Pak Gym, Challengers, United, Milwaukee, Phoenix - 32 points, and thus already assured of their playoff berth.
That leaves 3 spots open, and for those there is an increasingly intense fight among 7 contenders (Purdue, after suffering what sounds like 2 heartbreaking losses this weekend, has now been eliminated). The current situation amongst the contenders is as follows:
Peoria: 28 points, 1 game left vs Milwaukee United
St Louis: 26 points, 1 game left vs Royals
Rogers Park: 26 points, 1 game left vs Flames
Wildcats: 24 points, 1 game left vs Purdue
Bears: 26 points, 2 games left - vs Challengers and Advancers
Muslim Gym: 24 points, 2 games left - vs Phoenix and Royals
Flames: 22 points, 2 games left - vs Rogers Park and Miluwakee CC
For the first time in a long time, 32 points will not be needed to make the playoffs this season - 30 and a good run-rate will suffice (and 28 and a good run-rate may be sufficient for someone, though thats a much longer shot).
Peoria has their fate in their own hands - win and theyre at 32 points and in. Somewhat similar for Muslim Gym, though a much harder task - they need to win 2 games back-to-back to reach 32 and automatic entry. The Bears, if they win their 2 back-to-back games, actually can get to 34 points and automatic entry as well.
St Louis and Rogers Park can both get to 30 by winning their one remaining game. Flames can also get to 30, but they need to win 2 back-to-back. Wildcats can get to 28 by beating Purdue, and might have a chance with their decent run-rate only if things fall their way in other games.
The most likely scenario IMHO - if Peoria wins at home against MUCC, they get to 32 and in.. which leaves 2 spots open. Muslim Gym probably has to win both games to reach 32 and make it, one loss will almost certainly be the end for them (with their poor Runrate). It is fairly likely that there will then be a log-jam at 30 for either 1 or 2 spots (depending on Muslim Gym's results).. with probably St Louis, Bears and Rogers Park or Flames (both cannot get to 30)... as of the moment St Louis and Flames have positive NRR's, Bears have a better NRR than Rogers Park. The Wildcats need a lot of things to go their way - they need to win, and then have MuslimGym lose a game, and then for no more than 1 team to reach 30 points (ie either Bears lose both or St Louis Rogers Park and Flames lose one).
It will be very hard to actually finish the season next week..no less than 5 Division One teams have 2 games left - finding grounds for all that will be very hard. But if everything does get scheduled for next weekend and it rains... well, then, I refuse to try and figure out what the various permutations for the playoffs will be in that case :-)
-- By Sadiq Yusuf
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
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198 comments:
Nice one Finger...finally you're back with your analysis..
what about division 2 sadiq?
shabari,
he normally does do an analysis for all divisions....I guess its just a matte of time..
you playing tonite?
Sheks,
Good game man....Good luck for Semis and Finals....keep me/us posted, it was fun playing 20-20....
Rohit,
That was definitely a good game...you have an extremely talented bunch of young guys..keep the group together ...you'll definitely do good..
You bowled extremely well...very smart bowling..the game was very close..
Thanks, will definitely keep you posted.
Keep it real!
Yep.. ended up a much closer game that predicted...Pirates could have easily won if the had held on to their chances in IMHO!!!.
It's going to always be tough chasing runs in conditions like last night.. I am still defrosting from last night.
Rohit..ya gota nice bunch of good young guys...work with them and keep them together and they will be a heck harder to beat in the near future.
Sheky..ya all gafu do somtin abut pla'n da nite tur n September/cold/wet/mud//////n e go on foeva..
This night tour needs to be finished, last week in August..period???
Rup...you started using acronyms as well huh ..IMHO.. :-)
Yeah, I hear ya..it was freezing last nite...
we have to do a better job scheduling the night tournament next year, start early, finish it by end of august.
The main issue is to get enough teams to start early..we'll have to contact existing teams and interested folks in Spring, so that we have enough teams by early june.
Thanks for umpiring bud..appreciate that..
United knocked out WildCats out of 20-20 by 7 wickets today ... Gaurav Dhar was the 'Man Of The Match' today as per my opinion ..
Ai'ite Shekhs.. That a positive approach to take.. Myself and i will try to pul the WI guys together for a Team next year..
As for the Acros..i am catching on..how many years now???..and i finally got one hooked!!!!.
Alp,
"Gaurav Dhar was the 'Man Of The Match' today as per my opinion"..
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
How are we suppose to agree if you are not going to give us more details.. Winning by 7 wickets don't tell much about the man of da match???
Give us the scores and a few good individaul stats and mabe we will agree with y..Wah da u seh??
What a ded blog...
Play off is around the corner..A run for the roses is on in all division and no one is talking about MCC cricket....
Are we that sad about loosing or not making the p/offs.. looks like most of the bloggers are from teams with loosing records??
C'mon guys,, pinch yourself, take a shot a Tequila or smoke something and lets talk cricket in MCC..
couldnt have said it better..Rup..
its dead....we need to spice it up bloggers..
aiite.. lets do the predictions..
Who do you think will make the playoffs in Div 1 and 2..?
Div 1 (my opinion, please dont take it personal) - not in any particular order
1. Pak Gym
2. Challengers
3. United
4. Milwaukee
5. Phoenix
6. St. Louis
7. Peoria
8. Muslim Gym
Div 2- not in any order...nothing personal
1. Eagles (Welcome to Division 1)
2. Evanston
3. AAA
4. IIT
5. Arena
6. QC
7. Madison
8. Jolly rovers
9. Lucky XI
10. Jaguars
11. Springfield
12.Collinsville
Shekhs,
You are welcoming us too prematurely. Anyway, thanks for being kind :) Let's get the game going or atleast try to play given the weather predictions for this weekend in Urbana.
Those are my predictions Ram..maybe I'm biased.. :-)
but again..just my predictions..
Even if it rains, unless Evanston beats SPI by a huge margin, you guys should be good.
The only way you can screw this (we challengers do it all the time..:-)). is by losing the game against CCI...
So, goodluck!!
Ok Shekhs. i'll bite:
Div 1 - not sure about the order
1. Challs
2. Pak
3. Phoenix
4. United
5. MCC
6. Peoria
7. Bears
8. Rogers Park
Div 2 - again, no order
1. Evanston
2. Eagles
3. IIT
4. AAA
5. Arena
6. QC
7. Madison
8. JR
9. Lucky
10. Jags
11. CCI
12. Collinsville
Rain or an upset could affect Eagles chances. Not betting for or against them.
Good luck to all!
ps. United vs Challs will probably be the game of the week in Div 1 - should be on Monday Night Cricket!! Specially with the guarantee Nipun made earlier this year against a very motivated Challs team. :-)
Div 2 may be a desparate ICC team vs a very strong JR team.
Runout query....
How do you runout a player when bails are off?
We had a situation in the game ystrdy. The shot from the batsman dislodged the bails and disturbed the stumps at the non-striker's end. In the meantime the batsman decided to take a single. I picked up the ball in my left hand and pulled the stump out with my right hand. Batsman was given out. Any errors? I was told that after i picked up the ball in my left hand and had stump in my right hand, i should have touched the ball to the stumps. In my opinion that does not make any sense. Can you please post the rule if you find it anywhere? I looked and looked and looked but could not find it.
Mehul
UCC
Both Joshis are out of town this weekend.....
Mehul:
Here is the link to the laws of cricket:
http://www.lords.org/data/files/laws_of_cricket_2003-8685.pdf
Law 28 talks about putting down the wicket.
From your explanation (pulling the wicket out with the right hand while the ball was in the left), the batsman is NOT OUT.
Law 28 clearly says that a stump if pulled out of the ground by a fielder, with his hand or arm , providing that the ball is held in the hand or hands so used, or in the hand of the arm so used.
Had you put down the wicket by your left arm (the hand holding the ball), the batsman would have been out. But holding the ball with your left hand and pulling out the wicket with your right is NOT OUT.
Mehul said - "Both Joshis are out of town this weekend....."
thank God..2 down..13 more to go..
you guys have the most flamboyant roster of all..
Ok...So all the crap about pulling the stump out of the ground because the bails are off is just a BIG BS. Including of having to touch the ball to the stump.
Now, what if all the stumps are on the ground?
If all the stumps are on the ground, then you'll have to replant one wicket and put it down with hand or arm holding the ball. By replanting, I mean, put one of the wickets in one of the three slots where the wickets originally were.
wow...I never knew we had to replant the wicket...
always thought that we just need to hold the stump up with the ball in your hand(s) (that sounds corny..)
you learn everyday..thanks maverick..
And where is this rule written mav..?
I just realized that our league website does not have a link to the official "Laws of Cricket". Wouldn't it be nice to add one?
All the rules about putting down a wicket and remaking the wicket are in Law 28 (The wicket is down) in the link I posted earlier.
hmmmm...
I was so wrong about this. Infact ystrdy, all the stumps were still in the slots, i could have just knocked one off with the ball in my hand. Chalo kuch tau sikhe.....
I am Rallying ICC for a shot at the P/Offs...
Thank you to all who still has faith that we/ICC can for we believe we can but the Freaking Weather Gods and IKE may have a say in this.
ICC is hoping we do..Watch out.
In last 2-3 weeks of umpiring Div 1 players, I have seen a lot of bowlers with suspect actions ... Had it been well managed cricket we were playing, these bowlers can surely be reported for chucking ...
I called just one bowler for chucking .. and refrained from calling others ... because the argument I got from the captains was that they have been playing in this league for so long and nobody has ever called them a chucker ...
Enemy of the status quo, Alpesh Bhai. I have a lot of respect for you.
Adnan
www.unitedcricket.org
-------
mehul shani said...
hmmmm...
I was so wrong about this. Infact ystrdy, all the stumps were still in the slots, i could have just knocked one off with the ball in my hand. Chalo kuch tau sikhe.....
-----
Yes, the simplest thing would be to use the ball to knock a wicket over completely. And if all the wickets are down, you just have to remake one stump and knock it down again with the ball, basically. Those parts I actually knew :-)
However, I did think that if the bails were off, you could actually uproot the stumps, and not neccesarily *only* with the hand you were actually holding the ball in (just because its so hard to uproot a stump *while* holding a ball in the same hand - you need a very big hand :-) Iam almost sure I remember Flintoff actually doing this and getting someone runout.. my mental image is of Flintoff screaming, while holding one stump in a hand above his head.. and Iam almost sure he didnt have a ball in the same hand as which he had the stump (dont think even his hands are *that* big :-) Does anyone else remember this at all? Was this actually an error made by the umpire or do I remember the incident incorrectly?
c8w
"In last 2-3 weeks of umpiring Div 1 players, I have seen a lot of bowlers with suspect actions ... Had it been well managed cricket we were playing, these bowlers can surely be reported for chucking ...
I called just one bowler for chucking .. and refrained from calling others ... because the argument I got from the captains was that they have been playing in this league for so long and nobody has ever called them a chucker ..."
Appu, I can only speak about the (brief) conversation you and I had and I don't know which other bowlers you are referring to. So, in retrospect, I agree my argument was wrong, instead of saying he's been bowling for 10 years with no questions asked, I should have just said that he does not chuck, period. The bowler in question here is Sanjay, and nobody who knows their cricket well would ever think he chucks.
Chucking is definitely a huge issue in our league. Unfortunately, there is nothing that is being done to curb it. In the case of Sanjay, my opinion is that he does not chuck.
What do you guys think about the decision to move the regular season by one week? I just hope the weather holds up for finals.
We had a good game against Milwaukee last weekend. The batsmen, led by Aravind and Athreya did extremely well to chase 160 runs against Milwaukee. Asif bowled his heart out, but Aravind and Athreya played him out and attacked the rest.
Every game till last, that I played, we lost. It was a huge relief to get this win. We have two more games - Pak and Muslim. The Pak game looks very doubtful-80% chance of rain. Lets hope the system misses us and we can all play.
Good luck to all the teams trying to make the playoffs.
Chucking definitely is a very sensitive issue...
Even in International cricket, its not under control, at least not consistently taken care off..
Here's the deal fellas...if we want to implement a practice to eliminate chucking, we need to train the umpires and more importantly, have 2 neutral umpires for each and every game.
i can very well listen to the batting team leg umpire and call the bowler, but thats unfair..
appu, you made a brave attempt to start something, but you picked the wrong bowler. I dont think Sanjay chucks either..
Now, if you want to call bowlers for chucking, then we need to do across the board, be consistent with it....or else, we are gonna face controversial situations like these...
Once again, there are bowlers who clearly chuck, and we all know them....
We need to come up with rules or practices that will be consistent thru the league...
This is what you call "True Lies" fellas...we know it exists..but again conveniently ignore it..
we have very few true Mavericks like Appu, who dont hesistate to call it...
appu, if you are my umpire (ALNT), you have my backing…if you think its wrong call it….but then both the umpires should be calling it….
What if Bowler A gets called from one end and switches bowling sides….then we need to make sure the other umpire calls it as well…that’s the main issue..
So, my 2 cents – do what you think is right….hats off for making an effort..
Jaggi said:
What do you guys think about the decision to move the regular season by one week?
I agree. We need to start the season by April last week or by May 1st week the latest, to avoid playing during the 2nd week of October. Also, reduction in bye-weeks will help (even if we start the season 2nd week of May).
Chucking...Hmmmmm..How about pelting.
There are some pelters in this league who does not need justification from anyone cause they clearly chuck/pelt.
sheks i disagree with you that we need two neutral umpires to see/call the chuckers.
As an umpire if you suspect chucking..take a few steps back or as far as you can go but still see clearly to manage your other functions as an umpire and you will see the chucking..
As a reminder chucking/pelting is not how the bowlers arm looks when he is delivering the ball but how much he is straightening his elbow just before delivery.
Eg: Murali...50% of viewers in the work..100% Australians..swears he chucks. he has been tested several times and no he does not chuck. Now Shoab Aktar has been found guilty and he does not look like he chucks under the real eye??
We can put a stop to this but it's tough when proper training is not provided on this topic and Some umpires don't call it Period..because it's there friends.
This league needs to spend a few bucks and get the training tapes/DVD on umpiring training. It will help a lot in clearly see what is being caled and why it was called??
Ram I think Jaggi wants to move the regular season a week later as this weekend games are looking rain outs both days...
With IKE touching down tonight..ouch..only god knows how much rain is coming our way..
Latest report..IKE over 900 miles diameter in cloud cover. Over 250 miles diameter in huricane strength. and over 500 miles diameter for Tropical storm winds..
IKE is looking like the BIG BANG..Fell sorry for all the folks down south Texas way!!!!!
I saw Sanjay bowling for the very first time ... I was the leg-umpire and Irfan was standing right besides me .. I told him about my suspicion ... He too agreed but said that it could because he has a side arm action ... I have not played him at any moment, so I don't know what it appears to the batsman .. Sorry Romeen bhai, for giving you out my opinion prematurely ... Perhaps I could had asked our main umpire to take few steps back and see what he feels ..
I agree with Rup that we need a proper training .. And above that Captains need to understand that we need to play fair cricket ... If they know that their bowler has a suspicious action .. work with them to improve their action ... Also Mgmt needs to come up with a rule on this thing .. rather than coming up with rules like if you enter more than 18 players on your roster .. you have to pay 50$ for that ...
Rup...I guess its not my week...misunderstanding Shekhs y'day and Jaggi today , my bad :)
Rup said -
"sheks i disagree with you that we need two neutral umpires to see/call the chuckers.
As an umpire if you suspect chucking..take a few steps back or as far as you can go but still see clearly to manage your other functions as an umpire and you will see the chucking..
"
Rup, I wonder if the main umpire has the "right to call"...
someone will have to check on this rule...where's our maverick..?
personally, I couldnt clearly see if a bowler is chucking or not if I'm the main umpire, even if I step back a bit..
coz, you also need to look at his feet for the no-ball call..and you dont want to get mixed up..
I think the leg umpire should be calling it..
Ram,
I think you are overly excited at the prospect of being # 1....
where's your partner in crime - preetam? MIA?
I sound confused, not excited :)
No offence taken, Appu. I agree with Shekhs, its commendable what you are doing but you'd have to start with the usual suspects and make sure you don't shoot down any innocent by standers.
I think it would be very difficult but it can be done.
On a different note, good luck to all the teams headed for the play offs. Let the betting begin!!
Can we start up some sort of fantasy league again, just for the playoffs?
Tango, I mean Rom...
Whats up for the weekend?
:-)
DDW, Aravind and Prasanna are brothers and started playing this year in our league. Their brother(the third one), plays for Seattle and represents the Northwest region(I think).
All three brothers have played a good amount of cricket back in Tamilnadu.
Prasanna is a fantastic new ball bowler, who had Romesh(From Milwaukee) in all kinds of trouble.
Aravind, has played very few games for us. He is a wonderful straight bat and being a right hander, handled Asif very well. He was away in Seattle(interning for Microsoft) for most part of the summer and hence the limited no of games.
Sheks,
Main umpire definitely has the right to call a no-ball. Here's an excerpt from Law 24 (No Ball)
2. Fair delivery - the arm
For a delivery to be fair in respect of the arm the ball must not be thrown. See 3 below.
Although it is the primary responsibility of the striker's end umpire to ensure the fairness of a delivery in this respect, there is nothing in this Law to debar the bowler's end umpire from calling and signalling No ball if he considers that the ball has been thrown.
Thanks Maverick...
Ram, caused the confusion... didnt word it right.
I wanted to know what you guys thought about management's decision to extend the regular season by one week for this year. The playoffs (for div-1) are now scheduled to start on the 27th. Not sure what the plans for div-2 are. Ram any thoughts?
Tango, I mean Rom...
nice on Shekhs!!!!!!!!
Well Sheks we got one neutral umpire so we got to use that to enfore something...Do you think we can afford 2 neutral umpires??
Her is my understanding of the rule and how it works. If you see the bowlers chucking you consult with the square. We don't have one so ruling ump got to make the judgement call.. Once in your mind you are sure he is chucking you let the captaing know of your findings and that if the bowler chucks again he will be called no ball. One no ball for chucking and you warn the captain again and the bowler als that another one and he can no longer bowl in the innings..period..can't change end either!!!
Until we get two umpires I am sorry it's down to the ruling umpire on this one
Jaggi, to avoid further mishaps, let me digest your comment before I respond :)
I mean.. I caused the confusion. Damn, I am all over the place today.
finger of death said...
"However, I did think that if the bails were off, you could actually uproot the stumps, and not neccesarily *only* with the hand you were actually holding the ball in (just because its so hard to uproot a stump *while* holding a ball in the same hand - you need a very big hand :-)"
Uprooting the stump doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have to hold the stump in your hand. You can just knock it off the ground with a flick of your hand.
Thx Ram :)
Rup said:
Do you think we can afford 2 neutral umpires??
Very good question. Let me give u some numbers.
1. 350 games played during the season.
2. 50 teams in the league.
Which means, one team has to provide two umpires for 7 games.
bye-weeks, rescheduling issues etc needs to be accounted for...
Certainly plausible, may not be possible.
Div 2 restructuring is on the cards for next year, but not sure about 2 neutral-umpires.
Div 2 pre-quarters supposed to start Sep 21st, and quarters the following week.
Div 1 playoffs to begin sept 27th. Not sure if this is final. The reason for extension is due to few games that had to be rescheduled for Sept 20th weekend.
Finals (div 1 and 2) will be on Oct 11th.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTrOb8zyrZk
This is hilarious......
Its my view that there are no usual suspects in "chucking" - anyone can chuck and it is the umpire's responsibility (main umpire) to detect that. Just as Rup had said, it is easily monitored if the umpire takes a few steps back.
Shiva
Talk about umpiring decisions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB3dJElsv_E&feature=related
lol Mehul...
and we thought it was the particle accelerator experiment..
rohit i have seen this before and i honestly think this is just a stagged thing. there is no way this can happen. Just look at everybody's reaction.
ha ha ha pelting, rup. That is a funny one. Unfortunately i have seen quite few bowlers chucking in our league and getting away scot free. No offense Rom but the general explananation i hear is that the bowler has been bowling for 10 years and never been called. It doesnt matter if he has never been called it is the umpires duty to make hte game as fair as possible. If you think he is chucking then he is chucking. That is if you can come up with a good reasoning.
Are we talking about Sanjay Patel ? I don't think he chucks.
In international cricket nobody dares to antogonise the other board because it is not about cricket anymore. It is all about dinero. Murali clearly chucks when he doosra's. But can you antogonise the asian quartet. Remember what happened to the umpires when Sachin and Sehwag were punished.
Watching International cricket is more like watching "RAW IS WAR".
Shekhs, sorry was MIA for the first part of the day. And waiting for the rain gods to show us some mercy.
Preetam, you from Australia?
"the ball has been thrown".
Such harsh words to use against a bowler IMHO:::))))
Could they have use words like, Pelt, Slug, Chuk, Chug ..ETC.. so much softer on the brain & emotions.. not to mention only 4 letter words compare to THROWN..
Everyone just wants to be politically correct these days..
BY the way looks like we are all getting on the same page that it's the ruling umpire duty to call no ball if he sees the following and "Pelt, Slug, Chuk, Chug" and more of these.
Preetam, you from Australia?..
MAV, Why the ???.. Can it be beacause he says Murali flip his Doosra's.. could it???.
Looks like yIKEs this weekend...!
Unfortunately it changes the playoff layout....
plenty of rain all around...
Pelt would be the apt word Rup..I'm gonna refer chucking as pelting hereafter..
It's not because Murali flips/chucks/chugs/pelts/slugs/throws...it's because "Remember what happened to the umpires when Sachin and Sehwag were punished."
Anyway, I was just kidding when I asked if Preetam was from Australia.
LOL no Mav. Born and raised in India. But c'mon you can see his bent arm defying all laws of physics when he bowls the doosra. I always wondered why does he have to have that expression before he bowls. I think i know why, he is just trying to distract the leg-ump from noticing the arm.
Mav, i think the game of cricket is much more higher than any individual. Just because they have power now I dont think any board should bully others into accepting their ways. Where has modesty and humility gone.
I think i have made a lot of risque comments already. So No Mas.
On a different note. Looks like rain this weekend is going to kill us. We might have to go back to the drawing board to plan for the playoffs.
Preetam,
You mean you were not planning to use the drawing board for the playoffs, otherwise.. :-)
well, the forecast looks the same everywhere in the midwest...so you still might be able to give that drawingboard some rest..
ICC need and indoor stadium...Freaking rain has just dashed all my hopes of and extended season...
Then again we butchered our dreams in the mid-season...
I just noticed that the Milwaukee Vs Flames game got moved to next weekend.
Since the season has been extended, can teams with playoff chances move their games to next weekend?
My bad, it must be bcos Flames are scheduled to play Rogers Park on Saturday.
They had not made this change in the morning and hence the confusion.
Ram, my long day continues :)
Jaggi asked:
Since the season has been extended, can teams with playoff chances move their games to next weekend?
Will be nice if it can be done :)
Went to Purdue with the Wildcats today - there was tons of overnight rain etc, but the ground was fixed and the game started late. And the weather held off - a 37-over-per-side game was played and completed! Wildcats won to get 4 huge points, with Romeen scoring an excellent century (despite no food or water all day), and Vikram a very good 70-odd (opening partnership was 189 IIRC). Purdue started with 44/0 in 4 overs chasing 294, but then faded (part of their start was due to one of the best U19 players in the league - Faraz, a quite excellent keeper who made 77 against Bears last week, he is only 18 years old, and apparently played in the U19 nationals for Central-West this year, the Dallas team. Next year hopefully we can add him to our Central-East outfit, and win the title instead of losing in the national finals :-)
Also, congrats to the Eagles for making it to Division One - they apparently also got a full 40-over game in at Urbana, and won a very tight game beating CCI by 3 wickets to ensure themselves of first place in the regular season of Division Two and earn automatic promotion.
c8w
Eagles beat CCI by 3 wickets
Eagles elected to bowl first. Reduced CCI to 0/1 in the first over. However at the break, CCI were 108 with no further loss of wickets with contributions from Praveen (ex-Peoria player) and Atul. 108 was a crucial number given rain predictions. (There was not a drop of rain during the entire match !)
CCI ended their innings at 204.
Eagles began on a sedate note, 39/1 in 10 overs, raced to 109 by 20 overs with Seshu masterminding yet another 50, with Amit providing able support at 1 drop. Amit ended up scoring an unbeaten half-century (retired midway due to cramps) and ensured we won the match by 3 wickets.
Congratulations to Eagles on their victory and most of all for their magical season. Welcome aboard Div I and best wishes.
Shiva
This is plain assenine of the umpire to make us show up at the ground and then call off the game 30 minutes prior due to heavy rain. Common sense should prevail in this case and there should have been a notice posted on the web site notifying all the teams that due to terrential rains games this weekend are abandoned. We had guys who drove 50 miles one way just to show up only to hear what we have known all along. We called the umpire early this morning and he was insistent that we must show up at the ground. Little bit of common sense goes a long way guys. It wasn't like the rain just started or it was going to stop. This is extenuating circumstance and should be handled as such.
Adnan Baig
www.unitedcricket.org
I am not a regular on this blog, but check it once in a while. couple of topics, which I am sure have come up before:
Walkover :I can understand if there is a genuine reason. To say - whats the point of driving 4 hrs if you cannot make playoffs / your bones ache is cowardly at best. and why not declare it up front that your team is madeup of sore loosers? I think the captain/manager or person who floats a team must be held accountable and be suspended for the next season. What do you guys think?
Umpiring in C-IL: what should one do about umpiring in Central IL? should MCC be responsible or do the clubs takeup this up? My sugestion is Peoria, Springfield, Purdue, Urbana, Jolly Rovers must unpire each other. Each club must umpire 10 games (other 4 I am hoping MCC would help us out), if they are not up to it - do not float a team or move to Chicago :) The teams must be assigned a game and they find a way to umpire it. period. It is most ineficent to have Margoob Bhai call people up and keep requesting.. with his dedication he can do much better things for the league.
General: Instead of Div 1 and 2 should the league adopt a AFL/NFL system with regional grouping approach? just a tought..
Guys!!!
How is it that Chicago teams are giving a walkover to each other in this rainy weekend ??. We all know its raining everywhere and teams can get two points each but they rather give walkovers, to help the other teams. I am not accusing anyone, but AAA getting a walkover from Giants ensure they are no 4 rather than JR who also is tied at 40 and end up at NO5.
We made all the efforts to play our game on Saturday and we batted first against QC kings and scored 170 in 27 overs (Ravi Patel 83) before rain came. we split 2 points because of the rain with QC kings. we work for these two points, showing up in ground and mopping the pitch and trying to play a game so that the legitimate winner gets to be No4 and this behavior from other teams is a joke.
In such a weather, every match should be called a rain out and giving walkover to help their friendly teams is making a mockery of cricket. the league should do something about it. But i doubt it...
Dinesh ...
In the same manner ... I don't understand why Collinsville is entering the scores as if they have received a walkover ... Collinsville is receiving a lot more rain today than Chicago region ... hence ... there are no chances of game being possible there ...
Management again staying reactive then proactive.
Adnan Baig
www.unitedcricket.org
I can at least understand if a Chicago team desnt want to go to Collinsville to get 2 points... thats a waste of 300$ in gas money. But how come Chicago teams giving walkovers in Chicago??
All I am saying is, League should call this weeks matches a rained out and give split points for the teams. some split points and some walkovers doesnt make sense to me..
How come Bears gotta walkover against Advancers? Games could not have possibly been played this weekend in Chicago. There is a continous downpour.
Adnan Baig
www.unitedcricket.org
Dinesh, I hope you are reasoning because of the bad weather. I can understand that. Heck, there is a severe weather warning today for most parts of the state.
There are 2 very easy ways people could saved money: not playing at all and/or witching to Geico. If you are saying it is not worth spending $300 because it is a pointless game and it is likely to feltch you only 2 points.. I am sorry, I am for not allowing you to play next year and (no offense :) adding you to my list of sore loosers.
Hi baba,
Please read what I said. I mentioned that " I can understand if teams do that.." I did not say that I agree with that.. By the way, if you look at Jolly Rovers record for the past three years ( I have been with JR for the past three years only), we have not given a walkover ever..
Dinesh, when you bring up $300 and only 2 points.. it sounds like you will tolerate it. It is great that JR has not given a WO! but how many times has a any team received one and complained against it?
I think JR, for that matter any other team, lost more just sliding up/down one position.. a good days worth of cricket was robbed from them. That’s my point.. and I also said no offense :)
So, I get back to my original question.. what do you recomend doing? what are your ideas to prevent them?
So we have a new form of match fixing called WALK OVER . :)
Nothing new Ajoy, this has occured few times in the past
baba_ganush said...
Umpiring in C-IL: what should one do about umpiring in Central IL? should MCC be responsible or do the clubs takeup this up? My sugestion is Peoria, Springfield, Purdue, Urbana, Jolly Rovers must unpire each other. Each club must umpire 10 games (other 4 I am hoping MCC would help us out), if they are not up to it - do not float a team or move to Chicago :) The teams must be assigned a game and they find a way to umpire it. period. It is most ineficent to have Margoob Bhai call people up and keep requesting.. with his dedication he can do much better things for the league.
-------------------------------
Baba Ganush,
Dude we do have umpire assign to do the umpiring. Springfield, Collinsville and JR each have one person in their area assigned to do the umpiring for all their games.
I have not seen anybody from chicago come and do the umpiring for JR. Infact, this we had t play a game against Evanston without an umpire.
So, don't post such comments unless you know whats going on out there. If you had to go to umpire one game in Central Region it could be because they might not have anybody available out there, so leave it there period.
Lets talk about Div 2 play offs ...
Six Chicago teams and six out of chicago teams ... And the most wonderful thing I am seeing is Arena has to play Collinsville for the Div 2 pre-quarters ... so will they come to Chicago to play that match ?? As per the rules .. they have to ... Wat say Ajoy ??
As per the current standings .. I expect Arena, Jaguars, Madison and Jolly Rovers to win the pre-quarters ...
Adnan,
I agree with you on this matter totally...
Our game should've been cancelled yesterday, given the circumstances.
And even after you guys made an effort to talk to the umpire, we had to be at the ground this morning.
Its insane, we couldnt even get onto the freeway this morning, as all the ramps were closed due to Des Plaines river being flooded.
We need to address this issue ASAP, as it toally doesnt make any sense.
If it rained for 2 days and there is no sign of any sunshine, we all know we aint getting a game of cricket...
This week has to be a Black day in the history of Midwest Cricket.
Teams are resorting to unfair means to gain an advantage in climbing up the ladder to get into a favorable position for the playoffs.
AAA getting a walkover from Giats despite the fact that both teams are from Chicagoland. I dont buy the fact that AAA Giants game result should be considered a walkover ... AAA gained a big advantage by getting to the #4 spot and thus dodging the pre-QF game.
The solution to this should be clearly demarcated rules regarding what qualifies for a game result to be a walkover.
According to me, considering all the results in question this week, a rained out result should have precedence over a walkover with a couple of exceptions depending on the teams involved in the game.
The distance one or both teams need to travel should be a deciding factor in determining if a game is a walkover or a rained out result.
When the game involves Two teams from the same area( within reasonable driving distance of the venue) ... it should not and cannot be declared a walkover ..it has to be declared a rained out game ..
When one or both teams involved is beyond reasonable driving distance from the venue ( e.g Chicago Fire's walkover to Arena ) then the walkover naturally has precedence over a rained out result as the travelling team chose to forfeit the game as a rained out game requires both the teams to be present at the venue during the scheduled start of play.
JR traveled 1 hour ( for its home game) to Peoria and QC Kings traveled 2 hours from Moline to Peoria for a game which was highly unlikely to happen...Both teams put in efforts to mop the pitch and bowling runup and the game got underway and JR were standing at a good 175 in 27 overs ( game was shortened to 35 overs) when the rain started pouring again. All this for 2 points but both teams were responsible and honest enough to be fair to themselves AND ALL other teams in Div-2.
It is absolutely unfair to let AAA eat 4 points sitting at home and JR struggles to get 2 only to be pushed down to the 5th spot.
Anyone with an honest and neutral perspective and who studies the results and their effects on points/standings can smell something very fishy about the AAA Giants walkover..
Atif, you play for the Giants right? Whats your scoop on this issue ? You must have followed proceedings closely ..
I am genuinely and honestly interested to know how and why Chicago Giants gave a walkover to AAA ...
Kd
Kd,
well, what if giants weren't present at the begining of the match?
Alpesh,
That is a valid point, travelling to Chicago to play when both teams are from Saint Louis Region.
Funny and tricky situation for the management I Guess.
Ajoy
Collinsville with just 3 wins makes it to play offs....
food for thought.
all the hard work done by wildcats and rp is gone for a waste how can a team get a walk over when all the games are rained out? i think management should interfere to maintain the integrity of the game for once i cannot belive advancers could do this I have lost respect for them bears game should be ruled rained-out if they have balls let them win against chals and earn a play of spot this is most rediculous stuff at the end of season where whole season culminates to nothin for few teams due to few dirty teams doing dirty laundry behind the doors this is not good for the league teams that follow rules like wild cats who made the trip and played the game at Purdue also RP should not penalized for no fault of theirs I lost bunch of respect for advancers Quadry, Paven Shakir what were guys thinking? Looks like Adavancers is worst team with worst attitude good thing we won't see u next year bye bye with attitdue like that it will not get you guys any where u r just a embarassment for being Div-II champs
well I believe that , there is gonna be a match between JR and collinsville rather than Arena and collinsville, but still these both are travelling teams lol. I expect Jaguars to win this season. I say that because, the team I support is Jaguars ;).
whoa devils_advocate, I think u should ask them (Advancers), what happened? before you swear at them like that. Take a chill pill ;)(No offense).
shabari every one knows what was happening this weekend and they give walkover inspite of knowing there will be torrential rain? r they so dumb all u have to do was to show up with 7 on the field u would gotten a rained out those have to take chill pills its just so frustrating if ur in teams shoes of knocking on the door and dependent on this outcome for ur playoff chances cuz of this game you would be equally frustrated 3 teams are officially out Wildcats, Flames, Rp with 28 points if bears loose to chals next week this was a rained out best team would have gone to playoffs among 28 points anyway nothin around changes here same old ugle things crop up year after year and there is no solution
Eagles VS CCI.
It was raining cats and dogs here in chicago and some from my team suggested it was a waste of time driving all the way to urbana. But as always i put my foot down and insisted we still go to Urbana. I didnt want to take that remote chance it mught be dry and CCI might claim a walkover. In our 8 years of existence we have never given a walkover. Yes we played with 7 and 8 sometimes but we still played. So, as we were approaching Urbana the ground was bone dry. So the game was on. Unfortunately we did not take full strength team to CCI but we still got through.
Speaking for Chicago Giants. I think they have been giving walkovers for the past few weeks. So it might really not be the case where they were favoring AAA. I think they have had troubles this year. So before we crucify them we need to get the facts. Knowing Atif personally and their team. They play hard when they can. I am sure there is something else which forced them to do this.
Also isnt there a penalty for giving walkovers. Like you lose existing points. And if you give more than 2 or 3 you are not allowed to play next year. I thought there was something like that.
"Collinsville with just 3 wins makes it to play offs....
food for thought."
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Wow did not see that, they had a tie against us (Jaguars). Anyway the rules are going to change next year w.r.t walkovers and rained out games. I knew Chicago Giants too gave Walkover to IIT, last week.
Congrats Eagles on your Division I spot. Congrats to all the other teams who made it to playoffs, hopefully there wont be any more rain to spoil the playoffs.
DIV 2 playoffs lineup looks like this.
JR vs Collinsville ( vs Eagles)
Arena vs Springfield (vs Evanston)
QC vs Jags ( vs IIT)
Madison vs Lucky xi (vs AAA)
Hope best team wins and congratulations to all and best of luck next year to rest of the teams.
Div II playoffs, possible games:
Quarter Finals:
Eagles Vs (Collinsville vs Jolly Rovers)
Evanston Vs (Springfield vs Arena)
IIT Vs (Jaguars vs QC Kings)
AAA Vs (LuckyXI vs Madison)
teams that are using backdoor ways really need a reality check what are they going to achieve to play one extra game in playoffs by backdoor means here in case of Collinsville they going to haul their ars* to Chigago only to be beaten and sent back with tail between their legs what bothers me is team taking the place of much deserved teams place may be the teams didn't play well thru the season but have been putting things together well towards the end to make the final push( Wildcats, Rp) boom this walkover disease happens at this point I believe they were strongly let down by the system itself hardwork and sincerity theres never a place in this league team with 3 wins makes it wow can't say anything but laugh at sorry state of affairs
I don't understand why teams who got walkover should be blamed for no wrong doing from their part.
Collinsville are nice bunch of folks who love to play than worry about win or loss.
Preetam,
I agree we should not accuse Gaints for favouring other teams. But considering that all the games were rained out in Chicago, it is totally unpair to other teams also. AAA got 4 instead of 2 points which they should not be awarded in any case.
I did not see how it is possible for each Washington Park ground have different outcomes. I mean if the game on Washington park #3 is called off due to rain, then I do not understand how was it possible to play on the game on ground # 4. And if not (which I am sure) then it should be declaired as rained out.
The biggest disappointment for me this season has been the Advancers. They are a talented bunch, but for whatever reason, have not been able to field 11 players and hence had a bad season. Even though their last game against Bears meant nothing to them, they should have showed up to the ground and split the points. Giving a walkover, when it has huge consequences to the playoffs is not in the right spirit of the game.
My recommendation would be to start giving negative points(-4) for walkovers. Also, if a team gives a walkover in the last three weeks of the season, they are automatically disqualified to field a team for the next season. Also any team with two or more walkovers need to be disqualified.
Congratulations to the Eagles for winning the division and getting an automatic entry to div-1. Special mention to Subbu, who has been fantastic, especially while chasing big scores.
Jaggi, giving -ve points is already in place and not new.
Disqualifying a team won't stop teams from giving walkovers because team can change the name come next season. Best thing is ban the players for one season.
touchpoint,
I agree that different grounds from the same area should not have different results given the weather condition. What I am just mentioning is that the Giants might have already conveyed that they would not be available hence the walkover. If nobody is available you cannot actually take the 7 to the field right. No matter what the weather is.
Banning the players might be a little too extreme. Disqualifying the team could be suffiecient. A lot of teams give importance to the team name that they play for and if they have to change the name they might already be making a huge sacrifice. So i think that would a sufficient deterrent.
Jaggi,
Subbu has always been a fantastic player for us. Chasing or setting. But this year a lot more played to their potential. Especially Seshu with his excellent bowling and 3 ( almost 4. one was a 47 ) back to back 50's. Mankesh, Amit, Vishnu etc. And ravi for us has been stupendous with his fielding. Picking out some great catches. I think all these came together to get us our wins this year.
Are the negative points reflected in the points table? I dont think so.
Yes, I agree that teams can change their names. Again, there needs to be careful screening before we let new teams into division-2. A couple of years ago, there was a team that got into div-2 (Rockers, I think), gave a bunch of walkovers and disrupted the season. They were then allowed to play in 30/30. Any new team that comes in needs to be carefully screened.
Absolutely Preetam, there are a lot of pieces that need to come together to have the kind of season you guys did. Subbu is a good friend and hence the extra attention to him. I dont think I have met Seshu. How long has he been playing for you guys?
There is a lot of Blows thrown for Walk overs given.
ICC has been deemed to have given walk overs in both their games. This is sad but before you all jump to bust ICC, knowing my take in Walk overs given .. let me gice you ICC side of the story..
I woke up Saturday morning.. looked at the weather and started calling my guys. I know we had to get seven players to the ground.. Well half of the guys were under flood watch and seepage. I myself had water comin in the house. I spent from 8-9 am mopping up and I took off to go to the park.. under pouring rain..just to make sure a walk over was avoided. Well I took 90 in and got stopped because it was closed and flodded.. Took me an hour just to turn around.. it was still raining cats and dogs so i went back home..good thing or my house would have been flooded...
Jaguars took a walk over..??. The rules allowed for this cause we did not show up. I guess they were there full team and ready to go.
Later that evening around 9 pm I called Peoria as per play on Sunday. Per conversation the game was not likely to be played. Either we go down and split the points or give a walk over. We choose the Walk over to Peoria.
As the standing sits and as bad as the walkovers looks both Jaguars and Peoria did not make it to the playoffs with these points but were already in before the walkover points??.
I feel this is where management should have stepped in and Veto the rules and called off all games due to the seriousness of the weather knowing that they games could not be played and a lot of players were in serious flood zones??..and getting flood also. Split the points and call it a day.
Because management left the rules to take it's course, a lot of you are taking some cheap shots at players/family who had to make dire decisions like this??
Question of the day??
Would you leave your house and go to the cricket ground knowing it is going to get flooded in a couple of hours if you do not try to stop the flooding???
first and foremost , why do we have 12 teams out of 19 for the playoffs ? shouldnt this be 8 out of 19 ...so #1-4 dont get a bye week and hence the season doesnt get extended until Oct 12 ...
12 out of 19 teams making to the playoffs is not motivation enough for teams to do their best ..hence the fact that Collinsville with 3 wins makes it to the playoffs ..
8 teams should make it to the playoffs ..
Kd
On behalf of ICC I wish all the team that make the playoffs a succefull run for the Roses/Cup.
for the teams that did not make it i wish you all the best of luck for next season.
To anyone/Team affected by ICC's decision that cause walkovers to be given last week end, we sincerely apologise to you all and hope you understand why.
Well put Rup, your case is completely valid and nobody should be doubting your integrity as to why ICC had to give a walkover(s) ..
I am interested to know if Giants have a similar story which warrants them the same respect I have for you now ..
and to answer your question of the day: No I would not go to the ground and it would be a valid case for a walkover if the other team showed up but if the other team did not show up too then its rained out.
Part 2 of the Question for AAA Giants is : Did only Giants not show up at the ground or did AAA also sit at home and receive the 4 points. If both teams did not go to the ground then rained out result is fair, if AAA came to the ground and Giants could not then a walkover is worth consideration.
Kd
Rup, hope things are better now.
I will go back to 2005, it was May 1st week and it was raining cats and dogs the whole week. It was the first decision I would make as the general secretary. I insisted that games in Chicagoland be called off for Saturday. I must say that Tariq told me to not do so, but, I was adamant. People could make better use of their time, was my rationale. Shashi(from Giants) had made the trip to WP on both Fri evening and Sat morning and confirmed that the ground was unplayable. I did the same with Heritage Park and Hanover Park. Most people appreciated the decision, but there are always a select few who think they can play. I was on the phone Fri night and a big part of Saturday. In trying to ensure that people spent their times wisely, I had to take all these calls and wasted my weekend.
I still stand by that decision. It is tough trying to explain it to all teams, but, the league should do it. Under extraordinary circumstances such as these, the league should be proactive.
I told you rohit, we(Jaguars) gonna be playing QC. :). QC kinga watch out ;P. Just kidding..
Thanks for understanding Jaggi and KD and the rest of the guys...
Jaggi, Things are better today than over the weekend.. Got some minor Damages due to the seepage..
It should dry out over the next couple days and i will work on fixing the problem..
You are absolutely right..MCC as a whole needs to be more proactive in it's decision making..
As I stated above if the Veto power had taken place it would have saved a lot of aggravations as seen on this blog over the last couple days..
Yeah as Rohit said Giants have been giving walkovers since couple weeks. So I donot think they did anything in favor of AAA Intentionally
Hey one more thing, just a fun thing though. Only the teams in the playoffs (DIV II) have updated their scored card I think. Just check the points table and u can see the top 12 teams are the only teams with 14 matches updated.
Shabri
Kd,
That's a good point there about AAA's presence for the match. Does anyone know if AAA came to the ground?
Shabri
FYI Fellas..
Both Giants and Advancers had contacted the the management in terms of their walkover-given, early this week. They contacted the management around wednesday, IIRC.
Hence, this is no planned sabotage to give a free ticket to any team to the playoffs or any convenient positioning.
I can vouch for the above 2 teams as I was CCd in the emails that went about.
Before you start mudslinging, I thought I'll lay the facts out there...
My point is that a walkover in the final season game can rob other teams of a playoff spot. When I played for the Tigers, we got a friend's friend's friend who had never played leather ball cricket to come play for us. Another time, took one guy all the way to Peoria.
We have 14 weekends (12 if you average 2 rain outs). Teams must show up or face penalty(which should be enforced).
Here's an interesting result :
Arena Vs Chicago Giants
Date Saturday, July 19, 2008
Ground Washington Park Ground No. 4
Toss Chicago Giants
Batted First Arena
Match Result Rained out
Game between Giants ( team from Chicago) and Arena, a team from St Louis, both were involved in a RAINED OUT result in Washington Park.
Compare this with
Date Sunday, September 14, 2008
Ground Washington Park Ground No. 4
Toss AAA
Batted First Chicago Giants
Match Result AAA Won By Walkover
I somehow cannot make sense of the AAA Giants game from these 2 results
kd
and this ...
Chicago Giants Vs Illinois
Date Sunday, May 11, 2008
Ground Washington Park Ground No. 2
Toss Chicago Giants
Batted First Chicago Giants
Match Result Rained out
Both teams from Chicago ..
Looking at the AAA Giants result, I wonder why Illinois did not get a walkover from Giants for this game ...same situation
Gentlemen,
There are a lot of valid opinions on what should or should not have happened this weekend. I would also like to point out a minor detail - contact management. It's great that people share views here, but please do contact management via email with your thoughts, suggestions, complaints also. We should not expect them to make decisions based on a blog. But emails from members of the league will be official and acted upon - I'm hope.
I'd like to add to this discussion and provide a positive note to it. We were supposed to play Pak Gym. Shahid, Rashid, and Mazhar (I think) were at the ground, but noone else really. For us, Fabian, Shiva, Arvind, and I showed up. Neither team had 7 people at the ground (though we could have had within 20 mins) and we mutually agreed to call the game off. We didn't need 14 people to show up to call the game off. We spoke to them on the phone as well (on the way there) and they were ready to just call the game off without us showing up. Very helpful indeed. In my opinion a mature realistic approach was the answer to the problem for both teams.
Aditya,
>>
we mutually agreed to call the game off.
>>
The game was called off but what was the result ?
Just curious..
kd
kd..i can't stop laughing. You got your 4 points from ICC for walkover and yet you are upset with other teams. You seem to be more upset with QC for splitting the points rather than giving you full to reach 4th position.
By your own logic..in DIV I Peoria's match got rained out on Sat and you guys made other team travel for no reason in bad weather.
In regular season only 1st position means something any others you have to work hard to become champions. You only have to play one extra easy match by being 5th, that is some saving in grace so don't worry too much
No offence.
The game was called off but what was the result ?
Funny. The result was "Rained Out". Both teams split the points. The website reflects this as well.
Nohitter,
That really is quite funny. Cracks me up. :-)
Speaking of hitters, where's big hitter? and tango? i don't see much humour on the blog these days....
Kd said:
" I somehow cannot make sense of the AAA Giants game from these 2 results ".
Why?
Is any other team accusing JR of earning 4 points easily because of ICC's walkover?
The Playoff picture is quite interesting for Div 1.
Top 5 teams confirmed, though spots are not decided as yet.
3 spots and so many scenarios. Up to 7 teams have a shot to make it. No one is confirmed as of yet, though Peoria looks awfully close.
simondispatch >>
>>
Is any other team accusing JR of earning 4 points easily because of ICC's walkover?>>
Do you even know the facts behind the ICC JR game ?? I am sure you dont ..let me introduce them to you..
First of all, ICC game was postponed by a week due the ICC's unavailability on the scheduled day.
We honored ICC's request to postpone and rescheduled a potentially easy walkover to the following weekend. Ever heard a game actually rescheduled in MCC's tight schedule ?, So dont question and blame JR having it easy with the ICC walkover. We would have had it 2 weeks ago itself.
And guess what, for the rescheduled ICC game we also would have to split our JR team into half strength due to unavailability of half the players. We rescheduled ICC game despite knowing we wouldnt be full strength..thats how fair we wanted it to be for ICC ...so dont question JR's commitment and willingness to adjust either....
-- Kd
nohitter,
you must be insane to say that I am upset at QC, please dont assume things.
Also, what Peoria from Div I did has nothing to do with my point of view. I cant and dont speak for what Peoria does.
and the difference in being 4th and 5th might be minor for you but we at JR have a different opinion, its not about having to play an extra game or not...its about honesty and integrity of teams ..
I believe I have said enough and I dont need to defend myself or justify myself ...
Consider this my last post for this topic ..
See you guys in the playoffs...
Kd
I see people are now about to question ICC commitment to play cricket in this league and uphold cricket to it's highest level of integrity.
For those of you who know me, it will be sad trying to question my commitment to the betterment of our cricket..for crying sakes i was hopping around on one leg and pulling strings in cordination with the president to field a world 11 for the mini world cup so that we have 6 teams.
Now I am being questioned why, in serious, extraordinary conditions ICC was forced to give walk overs over the week end.
Right now so far, ICC has 5 regular member with flood damage and may be more. Driving to peoria under a heavy storm and flood watches all over the place, Leaving our homes not knowing what the outcome can be was not worth the 2 points and I hope you all understand why.
As i stated before was going to WP on Saturday..See my reason on prior blog??
I understand the effect and how one may think if because of this the missed the p/offs or did not get the ranking spot desired.
I was hoping logic and remorse would have been shown by andto fellow members of this league we call our own because this disaster will leave a lot of us in serious financial burden.
If the quest for the cup means so much to a few that in the time of need we forget how helpful we need to be then my friends, we are at another sad point in MCC cricket.
To close, ICC will abide by the MCC rules and accept all the punishments that come our way due to our behavior for it's been a rough, last couple of weeks for ICC and it's family.
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Shekhs said...
Adnan,
I agree with you on this matter totally...
Our game should've been cancelled yesterday, given the circumstances.
And even after you guys made an effort to talk to the umpire, we had to be at the ground this morning.
Its insane, we couldnt even get onto the freeway this morning, as all the ramps were closed due to Des Plaines river being flooded.
We need to address this issue ASAP, as it toally doesnt make any sense.
If it rained for 2 days and there is no sign of any sunshine, we all know we aint getting a game of cricket...
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In this one particular instance, I agree with both you guys entirely :-)
Usually I dont - I think Washington Park we shouldnt usually assume things, because it literally drains so quickly, you can play a shortened game an hour or two after it stops raining.
But this was a completely different incident - a 100-year-rainstorm, really (theyve kept records since 1871, and Saturday was the all-time-single-day record for amount of rain, 6.6 odd inches.. thats a 137-year-rainstorm, actually :-) On this one weekend, we knew there would be no games on Sunday, especially since it was continuing to rain all night Saturday night etc. All games should have been called off, with no team required to go to the ground.
BTW, we actually did that - I was due to umpire Hammond/Chicago in Hammond. Shehzad called Marghoob-bhai and Chicago and the league on Saturday night itself, and confirmed that there was no way on earth that a game could be played Sunday. I found out when I called Marghoob-bhai on Saturday night, and so nobody actually had to go to the ground on Sunday morning (which would have been very hard anyway - the roads here were closed due to flooding, and 80/94 was closed near Hammond also due to flooding). IMHO the same decision should have been made for the Challengers and United for their Sunday game too, really (and they were the only game at WP on Sunday, with Advancers already having given Bears a walkover on Friday itself).
c8w
Devils_advocate my friend, where were you when Rogers Park fixed their match last year against Muslim Gym to rob Pak Gym of a playoff spot. Too bad, it didn't turn out in their even then. You know what they say, karma is a bitch! Don't tell me that match wasn't fixed because I have spoken to members of both teams who have confirmed this.
kd is selective in his response. Can understand his frustration over lack of enough wins to make it to top 4.
Why was ICC's game postponed? Ever care to post the reason?
Oh, sorry, you won't post anymore on this topic. I guess, its good riddance.
KD In Particular
Whats your beef with AAA?
Since you are crying for an answer as to why we were awarded the game against Giants. Here it goes..
About a month ago after Giants played Lucky 11 Atif informed me as to how only 7 of they players showed up and that they would struggle fielding a team for their remaining 2 fixtures against IIT and us. sure enough they gave IIT a walkover and in regards to our game, Atif actually informed the league at the beginning of the week about their decision that they would not be fielding a team this wknd. Thus we were awarded the game.
So before you run around like a headless chicken seeking answers maybe you should have clarified with the league first or with us for that matter. If you want proof from the league I can forward it to you.
Anyways ill leave u to believe what u want...
BTW Congratulations to;
EAGLES for winning the league
EVANSTON who finished runners up.
Mainly DONNIKE PERRIN who i believe should be the MVP of Div2 this season.
And to all playoff teams good luck.
Congrats Eagles!!! You guys have done it.
What an amazing season you guys have had!!
Glad to see all the players contributing!!!
You guys truly deserve it!! Well played!!
Samir_RoyalsCC
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Shekhs said...
FYI Fellas..
Both Giants and Advancers had contacted the the management in terms of their walkover-given, early this week. They contacted the management around wednesday, IIRC.
Hence, this is no planned sabotage to give a free ticket to any team to the playoffs or any convenient positioning
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I agree with this part - there was no "fixing" per se. Giants gave a walkover last week too (I was due to umpire that, against IIT, and found out when nobody showed up at the ground :-) And Advancers have sadly had a problem all year - they gave a walkover to Purdue halfway thru the season (when they already had 3 wins and were not even in the relegation zone at the time), because they could find only 5 players for that day. Last week, in a do-or-die game for them to stay in Div1, they could only find 7 players. BOth these teams couldnt find 7 players this weekend, and let the league know early as they should.
However, IMHO the (valid) question being raised here is this.. when not a single game was playable in Chicagoland this weekend, when it was a historical rain, when not 1 game was even started at Washington Park... then does it make sense for 2 WP games to be not rained out this weekend, but walked over instead? Thisis also something that happens every year, and has for a while - a solution for it needs to be found once and for all (and, IMHO, it should be a draconian-hard solutino,t o stop walkovers from happening year after year like this).
c8w
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Shekhs said...
We need to address this issue ASAP, as it toally doesnt make any sense.
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I know youre talking of something else, Sheks, but IMHO there are a few issues we really need to address this off-season.
Some are clarifications of rules, that need to be put into writing IMHO. For example, this Saturday morning there was a question about the Wildcats/Purdue game - in that, what was the reschedule possibility? This arose from PakGym's reschedule last year against MilwaukeeUnited.. if the ground is unplayable (because of rain, its waterlogged), but it isnt actually raining on the day of the game, is a reschedule possible? It wasnt in this particular instance, but the rule on this needs to be made crystal clear before the season.. how long ago must the rain have been, leaving the ground water-logged, before a reschedule can be considered? Two days before? A week before? If there were games scheduled in 2 days at Heritage, for example, they may still not be playable due to the water not going down.. is that reschedulable? All this must be clarified before a season begins IMHO.
Second, the walkover issue has been haunting us for years - every year it happens. Two years ago Tigers were demoted to Div2 because their main rivals got a walkover. Every year teams make the playoffs because of walkovers (even this year, CCI isnt making the playoffs, Colinsville is - this is not unrelated to the fact that COllinsville got a walkover this weekend from Chicago Fire in their last game). And, of course, there are the Advancers and Giants walkovers causing a furore today with teams naturally upset (Advancers were playing on WP against Bears on Sunday - no game was possible in those conditions as we saw. But Advancers gave a walkover on Friday itself, and Bears had already updated the points table and were at 30 points by Friday evening! As they are entitled to, of course - but Advancers doing what they did affects the rest of the league, and this shouldnt be forgotten).
Every year this happens - IMHO it is clearly NOT fixing, Giants and Advancers both couldnt find players late this season etc. But that is NO excuse, and should not ever be. There *have* to be punishments, just as there are in other leagues across the country. Everyone pays money to *play* cricket, nearly 200 bucks a game actually, on average. Sitting at home getting 4 points and not playing isnt good for anyone. Leagues in North Carolina, for example, have a simple system - you have to have a valid reason for a walkover, and *if* you have a valid reason you get minus-6 points. But no matter what reason, your second walkover youre kicked out of the league - cant play next season at all. Your walkovers are not letting *others* play, after all, so its only right that you suffer for it too next year.
IMHO this is what we need to adopt, and have needed to adopt for a while now. A second walkover (or, IMHO, any walkover in the last 4 weeks of the season without a genuine valid reason - as Illinois had this weekend, with a 100-year flood and homes being affected, that sort of genuinely valid reason is ok), and youre out of the league the next year. No changing your name and coming back, either - thats too transparent that team as a whole is gone for a year (every individual player on the roster also banned for, say, 4 games at least, even if the team splits up and they join other teams). Every season this happens, people give walkovers for no reason at all (dont want to drive 150 miles, dont want to play in drizzle - we arent making playoffs anyway; cant find 8 players with playoff chances gone etc etc)... none of those reasons are ever valid, and for that there needs to be a harsh penalty to make sure it doesnt keep happening IMHO.
This stuff needs to be put into the rules before a season begins. The Advancers and Giants are good guys, good teams usually - but even they couldnt find people who were motivated enough to show up lately. Why should they, there was no penalty for not showing up for them, really (and it is also Ramzan, after all, where playing is sort of difficult). This is EXACTLY why we see there *has* to be a rule brought in - if there were penalties in the rules, that you would be punished next year for just giving walkovers this year, I bet both Advancers and Giants would actually have been much more likely to have more than 7 guys ready to play. Even good guys and good teams need a little bit of motivation sometimes, thats what the rules ought to provide :-)
And after all the above, BTW, then it might also make sense to have an extra rule - that nobody should have to suffer more than, say, 3 rainouts a year.. the 4th one any team suffers is automatically reschedulable. We need to start each season earlier, and keep one weekend possibly available for these sorts of contingencies (probably the Labor Day longweekend, or like next weekend has turned out to be for Div1 this season, with 5 Div1 teams playing games this upcoming weekend as previous games had to be unavoidably rescheduled over the course of the season).
c8w
SimonDispatch said...
kd is selective in his response. Can understand his frustration over lack of enough wins to make it to top 4.
Why was ICC's game postponed? Ever care to post the reason?
Oh, sorry, you won't post anymore on this topic. I guess, its good riddance.
---------------------------------
Wowwwwwwww is that the best you could also!!! I am not agreeing what KD is saying here but here are some fact about the game.
Two days before (Friday) the game was suppose to be played, Rup called in the evening and told Dinesh (JR -vc) that one of their player's brother (George's brother) has passed away. So, they can not come to play that weekend and asked if the game could be played on coming weekend. So JR told that league's decison should be fine with them. Therefore, delaying the game was league's decison not JR. Confirm with Rup if you want.
Hopefully, you would be man enough to understand it.
Anyway going back to KD's post, I think what he has said is also wrong. You can not accuse some team to favouring other team unless you know what actually did happen.
Copy that c8w!!
I'll make sure we address these issues before next year.
Please let me know if you can think of other stuff that needs to be addressed ASAP.
Touchpoint,
No issues with ICC asking for reschedule. I have issues when kd did not mention the reason for the delay. He sounded as if it was JR's decision.
Finger you have mad a lot of valid points.
But some are near impossible to get accomplish in our league/level of cricket.
Rules are made to be followed. Management has reserve the right to act as see fit for the best interest of the business at hand.
We have on our hands right now a bunch of cricketers angry and some low blows thrown because of last week end fiasco..
All of this could have been avoided if.
1) Management had acted as they should and must do..cancell all games for the that weekend and no reschedule because we have no time..Period!!!! points split and end of conversations.
2) This is tough to hold people to but as fellow cricketers we must do the right thing so that in the eyes of all of MCC nothing looks "Fishy". If the weather is bad like last week, walk over should not be taken and we should be the first to call the other team, confirming the bad weather and cancelling the game. Don't force teams to travel wheter it be close or for hours in jepordy knowing no game will be played.
We all know there are some teams that will make it to the park no matter what the conditions are because of Marital Status and where they live, compare to teams with heavy family commitments.
At the end of all of this it's a moral obligation on all of us to do the right thing.
I remember last year..ICC could have made the play offs if we took the walkover one the 2nd to last game because the host team was not preapred. I agreed to play the game with 3 stumps on one end and a 16oz water bottle as the wicket on the bowlers end. We got rained out after a couple overs and 2 points and miss the playoffs by 2 points also.
hi guys in couple of minutes i will post some u19 florida highlights....
this is the link for the u19 florida tournament....
final of usa u19 tournament in florida
http://cricjournal.com/media_room.php?vidid=58
2nd day of the u 19 usa tournament
http://cricjournal.com/media_room.php?vidid=57
Giants gave a walkover to AAA because they could not find 7 players ...fair enough for what the existing rules allow/dont allow them to do ..
If you guys think I was accusing Giants of match fixing, perhaps you guys misinterpreted me ...and even if you still think I was accusing..I apologize .. they came out with the reason ..fair enough ...point rested.
All my concern was exactly what finger brought up, how can 2 WP games be rained out and 1 be walkover. Consistency is the key in laying down and following rules. Thats all I was pointing at.
About ICC reschedule, I did not want to bring out the "death in the family" reason because it was not necessary but as touchpoint clarified...there you go..
Summary:
Giants AAA walkover was within the existing rules so I have nothing against either teams - team members from both teams I apologize if it seemed I was accusing, but the rules need to be stricter and different as suggested by finger so its an even ground for all the teams.
See you guys in the playoffs...
Kd
A cracker of a 20-20 first semi-final between Pak Gym and United .. where Pak Gym registered the victory of the last ball of the 20th over ...
United scored 154 in 20 overs with Faisal doing the bulk of the scoring - around 80 runs ... Farman and Raheel were awesome in their spells ... I was again impressed by Raheel's bowling ... His run-up is very rythemic and he is only fast bowler in our league whose demeanor on the wicket comes to International bowlers ...
Pak Gym started the chase slowly .. They were 8 overs 36/2. But Irfan and Maqsood collected 55 runs in the next 4 overs .. Irfan was in murderous mood today and hit 4-5 sixers ... He scored a fifty today ... Fall of few quick wickets had the match hanging in interesting position ... 3 overs 27 runs to win became 2 overs 18 runs ... Shahid and Mazhar ran hard in the 2nd last over to bring the equation to 1 over 7 runs ... Mehul was bowling the final over and the first ball was above waist full-toss where the batsmen ran for 2 runs ... The equation came down to 1 runs in 3 balls and Mazhar was on strike ...Mehul bowled 2 dot balls, but the batsman ran for a single on the last ball and achieved a great victory ....
Congratulations Pak Gymkhana and Hard Luck United ... And Bravo to the game of cricket ... which triumphed ...
Did anybody notice that MCC website is not working properly?
Shekhs bhai ..
If it had been a tie yesterday .. we then should had gone for 'bowl-outs' ... Remember India-Pak league match in 20-20 world-cup ...
Appu,
Mehul was saying that the new rule is to have 3 batsmen and one bowler playout an over each.
The umpire will toss to see who is gonna bat first ..
Team A if will bat first and have 3 batsmen play one over and get the maximum runs, with Team B's designated bowler bowling that one over..
So, if team B can score more than those runs, they win..
Like we did for CRY..
Thankfully, I'm glad it didnt come out that way...that would've been quite a situation..
I was asking the fellas..damn what if its a tie..what do we do..
Anyway, cracker of a game, one of the best games I've ever seen..
lived upto all the hype..
I have to admit that the weather conditions…. and the ground was not exactly playable...
There was lot of standing water around the ground..
I apologize for that inconvenience caused to both teams..as it would have been more fun had the ground been in good condition..
I promise you, if I'm running ALNT again, I'll make sure we have proper conditions to play, at least in the semis and the finals..
I didnt want to move the game to next week, as the weather was getting nastier day by day..
anyways, lesson learned..
Thanks for helping out Appu..appreciate that..
man, I missed it !! I thought about it and then wondered if the game would be possible with all this rain. Damn, I should have called you Shekhs. Congratulations to Pak !!
Congrats Romeen on your second century of the season. The cats still have an outside chance - we have to beat Muslim, St Louis has to lose to Royals and the Flames have to lose to Milwaukee. One thing for sure is that we will play Milwaukee during the playoffs, one of us will be seeded 4th and the other 5th.
It looks like a good weekend to play cricket. Good luck to all the teams that are making one last effort to get to the playoffs - Bears, Muslim, Flames, Cats, Peoria.
Shekhs, when is the 20/20 final?
Jaggi,
you did miss a classic...
We are planning to play the finals sometime next week.
It will be nice if its a friday or saturday nite, I'm trying to work something out..
Will keep you posted.
Me too, actually - I figured the games would be postponed by at least a day or two (like Wednesday and Thursday or something) due to conditions.. I really ought to have checked! Sounds like an awesome game to have missed - just like the Challengers/United semis from last year which was one of the best Ive ever seen.
For the finals.. I dunno if its possible, but my suggestion is to hold it Saturday night :-) Neither Challengers nor Flames nor PakGym are playing on Saturday this weekend... and Saturday night will be most convenient for most people to show up and watch, hopefully we can draw a decent crowd. Ive long suggested that we actually do one "20/20 game of the week" on like a Saturday or Sunday night *every* week of the AL tournament.. but specially the finals, if possible IMHO, should always be on a weekend and given lots of prominence. (In that sense, if not this weekend, Id even wish for it to be next weekend.. 3/4 days weather ought not to change that much, and even next weekend the Div1 teams will be playing playoff games only one out of the two weekend days). Given how popular 20/20 is as a game, we ought to be making our 20/20 final a big deal every year if we can.. in terms of crowd, food availability etc.
c8w
Sorry fellas..
my bad..should've put it in here..that the game was on yesterday..
we were kinda talking how we dont have any folks showing up for the semis...
Ok, tonite is the second semifinal between Flames and Challengers..
Please come out and participate...
Finger, its hard to get the ground (CP-HP) on a friday nite, as there is scheduled baseball games on thursday and friday.
The reason we didnt keep any ALNT game on a saturday nite, is coz, the participating teams might have had played a game that day or might have a game the next day..
Just to avoid back to back..
Thats the reason we try to avoid monday games as well..
But, what do you guys think?
What we should we do..have the night games during the weekdays? or one during the weekend..
For this season, I vote for Wednesday.
The only way I see it happening on a weekend next season is if we take a break in the middle of the season for all games. Have some festivities that attract families/children during the day, a music concert in the evening and end with the 20/20 finals.
Good luck Shekhs for tonight's game. I will stop by with junior and the wife.
Junior pe se yaad aaya .. did anyone check Shiraz's gtalk status ?? He is a proud father of a baby boy now ... the future Rogers Park player name is 'Mahad' ...
Congrats Shiraz ... once more ...
Shekhs bhai ..
why are the 20-20 news not published on the MCC website ??
Thanks Jaggi..see ya tonite..
Yeah appu, I talked to Shiraz last week, they are all thrilled about the baby..
Congrats Najam Family !
Appu,
20/20 is an adopted child of MWCC..so not much love..just kiddin..
Haven't really given any thought about that..but again...after reading Div1, then div2, 30/30..you really think anybody would give a damn about reading 20/20..
:-)
I can get it published, but do we really want that?
If you guys think, then I'll recommend that..
Absolutely. I think it should be on the front page.
Yes shekhs, I think it should be on the front page too.
aiite fellas..I'll get the summary published on the front page..
so Shabri,
you guys have a buncha talented young guys..and most of them single right..either going to IIT or done with it..?
why is that I dont see more involvement in the league, like night tourney..
yes, you did have a team this year and its a good start..but I'd like to see more than 1 team..and folks participating in the games more actively..
I think this is the first time I saw you guys come out and be more active..
kudos for that..
I think the league will benefit a lot with more of your participation..be that on and off the field..
even on the blog like you and Rohit ..
Shekhs,
Thanks lot, the reason we guys are still not fully in to the league is because of heavy course work combined with co-ops/internships, give it some time and you will see a lot of more participation.
yep same here...I never was really intol blogging either. This is my 3rd season playing and 1st season blogging. I never really knew that I could be involved somehow..
Boy oh Boy,
First let me start by saying I missed blogging but got really busy with work and things are just beginning to normalize.
So it took me some time to catchup. Congratulation to Eagles for winning Div 1 and KD rest assured I will scratch your itch.
Eagles: What a season you guys have had. I cannot be happier for my friend Ram and Preetam. I wish you best of luck in playoff and in Div 1 next year.
Evanston: Congrats to you as well. You guys are a good team and Perrin is a star. Only thing Evanston lacks is sportman spirit as few of them get carried away and start cursing their opponents on field.
IIT: Some new faces but still a power house. Lakshmi perhaps this is the year.
AAA: Some of the best people around. It was a delight to play for AAA for first 6 games of this season. I will be cheering for you on the sidelines.
Few notable mention.
Arena: Congrats to Arena for making playoff in your first year.
QC Kings: Great job turning things around after a dismal start. I knew you will pull it out in the end. Good Luck to Dimpy, Sonu, Pankaj, Hari and Team QK.
Ok now on to KD KD KD KD KD KD KD KD KD.
Though I see you came to senses in your last blog post after some of the people that know GIANTS better showed you the light. I will clear up any remaining dead brain cells you may have.
Giants 2008 Season was a mess. Last year 5 Giants left the team due to internal issues including me. Mid season we tried to fix things by putting the old group together. We knew it will not be easy to just turn the switch and and start winning but we had no other option. We played one game as a group against TITANS and we all new then that it is unlikely to turn the season around because we did not see the commitment level in several senior players. Rizwan Hammed and Yasin Bhatti turned there backs to the team and mid season we had to learn to play without them. We now have closed their chapter in our book and moving on.
Losing to Evanston mathematically eliminated us. At that point there was not much to play for except pride. We played Lucky with 7 regulars. We would have played IIT and AAA with 7 players even had Ramadan and fasting not been a major reason. Hence we decided as a team that we will give walkover in advance as we do not want to drag IIT and AAA to the grounds and not show up. WE JUST REFUSE TO STEP THAT LOW.
On commitment level: Giants have made playoff 5 out of 6 years so if you want to question our commitment level then go ahead and make an ass of yourself.
This year we we gave walkover because we did not have enough players due to combination of Ramadan/Fasting and meaningless games. We decided to shut down and rebuild for 2009 season.
Hope that helps.
I'm glad you guys started blogging rohit and shabri..and glad you guys are getting more involved..
we'll have a blogger's get together soon and have a good time ..and also discuss what things can be done better next year..
Atif, I am sure you guys will be back stronger next year and wish your team all the best.
This time we will not be playing Gaints in playoff so i hope it brings something special for our team. It is always fun and challenging to play you guys especially at this stage of the season.
Thanks
ALNT Semifinals
Challengers Vs. Flames
Flames won the toss and elected to bat..
Excellent bowling and fielding by Challengers restricted Flames to 97..
Flames bowled extremely well to defend the total...
Challengers scrambled through with 2 wickets..
Big final..hopefully next week..
Pak Gym Vs. challengers
will keep you posted..
Congrats shekhs. I had to leave in the 12th over of your chase as it started getting chilly for my son.
Have an early announcement for the finals. Lets also try to have a bloggers get-together at the ground.
You can even try to attract some sponsors by billing this to be a India Vs Pak finals. Create a flier and see what comes out of it. If you attract enough money, can even give out prizes. I realize this is too short, but, if you can pull this off, it will be awesome. I can help if you want me to.
Challengers Vs Pak will be a great game. Both teams are loaded with talent.
Wow..Sheky..you guys are walking a fine line in the AL p/offs.. congrats to the team on the win but looks like you all got to revisit the play book for the finals or you can kiss the trophy good bye.
Pak is too talented of a team and scraping and scratching ain't gonna beat them..or Challengers can look at this as the played two weak games for their talent and got wins so the third will be a charm.
It will be an exciting final and I am gonna be there.. looks like next Wednesday will be the best weather/Evening.
do you have a date for the finals
Thanks Jaggi...appreciate the support by showing up..
Yeah, thats not a bad idea..getting some sponsors..I'll check with a coupla folks, but I might need your help with this..
I'll call you today to talk about that..
If we can get some sponsors, then we can also have food catered and some DJ to play music and also have some commentary ...
The trophies can be sponsored by the league..I dont think that'll be an issue..
The biggest thing is to get everybody out there, like you said..
Its going to be hard to play during the weekend, as both teams are getting ready for the day playoffs..
Looks like it will be next wednesday..thats the tentative date..
will confirm soon as soon as I get the availability status from both teams..
Nice, Sheks. Congracts to you guys to win the semi finals. I hope you guys win the AL tournament again like the last time. Good luck to you guys. Will try to be there for the finals :).
Yeah Rup, you're right on the money about our 2 wins..not convincing at all..
we need to show up big, if we need to beat Pak.
We have been faltering primarily in our batting section.
we definitely need to get back to the drawing board to fix that..its in the works..trust me..
Thanks rup, once again for the whole hearted support..
I have to thank all the individuals who helped me out with this tourney..
all the folks who voluntarily umpired...I can't even tell you how thankful I'm...
especially few like Vikram, Alpesh, Charlie and Shetul...if not for these guys I'd been in deep trouble..
Thank you very much guys, really really appreciate the support..
I think I'll have to hand out some umpiring trophies, in case we get some sponsors..
I just want to say how fair and to the point these guys were the entire tournament...didnt get intimidated by anybody and stuck to their job...hats off guys..
Thanks again..
Thanks Shabri, appreciate the support..
get all your teammates and friends out for the finals...lets make this a festival...
After all, there will be no cricket for another 6 months...
No cricket for 6 months .... oh no way Jose. We will play indoors if we have to, or we can even empty out a neighborhood swimming pool and jump in with bats. :-)
Give us the Date Shekhs?? .. da date ah da finals??
Are you providing some food and refreshments??..The league should cause we do for every finals??
Let me know man, i will make some Curry chicken..Guyanese style.. to go with da Briyani.
we play crciket indoors, we played cricket on our gymnasium for the spring semester..lol..with a taped tennis ball.
atta boy tonald...
we gotta do some indoor cricket man..
Rup,
Tentatively - 09/24/2008.
Will confirm soon..
yeah, I'll talk to the management and see if we can get some refreshment for the finals..
Atif,
Thank you for your wishes. Yes, we did come together this year as a team. We always had potential but i think that extra effort was lacking. Fortunately we managed that. And one other thing that we had going for us that no other team had was lucking out on the rain. Man, those weather gods were really partial towards us. We did not get rained even one single time.
Atif, I am with you on the Ramadan and the fasting and the non availability of players. I still cannot beleive how you guys manage to play while fasting. Incredible. But one thing i will not gve it to you is that you not playing meaningless games. C'mon, just because it is an inconsequential game you cannot stop playing. That robs the whole idea.
You are a very good team and hope you come back strong next season. Good luck buddy.
Atif,
With all due respect, I must agree with Preetam.
I dont think any game is meaningless..
I do understand the Ramadan part and team splitting in the middle of the season...which is unfortunate and can happen to any team.
In which case, I would recommend (to all teams) informing the management in advance that your team's split and will not be able to field a team for the rest of the season.
That will put rest to many issues and controversies, as then everybody knows what to expect..
Again, it must be painful for you to even think of not playing a game, as I know you personally, how big an enthusiast you are...
So, chin up bud and will only get better from here..
Atif/Tonald,
Thanks for a detailed response buddy ...I rested your case and realized I was looking too far into the dark without knowing the facts ..so apologies.
I hope to run into you some day again ..you remember we spoke during JR Evanston game ??? ...you were in our camp for quite a while ..remember? ... if you dont recollect me I was the only JR player smoking ...haha ..now you might remember :-)
Anyways, all said and done ..tough luck for this year and we hope you come back stronger next year !
- Kd
P.S: Thanks for all the attention... ( KD KD KD KD KD ..felt good ..:-) )
hey wheres the playoffs roster on mcc website ? they have asked us to update it and email sridher and ram with any discrepancies/updates...any idea where it is ???? the deadline is today thursday 7pm CST
Appreciate it...
Kd,
For Div 2 playoffs, it will be under the drop down selection - Division II 2008 Playoffs.
This is a new option in that drop down box.
If you go to Teams - > Player Profile -> Division II 2008 Playoffs
Jolly Rovers should be listed there..so check all the players in that roster...
thanks shekhs ! i thought there was a separate section for that ...!
appreciate it..
Kd
Preetam Sir ...
Congratulations ... well .. this is for taking the max number of catches in Div 2 :) Well ... I tried to give you a competition here ... took 14 catches ( 2 against Chicago for which scores have not been entered by Chicago) ...
Shekhs bhai ..
Thanks for your kind words ... but when my friends ask me why do i umpire .. I tell them that this way I can get the top batsmans out whom I cannot with my bowling ;-) Also your gain is Marghoob bhai's loss ... since I won't be umpiring in the other division games now :)
Yesterday's game was a good one ... not one of my best as an umpire ... had an off day ... But looking at the way Challengers played y'day ... Pak Gym definitely are favourites for the finals ... Challengers need to go to nets and polish up before the finals ...
Thank you Alpesh. I want to take atleast 3 more during the playoffs and make it 20 for this season. Lets see.
Ravi and I had an internal rivalry going on about the cactches. He came close too.
Good job to you too taking those 14.
KD KD KD KD KD KD KD KD KD KD KD - I clearly remember you buddy from Evanston game. No hard feelings.
Preetam and Shekhs - Good feedback. It was bad choice of words from me by saying "meaningless game". Giving walkover was primarily due to Player availability. We eliminated 4 players permanently towards the end and were left with 6 that were on the same page. These will be the core of Chicago Giants in 2009.
I have recruited 2 real good talent and still need 2 top order batsman. Let me know if you know anyone.
Atif Shaikh
atifmshaikh@gmail.com
OK, TD..
Hope ya al get some good playa's and come back strong in 2009...
Looks like ICC will be on da same page as dem Giants..
Do you think you got a slot for an older guy like me..Just asking??
Shekhs,
It da weekend already and we ain't got not AL finals date.. don't make it a last minute thing again...
Can one of you start a new blog.. Playoffs is here and our good old blog is dead.
Let talk cricket ..after all isn't this what we been waiting for.
Rup,
ALNT finals will not be a surprise, will let you know way ahead of time.
Its definitely not this weekend, matter of fact, may not be even next week (I know the weather looks good next week).
Unfortunately, we have some scheduling issues, so it might be the week after.
Will keep you posted..
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