Do you hear that? It sounds like..... yes..... it is. It's the excitement of a brand new cricket season in the Midwest Cricket Conference - the 2009 season. Teams are preparing their rosters. Some are practicing indoors, outdoors, and just about anywhere they can. Others are getting their equipment out of the garage and taping up bats. Whatever the case may be, everyone is looking forward to the camaraderie and competition. For that is why we play this game in this league - to compete against the best in the midwest and be part of a team with good friends.
The season begins this weekend for most teams. Others have to wait till next weekend, but you can bet your bottom dollar there will be cricket in the park from now till the frost settles in. So sit back, enjoy the beginning of the season, and get ready for another thrilling ride of midwest cricket.
What twists and turns await the cricket faithful this weekend? Will the two new greenhorns to Div 1 start with a bang, or will the favourites come out on top? Are there any favourites? Who will come out swinging in Div 2? Will the new teams of the 30/30 Division come out red hot, or do they have a few things to learn from their returning compatriots? There's only one way to find out.
Lights, camera, Right arm over - 6 to go (my apologies to opening left-arm bowlers)!!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
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155 comments:
Grr Adi. Just posted something to the other thread.. and it ate it and refused to post it, saying comments had been disabled :-) Give us a warning when youre gonna do that :-)
Should be a fun weekend, even though we dont really know who is playing yet! Still, at least the teams pretty much all have their own schedules, so its only us neutrals who dont know :-) Rain the next two days too - though Iam sure WP will be fine to play on by the weekend.
c8w
Inaugural Midwest wrap show hosted by Sadiq Yousuf is now posted on www.unitedcricket.org. Please provide comments on what you like or don't like and how we can make this show better.
Adnan
United Cricket Club
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Adnan said...
Inaugural Midwest wrap show hosted by Sadiq Yousuf is now posted on www.unitedcricket.org. Please provide comments on what you like or don't like and how we can make this show better.
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What Adnan said - available at
http://unitedcricket.org/midwestwrap.asp
All comments appreciated (brickbats welcome too - God knows theyd be deserved at this end :-)
Continuing on from the last thread.. thanks for the comments, Midwest and Shiva. Both of you were too kind, honestly - IMHO the host was actually very wooden indeed, far more than I had ever imaginged I'd be! Probably need to have a better idea of what to say well before we start rolling... and yes, be much more relaxed and louder (hopefully easily fixed with a few drinks before recording the next time, Id guess ;-)
Overlooking the slightly wooden host, though, I thought the people interviewed were remarkably animated - Id like to thank them all for agreeing to talk, for one. And thanks to Fais for doing a pretty awesome job with the editing, the music etc (I didnt know what that last song was either, Midwest - glad you asked before I could :-)
Id like to apologise to Adi and Shahid BTW - I should have chosen a much quieter spot for the banquet-interviews, there was way too much background noise in those pieces, Fais worked hard to do the best he could with what I provided. Those were two of the main chats I wanted to do this weekend - Adi's perspective on a fantastic final, and highlighting the fact that Shahid became the first Midwest player to play for the national team in 8 years this offseason, a massive achievement and honor for him and for all of us, because it is us and the best of our cricket that he represents. Both interviewees did an outstanding job talking about their experiences (Adi as captain in a great final, Shahid about representing the USA).. I really hope people watching find it audible, that my blunder in the choice of location for the interviews didnt ruin that listening experience.
c8w
Aditya
Great write up for the 2009 season blog..... Hope you lead us to the coveted trophy this season..... Good luck to everyone and happy cricketing.....
Yes Adi,
Great Write Up! While being a big cricketing enthusiast/cricaholic, I am still extremely gald that Division 1 is back to 40 overs. I prefer as much cricket as I can get, I think with the 45 over games, specially travelling to Purdue, St. Louis, Peoria as well as late games in the season, had issues of Bad Light, Dew and long travel days are going to be cut down by almost 1 hour. Thoughts from other Division 1 teams on this please, except for Adi and Adnan, we know how you both feel.. :)
I also feel that the Scheduling Commitee did a good job for Division 1, I understand there are issues with Division 2 as 7 of the 16 teams are Away teams. Thoughts on that. We need to get more grounds in Chicago to solve this issue.
I also heard that Milwaukee Cricket Club is upgrading its surface, similar to Washington Park with Astro. I would believe this is good for Milwaukee, as they have been rather unsuccessful coming out of 1st round of the Playoffs, inspite of being one of the top teams in the regular season, possibly because of the surface they are used to. While Sadiq is sad that this is happening, I think this will serve Milwaukee better come Playoff time.
It's just a very exciting year and Rogers Park is raring to go. Right Arm Over - bring it on.. :)
Shiraz,
I am not sure I agree with 40 overs either. I think the excuse of bad light, dew and rest can easily be solved by starting the game at 9:00am or latest 9:30am. We already have div 2 (40 overs) and 30/30. Most of the Div 1 leagues around the country are 50 overs. As far as travelling games are concerned that also can be resolved by starting the game an hour earlier. We should not take more than 3.5 hrs (actually 3 hrs) to bowl 45 overs. Hopefully we can get atleast 45 overs back next year. Also, thanks Shiraz for the donation. We really appreciate it.
First game against Phoenix for us. WOW...what a start. I am sure Adi and company are going to try their best to beat us. We are missing quite a few players from the XI that played finals against them last year. It will be tough, but we will try our best and forget the rest.
Mehul
UCC
Adi,
Apologies accepted.
Mehul
Hey Adi,
Wanted to wrap us our talk over last weekend about Cricket Merchant (www.cricketmerchant.com) Give me a call when ever you get a chance. Good luck to you all for the year 2009 cricket season.
Go United.
Oh..lotta noise this morning... :-)
Welcome back NJ and Mehul...
I'm with the 40 over format....I dont think I need to give any explanation for that.. :-)
I know we dont have the schedule posted yet..
can we all just say who we are playing...since each team has their schedules give out..
Challengers are playing Peoria on sunday @ Washington Park # 2.
Good to read from you all.
Arena is playing Collinsville at Collinsville.
The schedule for this weekend is up fellas......check it out..
Adi good work on the blog.
Wildcats is playing bears so we are ready to see how we play with a new look team.
Sadiq/Adnan: Good work on the video part but it would have been nice if the CD was free...:-)
Welcome aboard all...
I see the blog is a little lively already that cricket is around the bend.
ICC is up and ready to go..Don't know how many yet ..but good to go except I may need a raft in Hammond to cross the river to get to the playing area...if the rain keeps up.
Finally, what was the music that played at the end?
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Sanso kee Mala by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
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Adnan, Can you get me a couple of this guys CD's. Even if you have to buy them for me..Let me know the cost and i will cover it the next time I see you..
Love his Music ..I had his 1999/2001 Royal Albert Hall performance and another CD...Can't find them as of recent times.
sadiq please uncross your arms and speak up;O
good video, looks like a lot of work went into it. hopefully you guyz can keep it going. CER jun 2nd? milwaukee no more soft turf? good tidbits.
what does Sanso kee Mala mean?
what does Sanso kee Mala mean?
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I have no Idea Cool...I just love the music...
Adnan???????
Sanso Ki Mala = Garland of Breath. Literal Translation..
Mehul, you just need that extra 1 over to get 2-3 more wickets, if you don't already have a 5'er in the game.
RUp, glad to see ICC back. Good luck this week all.
Mehul, you are most welcome for the doantion, it was just 10 bucks man. Nothing for all the hard work you guys do in developing great ideas and executing them. Good Luck with the defence of the title this year. You plaaying the first game (Adi keenly reading...:)
With AAA and Eagles here, who do you think are contenders in Division 2 this year, Lucky, Giants, IIT, ICC????
shiru our translator, while you are at it, what does simroo mein diwana?
IIT will take divII no doubt! and maybe evanston contending with perry. saiq you need to do a piece on this guy. i see big thngs from him.
Adnan, Can you get me a couple of this guys CD's. Even if you have to buy them for me..Let me know the cost and i will cover it the next time I see you..
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I won't charge you Rup. Just make a generous donation to United Cricket Club.
Adnan
United Cricket Club
You got it Adnan.
Burm me some CD's and United got a donation coming their Way.
No Prediction for ICC this year guys..We are going to let the Chips fall where they may.
I will tell you this much..Most of the comitted guys are positive we will make the p/Offs.
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Shiraz said...
With AAA and Eagles here, who do you think are contenders in Division 2 this year, Lucky, Giants, IIT, ICC????
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Div2 is very open this year IMHO - once more we have 2 decent teams going up, and nobody going down, more migration of talent to Div1.
The teams that are usually good are probably all going to contend, as usual (the usual suspects that you mentioned above - Giants, Lucky, ICC.. though ICC has lost players apparently, and Giants have lost a couple very good players too).. its also important to see who will win the regular season, as that is one guaranteed spot for Div1 next year. IIT is usually a playoff team, but with new guys they rarely get started right (or on time - they will probably start a week or two late because of exams/graduation etc), plus Laxmi is probably injured for bits of this season (and they lost Ajay, one of their better players). They might be a threat come playofftime, but I doubt they'll win all their regular season games for the regular-seasont title (the usual winner of Div2's regular season title loses no more than 1 or 2 games in the season, historically).
The teams you mentioned above are all contenders... but I think 2 others are as well, especially for the first step, the regular-season title. Those are Arena - a very good team last year, full of former Div1 players (Sameer, Ajoy, Anand, Keshav, Saurabh etc), who played a very good game short-handed in the playoffs last year before losing to IIT. With teams travelling to St Louis to play them, and with them being a very good side, I think theyre one of the big sides to watch. An outstanding Div1 level bowling lineup (all former Div1 bowlers, anyway).. I think they might well be my faves for the title, if they can actually play with their full team all year :-)
Another real contenders, IMHO, might be Springfield! Theyve made the playoffs the last couple of years but not gone far.. showed they were a useful and youngish side, but werent title contenders. This year they might be totally different... last I checked Peoria (of Div1) has, on their roster, all their players of last year (including Satha, Ravi Uddavolu, Madan etc)... but all those players are also on Springfield's roster! And, talking to the Springfield guys at the AGM, all those players are apparently going to play for Springfield in Div2, not Peoria in Div1! If that is indeed true, then Springfield becomes a major contender in Div2 IMHO - Satha and Madan etc we (and Springfield) know about, likely major forces in Div2, but Ravi Uddavolu is also IMHO one of the best allrounders in the league, even in Div1! (the first time I umped him last year, he made a terrific 95 against United; the second time was in the playoffs, he took 9-0-26-3 against Challengers with the new ball; against Phoenix in his last playoff game he gave up 16 runs in 9 overs!) Adding those 3 might make Springfield the hardest team to beat in Div2 - Ravi in particular is likely to have a monster season in Div2, I think.
(Also, BTW, if true, this changes things for Div1 a bit :-) My original thought was that PakGym, Challengers and Wildcats were the top 3 faves for Div1, and Peoria might be 4th fave.. playing a lot at home, and were looking like a very good side by the end of the year last year (eventually made the semis). But if theyve lost these 3 guys above.. theyre still a very good team, but maybe not quite 4th-favourite in my mind anymore!
c8w
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mehul shani said...
Shiraz,
I am not sure I agree with 40 overs either. I think the excuse of bad light, dew and rest can easily be solved by starting the game at 9:00am or latest 9:30am. We already have div 2 (40 overs) and 30/30. Most of the Div 1 leagues around the country are 50 overs. As far as travelling games are concerned that also can be resolved by starting the game an hour earlier. We should not take more than 3.5 hrs (actually 3 hrs) to bowl 45 overs. Hopefully we can get atleast 45 overs back next year.
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My views are well-known on this, but I'll second Mehul here anyway :-)
IMHO it is just a better game at 45-overs - better quality cricket. When we first went to 45 overs, nobobdy quite knew how to play it, hardly anyone was playing the 45 overs for the first few weeks. But we've had it for a couple of years now, and *all* the teams have gotten good at it - scores have increased because theyre building their innings better, planning better, using their overs. You guys chased down 250 at Washington Park last year Shiraz, against WIldcats (I umpired it)... how often did that ever happen in 40-over cricket, against a WIldcat-level attack? That was a high-quality cricket match, higher than anything seen in 40-overs IMHO.
Second, I think it makes a huge difference at the next level.. and we are finally beginning to take on the responsibility of a premier league, playing at the higher level every year etc. The CER tournament will be played for 50-overs, 3 consecutive days.. so will the Western Regionals (when the CER team, hopefully with 10-12 of our guys, goes to play the best of the Texas, California and Seattle). And then the nationals are played the same way too. I umpired at the CER tournament last year... the first game I umpired, a 50-over affair, the first team was allout in 36 overs! They have no concept of how to play longer overs - our team had a *huge* advantage (and even we didnt last 50 overs in the first couple of games, but we batted 48 and 49 overs in our 2 games, more than anyone else). I know, I know.. only 10 players will be affected, etc etc. But IMHO our league must aspire to play with the best in the country, and beat the best in the country - and on talent we can do it IMHO. The premier leagues around the country play 50 overs... going from 45 overs to 40 overs (especially after everyone had settled in and was starting to play really good cricket in the 45-over format) was IMHO a retrograde step.
Once you make up your mind to play 45-overs as the best form of the game, IMHO the "problems" can be worked out without any difficulty whatsoever. Every Saturday, at Hanover Park, when there is a night-game, all games (even Div1 games) start at 9am. All 30/30 games start at 9am usually. Why cant Div1 start at 9am, generally? Ive once umpired a playoff game (in October!) that started at 8am! There is no dew-factor that cannot be overcome if the mindset is right, IMHO.
Even for travel games.. there is never any light-issue at Purdue, for example, because at Purdue we start at 11am EST (that is, 10am for us, since Indiana went to EST only 2 years ago). Milwaukee is also already a 10am start. IMHO the only place it *might* be an issue is St Louis... and even that shouldnt be one if we agree on 3hours 15 minutes to bowl 45 overs, and then enforce it strictly.
I know many teams, especially as they get older, want to try and play shorter games (I even heard suggestions of 35 overs this year :-) I really think, long-term, 30/30 cricket (played at a high level, with 2-3 Div1 players always allowed) should be the future answer for this, for people who dont want to travel in general, play half-day games etc. But we ought to, IMHO, always have at least one elite level 45-over division where the best play the best every week.. with a premium on fitness, quality, and the best of those players committing to and playing nationally at the highest level. And for that we need a 45-over division IMHO.
Anyway. Hopefully next year :-) I think there were only about 6 votes for a longer-game this year sadly... 2 new teams entering next year from Div2, who knows, that might even be up to almost half the division :-)
c8w
Sadi
Your detailed review of Div I and Div II makes interesting reading..... Pak Gymkhana have added a good spinner (Tayyab) to its roster and should make them one of my favorites to win it all.... Wildcats seems to have added a bunch of young players and they look formidable.... Challengers are always a force to reckon with...... Its one of these that are likely to emerge as champs in my opinion.... But then you never know... a dark horse like United, Rogers Park, Muslim or Phoenix can cause shocking upsets too.... all in all looking forward to a great season... and Sadiq you must keep everyone absorbed with your analytics.......
Wow, a lot of interesting comments!
Shiva, it's absolutely preposterous to call last years finalists dark horses and a team that didn't even qualify for the playoffs last year as a favorite! :)
What's with this whole underdog/dark horse thing?:)
Nice article Finger.....
My take is the players are too old to handle 45 overs. The drag their feet after a little running around and instead of a 7 1/2 hour game you get an 8 1/2 to 9 hr game????..
If we enforce strict regulations on the time you will be surprised to see how may teams want to play 35 overs????
Romo on da Blog...
Got to agree with you Romo... Too many Dark horses.. even Finger eluded to that ... Can we bring in some white Horse ..top dog... kinda ... stuff
I am just hoping there is something Dark at the park when I show up..!!!!!!!
Rup n other Div 2 readers ..
Div 2 teams are travelling to Hammond 2-3 times during the regular season ... while none of the Div 1 teams are playing even one match there ... If Div 1 teams play atleast few matches there, it will save Div 2 teams from some travelling ...
I have wrote a mail to scheduling committee ... I hope other Div 2 also does something similar ...
Thanks for the reminder Alpesh..
I hope MGT does something about it .. President said that's the best they could do.. no one knows better than the Pres..????.
He offered up for anyone who want to do the schedule to take it over.. Some one from Div 2 should take it up.. schedule Div 1 to play at Hammond and you will see how many Div one team will wring their balls. pink.. screaming .... Black Horse or whatever...
I gave up on these guys who think we are Idiots and don't know shit even though it stinks.
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Romeen said...
Shiva, it's absolutely preposterous to call last years finalists dark horses and a team that didn't even qualify for the playoffs last year as a favorite! :)
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Except in this case its a little like college football, Rom - with the Wildcats having recruited the best class of incoming freshmen (sometimes known in certain circles as "Diaper Dandies" :-) College football preseason analysis is based heavily on incoming freshmen and outgoing seniors in every college football team, since the teams change quite significantly - thats what happened in some cases this year in our league too :-)
Romeen, in that sense, would be like Nick Saban - the unscrupulous charming golden-tongued recruiter (of whom one new recruit's mother said "he came home to recruit my son.. and if I hadnt been married Id have left with him myself" :-) With an incoming freshman class this season of the Fab Five - Khera brothers, Madan, Javed and Shyam.
Thats what makes me think the Wildcats will be greatly improved - the full-strength XI looks very strong.
PakGym and Challengers are similar to last year - Pak is a strong team that got stronger with 2-3 good pickups (Tayyab and Najmi), Challengers will have their full team back (they missed 3 starters in their playoff loss - had won the regular season last year with their full team anyway).
I think Phoenix should be similar, not very different from last year- except Arvind (their most reliable bat at the end of last season) may be leaving in a few weeks. A pretty similar team to last year, however, from what Ive heard.
The "finalist who is no longer favourite", to me, is actually United this season. Theyre the ones with the "seniors who graduated" - theyve lost Amit, Kiran (both big allrounder losses - and 2nd best bat and 2nd best bowler, probably). Also lost their keeper Sudhir and 2nd seamer Dhiraj. Also Abhijit, of course. If they have actually gotten Altaf Khadri then that might compensate in part for Amit (bowling-wise, though not batting).. but over the weekend they werent sure Altaf was around for the season yet. No other pickups that Ive heard of yet - which is why, to me, theyre not in my top-favourites list (a part of the video interview that may make it next week was me telling Fais I thought United wouldnt make the playoffs this year, and asking for his reaction to the comment - he stayed remarkably calm and disagreed with my assessment, saying he thought they had the veteran players :-)
All this is very preliminary though, obviously - I havent seen Rogers Parks pickups yet (hear theyre good - hopefully a Shiraz interview-clip next week too); dont know anything at all about Peoria and Purdue (nobody showed up at either banquet or AGM, couldnt talk to either) etc. We'll only find out more about those teams as the season progresses I guess.
c8w
appu,
You are the nondisputable leader for div 2... :-)
Valid point indeed...
Yeah Shiva....you can't call yourself a dark horse anymore...
matter of fact, challengers haven't even made it past the first round last coupla years...so I dont if we are valid contenders until we prove it...we could be the dark horse...or maybe darkest horse... :-)
nondisputable - *indisputable
getting old..ya know..
Welcome Shekhs..How ya do'n..???
Hope well...I say foget da dark stuff.. I say just go Black... know wah de seh abuh go'n Black..!!
Sadiq,
Most new recruits were directly a result of serendipity but what the heck, I'll take the credit :)
Besides, you didn't mention Nari, Surya, and Akhil, who are very solid players in their own right.
Can't wait to see the video, I think it's a great idea and it should only get better as the season goes on.
Thanks Rup....
I think all 8 teams in Div 1 are pretty good..
I dont think there are any favorites this year....as there are about 7-8 good teams who can be called contenders....
Sadiq and everybody...just confirmed with Madew..that Ravi Uddavalu in springfield is a different Ravi...the Ravi(Ravinder in fact) is still with Peoria and we will be seeing his wrath again this sunday..
Romeen / Shekhs
The explanation that Sadiq gave is perfectly the reason why Wildcats / Pak Gymkhana / Challengers are rated high in my list... What happened last year remains as history... besides lessons learned will make the above three more dangerous this year.... The rest of the teams can best be called as dark horses or what else would you call them.....
Romeen
You have to be mighty pleased with your acquisitions .... nearly 7 to 8 quality players and the heat is on for everybody else.....
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Shekhs said...
Thanks Rup....
I think all 8 teams in Div 1 are pretty good..
Sadiq and everybody...just confirmed with Madew..that Ravi Uddavalu in springfield is a different Ravi...the Ravi(Ravinder in fact) is still with Peoria and we will be seeing his wrath again this sunday..
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You think only *8* of the Div1 teams are pretty good? Which are the 9 that arent so good, please tell us, Sheky? ;-)
Thanks for the Ravi with Peoria news.. there should be laws about these things, you shouldnt allow two Ravi Uddavolu's to play cricket within 100 miles of each other, only serves to confuse us all :-) I thought the entire trio must have moved. So have Satha and Madan definitely moved, Sheks? Springfield will be greatly improved by those two too, actually, if theyre playing all year.
c8w
Shiva,
I agree with you, no doubt we are very pleased with our new players. However,the flipside is that for all the teams with the new acquisitions, it'll take a while for them to gel as a team. We are hopeful that we can achieve that as quickly as possible
sorry Finger....typo....17 teams..my bad.. :-)
yep..Satha and Madan are gonna play for SPI..for sure...and they are all set for the season opener against the rovers....
SPI is a valid contender now...as they are a balanced side..
Div 2(from the little knowledge I have) - We have Arena, SPI, IIT, ICC (if they have a full force), Jaguars are the teams to reckon with...
Shiva, you're right...I was just giving you a hard time.. :-) it seems like Phoenix loves the underdog/ dark horse status......and then they really rise like the phoenix.... :-)
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Alpesh said...
Rup n other Div 2 readers ..
Div 2 teams are travelling to Hammond 2-3 times during the regular season ... while none of the Div 1 teams are playing even one match there ... If Div 1 teams play atleast few matches there, it will save Div 2 teams from some travelling ...
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Agree with this entirely, BTW - Div1 travelling is actually very easy, while Div2 is very difficult, so any way to equalize it should be explored. In fact, in Div1 this year, a few of the away teams have the tough schedules - theyre travelling 3 or 4 times, while several Chicago Div1 teams are travelling only twice!
Div2, OTOH, is in a crazy situation. There are teams like QC Kings who really ought to get a break - the poor guys have their own home ground, and yet have *eight* travel games! Theyre actually coming to Chicago 4 times, Hammond once, and 3 other travel games (Peoria, Collinsville etc)! Some of these should be fixed pretty easily IMHO - a couple of Chicago teams theyre playing are travelling only 4 times, Hammond is travelling only 4 times... you make those 5 travels each, and QC comes down to 6 (which might be at least reasonable, rather than having the poor guys travel 8 times :-)
And if there are any games to be played in Merillville by anyone other than Hammond, it should *always* be a Div1 team rather than a Div2 team, really - if you have 5-6 travel games *plus* Hammond (for Div2), that gets a bit much! For a Div1 team, having 2 travel games plus 1 at Hammond would really be not too bad in comparison. Its the obvious sensible fix, really.
c8w
Sounds like we have some volunteers to do the scheduling next year? Someone really should try it. C8W may be a good bet as you are familiar with all Divisions and their requirements/intricacies. I think there definitely could be some improvements, but it is a tough and thankless job.
Shani saheb,
You have accepted my apology even before I knew what I could be apologizing about or having offered it to you!!!!
It's gonna be fun that day for sure - win or lose. We're definitely focusing hard for that game and will try and implement some plans for you guys.
Adnan,
The video magazine is a great idea. I hope it really becomes a big thing this year. Please let me know if I can help out at all, or I'll be happy to just give some interviews:
I think if the boys bat well (shaking head side to side), bowl well, and field well, we have a good chance of winning!!
Romo,
Sadiq hit the nail on the head. You guys made out like Bandits this year as far as recruiting is concerned. And given that last year was the first time the Cats did not make the playoffs, you guys are definitely one of the early season favourites.
Wish you guys all the best and we are definitely looking forward to our game with y'all in August. Unfortunately for us, you will have gelled by then and we'll be facing a tough opponent, but it'll make it all the more fun.
Shekhs,
8 contenders!! I'm glad you changed that to 17. I truly believe that there are 17 tough teams this year - as everybody has upgraded their rosters. It's gonna be a tough ride.
Shiraz,
Test cricket is the most respected form of cricket because it is the toughest. The longer a game is the tougher it becomes, and generally the better team comes out on top. The talent in our league is being short-changed by the over reduction. If people wanna play 40 or 30 overs, there are other options. But there are no options currently for 45 and 50 overs.
Anyway, that said, I know Rogers Park is looking good this year having played them in a practice game. You guys were competing for the playoffs until the end of the season last year and I'm sure you guys will make it this year (hopefully not at our expense!). Good luck to you as a new skipper. It's challenging and exciting at the same time.
To all the punditz,
In deference to your wishes, I will refrain from claiming any status - favourite or underdog. Can I take the 5th on any such questions? :)
Shiva,
Thanks for the encouragement. I will try my best, but I suspect it is more to do with the other 13 people and less to do with me - it will be our team that does it if we manage to do it. :)
Finally to C8W,
Firstly, Pak Gym did not win the regular season last year - the Challengers did (c'mon Shekhs, defend your team dude)! Your analysis however looks spot on and I like how you've borrowed the "Fab 5" title. :) I don't think the Wildcats are going to sneak up on anyone despite their sub-par season last year (by their lofty standards). They do look really good this year.
I would not count United out - they've come back and won 8/9 in a row to make the playoffs, they've been to consecutive finals after heart-breaking losses the previous year, and then they've managed to pull out a last wicket nerve-less win for the championship with a 40+ partnership. I think I can say that with some authority given the last one came at our expense!!! (#$%@)
Please don't apologize about the interview - it was fun. There are always a few growing pains, but I'm sure this will be an awesome segment each week.
And finally, hail to Nusrat - truly an artist of his generation.
ps. NJ, I will call you tomorrow or this weekend.
Adi,
U apologized to left arm opening bowlers and i am accepting your apology.
Mehul
Ooops. In fact, you were specifically the person in mind when I wrote that!
I thought it was something about our game next weekend. :)
Blog season has started and we see some anthu.. in all... bring all that back to the field to make it more competitive... year 2009 prediction on DIV 1 ???? can someone start looking in this...
Phoenix vs United will be a nice game...too bad its early in the season...
would have been nice after a coupla games, once everybody settles in..
can we call it a rivalry now?
A little known Cricket fact....
The first testicular guard was used in cricket in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974.
It took 100 years for men to realize that the brain is also important !!!!
http://cricketmerchant.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=8
It took 100 years for men to realize that the brain is also important !!!!
==========================================
In other words, it took 100 years to realize that men have brains in their head and not in their balls.
Aditya, that was some real slogging from you on the blog last night :)
Now that the schedule is out, shall we start our predictions game??
midwest,
I was busy all day yesterday, but got on in the evening and decided to slog it out!! :)
Please do begin the predictions.... it will be fun for sure.
This long version of cricket is starting to become anoying with the amount of good time it takes up on this blog... Unless we got grounds with fences to avoid the half mile trot to recover some of the long boundries stop talking about 45 or 50 overs games
I only see a handful of Players and or teams capable of surviving long drag out games and Season...
The players need to adapt to the game and conditions as presented to them if selected to play longer Version.. All good playes did and are doing it and if our players can't then it makes no sense trying to send them anywhere.
We can't and will not see the Longer Version in MWCC..My take and I am sticking to it.
In other words, it took 100 years to realize that men have brains in their head and not in their balls.
===============================
Midwest i must disagree..I still this most men still carry their brains in their BALLS..In fact we may want to questions the Size of the balls these day..??? (Brings back my Point..Pink Balls) Why you think there are so many homless kids..
I don't see it changing in cricket or real Life as long as the Ratio of Women to men keep increasing by more women...????.
Sorry Adi...
Forgot to compliment you on the Late night Flurry of blogs...
Were ya angry or Bored????
Angry? Not at all. Just responding to a few comments with my $2 worth. Most of you value your input at 2c worth, but I don't want to short change my value. :):):)
I could have put it all in one big post, but I thought each person deserved their own post, and we already have C8W who does long posts and deserves that honour all to himself. :)
whether it's 2c or $2... your voice/words are always taken with several grains of SALT:::)))))..!!!
After all you guys have some Value being last years runner up and all
hehehe..I agree..most men have their brains in their balls..no doubt...
I'll rather wear my cup than my helmet..
yeah Adi...you unleashing your fury on the blog.... :-)
ok I'l accept you guys are the underdogs.. hehehe..
Nice..Sheky...
The weather looks good for the weekend.. Lets hope for some good old fun at da cricket park.
Alright Adi, I'll do the honors of opening up the predictions for this week. And I think this blog needs something to keep awake after that long and heavy Friday lunch.
Div 1:
Pak Gym over Royals (An easy win for PG)
Cats over Bears
Muslim over Chargers
Challengers over Peoria (This is a tough one to predict. I could sit on the fence by saying 50-50 but I'm putting my money on Challengers. Hear that Sheks???)
Rogers Park over Eagles (RP will win it comfortably)
Div 2:
Chicago Fire over QC Kings
Rovers over Springfield (I know Satha and a couple of others are with Springfield this year, but I'm betting on the Rovers)
Evanston over Lucky
Arena over Collinsville
Illinois over Hammond (common Rup, put up a good show this Sunday)
Can't comment on 30-30.
Oh, and I'm always rooting for the underdogs.
Adnan, Sadiq,
A few suggestions for the video magazine:
Have the equivalent of a celebrity pick segment each week. Have one person make predictions for each game on the schedule for that week. I think it'll make the segment fun.
What about an analysis segment where 2-3 folks along with C8W analyze a couple of games? These folks could be consistent, or could change? Nothing like some analysis paralysis. :)
More will come .....
nice one midwest...I hear you clear and loud...got your back brutha...
:-)
how about them bulls!!!
United ..
If you can catch Mr Hari Mohanan for the video series .. he can be of great help .. he has really great ideas ... remember the interviews we did with Shahid, Sadiq, Rup, Satha in 2006 ...
da bulls!!!
Yeh...Go Bulls...
for a brief moment i thought I saw Go Balls.. M like gosh..cut it out !!!!!.
Yep.. get some good Guys on the interview..May be once in a while catch the Pres on his Thoughts??
Hey Midwest...Thanks for the Faith in ICC although we are waist Deep in ???. I will do my best...promise that much.
By da way...are you a Chicago fire playa...picking Fire over QC??..only Masta Killa could have made a Pick Like that...
nice Rup..you playing detective Narain there.. :-)
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Aditya said...
Finally to C8W,
Firstly, Pak Gym did not win the regular season last year - the Challengers did (c'mon Shekhs, defend your team dude)!
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I had written:
PakGym and Challengers are similar to last year - Pak is a strong team that got stronger with 2-3 good pickups (Tayyab and Najmi), Challengers will have their full team back (they missed 3 starters in their playoff loss - had won the regular season last year with their full team anyway).
---------
Thusly, I submit I *had* already said that Challengers won the regular season last year - and Sheks does not need to beat me up the next time he sees me :-)
c8w
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Aditya said...
Adnan, Sadiq,
A few suggestions for the video magazine:
Have the equivalent of a celebrity pick segment each week. Have one person make predictions for each game on the schedule for that week. I think it'll make the segment fun.
What about an analysis segment where 2-3 folks along with C8W analyze a couple of games? These folks could be consistent, or could change? Nothing like some analysis paralysis. :)
-----
This was one of the first things I thought about, actually - I think the Fais/Adi/me 3-person-chat went pretty well at the banquet, one of the better ones (some of that chat will be put on over the next couple weeks, only the part about last season was put on this week).
It would be quite fun to have a sort of roundtable with 3-4 people in all on a regularish basis... but the problem comes with logistics. Its going to be a weekly show, most times Iam going to try and hand the stuff off to Fais on Mondays (and he will then edit and try and publish the show by Wed/Thur). On weekends Iam gonna be umpiring, often at strange places.. to get 2-3 captains from Div1 and Div2 (not to mention 30/30) every week together with me for recording before Monday or Tuesday will be almost impossible every week, really.
Which is why I think we'll end up doing it only sometimes - sorta flexible, when I end up at WP with a couple guys Div1 guys or Div2 guys and we all have time, we can do it that week, sort of thing. Also, once the Night Tournament starts, I'll try and drop by a couple times - hopefully get to chat with more than one person there too.
But, in general, we dont end up meeting each other together very often in our league - it happens once in a while on the cricket field, but really the entire community gets together only for the AGM and Banquet.
Luckily we got 4-5 short interviews last weekend at the banquet that we've been able to "bank" - and a lot of that will show up in the next 2-3 weeks, hopefully enough to fill a 15-minute show.
c8w
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Aditya said...
Sounds like we have some volunteers to do the scheduling next year? Someone really should try it. C8W may be a good bet as you are familiar with all Divisions and their requirements/intricacies. I think there definitely could be some improvements, but it is a tough and thankless job.
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No, no, I dont wanna do it :-) Its a very hard job, one of the hardest out there I think (along with umpiring, which Iam already doing ;-)
Maybe it would be a good idea to get a Div2 guy on board though - to help Krishna/Nikhil out with Div2 stuff. Last year most of the issues were in Div2 as well IIRC - and Ram and Sridher finally helped rework a lot of it.
Mostly the schedule is probably very good, even this year. I just knew about the QC Kings stuff because I met their guys at the AGM, and they were telling me while we were chatting that they had 8 travel games, which sounded a touch high to me :-) So I did a quick check yesterday, and 8 travel games it was! Iam sure the Scheduling Committee is already at work tweaking those things a little, though - as Krishna said, some tweaking is still being done as people let them know about things.
(For eg I believe Lincoln Park is available only on Sundays, but some Saturday games were scheduled- there might be baseball on those days already. That sort of tweaking will happen in general I guess, not too bad. Similar with like IIT having their graduation day on the day of their first game - which will probably have to be shifted. Small things like that will get reworked by the Scheduling Committee - most of the big things theyve probably already gotten right).
There was also some talk that James Park in Evanston might be available for some Saturday games this year too, in addition to Sunday games... if that is so (Iam not sure about this), maybe some Div2 teams might be able to play there instead of at Hammond, which might be too far for them? Something they could ask about, maybe, anyway.
c8w
I just got back from WP.
I'm not that smart but if you see a duck swimming in your cricket ground, I'm thinking that's not a good sign. It's like the whole groundhog and his shadow thing, only more depressing. I don't think any games will happen tomorrow and Sunday looks doubtful too, unless the sun beats down hard tomorrow.
Romeen,
Thanks very much. Because of your comments here on the blog we got in touch with Chicago Fire team. Then after talking to Tariq he confirmed that all WP games for Saturday were being canceled. They won't be rescheduled and teams will share points.
You saved us 5 hours of unnecessary travelling. Thanks very much from QC Kings Members.
Regards
Pankaj
Yousaf - Peoria:
I'm kind of late on this
Ravi is playing for Peoria. Only Satha and Madan are playing for Springfied. On same note we did get Asad, Chakri and Tarun (three excellent addition). Peoria is going to be different team.
Good luck everyone
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Muhammad said...
Ravi is playing for Peoria. Only Satha and Madan are playing for Springfied. On same note we did get Asad, Chakri and Tarun (three excellent addition). Peoria is going to be different team.
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Welcome to tbe blog, Yousaf-bhai :-)
Good to hear. Chakri I know from his IIT-days - he played for them the last couple of years. Are Asad and Tarun new to the league? What do they do? (Presuming you dont want to keep them as secret weapons, that is :-)
Real pity about today, was looking forward to a fun day watching the new-look Bears and Wildcats - bright and sunny Friday and Saturday, and yet Saturday's games cant be played at Washington Park. Must be the first-ever such time in WP history! Wonder what screwed up the wonderful drainage system that WP always has had - probably blocked up or something (everything in the city has been falling apart lately anyway :-) Hope at least tomorrow is playable.
c8w
It's a conspiracy of the Chicago Olympic Commitee to gradually phase Washington Park out of the cricketing fraternity. Mayor Daley had ordered, x-Governor Blog to put his stack of money he recieved for selling the Senate seat in the drainage system -- that blocked it, since it was tooooo much. President Obama is in on it too -- He wants Olympic to comes to Chicago, and the only hurdle is our grasp at 3 premiere grounds in the future Olympic Park..... I think MCC will fight it, the legal fees will be enormous and next year each team will pay $4600.00. ....:)
Man oh Man, do we live in a corrupt city or what.... :)
Yousaf from Peoria
Sadiq - There is nothing to hide about other two players (Asad & Tarun) either - excellent addition to our roster including Chakri. Asad is left hand bowler + bat & Tarun is Left hand bat just joined the Bradley from Colordo University. All these are young legs. Cricket is all about how you play as a unit, its not how many superstars you've on a team !
Just got back from Hanover Park, its 5 PM. The ground is in good condition to play. With the sun out foir another 3 hours later today, and 3-4 hours in the morning before the start time of the game at 10 AM, Hanover Park would be comletely dry to play the game. Why is the park district not allowing us to play, is beyond me. We played in muddy diamonds against United 2 years ago at Hanover Park, really wet ground. I don't know why are we not following protocol. If it's a rain out, both team should get to the ground, umpires should inspect the cocnditons and determine if its playable or not. Since when did the Park District start intervening in this process, this is a first. Also, if the park district is not letting us play in a decent ground, that is fit to play, for whatever reason, we should then be able to re-schedule this game. We are wasting a perfectly good day and ground tomorrow, that would have been completely ok the play. It's sad, we cant challenge some of these decision of the Park District. Anyways, we are just to do what we have been told, although, the games should have gone on tomorrow as scheduled, unless the umpire on the field decided that the ground in unfit to play. That is the rule!
Pankaj, you are welcome. I'm sure thought that management was going to call all teams after somebody had gone to the ground and assessed it as late in the day as possible.
Shiraz, when it comes to conspiracy theories, nobody can beat you :). But I'm with you on the frustration, such a beautiful day and no cricket, it's a crime in itself.
I'm sure though*
I'm with Romeen and Shiraz, its bad enough we lose games to rain, now we have RAIN OUTs on perfectly fine sunny days! An effort should be made to reschedule this weekend's games.
what's happening with tomorrow's games there is no info. posted on the MCC website as of now. romeen and shiraz feel your pain not able to play the game on a beautiful day.
Hello are any teams short of players? I am looking to play for any team which has an opening...I am a top order batsman as well as a new ball bowler and a useful fielder...
email me at shivkay@yahoo.com
Shiva
Phoenix Cricket Club
SpeedSensation: write me at n.murkonda@gmail.com
Naren.
Speed - Great timing. I need a opener, call me 312-519-9054.
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SpeedSensation said...
Hello are any teams short of players? I am looking to play for any team which has an opening...I am a top order batsman as well as a new ball bowler and a useful fielder...
----
Shiva said...
email me at shivkay@yahoo.com
naren said...
SpeedSensation: write me at n.murkonda@gmail.com
Tonald Drump said...
Speed - Great timing. I need a opener, call me 312-519-9054.
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So, Iam wondering who SpeedSensation is. I think its probably Mitul (for Shiv), Satish (for Naren) or Rizwan (for Tonald) ;-)
c8w
Inaugural Edition of Midwest Crap
---------------------------------
Its the start of a new season.
Amongst other things, its time for bitching, gossiping and pooh-poohing the effort of our management.
Yet another season begins where selective implementation and application of rules will continue. Players will never get suspended. Lucky ones. They can abuse Wikiwala once again this season. Bad performers from Division 1 will never return to Division 2. They either go to 30/30, which BTW is fine, or get to stay in Division 1 because of Maverick Mud. He is one kind of a character we have. What happened to division 2 restructuring that was planned last year?
Raja of Travancore had just returned from vacation and is being castigated for what is arguably the most difficult job before the season begins. Pepperpotters managed to form a team. They were close to extinction as the team leadership mishandled player relationships in the past and key players wanted to defect to their rival - The Jerks. Afterall The Jerks did very well last season.
Romeo was busy during the offseason trying to retain his Wild Performers. Few teams approached him for his services. He sought Rashtriya Chaudhary's help to acquire atleast one young talent from the MWCA. The team that rose like a Phoenix last year are seemingly under-dogs this season as well. This might be the height of modesty exhibited by Pancham Da. Get over it, accept the fact you are no longer under-dogs and move on. Jeez...
The newbies of Division 1 have a task at hand. Pancham Da has started his discourses. He is of the belief that atleast one of the teams is there to stay in Division 1.
Bloggers have started their chores. It is expected that the daily log of BS will increase as the season progressess. Already, Friday Times Editor has vented his anger at not being able to play this weekend owing to last minute cancellation.
Everything about my name is true. I don't bat, I don't bowl and I don't field as well. In essence, I am a fake MWCC player.
More later, stay tuned.
very funny Fake....
thanks for the entertainment...
It funny as hell..Isn't it???
Bright Sunny days.. perfect Temps and all matches rained out in Chi-Town and neighbor..HOOODS!!!!!..
Could it be signs of difficult times ahead..
I'll let ya be da juge of it!!1
ICC got raine out too..Hammond.. We had 3 rain out at this ground last year..I think...The ground is nice but the smell of rain and you got a problem...
Finger...I think QC requested a lot of travel games and Saturday Play also. They wanted to travel abd play at WP a lot but the schedule did not go there way.
Fake..Nice one and Funny Too..I say give up early..cause you ain't & Can't change anything that MGT does this year.
Seems like Challengers - Peoria was an exciting game..... Went down to the wire... Shekhs where is your report ?
Rup, We asked for more games in Washington Park rather than going everywhere and not play there.
Also, Our ground is used for Soccer practice first 2 weeks of May and after 2nd week of Aug. Ground as such is available except for couple of goal posts at long on boundary.
We sure didn't ask for 9 away games per first draft which is 8 still.
Thanks
Satish
Thanks to Romeen and this blog, whose timely info helped us save lot of time in prep for last sat's game.
Match Report - Peoria @ Challengers...05/03/09
The ground was extremely wet and heavy....matter of fact, water was splashing on every step...
so we decided to wait an hour before we started the game..and it paid off with some some drying up..
the outfield was still very heavy..so any hopes of scoring runs were deterred..
We decided to play a 35 over game..
Challengers won the toss and decided to bat..
Some impressive bowling from Ravinder and Kiran had challengers reeling at 22 for 5...
kiran drew first blood by forcing darshan to pop a slower one to short midwicket...
Shekhs ran himself out trying to steal a second run...
Kiran gladly accepted a return catch from Bhavesh..
Afroze was deceived by a beauty of an outswinger to be caught well at second slip...
Dax was trapped LBW by Kiran..
Deja Vu....22/5
but somehow Challengers managed to keep their cool..as Mr. Cool himself walked in...Nirav amin
Nirav and Mahesh put a solid 58 run partnership before Mahesh got foxed by chakri to be stumped by the keeper..
Nirav continued his singles and doubles...and kept Challengers in the game..until he holed out to long off
With Sanjay and Bobby chipping in a bit and Nilesh hanging in there...Challengers managed to put up a modest 135...
With the given conditions, we were hopeful to defend the score..as the ground was still heavy..
Peoria lost their opener as Dax had him caught at point..
but in came Mr. Reddy...who seemed like he had been batting all winter...with some fluent strokes all over the park..
Madhu and Kalyan put on a fine partnership to set Peoria at 68 for 1 at the break of 17 overs..
Challengers were still positive...chin up and the body langg was positive..
an then there was Bhavesh..
a mesmerizing spell of 4/8 in 7 completely bamboozled Peoria ...
Madhu holed out to long on..
Ravinder was dismissed by a beauty...pitching way outside the off...Ravi went for a cut and the ball spun in sharp to take his offstump...
taking a return catch from anirudh and forcing Kalyan to pop it up to covers..Bhavesh had Peoria at 73/5...now we had a game..
but Yousuf and chakri had other plans..
they both played sensibly to keep the score ticking...and keeping the wickets intact..
Afroze had chakri caught at long on..and Nilesh pulled out a beautiful return catch to dismiss yousuf...
we were out of nails now...as this was going down as the season opener...we always wanted..
The tailenders managed to keep Peoria in the game with them needing 7 runs off the last over..with 2 wickets in hand..
Nilesh came into bowl...and had a dot ball the first one..
batsman scored 2 runs of the next one..
so 5 in 4..
once again the batsman lofted the ball to long on..and scurried for 2..only to be short of a run...and short of the crease..with Darshan throwing and Nilesh obliging ..
so now Peoria needed 5 in 3 with 1 wicket in hand..
The batsman managed to score 2 more runs in the next ball..
so 1 ball - 3 runs..
we had everybody at the boundary....
Nilesh beat the batsman...and challengers pulled it out with 2 runs..
If this was the season opener...we might need some help..
Congrats to Peoria for an outstanding game and a good show of overall cricket..
What a nail biter. Congrats Sheks! I got one of my predictions correct :)
Couldn't predict the "rained-out" matches in Chicago though.
Nice "fake" blog there. Our league deserves no less hype than the IPL. I'm waiting for this to show up on the front page of Times of India :).
I couldn't figure out some names though as I'm not that well connected in this league. Can somebody help me out with these names?
Wikiwala
Maverick Mud
PepperPotters
The Jerks
Rashtriya Choudhary
I think I figured out who Romeo, Raja of Travencore, Pancham Da and Friday Times Editor (thanks to this blog :)
Haha, Fake, what took you so long?
And do I see shades of Tango here?
Congratulations to Challengers and Muslim Gym and all the other winners.
I have to agree with you rom...there's defnitely characteristics of Tango...lingering over Fake' identity...or fake identity
Good win Sheky...Kudos to you and Challengers..I must be a good feeling today...
I think we need to get together for a few cold ones this weekend.. ICc is schedule to be at WP Sunday but from the looks of the weather we can see more ducks swimming???.
Whose (or who is) Tango, BTW?
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Midwest said...
Nice "fake" blog there. Our league deserves no less hype than the IPL. I'm waiting for this to show up on the front page of Times of India :).
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Seconded, bloody brilliantly done, whoever it was (and yes, sounds like Tango - which, if true, means Tango wasnt who I thought it was 2 years ago :-) Hilarious stuff though, beautifully done, right from stealing our choice of name for the video-magazine! I hope whoever it is posts one every week at least (just as we plan to with the video-mag :-)
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I couldn't figure out some names though as I'm not that well connected in this league. Can somebody help me out with these names?
Wikiwala
Maverick Mud
PepperPotters
The Jerks
Rashtriya Choudhary
-----
Wikiwala is me, sadly, I think (the lucky ones crack was a dead giveaway, though subtly done :-)
Rashtriya Choudhary.. I couldnt decide, either Sridher or Krishna M I think (primarily because they do a lot of the MWCA). Sridher's son is the kid who moved from MWCA to play for the Wildcats this season, recruited by Romeo..but Krishna is captain of MWCA - so it makes me think its one of them.
Iam not sure I can figure out the others either - not quite sure on the Maverick referral, and couldnt figure out for sure who the Pepperpotters or Jerks were (thought it might be Illinois, that supposedly almost folded, and whose countrymen often cook brilliantly in pepperpots) and then the Jerks could be Evanston - the rivals whose countrymen make the best jerk-chicken in the world? But I hadnt heard anything about Illinois players going to Evanston (nor of player unhappiness),so dunno.
------
I think I figured out who Romeo, Raja of Travencore, Pancham Da and Friday Times Editor (thanks to this blog :)
------
Yes, those were the easy ones - but still brilliantly chosen names :-) Good stuff.
c8w
Thanks Rup...yeah it feels good :-)
we definitely need to get some cold ones...lemmw know when you have some time..
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Midwest said...
I couldn't figure out some names though as I'm not that well connected in this league. Can somebody help me out with these names?
Maverick Mud
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BTW, was just thinking about this - just as PanchamDa was the affectionate nickname for RD, Maverick is I think how they often referred to Kishore Kumar. But Iam still not sure who that would be, in our league - the mud still throws me off :-)
Anyone got any ideas on cracking this entire code? :-)
c8w
Finger,
I'm leaning towards Tariq for Maverick Mud...cant think of anybody else..
This guy's(Fake) dictionary is amazing, as he's pulled out some mindblowing combination of analogies...
Yeah, please do write once in a while ...be that fake or real..
I'll go with Shekhs on the Maverick..
I think he got ICC down for the Pepperpotters but I think he missed why we are struggling for a team...Or he may have some info that I am not Privy to???.
Any which way it's a good piece "Fake"
Shekhs,,,,I'll call you later in da week...
Are you all still hooking up at Dee Pk??.
"Players will never get suspended. Lucky ones. They can abuse Wikiwala once again this season."
==============================
Though I'm aware of those incidents, I somehow couldn't make the connection the first time I read it.
Clever, witty.
Thanks for the response, c8w.
Fake, absolutely brilliant :). Can I request you to write an article (whatever frequency you like) for the blog? Setup a fake email address if you like, and email me your articles and I will post them. I'm not interested in figuring out who you are (though I'd love to know), but I definitely would like your day-quill filling up the ink on this site!
C8W,
You're right, pepperpotters and jerks are ICC and Evanston. Well done. Rashtriya is Ajit, I think. He is involved with the MWCA and is obviously connected to Romeo (another brilliant alias). The like I believe is the Rashtriya Lok Dal whose party president is Chaudhury Ajit Singh!!!!!! If this is correct, the connection is astounding. Also, the Friday times editor is Najam Sethi! Raja of Travancore is also brilliant.
Now, we just need to figure out Maverick Mud and the connection. I wonder if it has anything to do with McCain the Maverick.
Maybe it has something to do with politicians, mud slinging, etc (Mccain the maverick and all the mud slinging during the campaigns)??
sounds good Rup...most probably we will be practicing....on saturday...
FYI: In case you are planning to move..aviod these countries...
Now we know why Jaggi doesnt blog much... :-)
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/04/world.bloggers/index.html
Aditya,
The Rashtriya Choudhary piece is brilliant. It makes perfect sense the way you explained it.
We bloggers should do something so as to make sure that Fake continues to contribute to this blog. He just turned around this blog from a daily rants and weekly midwest cricket updates to something that I can eagerly look forward to. Heck, I don't even mind paying a few bucks to Fake if he writes something up at a regular interval.
Now that the season has started, I think every year Wicket Keepers get very less recognition. Who do you guys think is the best WK in Div I and Div II? get your picks in and we'll follow suit with Batsman/Bowler/Fielder in the coming days to make the blog interesting. FAKE has already made this blog interesting.
Rup Bhai I got your CDs.
Adnan
United Cricket Club
Mahesh of Challengers is an exceptional wicket keeper in Division I.
Thanks a Mil Adnan.. I will Call you later today.
Picking the best...I am hoping to just get a chance to start playing for this season...I will make my picks later..Sorry.
How about this..We request the league to give out a Trophy for MVP of every age group of 5 yrs??..
Eg: 15-20.... 20-25...45-50..50 & over Etc..wha da ya al tink!!!!
Shekhs said:
>Yeah, please do write once in a >while ...be that fake or real..
Cmon, you should know better.
Too bad the other invite, for the honorable blog, did not come knowing my real identity. But some things are best kept in a safe vault.
More later, stay tuned.
Rup..thats funny...hahaha....trophy for different age level...
Fake,
I was just trying to be funny bud...nothing serious at all....
you're absolutely right..somethings are best kept in the vault...lets keep it that way..
Shekhs..I think it will be good.. the funny part will come into play when you see what some people will do to win one of those Trophy???..
Just imagine some 50+ yrs pushing it to prove ????..
Some things will definitely break..i don't thinks bats ..more like bones..maybe balls.
Sheky, Sheky, Wakey, Wakey; I meant it in a different context. You know me better, don't you?
Fake,
By the way, I asked you to email me, but never game you my email address. It's aditya.burman@gmail.com so please do send me your "posts" and I'll put them up as articles instead of just as a comment to my articles.
For the sake of pretenses we'll just assume that you didn't have my email address already, though I know you did. ;-)
ps. I'll reply to your email later today with the scouting report you wanted!!! :)
Rup / Shekhs
I would be in the 50+ group and am sure there wouldnt be much competition as there are hardly any in this group...... and I can assure you that no bones or balls will break..... maybe those of the opponents !!!.. I can feel as young as I want to think..... and I feel you learn all the time whatever be your age.. and you must be blessed to be fit and play competitively...
Thanks for the email id. I believe I have yours. The blog will lose the shine if there are multiple threads for the same week.
What report? I think its yet another case of mistaken identity.
Fakey Fake....I'm beginning to know you better ... :-)
Shiva,
I think its incredible that you are playing at this level at this age..kudos to you...
Shiv..I guess there aren't a lot of guys your age running aroung the cricket fields.. so yes kudos to you...!!!!!!
then again..put the trophy out there and #s could see a sharp rise in older playa's..
Adi..how ya do'n.... Can you look into starting up and or running the Fantacy League for us..
This could keep us busy seeing the rain is pulling a knee jerk on us??
Wha da u seh????
Work is hell, I am missing out on too much blogger action. Hope everyone is doing fantastic.
Shekhs, Adi, Preetam we have to start thinking bloggers ball.
TD, thanks for including me in that list.
Shiva, there is a bunch of folks in that list, I know Pradeep and Inderbir Gill, are aroudn that same age group. Mohtassim from our Team is also getting close to it, as well as Sajid for Chicago Hawks. I know Burhani has Ashfaque and McKief, as well as some other at South Barrington, along with Rafiq Bhai in Hammond. Let's also not forget Humayun Mirza and Tariq Ahmad
I only wish, I have the strength and commitment to play at this level when I am as young as you guys are now...
Yeah TD, thanks for including me for Bloggers Ball as well. In any case, Rain is yet agina in the forecast, hopefully we will have a full week of cricket. Rogers park is playing the Bears and am looking forward to it. Let's see how the cookie crumbles.. Good Luck to all. Hopefully we will see some of you in action at Washington park on Sunday.
Welcome back TD..
Yeah, lets plan on blogger's ball.
So whoever is interested in playing the blogger's ball, please send a mail to Atif.
It'll be nice if we have more folks, then we can have more teams and more fun..
So it looks like we are going to get some rain this Sat and could see a few more rain out.. it doesn't look pretty as of now but I hope it's not too heave to stop Sunday's games.
I got to play some cricket soon..!!!.. Who knows a good rain dance..one that stops the rain from coming...I know us bloggers will pay quite a few dollars for Sunny weekends right now...
Yep..Lets get the Bloggers ball running.
Oops I did not mean to leave my homies Romeen, Shiraz, Rup. There is no Blogger Ball without you.
Include me in the bloggers game.
Would like to send an email to be on the bloggers ball list. Don't want to miss this opportunity this year. What's your email id?
Mirchi, Fake and everybody...
Send an email to - atifmshaikh@gmail.com
Second webisode of Midwest wrap posted. www.unitedcricket.org
Adnan
United Cricket Club
I heard the milwaukee ground is going to be cement track ? Is that true? Asif would still be a decent bowler on any surface. I guess Milwaukee has finally realized that they need to get used to playing on cement tracks to do well in playoffs. I think its a Good move.
But, for teams from Chicago and elsewhere playing in milwaukee meant playing on a different surface that grips and turns square with low bounce and required decent "straight" bat skills against Asif & Co.
- Good luck to Milwaukee. Hope they will do well on a new surface this year.
I guess we will not see Tango in 2009... rite Fake... need you Tango bust being a Fake one, open up.. more spicy hot stuff...
"Mirchi Pathan said...
I heard the milwaukee ground is going to be cement track ? Is that true? Asif would still be a decent bowler?"
Yes he is a decent bowler, question is will he manage 30+ wickets without mud wickets... Cement tracks are all different ball game... Asif what's your say..
Shekhs... good win... congrates...
Sheks, awesome win dude. You added some mirchi to this season...
Do you want to play in Blogger's Ball? This is how.
A. Email me at atifmshaikh@gmail.com
or
B. Join our facebook page and you will see information posted on Blogger's Ball soon.
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=7980&uid=62038702669#/group.php?gid=62038702669
My take on the concrete and Jute..
Div 1 needs to look out for Milwaukee.. the wicket will be jumpy for the first years maybe 2 before settling in.
Asif is a very good spinner of the ball and not only will he get turn from the Jute as always..the extra bounce will get a lot of you..
The negative for Milwaukee on the new wicket is it may hurt their already struggling batting for runs..However i feel they can overcome their batting problems by practicing on the wicket more..home ground???
Good point Rup. Sometimes you make sense :)
Its only a question of adaptability, lets see which teams play well there, the ones with sloggers in the team or the ones that bat straight....
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