done umpiring with dignity...that is very wrong...to say that..To tell you truth we were at the receing end and have got bad decisions from him...No batsmen will be happy that he gotten out a LBW or a caught behind ...but we moved on when we had bad decision...Never complained...This is not the first game he has umpired..He is the same umpire who umpired your ICC Vs JR game also..Since you have WON that like you said..I don't think nothin got registered there...He has umpired more than 12 games I would say this year...he has been consistent and his judgement has greatly improved..He umpired IIT game..which was much closer than your game..Like I have stated definitely your catch is 50-50..chance..unless there is a third umpire it is very hard tell if its bump. It is split second decision..To the naked eye having you opened face of the bat to play the shot it appeared to have taken a top edge...and bump as you claim is not really visible to the naked eye..All I ask please because of one bad decision don't question the integrity of the umpire..Don't scrutize everything he did through out the game..I was there too just like you..and I haven't seen any bad wide balls that he didn't give you guys that he gave us....Umpiring is a just thankless job...He umpired both JR game yesterday and our game the very next day..in 100 heat index...Trust me he is one of our better umpires...If you have any positive feed backs please give to the management and he will get it will learn and make amendments..Quicker you learn that few bad decision happen doesn't matter which level its better..Like C8w alluded to you that in half hour period Simon Taufel who is professional umpire made 2 bad decisions and he admitted it...that he did..after seeing the replays...Its season ending loss for you I understand..but good teams always fight back..I personally feel you still have a great chance i fyou WIN all rest of your games..But thats me..We were in the same boat last year and we had to WIN last 6 games last year and WE did..Having seen your competitive spirit..please take your game to the next level and channel your frustrtion to see if ICC can WIN rest of the way..Good luck to you!
I think N_W plays for a Div 1 team which won this weekend. And if i am correct, he is a bowler and got two wicks.
Am i right N_W?
Seems like you guys had too much fun....missed it...
Yeah, they are making me earn it aiite...had to be @ a client site this afternoon...
Talk to you guys tomorrow....
yourstruly it was an earlier game not the PCC game... Also I am done I cool trust me I rather lose to madhu than some other teams...
btw what language u all speak I dont know educate me... what ever language it was it was said in that...
Also PCC guys never said a word to the umpire on the field they play the game so please dont think they were on the field talking to the umpire.. they are really a cool bunch
chally said...
Madhu all due respect.. I am not making it up... Madhu this is my situation.. I really wont care what the umpires did if it affected me and me only but it affects my team and team is big to me...
Anyway brother nuff love to you.. and your team I think your guyus are great group and if I had to lose a heart breaker I guess I rather do it to you guys..
Lets kiss and make up.. :):):)
OK Madhu ITS DEAD to me
speaking of food, any one knows where do we get good and authentic Gujarati food in chicagoland area...I know there's one in Bloomingdale (Army trail road), anything else?
Chally...
No issue there bro..I was just trying to clarify on the commetns..that's all...I just wanted to make sure teams that come from Chicago don't think that all away teams have some kind of xfactor or Sixth sense working against them..I understand your team on the receving end this year of few bad decision..You have only played 3 away games so far..WON 1 lost 2...when loosing close games like that it hurts..and it does frustrate the team..but I think all us need to be littel reponsible and concentrate on talking or postings how to resolve root cause rather than poking at the cause itself...Like C8w who posted very informative postings about all the things that are being done to improve the umpiring standards and things in place to make umpires better...This is club cricket and we build upon as we move along through the years..Most umpires are pretty good...We travelled this year 5 games...Away umpires were pretty good and gave decent decisions...LBW are always bone of contention...no matter what...MWCC didn't get ANY LBW decision on turf wicket in LA..Both Asif and Amit will attest to that..When you r not there..its hard to comprehend how umpire saw it at that point of time...but I just want to make sure all the bloggers and MWCC folks who read this blog are clear on the umpiring issue..Also, for the last year rain curtailed game of 25 overs..we didn't have luxury of neutral umpire..that game was such a heart breaker for us..At that point we were 3 wins and 4 losses..
All I can say being in the league for quite a while (10yrs) umpire quality has gone up...Ask Rup when in back 1996-1998 we were providing our own main umpire (guy from playing 11! Yes..thats right)...for the away games..Only games in Chicago and playoffs had neutral umpires..I only wish you were there then to know how things were then and now..a very BIG difference..! Right now its like driving a cadillac on California Highway 1 man..Wish you guys the best and hope you keep the spirits up and get WINs rest of the way!
Samir, Preetam, Rup, Vipul
I'm fine with Wed or Thursday.....for lunch @ Pita Inn..
Madew,
Have you driven a cadillac (or any other car) on CA Highway 1?
It sucks...ITs a pain in the neck to negotiate those curvy roads.. :-)
Believe me...been there done that...
Sheks..
Exactly my point..You have nice luxury car meaning..we all the means and ways that are setup for umpiring improvements..Some one needs to drive the car to negotiate the curves..Still takes work..:-) I was in Ford Taurus..when I did that..It was just a awesome drive..I do thin Pebble Beach is the bluest water I have seen in a ocean..(People have told me Carribean gets really close)...but lone Lone Cyrus point was awesome..We spend a whole day just driving there..It sweet..You remember the 9th hole I think...There is green patch to tee off and then fairay is a island surrounded by ocean..It was cool man..Its the best drives..and Ofcoure Blue Ridge parkway in fall gets close..:)
Hey See ya tonight man..If rain God is merciful..!
Cheers
M
See ya tonite bud...
Its supposed to be sunny this afternoon..hopefully will dry up the ground...
Madew said:
"I do thin Pebble Beach is the bluest water I have seen in a ocean."
You got to check out Maldives..about 45 minute flight from Trivandrum..
That is probably the bluest I've seen...lets not talk even talk about the sand and the resorts.
Better than Caribbean, Hawaii, Borakai or Bali (before Tsunami)...
Sheks,
Never been to Maldives man..People have mentioned about it...Its sort of like the Honeymoon getaway or something for Indian couples now..Also, Adaman islands seem to have opened up for Tourism now...Andaman was like our Alkatraz..I guess..:) One my friends got married recently and he went on trip on back waters of Kerala..He said..it was just awesome..:-) You know Vinay Cherian from PCC...he is from Trivandrum...
Cheers
Madhu
Vinay is my homeboy....played with me for NoStars last year...
He is from Cochin, lives about 2 miles from my place..
Kerala is extremely beautiful....was listed by National Geographic as one of the top 10 places to visit in 2004.
shekhs never been to pebble beach got to check that out soon
Chally, definitely worth a trip...
Also, if you are into Golf, Pebble Beach would be your shrine....
And definitely drive on Highway 1, breathtaking drive...dont mind my earlier comment about curvy roads...you gotta love the curves..
Shekhs man I love golf I guess its also safe to assume lots of eye candy there too..
All this talk about who is better team and who will win playoffs,not to mention the gazillion discussion about umpires. At the end day it is one thing that controll it all. Here....
"A wellknown cardiologist dies and was given an elaborate funeral. A huge heart covered in flowers stood behind the casket during the service. Following the eulogy,the heart opened and the casket rolled inside. The heart closed,sealing the doctor in the beautiful heart forever. At that point,one of the mourners burst into laughter. When all eyes stared at him,he said"I'm sorry,I was thinking of my own funeral...I am a gynecologist."
....That's when the proctologist left...
Sheks..
I read in Readers Digest this one time..about this pick up line man..
This guy goes a girl in bar says "Baby! you got so many curves that I don't have breaks" Romeen there you go....:-) u just reminded me of that joke man.
whats that hole nubmer? The one I am talking about..where you have small patch of green for teeing off..and fairway is like 150-200 yards island with waves crashing..u saw that one..It was cool..
Cheers
Madhu
Oh yeah, lots of eye candy...those cali girls get you all the time.....remember its 70 + weather most of the time..so you know what that means.. :-)
Madew,
lol madhu, cheesy...
I didnt keep track of the holes Madew... :-) Honestly, I didnt check the hole # on that green....as I only started golfing last coupla years...would have been nice if I knew something about golf when I was actually there...
Wow....joo guys been busy this morning.....
------------
Madhu said:
whats that hole nubmer? The one I am talking about..where you have small patch of green for teeing off..and fairway is like 150-200 yards island with waves crashing..u saw that one..It was cool..
-----------
I think its hole # 3. Mind blowing course that one. Would luv to play there....
--------
Re: Blue waters: Dude....Carribean waters are mind blowing; Antigua, St. Thomas, Martinique. Back waters of Kerala rock too; was there just last Dec.
---------
Re: the PCC umpire...:) .....baah..no comments. :)
---------
Ram: For Gujju food, prepare all your dishes like you would in the south indian style (spicy and hot) and then add 2 spoons of Sugar ! :)..maybe 1.....
But besides that Jhoopdee place in Schaumburg area, not aware of any other desi places. Mind you that place serves old crap at times.....had to go off on that guy once and finally stopped going there.
Swet,
What up brutha?
http://golf.about.com/od/golfcourespictures/l/blpebblebeach4.htm
Some pics from Pebble Beach...
Layout information..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_Beach_Golf_Links#Layout_and_Signature_Holes
Shekhs,
We gonna get a game tonight or what? You guys have 11? Your secret weapon joining the party?
As for us, I'm a little concerned about having 11!!!! Damn! And we have no secret weapons. :-(
C8 said,
But thats just it, Rup - I think its much more just a matter of circumstance, or just mistakes being made.
-------------------------
This is why we sat down to contemplate what we should do.
If its just mistakes then it should have ended due to all our complains but it looks like its getting worse.
Then again why only mistakes against us. I don't recall anyone of our opponents complaing this year that they were given out wrong.
We figure out we have got to take the umpire out of the equation by beating every team by a mile. then again this will never be the case.
As always love your comments and you are one of the better umpires around.. keep up the positive work for MWCC.
------------------------------
Yours truly said,
No offence meant, but too much of crying from ur part regarding ur teams performance this season.
------------------------------
Put your self in Jacks shoe. This year alone he has been given out 3 times wrongfully. he does not get LBW's when he bowls. Umpires have forced him to bat differently, in fact a lot of ICC players because of poor decisions. We are killing a good player/team here.
any other team or players you would have a war on the field but ICC no, We accept the calls and move one though there may be an occasional grump. May be this is our problem we don't voice ourselve like some teams/players.
This is where we can voice our views of what's going on as many can see it for the few who realy love what we are going through and think we are cryers.
Naren,
Gonna cheer for us... right? You gotta cheer for the underdogs. Challengers are the defending champions and in fine form. THey even have a uniform dress code which looks pretty good. We are just a bunch of guys wanting to play with no uniforms. David vs Goliath. Our only hope is the pressure of expectations on the Challengers.....
Plus, they beat you last week. So, it should be an easy decision to cheer us.
Shekhs said,
"lots of eye candy"
"Honestly, I didnt check the hole"
"I didnt keep track of the holes"
C-mon Sheky, stop flip floping??
If you got lots of eye candy you have got to see at least one hole and don't tell me you forget these holes::: heheheheheeeeeee!!!!
I must say I have seen ICC play last year and I have seen Jack and Rup played and must say I am impressed at the abilities of these guys. Now if you got 3 outs that were given against a bats like Jack then I can see why you guys cannot get past teams this year.
Advancers got 5 LBW's in same innings and Advancers lost the macth to Lucky XI...Wht anybody has to say abt this
Sounds like you could have a case of a bad umpiring game or using your bats a bit more may have helped! :)
That seems fishy as well. I am new to this whole thing but it seems Mid west must do something about their umpires and give some extra classes or re-freshers.
Aditya we were leave the ball but yards but I don't know what was in Manu Chopra's mind that day...
Adi,
I think we have an eleven...haven't talked to Buchia...he knows who's in..who's out..
As for the secret weapon, he aint coming...can't make it... :-)
Madew,
Is Mani coming?
Reminds me of an umpire we had a couple of times when I was playing for Madison in 2005. Full toss above the waist was a no-ball only in some cases.... if he felt like it. If the batsman hit the ball, then it was fine. If the batsman had to duck out of the way in fear of his life, then it was a no-ball. It all depended on the degree of difficulty for the batsman.
The guy would give LBW for balls that pitched outside the leg stump, or even if it hit the pad outside the offstump when the batsman was clearly offering a shot, but it seemed to him that the ball was going on to the legs.
What can I say, except that I had to change my batting methods to suit his umpiring incompetence! I don't mean to sound too harsh, but mistakes I can understand. Plain ignorance is annoying.
Shekhs, as of now, not sure, but doesn't look like it.
Rup,
Dont want give away too much...
:-)
I'll see ya tonite.. :-) drink some cold ones later..
2 comments up
^legs = wickets
Thats sucks ..it would have been nice to have him in the game..
Sheky,
We still having a game? Seems decent weather now... but looks like it may rain a litte later!
30 % chance...I wouldn't be worried about it..
I think we'll have a game..
Does this league have CERTIFIED UMPIRES? Meaning they qualify? I played east Coast and one must be Certified by the league. Visit Mass. League and see what I mean.www.mscl.org
Under Umpires
Beautiful weather I see for tonight. down to 20% which means no rain.
good morning guyz...
Shekhs use your connections to get names of Gujju joints...
Sameer any help, dude?
Aditya I can only say we lost the match trying to save our pads hitting the balll.By any standard, I have not seen 5 LBW's in 1 innings
It is unfortunate that such things happen in our league. Hopefully we are taking steps to prevent this in the future, but Agam, I can sympathize with your frustration. Hopefully, you will not experience such games any more for the rest of this season!
I think this ump thing comes down to this.. Poor management structure...
Oh well ICC will survive we have before...
Agam I dont know you but I feel your pain.
was the umpire a short guy with a dark shades if its him then he is their 12th man lol lol
No answer to my question. Are umpires qualify or can anyone with some bacic cricket knowledge do the job. League must invest money to qualify umpires and give them skills to do each games.
Rishi,
I'm not sure the right people to answer your question are on the blog at present, but you will probably see something posted over the next day or 2.
As far as I know, you don't have to be certified, but the league is working towards that goal.
Thanks. Umpires will always be in hot water in end but league must take care of their players. All umpires must be certified and that will make a better league. I talk from experience and would love to see that happeb because it is the start of a better league,trust me.
Rishi,
I believe there is such a program.. Sreedhar from Eagles took initiative and coordinated sessions at the beginning of the season. These classes were conducted by an ICC certified umpire..
Looking at bigger picture.. lets give a break to this umpire bashing..
These guys are standing under 100 degrees sun for both the innnings.. giving up time with their families and their weekends to umpire.. it takes a certain level of motivation and a higher level of interest in the game to do this..
-Naveen
To add to Aditya's comments,
Umpire training program was recently (May?) conducted by MWCC in Hanover Park and based on what I heard the participation wasn't that great. Unless more players sign up for the training program and eventually become certified umpires, the quality of umpiring will continue to be inconsistent and ordinary.
Umpiring is a thankless job.
We as a team faced few bad umpiring (main) calls this year, but then I will salute those guys for having the interest in umpiring games...there are some young guys who come for umpiring and they definitely need training. One can tell. We have to look at it as an improvement opportunity.
The way the opportunity is triggered is through match reports by providing constructive suggestions regarding the umpire.
Guys,
Do not get me wrong. Players and umpires are in the field all day. Umpires make the call and players walk or keep going. Fair to both parties. I am sying that the more qualify a person is in being an umpire the more skills to make calls. But they will get crap anyways but still in comand as they players will have more respect for quality umpires.
great points Rishi..Thats what i am asking for from this league...
does anyone knows what happen to st louis vs bears?
more quality players from our league need to volunteer for umpiring...they aren't going to fall from heaven :)
If you are reading this and if you think you are a quality player, you may volunteer to get certified, otherwise, you have to live with what is available. You cannot force other quality players to umpire. Realization has to come from within.
Ram,
I'll check with my teammates on gujju joints...
Do you like Gujju food som much?
Or did you meet a Gujju gal?
:-)
Good points Ram. You see,in east,umpires get paid al least $150. I know players will pay $5 each per game,meaning umpire fees,as league does not pay umpires but league fees are less. Here league fees are higher,I gather,and umpires get paid less. Thus who will want qualify.So it must be the call of management.
Sheky,
We got 11. Phew! We got good weather. Phew! We gotta play you guys in a must win situation. Damn!
Shekhs, My wife is from Baroda , that's the reason...no sidekicks dude.
I am going to hide behind 5th regarding my opinion on Gujju food ! There's Swetal who'll jump on any opportunity...not to speak of NW and Tango :)
To add to Aditya's comments,
Umpire training program was recently (May?) conducted by MWCC in Hanover Park and based on what I heard the participation wasn't that great.
==================================
It was scheduled at the day of WC final.
We got 11(I presume). Phew!
We got good weather (I presume). phew!
Its a must win for us too..as we dont know the outcome of the other game yet...damn.!!!
:-)
I have no problem if new management comes in and say umpire fees are up and they lower registration fees to give the umpires 125 a game. Once the umpires are trained I am cool. I have seen too many incompetent ones for the season.
I may be willing to do 2 games next season.
lol Ram...
Thats a mighty good reason for Gujju food...I'll check tonite...
None of the Gujjus I know eat @ a gujju joint...we all head to Devon at the slightest chance...mostly to DD, at least Tushar, Bhavesh and myself...thats where we go...
We used to go (i think those guys still go) once every week in the winter after Chasers....
I hate this. when ever ICC raise a concern it's bashing.
give me a freaking break.
Do i need to put it in black and white, bold lettes for you all to get my/ICC point.
i am not asking for professional umpires cause we ain't got none. Given this, I can live with the umpire that makes his call the same way both sides. If he makes poor decisions it will be for both sides.
Well, like i said for ICC there is a lot of reverse calls from what the opponenets get.(Do i need to explain my point anymore).
Ram,
Reality is what some of these umpires/people can't stand when it come to ICC.
Ramsundar Lakshminarayanan said...
Shekhs, My wife is from Baroda , that's the reason...no sidekicks dude.
Ram,
been to Baroda? :) try Jagdish's "bhakharwadi" and "lilo chewdo" if you happen to be there anytime in the future.
There's a place called Sayona (Armytrail n Bloomingdale Rd), they have good gujju snacks, specially their "bhakharwadi". :)
Ok Ok no more umps bashing just hear this... MWCC provide fair umpire or equally unfair umpiring( once its consistent)
ICC win the league 3 out of 5 years starting now...
Who is in on this one?
OK here are my odds..
Year 1: 3-7
Year 2: 1-2
Year 3: 5-4
Year 4: 3-1
Year 5: 2-1
Nice pot to be had here guys.... I will store all funds at a bank safe :) :)
After we win it all 3 out of 5 we will allow MWCC to go back to normal umpiring lol lol lol because we would have made out point and go into retirement happy travelling men
Can somebody pleeeese start a non-umpiring thread.....
It was interesting in the beginning but now it seems to drag on like a Mrinal Sen Movie ( no offense meant Mrinal Sen admirers ).
Chally if u are willing to do two games next season, I'd say its a good start. Similarly, many others have to pitch in as well.
Rup, let me get this straight. Are u suggesting that there's a concerted effort on the part of the league to discredit ICC's chances in the league?
Chally,
You married? got family?
Minimum bet must be 1000.00 all funds will go into the ICC retirement fund.
Please register at www.icc.retirement.fun.org
rup please get this site up fast.
Preetam/Shekhs,
I will let you guys know by tomorrow early morning. I might have to go and pick up Rahul from his school during my lunch hours since it's his first day of school. Thanks.
married with kids(2)
oh never mind...you in the same boat chally..
I was going to say....you need to umpire more than 2 games, if you were single.. :-)
Wed/Thurs any day is fine with me. I am not there on friday though.
Call me Samir.
Enough this umpiring nonsense. ho u think is listening?? Like my skipper said"reverse gear".
Chally,Rup,Madhu(who must be on his way) have a good nite in de park.You cricket crazy people...
Thanks Shekhs, I'll ping u once I get to the ground.
For blog purposes, is it Shekhs vs Aditya battle at HP today?
Waht do you think Ram???.
Sameer,
Been to Baroda few times.
Been to the joint on Army trail road, my wife liked it...know of any other places here?
Rup...are u playing today ?
Has anyone been able to clarify if we wil have the mini world cup.
I have tried twice and no response from management.
Who is willing to make a phone call as i thing we are paying a cell bill for this??
Chally..can we know in what games you got bad umpire calls ?
Thanks.
Good luck to all those who are playing tonight.
Ram, while you are there. Why dont you umpire ?
Yours truly......please dont start it again.
Guys. Tonight. It's Horizon vs Challengers in a key game. If Challenger's win, they are through to the next round. If Horizon wins, then depeding upon the Pak vs Chall outcome, it could go down to NRR. Either way, it should be a fun game of David (Hor) vs Goliath (Cha). Challenger's are the definite favourites having won it last year and looking good this year. Fortunately for us (Hor), the pressure is on them as everyone expects them to win and win big!
Ram,
you mean for bragging purposes?
:-)
Adi is a good bat, wouldn't mess with him or any of the horizon folks in here...they are all proven winners...
PS. In case it isn't clear, our only option is to win to have a chance to stay alive in the night tourney.
Adi,
You sly guy...
Conveniently branded Horizon as David and Challengers as Goliath...huh..
With the start power you guys got...we aint even making a David in front of you guys..
Ram,
Shekhs pays me compliments before and after the game... but abuses during!! :)
He's too kind with his words, but I don't think they are too concerned about us.
Yes Ram, I am playing tonight.
Got a question for my Muslim brothers out there. Is there a major Muslim holiday on Sept 4th of this year. Day after labor day?.
I got a friend pulling this on me to cancell our plans.
Need your help.
Nice try Sheky. You are last year's champions, and with Darshan in imperious form, Tushar bowling again and batting well, Sanjay looking deadly, Daxx the bowling star this year, Nilesh the perineal spearhead, Mahesh the batting maestro, and you the under-rated danger man, you can't try and take the underdog title in this one. You know that the big dog title in this game is yours alone and the pressure that goes with it.
Sheky, you guys are enjoying your manikchand based inspiration while i've been having sleepless nights about how to contain that explosive batting lineup and survive that attacking bowling lineup!
Ok, I jest, no sleepless nights for me, but you get the gist! :D
Wow Adi,
Thought Shekhs was the big dog on cold ones alone.
Rup,
Might as well have some fun here while I can! :D
Explosive is all namesake Adi........its not like we are playing some ordinary team to begin with..
With Rup, Priyank, Jack, Madhu, Athreya and others, you really think we can just explode...I hope we can beat thw Wildcats highest score - 102 (cats - pun intended) :-)
I'm just messing with you Shekhs... don't run away from the blog dude. Where are you?
Either way, we're gonna grab a few cold ones after the game... right?
Rup,
Adi is just trying to psych me out...he will pull the rug under once the game starts....
nice try Adi.. :-)
Welcome back Shekhs. Nice. Try and even out the expectations and take a shot at the Cats! I like it. Looks like Romeen has decided to stay off the blogs.... ;-)
Is he coming out with us tonight?
"Ok, I jest, no sleepless nights for me, but you get the gist! :D"
-------------------------
Adi nice try.. you may get some of Romo's medicine soon.
BTW..anyone heard or seen Romo today or was yesterday too much for him???
Hey,
Cats are good sports...
Romeen said he will make it...you never know....might be assisting his nurse with something..
Preetam Said:
Ram, while you are there. Why dont you umpire ?
--------------------------
what part of quality u don't understand?
You're a funny dude Ram...
Where's Tango and Cash..?
I have a new name for them..
Ram,
That restaurant on Army Trail (close to Bloomingdale RD int) is horrible...place is called Village Hut....I heard so many good reviews about it and then when i finally went to the place recently...I was really disappointed...its supposed to be "all you can eat(digest)" type of arrangement, but the quality of the food is not good. It must have been good when it first opened which explains the reason I heard the good reviews of people that went to it...but not any more.
Another place you can try for good food out in the suburbs...not sure if its authentic gujju food or not but definitely has good "home-cooked" taste quality ...and that is a small(tiny) desi store/restaurant place called Kohinoor. This place is on Maple ave, just east of I-355.
Adi, I thought Shekhs was a gentleman during the game...isn't he?
Ram,
I think you misunderstood me for some other Shekhs...
Cleo, thanks, my wife liked Village Hut, oh! Kohinoor...not great dude...have been there several times, not in recent years though...they make fantastic chappathis.
chally,
What do ya mean you will volunteer to ump 2 games next season? I thought all teams had to UMP 2 game voluntarily this season. I did 2 night games and 2 day games and I had a blast..not sure about the teams though :).... As far as quality of my umping, well you will have to ask the teams but I know I was way better than that Peoria ump (no offense, Madhu :)). Tell you what Jack, you ump one of our games next year and I will ump one of your games next year. Deal ?
For sure, We guys need to ump more...But would I rather golf on that free day or ump ?
BTW, Ram/Cleo, that Village hut was Jhoopdee before they changed the name. That place as I said before blows!
Ram, try out "Big Suchir" (not sure why they call it big but it has to be a gujju thing...big!) ...intersecction of 75th and 355. They got a decent Khatiavadi (Saurashtra) thali (khichidee, kadhee, bajree rotlaa, oondhio and a few other things) for about 6/7 bucks. Amongst, non-gujju stuff, try out their chili-idlee and vada paavs.
And that Kohinoor place blows too, IMO.
Looking North out of my kitchen window, I see rain !
Shekhs: Have your phone handy. Will call u and u better not make me drive all the way from home if you guys ain't playing a game!
yours truly per Preetam request I am done... I only want to talk cricket and the betting odds I stated above
Ram,
Shekhs is always a gentleman on and off the field. But no harm in whispering a few sweet nothings into a batsman's ear now, is there? ;-)
Swet,
I just checked Hanover Park weather...no rain and there's only 20% chance..
Yeah, I'll have my phone with me...you aint coming out for a couple?
swetal I think thats a great idea... since I dont want to get blown up on the blog for poor umpiring I will do my damn best..
Chally..No offence, but for fun you should start betting odds that you won't come with other reasons every time ICC lost a match..
:)
Anyone would be interested playing Wallyball (inside the raquetball court) during the off season? We're looking for 3-4 comitted players. The facility is located around Bloomingdale n Fullerton Rd in Glendale Hts.
We (few guys from Phoenix CC) normally start around end of Oct or early Nov to Feb. We play on Sundays from 8-11am. Let me know... Thanks.
-----
Rishi said...
Thanks. Umpires will always be in hot water in end but league must take care of their players. All umpires must be certified and that will make a better league. I talk from experience and would love to see that happeb because it is the start of a better league,trust me.
--------
I dont think anyone doubts it would make for a better league, Rishi - but the problem is actually getting it to happen.
As an umpire, Id have no objection at all to raising the umpiring fees to 150 per game as you suggested :-) But lets face it, with the current financial situation of the league, it isnt feasible. Umpires are currently paid 60 bucks a game - you really think they can raise that to 150?? They raised it to 75 bucks a game last year... and after precisely 2 weeks (1 pay period), they reduced it back down to 60 bucks a game due to financial constraints! So the idea of attracting a better quality of qualified umpire by paying 150 is a bit of a non-starter, Iam afraid.
There should be certification, yes - but you need *people* for that! There is a severe shortage of people willing to umpire. Thats the biggest problem.
IMHO, the only solution is to make umpiring *mandatory* for every team in this league. In my opinion, it must be a responsibliity for each and every team.. if you want to play in this league, you have to umpire 2 matches. It ought to be paid umpiring, but you must do 2 matches, IMHO providing 2 umpires per match (that is, neutral square-leg umpire too!) And within 1 year you must have a qualified umpire on your roster, and within 2 years you must have 2 qualified umpires on your roster. If you cant fulfill your responsiblities, IMHO, you can play in a different league :-) That is *my* opinion on how to fix this problem. Honestly, I dont think its too much to ask - everyone gets a couple bye weekends a year anyway, all you have to do is provide 2 guys one of those weekends, and 2 guys another of those weekends (who may be different guys)! Most rosters are maybe 14-16 people... it means each player may have to umpire *one* game every *four years*!! That is surely not too much to ask.
Of course the league needs to organize things better etc (there was a training session this year for umpires, but it was on the day of the World Cup final as stated earlier - attendance was pretty poor, and I'll admit I myself had informed them I wouldnt be able to make it, I had plans made weeks in advance for that day, as many others did Iam sure). But that can be fixed easily - another couple training session next year in the offseason cant be hard to arrange. But there must be attendance - again, IMHO it must be mandated that each team has 1 qualified umpire by next year, so every team has to send at least 1 guy to the training session.
To me, thats the only way this problem will approach resolution. Otherwise people will still not want to umpire, there will still be a shortage of umpires, and so willing bodies get taken, without being certified. All this "volutary umpiring" stuff has been tried, and we've seen it fail - not enough volunteers are ever around. The only solution is to mandate it, IMHO.
c8w
Swetal: You would want to call me to know the weather around Hannover park I stay pretty close :-), i know u have better resources...
Shekhs and Adi u guys are one a Cats Thrashing spree leave the poor guy Romo, he is cooling himself from yesterday i guess.... :-).
I will be there for the game, sounds like there is something cold being severd after the game :-)...
Chally: I did not understand your odds man..3-7 for the first year going to 2-1, man ur team should be a world beater to have such odds against you... just joking buddy..
Naren,
Sorry bud, it was an irresistible one..
So Romo is out of gas huh...
Yeah, looks like we have a good crowd this evening to hang out...looking forward to that...oh yeah and the game.. :-)
da game...shekhs....da game....focus on da game! :)
Naren: U coming to da game mentioned above?
Adi/Shekhs,
I will also try to stop by....good luck to you guys...
Naren,
Cold stuff...sounds good to me :) will come n find you :)
Ram, yeah they do have good chapathis...and their food is pretty bland....but still ok...of course only my opinion :) plus...i havent been there in a long while so dont know what state the quality of food is there now..
Thanks for the reply c8w. I heard many wonderful things about you as an umpire (based on reports on this site). You mentioned financial difficulties faced by league. Is that really the case? We all know that higher pay will attract the human mind,so umpires need better pay as well. Like I said,it all rolls back to management and what their priority is with spending.
naren yea man we are world beaters.. lol
c-mon guys,
Can any one confirm if there is a Muslim holiday on Tuesday Sept 4 07???
rup, try uncle google.
Samir_PhoenixCC said...
Adi/Shekhs,
I will also try to stop by....good luck to you guys...
What the hell do you mean by that? How dare you fraternize and wish the enemy luck Samir???? :-(
See you today.... ;-)
Swetal: I would be there for the game, and there is a complimentary Cold Drink i guess from either Adi or Shekhs, and when Sameer is around we should not worry about the Cold Drink.
Sameer:i would be in to play Volleyball in the winter..
Darn..Try google.
I get lost finding this blog much less find stuff on google
Thanks anyways Ram.
Shekhs and Adi u guys are one a Cats Thrashing spree leave the poor guy Romo, he is cooling himself from yesterday i guess.... :-).
Naren, I'm not the one who made any comments on the Cats. Please go back and check! Maybe after we play them and win, but definitely not before. :) Because more than likely, I'd have to eat some humble pie later.
Second, Vikram from the Cats is supposed to be umpiring our game tonight, so another reason to stay on the Cat's good side!
That's right Shekhs, go ahead and make all the fun of the Cats that you want. I'm bringing some "biryani" for our wonderful umpire! hehehehe
Oh no...I didnt know Vik was the umpire..I knew you were upto something Adi..
Samir,
thanks for the support man...
Aditya said...
What the hell do you mean by that? How dare you fraternize and wish the enemy luck Samir???? :-(
Sorry Adi, it was a friendly fire :)
Naren,
Cool! I will be in touch with you regarding Wallyball. I don't have your ph#, will get it tonight.
I know this is a cricket blog, but since there has been alot of post on food...especially desi places...I wanted to ask if anyone has eaten at Banda-e-Nawaz place out in Oakbrook Terrace before...->howz the food and which items are a good pick (if any)?
Adi: I was not serious buddy about the Cat Thrashing, if u want to treat ur ump with a Biryani hmm i dont know how it goes...;-) only time will tell..
We are eating quiet a lot of pie the past few weeks so no more of pieeeeeeeeee :-(
n_w just called me fellas...said he will be there...has a surprise for Adi.. :-)
Naren,
I know you're kidding, as always. Maybe I will share my "message" with Romo AFTER our Div1 match.... ;)
shekhs said...
n_w just called me fellas...said he will be there...has a surprise for Adi.. :-)
Shekhs,
didn't Swetal say that he was gonna call you? hmmmmmm... :) jk
hmmm Sameer NW n Swetal what's cooking Skehks..;-)
n_w - you guys figure out..
I'm out guys...see y'all at the game..
Good luck Adi! :-)
Thanks Shekhs. Same to you.... ;)
Hey guys, I missed all the fun today!
Didnt see any posts from nw and tango either.
Hope to catch up with you guys tomorrow or thursday.
Hope you guys have fun at/after the game ton ite.
got back from the slaughter house about an hour back...saw Challengers massacre Horizons....194 with 3 more overs to go...
Horizons are looking at a mammoth total to chase.
so guys, what was the final score of the last night's match?
how u all doin , last week in Div 1 looks like the upset week the biggest of all is St.louis/bears game which to me looks like there is still some life left in the bears or maybe st.louis is not as good as we might think. Then Capitol beat MCC which is not that big of a upset because MCC was traveling and asif is not there to help them so kudos to capitol. But know come to the favor of the week Purdue sit there 9 players against united whow and play with the whole new team so friendship of adnan with purdue guys really pay off and i know before the game that this game is going to be a set-up thats why in my earlier post i predict that purdue will sit out some of there guys but 9 players that is amazing so good luck to u all and keep living in the fake world it will come back to u sooner or later.
Know = now
typo
I know after my post all of ucc players and purdue players & fans will come and do some trash talk or maybe act innocent like pudue always do or maybe sadiq will post that there playoff start in the ohio league thats why they didn't go with their regulars but sadiq we r not stupid that was some as$ licking by purdue team & u r there to watch it & got paid too.( just kidding sadiq).
Samir_PhoenixCC said...
shekhs said...
n_w just called me fellas...said he will be there...has a surprise for Adi.. :-)
Shekhs,
didn't Swetal say that he was gonna call you? hmmmmmm... :) jk
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ummh ? I think joo got jour wires mixed up. Narain had asked me to call him for Weather related questions; Shekhs didn't say I was gonna call neither did i say I was gonna call.....So, now, If I get hit by a bus or a bat, Samir....It is all your fault.
Swetal,
I was just kidding dude :) Thanks for the treat yesterday. I owe you one. How was Salt n pepper?
Preetam/Shekhs,
sorry guys, can't make it to Pita Inn today, gotta go and pick up my son from school. Thanks.
Samir,
thats ok. We can do it tomorrow if you want. Shekhs ...?
What happened to last nights game ?
Challengers Vs. Horizon - AL Game
08/14/2007
Challengers won by over 120 runs (IIRC - please correct me Adi/Madhu/Rup)
Challengers won the toss and elected to bat...
Darshan and Bhavesh exploded from the word go...
put up 10 runs an over until Bhavesh and Darshan got out in the 4th over or so..
Shital and Mahesh kept the aggresive scoring pace and held onto the wickets, with Shital hitting a coupla crisp shots, but lost his wicket in the frentic run scoring pace.
Tushar joined Mahesh, and also joined the party, hit a coupla biggies before getting out.
Daxx joined the party and by then it was a crazy party...with Mahesh seeing the ball even before the bowler started his runup...he played some magnificent shots, well connected, well timed shots that disappeared into the orbit...
Daxx and Mahesh put up about 100 odd runs in less than 10 overs with daxx hitting some clean shots.
Mahesh was on 86 when he was bowled playing a lzay, tired shot.
Rest of the Challengers just kept the pace and ended up totalling 221.
In reply Horizon started off well by scoring 9-10 runs an over with Adi and Bola hitting some biggies.
Horizon looked threatening until Bola got out to a brilliant runout from Tushar in the 5th over. Score was around 45.
Athreya came in and played a coupla shots before getting stumped brilliantly by Mahesh off of Daxx.
Adi was still hitting some big ones on the other end maintaining a good run rate...until he got bowled by Daxx.
Rup, Madhu and Jack holed up trying to keep up the rate..
Horizon got bundled out in 12-13 overs (IIRC).
Brilliant knock by Mahesh and a good win for challengers!
Good game Horizon and thanks for being good guests! :-)
Yeah,
Lets do the Pita inn thing tomorrow...
Sheks,
Mahesh played a brilliant knock I have seen in a while! Just breath taking, jaw-dropping, scintillating, scathing, mesmerizing, pulsating..and all ing words that I can add..:-)Just plain clean hits to all over the park..Its fantastic display of power hitting by Challengers..Especially, Daxx and Mahesh..they both were on song...We thougth we had guys under check when u guys were around 78/4 in 8 overs, but Mahesh looks like he took upon himself to make sure...Challegers put a imposing total..Its treacherous chasing a high score like that in thick, wet out field... Horizons started out very well..Especially Adi was looking real good..with some good lusty hits..but Run-out of Mani, stumping of Athreya did put some pressure..and Lady luck ( you need her on day like this chasing formidable 222 runs) wasn't on our side..or should say you had Her by the neck never allowed her to come to our side..:) (Sheks you gotta tell us where she was:) taking all those sweet catches..:) Good luck to Challs and they seem to be overwhelming favorites...Its always a great experience to play Challs, learn new things and little tricks of the trade..:)It was simple cricket and well paced, placed innings..by Challs Best of luck to Challs..it was fantastic game...I only wish we can take it back..and start all over..but you guys were too good on this day!
Congratulations!
Madhu Reddy
Shekhs,
I think you pretty much got the gist of the game. Mahesh and his clean hitting just took the game away from us. If it wasn't for him, Challengers would still have put up a competitive total of around 160-170 and it would have been game on. But Mahesh hit the ball so well, so cleanly, he didn't give a give a chance until he had crossed his 50 and he was the reason they got to 221. That was just too much to go after, and we had to go for the shots and it just didn't fall our way. Daxx too played a gem of an innings and bowled well to get a few key wickets, but to me the man of the match hands down was Mahesh Parkih.
Great knock!
Looks like our night tourney is over, and there was no chance for David as Goliath went beserk!
I will say, there was a bit of friendly banter in the middle, but it was a fun game and we had a good time afterwards. Rup, you're a crazy man!
Also, just wanted to mention that Vik from the Wildcats had an outstanding game as the umpire. He was patient, made the right decisions, and checked before rushing into a call. I would have him umpire our games any day, except maybe when we face the Cats!! Thanks a lot if you read this message.
Romeen and sundries (narasimha),
Got the Asterix and Tintin stuff yesterday..Adi and Sheks have a copy each...Anyone who wants it please contact them...? I have to deliver the Malgudi days for Sharath..Sharath r u in Milwaukee or in Calif...?
Cheers
Madew
Adi, Sheks
When I get a copy of Tintin?
--Narasimha
Thanks Madhu, hope this one works.
--Narasimha
Madew and Adi,
Thanks for the kind words on Mahesh and Challengers, appreciate that!
Adi,
You played some crackling shots...was looking good...
but like you said, its always hard to chase 221 in 20 overs with the kinda outfield we had...
Nari,
Are you planning to stop by for our game this weekend...since you dont have one..?
else, I'll pass it onto Swet..
Yup, had some good times after the game..
Yeah, I liked Rup's comment when Adi mentioned to him that he lived in the city..
:-)
Will have to do this again..
Shekhs,
I will stop by HP this weekend and pick it up from you.
Seems liks a super match as well to see.
Good luck!!
Thanks,
--Narasimha
I would like to know who is doing the rain dance before all our matches?! 3 Rain-outs in the day matches, rain in the night match vs Challengers, severe t-storms forecast for tonight, showers forecast for Sun (match vs Chall)! 50% of our season has been spent watching the rain fall all over the ground(s).
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