Yet another truncated week (especially in Div1) in our season, in the last week before the Memorial Day Break. Still, some good performances across the league in all divisions - and even a full-schedule played in the 30/30, despite the weather!
We try to cover most of it once again, in Edition Four of our weekly video magazine, the Midwest Wrap - with the usual news, views and interviews as well as Top Performer Awards for the week in every division. In addition, this week, a chat with the infamous blogger Romeen (aka Romeo of the Wild Performers), the two centurions from Evanston in Div2 (plus their captain), as well as with some of the U19 kids (Fahad, Moin and Akhil) who were headed up to New York to represent our region at the U19 nationals over Memorial Day weekend - good luck to them!
- By Sadiq Yusuf
159 comments:
Any updates on Washington Park# 3? Shekhs bhai ... did Mgmt try out anything to make the grounds playable?
Yeh...any update on WP grounds...
It was looking good till this recent coming of da rain..I have this dreaded feeling we are in for more Ducks this week end...
ICC hosting Springfield on Sat and Moline on Sunday....our fingers are crossed...We need to play some cricket????
Sorry Masta..I was hoping to but not looking good right now as to me getting an ALN team.
come next week if I don't I will be trying to find a team to play with.
Non response from MGT..HMMMMMM!!!!!...I have a feeling we will see a last minute Memo..
Adnan,
We need to make sure we have the support of the Teams/Players..in case MGT throws a wench into the tour we can at least put up a fight knowing it's not just 5 or 6 of us.
wow, where is Adi? turmoil in Phoenix??? Adi come and explain yourself... bad start to the season and you guys fall apart??
No turmoil really Centurion...... Looking forward to this weekend game versus Bears... Hope to get a win soon.... team is going through some positive changes..... lets see
HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!...
IITCC has decided not to field a team this season due to unavailability of players.
Some good players are on the look out for teams.
E-mail me @ r.lakshmikumar@gmail.com for further details.
-Lakshmikumar
HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!...
IITCC has decided not to field a team this season due to unavailability of players.
===============================
That's not hot Kumar...It's sad news..!!!!!!
I know a lot of us are going to miss you all as a Team. You guys were a bunch of good folks. I hope you all find teams to play with.
Another sign that we may not see Div 2 next year..We need a new vision or face a total Colapse of MWCC..da wil b ah sad day!!!!
Shiv..nice to know you all are hanging in there with positive outlook...
Any new on Adi...We are all a little concern cause he has not been on the blog for some time now.
Rup, I will agreee with your comment that teams like IIT will be a big loss if unable form a team. But, how is it a sign for DIV2 collapse next year? :)-
I can understand that nobody likes travelling but that itself can't be an excuse if you want to play cricket ... :)-
If grounds are a concern then all the teams from Chicago should pitch in more efforts and money to get new grounds...:)-
That will stop all the talking about limited grounds. We ourselves in Moline know what it takes and money to get a ground..:)-
I am sure there will be lot of reallignment of teams, which will make it more competitive than having teams like in 2007..:)-
There are several factors to the decrease in number of teams in my opinion and one major reason could be staying competitive to play full season...:)-
Thanks
Rup...The news was "HOT"....not the fact that we didnt have enough players.
Believe me, it is one of the toughest calls we have had to make.
Dissolving a team that was runners up for two consecutive years aint easy.
Thanks for the wishes though
Satish,
We do not have a crystal ball to tell our future so we have to use past info with current info to come up with a picture of the future...
Div 2 has been on a downward move over the last couple years..ICC bearly made it this year.. we are definitely moving to another Div come next year..!!!
As you can see teams are moving for the shorter version of the game....It is very difficult to get grounds and even if we do.. we still will have to deal with the travelling.
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Satish said...
Rup, I will agreee with your comment that teams like IIT will be a big loss if unable form a team. But, how is it a sign for DIV2 collapse next year? :)-
I can understand that nobody likes travelling but that itself can't be an excuse if you want to play cricket ... :)-
.....
There are several factors to the decrease in number of teams in my opinion and one major reason could be staying competitive to play full season...:)-
------
I genuinely dont think its a question of trying to stay competitve - that isnt why teams are folding. A team like IIT, for example, has reached the finals 2 years in a row in Div2 - even with a less-than-full-strength team they are quite certain to make the playoffs Id guess, simply because of their youth and fitness compared to many other teams (thats how they win mostly anyway).
To me, *the* major issue is travel - thats the biggest hurdle there is in Div2, with increasing amounts of travel. The situation here, Satish, is a bit different to you guys away from Chicago - if the choice was "no cricket", or "travel and get to play cricket".. ok, people would travel. But that isnt the choice here - its "travel and play 40 overs", or "dont travel and play 30 overs"...and everyone is choosing the latter, obviously. Thats why Div2 was 28 teams 2 years ago, and is 14 teams now (and not a single away-team has left, only Chicago-teams have left).
Something will really have to be done about the travelling games - already there are now more away-teams than Chicago-teams in Div2, and that is untenable in the long-term - Div2 will collapse in the sense that Chicago teams will just not be in it anymore (and then what happens to a team like Madison - which is far away from the other travel teams, for instance?) There *has* got to be some regional alignment done in the future, that is really the only answer probably (or if there is another one, I dont know what it is).
c8w
Rup, I understand that we can't predict what happens come next year..:)-
But if we look at last few years, mostly it is the weak teams that have dissolved. There are sure concerns from individuals but not from teams..:)-
there may be a need to restructure the league but that requires long term vision..:)-
Moving to shorter version of the game is not the solution to mitigate travel :)-
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Kumar said...
Rup...The news was "HOT"....not the fact that we didnt have enough players.
Believe me, it is one of the toughest calls we have had to make.
Dissolving a team that was runners up for two consecutive years aint easy.
Thanks for the wishes though
--------
Very sad news, Bhajji - I thought you guys were up to a full quota of players with new students etc, really sad to see you wont be able to put up a team. I hope you guys can return next year - IIT has always been a strong team, and its always been good to have you guys in the league. I hope most of you guys can stick around with other teams anyway... but it would be nice to have IIT as a team present in the league in the future again too, from next year or something if you guys can do it (with a new influx of students if possible).
c8w
Sadiq, I want to clarify that i have never said that IIT is not playing becasue they couldn't put together strong team...:)-
I am talking about most new teams that joined the league in 2007 and dissolved later. So we can't go by reduction in no. of teams. Then we should see more teams playing 30/30 right ...:)-
No offence just for the argument sake..
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I am talking about most new teams that joined the league in 2007 and dissolved later. So we can't go by reduction in no. of teams. Then we should see more teams playing 30/30 right ...:)-
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I dont think its a question of teams joining the league in 2007 and dissolving later, though - not *that* many have done that.
And we *do* see more teams playing 30/30... 3-4 years ago there was *no* 30/30 division, then when it started they had 6 teams, then 8. This year they have 14 teams!
Look at 2005 for instance - Div2 had 32 teams! Teams like Suburban, Deccan Blues, MDS etc were all very good sides, solid playoff teams.. and they didnt want to travel, and left the league to join ACC (30/30, no travel, local to Chicago-burbs). After this our league started offering our own version of 30/30, no travel.. and now teams dont go to ACC anymore, they go to our own 30/30 instead (which is why 30/30 went from 0 teams in 2005 to 14 teams in 2009). This year Advancers got demoted from Div1.. and went to 30/30, not Div2. Chargers were going to be demoted, and a couple of them had told me theyd do the same thing - go to 30/30, not Div2. All this is surely more than just a trend at this stage, no?
Once you have more away teams than Chicago teams in Div2 (as you do now), the trend is likely to get quicker, rather than slower IMHO. A solution has got to be found fairly quickly, in the next year or so.
c8w
BTW, the trend in Div2 is as follows:
2005: 32 teams
2006: 28 teams
2007: 26 teams
2008: 19 teams
2009: 13 teams
Thats a drop from 32 to 13 in 5 years - amazing! In 2005 there was no 30/30, it arrived only in 2006.. and now 30/30 has more teams than Div2, 16 teams in 30/30 to 13 teams in Div2.
With 13 teams in Div2, you cant even really have a full-season of 14 games anymore, can you? You really have only 12 other teams you can play. If Illinois leaves (as theyre saying they will next year), youre down to 11 games next year... would anyone pay 2400 for an 11-game season? This is why a solution must be found immediately - and other than regional aligment, one wonders if there even is one to be found!
c8w
Sadiq Sir ..
There are 15 teams now in Div 2 this yr ... Giants n CCI are yet to enter the points table ... I hope Mgmt decides to make us play against all other 14 teams ... instead of giving walkover against IIT ..
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Alpesh said...
Sadiq Sir ..
There are 15 teams now in Div 2 this yr ... Giants n CCI are yet to enter the points table ... I hope Mgmt decides to make us play against all other 14 teams ... instead of giving walkover against IIT ..
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OOh, so there are, my bad :-) I just looked at the points-table for a quick number, as you surmised, and saw only 13...sorry :-)
Still, I think that doesnt invalidate the general point - Div2 has gone from 32 teams to 15 teams in 4 years, which is a precipitous decline.
I agree with you above BTW - it would be great if everyone played everyone (instead of just getting walkovers for the IIT game)... but how complicated would that be, schedule-wise? I know poor Sridher has just spent ages trying to rework the Div2 schedule (trying, amongst other things, to reduce poor QC Kings from having to travel 9 times!)... reworkign the schedule *again* would be a real mess.
c8w
Sadiq, Do you honestly believe that Advancers moved to 30/30 just because of travel concerns...:)=
If i look at the present roster they don't have many of their regular players from years before..:)-
Also, point to note is 2 teams get promoted to Div I every year and it not always true that same number of teams get demoted from Div I ...:)-
Nobody wants to come back to Div 2 if they fail in Div I. In this aspect i commend AAA who returned back and won the championship.
Boom times are over and same with cricket when economy is not doing good. I guess..:)= but i sincerely hope league overcomes all these to make it premiere league in this region..
wow, where is Adi? turmoil in Phoenix??? Adi come and explain yourself... bad start to the season and you guys fall apart??
I think so too....something really fishy going on in Phoenix. Adi disappearing is very unlike him. Must be really upset with 2 losses.
Wake up Adi, you are the captain of the ship..dont let it sink.....
Come back to blogging...we will not beat you up as badly as we should...:)
~ purrrrrrrrrr
come on Adi buddy,
when you guys were winnning last year and were the toast of the town, you couldn't stop blogging. a teams true character comes out when they loose. don't let the cancer on your team metostsize(sp)these are the times that will test your leadership abilities...
shiva, what happened with sameer???
Adi must be honeymooning....when the honey gets over he will probably be back :))
Shiva, your silence is no fun. You are such an old man, you should get these young kids to listen to you....
I hope you guys will be able to complete this season....
~ purrrrrrr
wonder what the fighting is all about? it's only 2 games and phoenix is already trying to break up? sameer maybe you can explain what's going on? Adi, you can pick up players from IIT, they are having a fire sale.
let's wake up this blog.
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centurion said...
wonder what the fighting is all about? it's only 2 games and phoenix is already trying to break up? sameer maybe you can explain what's going on? Adi, you can pick up players from IIT, they are having a fire sale.
let's wake up this blog.
------
So far we've only heard of Sameer leaving, right? I dont know if the team is breaking up or anything - at least, havent spoken with Adi in a while, so dont know.
But I did hear that Phoenix had picked up Sharath last week (keeper/opener, formerly of Purdue and Milwaukee United), so its doubtful that theyre short of players or anything :-)
c8w
Guys
Absolutely no problems at all whatsoever..... Sameer is fine and so is Aditya.... its the long weekend and everyone is on their own schedule... the weekend should be lively
shiva,
now you are acting like dick cheney, come on man spill the beans. this is what the blog is for.
Satish,
I will like to be on your side but my instinct says no..Finger makes more sense..
Div 1 Will be there...
Unless we have re-alignment Div 2 is gone.
30/30 will get too big and need 2 division...and not enough grounds to play on..
20/20 is the next big thing to hit Chicago cricket.
Currently MWCC vision has noting in place to facilitate any of the above other than DIV 1...too much emphasis is on Div 1 and very little on the others...
If I had my way this is how MWCC will look from next year...
Premier League...12 teams ..top 6 to play offs. everyone else Relegated to Div 2.
Div 2... Realigned to South zone and north zone.. Top 4 from each zone to P/Offs.
30/30 to A & B. Top 4 from each group to P/Offs.
No team plays more than 10 regular season games fo all groups.
Relegation for the bottom 2 still remains the same.
Once the p/offs are finished for all leagues including the ALN..We then move to below!!!!!
This then give us time to host our Fall 20/20 where all teams are invited to join..first 48 only.. Teams are in groups of 4 closest to one another location wise. Best team in each group to p/offs held over one weekend in Chi Town ..??
End of season till next year
Gentlemen,
Quick post from me. I was out on vacation since mid-week last week and just got back a couple of hours ago.
I got a few emails asking about stuff on the blog, so just came on to check and read.
I'll try and respond to all questions/comments later. However, Phoenix is not breaking up - we have a season to resurrect. :)
Catch y'all later,
Aditya
Too much going on, but still not cricket at full throttle. With Clouds of Rain glooming again over the next weekend games, it will be exciting if we can get a full docket of games for the week completed.
I am glad that everything is great with Phoenix, they are a good team, and am sure will bounce back stronger out of whatever diversions they have had over the past few weeks.
It is indeed extremely sad to see IITCC disolve and Rup's as well as Cric8walla's concerns around the slow but sure disintegration of Div 2. To top things off, if Chicago wins the bid for Olympics 2016 (which we will know on October 2nd, still possibly around playoff time for us) there is still more trouble. I think 2009 will mark a milestone for the future and direction of cricket at MCC.
In the short term, we need to get some cricket games going. Good luck to ICC for a double header and all others team who are playing over the next wekeend. Win or loose, we will hopefully get to play cricket. As for us, we will be getting ready to stop the train named Faisal Baig and United at Heritage Park on Sunday. Also playing against Centurions on Saturday in a 30/30 match for Warriors on Saturday.
Rup, I went to Wahington Park over the long weekend, and most of it had dried up and seemed it should now be able to sustain some rain in the future without being paralyzed. Spoke to humayun Baqai and he informed me that they will be marking the ground this week, infact today. Hopefully we will all be able to see a refreshingly updated Washington Park this weekend.
Look forward ot the weekend for the games. Hopefully the rain will stay away until Monday. Just in time for us to get back to results discussions next week. Until then, Pray for Cricket, this week and for many weeks to come, here in Chicago....
So, Iam at this Indian grocery store last night picking up a couple of things... and on the way out, I pick up the latest Indian newspaper (outside-cover this time is an ad for the nearby theatre.. maybe only in that area, dunno).
So I turn to the *real* first page while walking to the parkinglot.. and there's a cricket picture. My first thought is, cool, probably IPL or something (Iam still not really paying much attention)... and then I go wait a minute, isnt that Adi's ugly mug staring at me from the middle of the page? :-)
And so it is! Aditya, our own Pancham-da, standing in the middle of the field looking every inch the commanding general, pointing out the area for a fielder to patrol! Also visible in the nearly-full-page picture - Arun in foreground walking to his bowling-mark,Ganne stepping up to keep, Anwar-bhai umpiring, and I think the back-view of Doc Naveed (presumably) at non-striker! A picture apparently taken at the finals of Div1 last year - Very Cool!
Nice article too, not about the games so much as about family - entitled "Separate Lives", the subtitle is "How women cope when husbands are away on the wicket every weekend". Nice full-page article with pictures - talk to a few of the wives of MCC players and management, how they cope, how family-time works with people playing cricket etc. Very nice to see - lots of publicity for MCC, and also a bit of a focus on the women who allow MCC to function :-) Good stuff all around, women named Ela Dutt writing, even mention of the Midwest Academy in there - excellent stuff! I recommend checking it out next time youre anywhere near an Indian grocery store in the next week... popular newspaper called "Desi Talk".
c8w
Welcome back Adi...Nice to know that Phoenix is in good hands even when you are out do'n stuff and all...
Do Blog...do tell...Give us some good and even bad moments on the Vac...you can skip the 1some..2some..tell only of da 3, 4 ..heck..evne 10somes!!!LOL
Thanks for the update Shiraz..ICC hopes to play both games this week end...Da Olympics in in Chi town will definitely set cricket back some
ICC has 3 new recruits and they can't wait to start and I am afraid If the rain keeps stopping play I may loose them..
We are looking to bust-a-move in Div 2 this year and hopefully make the playoffs after missing it for 2 years...to long a drought.
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FingerOfDeath said...
So I turn to the *real* first page while walking to the parkinglot.. and there's a cricket picture. My first thought is, cool, probably IPL or something (Iam still not really paying much attention)... and then I go wait a minute, isnt that Adi's ugly mug staring at me from the middle of the page? :-)
And so it is! Aditya, our own Pancham-da, standing in the middle of the field looking every inch the commanding general, pointing out the area for a fielder to patrol! Also visible in the nearly-full-page picture - Arun in foreground walking to his bowling-mark,Ganne stepping up to keep, Anwar-bhai umpiring, and I think the back-view of Doc Naveed (presumably) at non-striker! A picture apparently taken at the finals of Div1 last year - Very Cool!
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This picture is actually avaiable online - you can find it at the desi talk epaper:
http://desitalk.com/
Nice cover story and cover picture.
I couldnt access the article online - it might be available only on registering, dunno (the standard article on this epaper site is actually regarding NJ cricket widows, not our league),.. so this epaper might well be the NJ version of Desi Talk (its nice to know that our Pancham-da's command-performance-picture as skipper is on the cover of a newspaper even as far away as New Jersey :-)
c8w
Appu,
No I havent heard anything about Washington Park # 3...
Welcome back Adi....glad things are ok with you guys...good luck with everything..
Lakshmi......thats sad news bud...IIT was a perennial playoff team with back to back runners up trophies...I'm sure div 2 will miss you guys..
Good luck with everything..
Thanks for the update Shiraz...
Welcome aboard Shekhs..!!!!!
I am Trying to have one of my guys check out WP this evening..I will update tomorrow..
Any update on HP..I got to play there on Sunday???
Romo should know about HP...the wild performers practiced there yesterday...
hey rohit....yeah the deadline passed for ALNT..but I'm holding the space for Midnight Pirates...
I havent heard from anybody yet....only the initial correspondence from Satyma.....
Can you get those guys to send me an email to confirm that they are in ..and make sure they send the payment please..
thanks
Shekhs
Congrats to the Eagles on their first big victory of the season... the winning of the Laxmikumar-sweepstakes :-) In breaking news, we can now report that both Laxmi and Vasu (formerly of IIT) will play for the Eagles in Division One this season. Two excellent pickups for the Eagles - makes them stronger and a little younger, and adds to the excellent balance of an already-strong Division One.
Its still a real pity about IIT not being able to put a team up this year - runnersup for the last 2 years and perennially a strong team in Div2, a big loss to the league (hopefully they can come back with new players in the future). But its nice to see Laxmi finally playing in Div1 - about time!
c8w
thanks a lot shekhs, Satyam has gone to India I think he will be back on the 29th .... I have mailed him about this.... Thanks again ....
Carefull scrutiny of the league players will indicate its mostly the same folks playing for several years. As age and life catches up, cricket becomes a lesser priority. Youth academy is doing a good job, but it is not enough to produce critical mass of players required to sustain a league (and particularly division 2) of this size and stature.
It may be better to consolidate teams in div 1 and div 2, come up with a regional grouping to ensure survival of the league.
Talk bout stealing the thunder, finger.
Adi, nice pic. Is that your behind, finger?
Hi rup, Shekhs, Shiraz, Alpesh, Rohit, everybody else.
Hopefully we will have some games this weekend. Goodluck to all who get to play.
Must agree..Eagles picking up two good guys from IIT will make them a team to reckon with in Div 1. Reminds me of the Peoria situation....
Looks like the weather will permit for a lot of cricket this week end..Finally we will probably get a full week end in..
A lot of teams are going to play for their first game so we could see a few major upsets this week end.
No Kidding "FAKE"...Maverick Mud begs to differ from you on why this league will dismantle if we don't change our vision....
He ask for the older guys to play harder in order to sustain a longer League/Version..He must be from Mars cause his vision is all Red..
MV think as we get old..older..like close to 50 we should spend more energy and time on cricket...Does he plan to supply Viagara/Cialis to take care of the most imoportant part of our Life?????
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Preetam N said...
Talk bout stealing the thunder, finger.
Adi, nice pic. Is that your behind, finger?
-----
Hey, it was you guys who stole everyone's thunder by getting Laxmi :-) Hottest free-agent to hit the market till Lebron does next year, probably.
Iam not sure if thats my behind - I havent actually seen what my behind looks like ;-) No, actually, I think it is probably Anwar-bhai (I was probably at square-leg out of the frame).
BTW, I think the picture was probably taken by Sridher - very nice pic, which is why it ended up on the cover of even the New Jersey newspaper! If everyone hasnt read the Chicago-article yet they really should - its really quite nice.
c8w
Preetam / Sridher
Getting Lakshmi and Vasu should do your team a lot of good.... best wishes
Shiva
yeah Preetam.....nice steal.....its like the Lakers getting Pau Gasol last year for Kwame Brown....
and you didnt have to give up your kwame brown either... :-)
Finger,
sometimes I wonder if you are Lakshmi's agent. Hottest free-agent to hit the market till Lebron does next year? You are the master of hyperbole. I'm going to blame it on you if Lebron and the Cavaliers, or Lakshmi and the Eagles lose their next game :)
Not that Lakshmi doesn't deserve any such hype. My point being, Lakshmi is such a wonderful player and his records speak for himself. If you need a real challenge, try marketing a player like me with no record at all :)
Good luck for all the teams this weekend.
Adi, Shiva,
It's heartening to hear from you guys that everything is fine with Pheonix. I think people just made a mountain out of a mole hill for nothing. I'm sure the gossip mongers on this blog (read as centurion and the cat that purrs and meows) will be extremely disappointed.
I'm rooting for you guys to come back strong this weekend.
fyi to mw,
the blog is to put the rumors down, if sameer comes out on the blog and sez hez leaving the team, we want to know what happened. just like lakshmi came out and explained...
MW ...you know da blog thrives on Rumors...Especilly when a good please come out and say it quiting time .. we need to know why as RMD stated....
I think it was a Mountian cause we all will hate to see Phoenix break up..With Adi coming out and calming things down it made a mole hill out of da mouintain
Why should Pacham Da and Him Lays offer any explanation, they aren't obligated. On the contrary, Shame Iyer kinda like washed dirty linen in public. With such an attitude, I wouldn't pickup Shame Iyer in my team. Afterall, most of the teams are close-knit and cricket is only part of the relationship.
RomeO, Rup,
I think it's fair if the intention of the fellow bloggers was just to know what happened. Instead, it seemed like an effort to fan the fire and blow it up into a conflagration.
but in this close fretenity of cricketers, everyone knows everything anyway. the blog is a place to come and let loose. not fan any flames(c.c.)
An update as promised.....
As far as what happened and what the explanation is, you'll have to get the details from Sameer himself. I can't speak for him.
I didn't really calm anything down either. I just came back, talked to a few people, and found out that all is well again. So, I shared that with you guys.
As for Phoenix issues, I'm not going to air anything out in public for you guys. I won't deny that we have issues, but then every team has their issues. Our issues are not result oriented, so the two losses does not hurt us much, except that we are at the bottom of the table!! :(
We're looking forward to playing the bears, and hopefully we will play well enough to get the first W. But they are a good team who made the playoffs last year, so we'll have to fight it out.
Thx Shiva. Shekhsy where have you been buddy ?
yeah! getting Lakshmi and Vasu was good. We also got a good young fast bowler and an off spinner as well. The real challenge now lies in the team peforming as a unit. We can have the worlds best players but if don't perform as a team it will yield no results. So that will be our goal and along the way win a couple of games and prove ourselves...hopefully.
Preetam and the Eagles,
Laxmi and Vasu are good pick ups. You guys are a good team, and they will only make you guys better. Good luck to you guys this week.
Shekhs,
How ya been? What's new with the Challs? Who y'all playing this weekend? What's the plan for the ALNT? When does the mayhem begin?
adi,
you know how this blog thrives on rumors. It is what makes it interesting. Shakes up the blog.
Is it true that you have pink socks?
Rup,
I'm looking forward to ICC playing this weekened. I think you guys will do well, as you have a few demons from last year to get rid off and I bet y'all are itching to get back on the park.
All well with me here. I went to St. Thomas (US VI). Got me some sun, some sand, and an eye full of hotties, especially the lady (my wife) that accompanied me. Did some scuba diving, and just relaxed, got browner, and ate well. What else does one do at such a beautiful place?
As for cricket, I need me some help my friend. I feel like I'm about an over behind the game, instead of being ahead like last year. Hopefully I'll catch up this game, otherwise 0-3 is a very tough start to come back from!! :(
Any tips?
Preetam,
Don't let the Cat out of the bag or else it will purrrr-sue these rumours with all the feline fury it has!
Pink socks.... please.... only when they match my pink shoes!
Ha Ha Adi. And 0-2 is not a bad start. Remember you Are THE Phoenix.
anybody been WP3 ? how does that look?
or mayby your pink panties?
Finger Of Death,
Where the hell did you find that paper and that picture? It's like we (Phoenix) are constantly reminded of last year. I agree, we had an awesome season with a near perfect ending. We definitely were a fairytale story.
But right now, we have a bit of a nightmarish season going on. We gotta find our selves quickly and get back on track, or this season will be over before it began!!
We lost fair and square to United who played a good game, and even though it was close, they won the big moments and therefore the game.
The Milwaukee game on the other hand was disappointing from a fair play point of view. They batted well to get to their score of 185. But Asif was out stumped on 0 and it was so clear, yet the leg umpire saw a different version of the truth. Or rather, that's how he called it. Then, when Athreya was batting, they claimed a catch which very clearly hit the ground before the fielder - Romesh! The umpire wasn't sure, but decided to take the word of the fielder. We'll get back to his in a bit. Next, there was a clear boundary that was not given by the very same fielder. One may claim that one bad decision does not impact the game, but I disagree. Athreya is a very good bat and had he been there for a bit, the outcome would have been different.
Now, back to the claimed catch. The umpire at the time said he wasn't sure, but took the fielder's word. That's like asking a bowler what he thinks of an LBW shout!! In our league, it's always out. There are very few sporting players/teams. So the umpire clearly made a huge error. Next, Romesh stopped by after the game and even accepted that it was not a clean catch. His explanation:
1. If the umpire had asked me, then I would have told him it wasn't clean. But he didn't, so I didn't say anything.
2. You guys won 2, so we needed this 1.
Really? By claiming the catch, does the umpire really need to ask you again?? And does us winning 2 fair and square justify your lack of fair play to win a game? In that case, please inform us before hand of your intentions. Instead of driving an hour and a half to play a farcial game, we'll be happy to save ourselves the time and give you the four points if that helps you sleep well at night.
Rest assured, we look forward to playing them again if we get the chance! I normally don't like bringing this stuff up after a game, but the spirit was so poor, I feel it is fair to me to highlight such behaviour for all to know!
By the way, on a lighter note, your MWCC Wraps have become a lot better, and a lot smoother. I'm quite impressed by how it has shaped up. It's really a big success story for the year and kudos to you and United for doing it.
centurion, i thought that was your particular fetish!
Thanks Preetam, Adi for bringing back some humor to the blog.
Sheks, your turn to comeback strong on the pink socks accusation hurled at you (not that there's anything wrong with having pink socks).
Speaking of shakes up the blog, where is the SHEiKh of the blog? Challenged for some blogger time??
And who the hell is pretty skin? Clearly not me as some of our resident crazies thought since I am Pancham Da. Could it be the Sheikh himself?
Fake, you've got something going. Funny stuff and ironically, you're keeping it "real"!! :)
Rup,
who joined ? is simon playing this year ? i think him not playing last year was a setback for you. And where is jack?
Enough clues have been provided to detect Pretty Skin. He just went to cloud nine owing to the new found strength.
Wow .. is it Preetam ??
One and only, Alpesh.
off the train now. will sign back in in the evening.
Good luck ya'll.
so adi
why is it always the losing side compalining about umpiring? we don't have professional umps. calls go both ways. if you get hung up on umpiring which you seem to do a lot, you will pay the price. sometimes it's part of the game.
btw you can own upto pink shoes and sox but not panties... fair enough!
anything to do with pinks, we got to involve Lord of the Erections. Where is he?
centurion,
normally it is the losing side that gets bad calls.
You think i get hung up on umpiring a lot, eh? I guess you're entitled to your opinion. I don't remember having said too much in the past. But I guess you missed the point, which is the spirit the game was played in, not the umpiring error in particular!
Pink socks, yes, pink shoes, yes, pink bat, sure, but not pink panties. I prefer yellow briefs!!
I'm surprised you ain't owning up either?
Wow..Adi back and da Blog on fire...
Whas up wit al da pink stuff..I am surprise deh ain't no pink balls yet....
Ya stil kool in me books Adi...!!! Welcome back..
Rup,
who joined ? is simon playing this year ? i think him not playing last year was a setback for you. And where is jack?...
==============================
Prretam asked.............
Simon is arround but his work is not allowing for cricket..We all hope he can come back one day..he should in my view cause he is a good player.
Jack is around.. I think he stated he will no blog but let his cricket talk this season..
My new guys are a surprise..If the get in the grove early ..as I stated before..ICC will be the team to beat..!!!!!
Did'nt Lord of Erections said he was going on Vacation..he should be back soon.."Fake"
Centurion,
You are right, the losing side always cries.
You are
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ShivAdi,
you guys had a fairy run last year, this year will be pretty tough and rough for you. You guys need to show character and the will to bounce back and beat the bears black and blue.
Adi, lets be hornest here. Screw the spirit and let umpire decide whether its out or not. If the umpire screws up, he screws up, dont expect spirit and soda from players. Its good if they show it, else should not be an issue for you to complain.
The umpire is to blame for the debacle...making mockery of the rules by asking fielder.
Was the umpire FOD ???
~ Purrrrrrr
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Why all da deleted stuff...C'mon guys let it be...
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Sheks,
you are the only gentleman in the team of chalu-ngers.
Whats your prediction for this weekend ?
I think Flames will be thrashed by the badly bruised Peoria.
Muslim will win over Purdue
Romos Cats will win over St.Louis
Bears and Phoenix will be close. Phoenix will win
Should see how Lakshmi will do against chargers. Eagles win over Chargers
~ Purrrrrrr
So any body wants to predict Div 2 this week...
Here is how i see it go'n down..
ICC..... over... Springfield
Jaguars. over ...Titans
Madison..Over ...Fire
Arena ...Over ...Giants
Rovers ..over ...CCI
Evanston.Over....Hammond
ICC .....Over ...Moline
Let da games begin..
The umpire was not FOD at all. He generally always makes the right call, even though I have been the fielder on two occasions and at the time I was not happy with his call. I did take those two catches cleanly - but he did not take my word and gave the benefit of the doubt to the batsman. That was the correct thing to do even though I gave him a little grief at the time. :)
Yes, the umpire did make a blunder. But in his case it was a mistake, not out right cheating. What is the fielder's excuse?
I'm not asking for the 4 points, or complaining about how we did not deserve to lose, or making excuses for our loss. My point is simple:
If you are going to play dirty, then don't expect me to shut up about it. I will expose that kind of behaviour. It's the least I can in return for your poor sporting spirit.
We lose respect for such people.
Billi,
You are right, we do need to show character to come up with a win. I hope we are able to do so. Teams generally win because they play good cricket, not because umpires or other players make the right or sporting decisions.
Hope we get back to playing good cricket this week. We are aware that a lot of people will bring their A game (or at least A- since we were only the runners up)!! :)
Hope you do well in your game this week.
Adi,
Dont show too much of character...otherwise the umpire will report you for obscenity :))
~Purrrrr
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Midwest said...
Finger,
sometimes I wonder if you are Lakshmi's agent. Hottest free-agent to hit the market till Lebron does next year? You are the master of hyperbole. I'm going to blame it on you if Lebron and the Cavaliers, or Lakshmi and the Eagles lose their next game :)
...
If you need a real challenge, try marketing a player like me with no record at all :)
-------
It was supposed to be a bit of an attempt at humour... so it was sort of intentionally hyperbolic :-) But behind the hyperbole the vaguely general point was that not many good players hit the "free agent" market in the middle of the season anyway - because not many teams that are likely contenders in any division fold during the season I guess - and thus are quite heavily recruited. But anyway, I actually do hope Lebron's team loses their next game, just as I hope Kobe's team loses their next two... I'll make no comment about Laxmi's teams next game (mostly because I actually get along with a lot of guys on both Eagles as well as Chargers :-)
As for hyping you... I'd happily give it a shot, if only I knew who you actually were :-)
c8w
wow...91 comments....I'm missing out....
hahaha..pink stuff all over....
this is getting really funny..
whats wrong with wearing pink stuff anyways..?
real men dont have to worry about pink or blue.. :-)
Midwest...I dont think I was addressed in the matter of wearing pink...but if you have any doubts lemme know...we'll get that clarified... :-)
some interesting games this weekend..
Good luck to all teams..
how about a nice little hypothetical query.
BATSMEN : which batsmen's wicket you think is most important?
EX: if i was playing IIT, i want to get lakshmi as early as possible.
united - faisel
wild cats - ??
challengers - all of them
pak gym - all of them
milwaukee - kabir/romesh
rogers park - none
chargers - none
phoenix - Adi/Sameer
eagles - lakshmi
aaa - Menks
Royals - none
fyi ... Washington Park Ground# 3 still in unplayable condition .. Our match - Titans Vs Jaguars moved to Community Park ...
ICC new players:
Moin and Fahad Babar
Abhijit Joshi
Under 19 players are allowed to play all 3 divisions.
Sorry Alpesh..Something realy neds to be done..i am playing on 2 today so i will heck the ground out and TT mgt on some viable solutions....
Speed..I wish I had those 3 youngsters..ICC will be champs with them..
Titans lost badly to Jaguars today - by 6 wickets ... Even though Satyam had returned from India y'day only, he effected 3 run-outs with direct hits ... good job ... We suffered a big collapse from 90/2 to 126 allout ... Sikander n Nishant from Jaguars played a good hand in the chase and scored about 40 runs each ...
Good game Jaguars ...
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Alpesh said...
Titans lost badly to Jaguars today - by 6 wickets ... Even though Satyam had returned from India y'day only, he effected 3 run-outs with direct hits ... good job ... We suffered a big collapse from 90/2 to 126 allout ... Sikander n Nishant from Jaguars played a good hand in the chase and scored about 40 runs each ...
Good game Jaguars ...
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Alpesh as usual buried the lead... which is that I umpired this game, and gave him out LBW *again* :-)
Titans were 31/2, then 89/2 in 24 overs... and then slid to about 95/6, a lot due to fielding (3 wickets fell due to fielding within 6 runs - one very good catch by Sikander, full-blooded shot at short-cover, and 2 direct-hit runouts, plus one skier held easily). Titans should have gotten a lot more runs, but ended up with 126. Jaguars pushed Sikander up the order and he came out swinging - he was dropped twice in the first 2 overs, and after that his hitting had Jaguars 50/0 in 7 overs (with Nishant having scored about 4* by that time). So eventually there was not much pressure though Titans bowled quite well - eventually 127/4 in 22 or so overs. Just not enough runs on the board IMHO.
Both teams look pretty decent in a weakened Div2 to me - Titans bowling looks much better than before, they just failed to put up the runs today (last time I umpired them at Hammond they had 195/2 or something though). Jaguars look pretty good too - theyvbe been a very good batting side the past couple years, and even losing a couple of bats this year theyre still probably ok there; and their bowling looks pretty good too (v promising offspinner added to an already-solid pace attack).
It'll be interesting to see how Div2 shapes up - it is completely wide open this year, 3 of last years 4 semifinalists are not around anymore with IIT's demise, it really could be anybody's division to win this season I think.
c8w
c8w,
I remember last year you had umpired our game and I think Alpesh was lbw to Vishal ....
Hard luck Titans, you guys are good team and have never shied away from putting up a fight.
Thank you c8w for the update, surely missing some cricket.....
Regards,
Rohit
Alpesh: Your game moved to HP because of unplayable ground conditions ??? Is it not supposed to happen that way.
We had the same problem yesterday so just wondering how this switch was done.
We played St.Louis yesterday in a water logged ground, and it was a herculian effort from both teams to make the ground playable after some 3 hours of water trenching and drying, the ground was literally a water park....
I will keep this post to just the update, WC won by 5 run in a water trenched game.
Naren ...
Tariq decided this as the ground no 3 is in unplayable condition as the park district is not allowing the grass to be cut ... and hence MWCC hands are tied ... And fortunately, there was no match scheduled at Community Park on Sat ... else this would had been 2nd abandoned game for us ...
Rup-
go ask them, they will play for you.
AAA loose to Challengers
AAA scored 128/10 in about 37 overs
Challengers scored 129/6 in about 27 overs
Naren,
I won't steal your thunder and will let you do the complete update.
I just wanted to mention that we appreciate the effort put in by the St.Louis team (along with help from us) in getting the ground ready for a game. In the end, despite over 2 hours of manual labor, the conditions were far from ideal, but we got a game in, and what a game it turned out to be! I'm sure Naren will provide the details.
Hi guys, I am looking for a 30/30 team with most of their games schedule on sundays plz call me at 773-319-1667.
WP..3 ..not in playing conditions.
The park disrick was there trying to fix the mud hole..I hope the did cause the had to tow one of their vehicle out.
ICC lost to Springfield on Sat by 12 runs and ICC won over Moline on Sunday by 10 Runs.. Will post the match update later.
Springfield VS ICC.
Sprinfield won the toss and elected to bat first...The batted carefully againt the opening attack..not to mention ICC started with 8 guys.. We got to full 11 in the 16th over.
Sprinfield started ok..the were scoring a tot over 3 p/over..We got the first wicket in the 30's then the second in the 50's..We went to break 20/overs with S/field around 70 for 2. after the break wickest fell at regular interval and S/Field found themselve at 103 for 7. Madan was not going to go down easy..after some nice hitting..a few drop chances some good running and 50+ he saw Spring field home to 163 for 8 after 40 overs.
ICC lost Colins early and then we had to recon for a while. We lost our second wicket at 54..I joined Jack and we pushed the score to close to a hundred well ahead of the run rate. I got bowled with a beauty ..slower/yorker and then thing went downhill for ICC..Wicket fell at frequesnt intervals for here..After jack fell for a good 48.. S/field had the edge then..they took their catches and fielded well to make sure the wagging ICC tail did not pull off a win..At the end ICC lost by 12 runs..
Kudos to S/field..the played better than ICC and desreved the win.
WC Vs STL Summary..
This game had enough twists and turns than I have ever seen in my MWCC span.
We reached the ground at around 10:30 AM and to our horror the ground was completely water logged.
Half of the pitch was in water and there were puddle of water everywhere you could see, everyone was skeptical about a game being played, and both captains contemplated on if we should just call the game off, but wisely both teams agreed to pull their sleeves and socks and right away started to work on the ground, a couple of buckets, Towels and mugs were bought and the process of soaking the water began and it took nearly 3 hours for both teams to soak water from at least the 30 yard circle and it was a great effort from both the teams to bring the ground to playable conditions..
STL won the toss and wisely choose to field as the ground was wet and run scoring was very difficult, we started in the wrong way loosing Krishna for a 0, then Romeen and Nikhil started the snail pace partnership scoring around 3 runs every over, and this was the way the game went till about 10 overs, and Nikhil thought of increasing the run rate and in that he lost his wicket to a very good catch from Senthil, Romeen followed suit by doing the same and this time Senthil took an even better catch to get Romeo out.
At this stage Ajit joined forces with Surya and both were biding time by taking singles and 2’s, and at one stage our score was around 70 in 20 overs and then both Ajit and Surya started to open up and both of them started scoring briskly. Ajit was especially in a murderous mood and he hit some huge sixes out of the park and hit some 5-6 sixes in his score of 61 and Surya gave him good company with some big hits in this 30’s, both of them took us to a score of 162 in 30 overs with around 100 runs coming off of the last 10 overs.
A special mention should go to the catches which got the wickets of Surya and Sanjay, both Manu and Chakri took outstanding catches, and those were of international cricket standard catches, boy those two catches were out of the world.
STL started their chase with Sohail and Chakri and both of them were cautious in their approach scoring around 3 runs an over, both of them hung around for about 8 overs and the introduction of Sanjay got us a wicket immediately, Chakri holing out to long on. Sohail hit a couple of boundaries and then got out trying to clear the boundary. Amit came to the crease along with Mujahid and Amit was in a hurry to run away with the game and he got out holing out to Long off, and then pressure was mounting for STL to score quickly and Mir got out trying to clear the boundary, Tehsin came and went without troubling the scorers. At this stage WC was in control of the game and we relaxed a bit in our fielding dropping a few catches and STL started finding their gear especially Senthil and Shoaib started tearing us apart playing some big hits, scoring around 8-10 an over without loosing any wickets and the target came down to 35 in the last 7 overs and at that time Shoaib tried one too many shots and got out at long off for a well made 28.
The final equation came down to 15 in the last 3 overs with 4 wickets in hand and STL had their nose in the front, but to his Credit Javed bowled well to give away 5 runs and the last 2 overs needed 11 runs for STL, and I bowled a 2 run over which brought the equation to 9 in the last over, and Senthil could not bring his team to victory as the last over from Krishna was dead straight n into the block hole.
WC won by 5 runs and importantly a W into our bag, it was a great game and some great fielding display by STL, but unfortunately they ended short of the target.
Hard Luck Rup.... Congrats to SpringField. Looks like it was a good match....
Is this Madangopal who used to play for Capitol ????
ICC vs Moline.
ICC won the toss and elected to bat first...
Got off to a poor start..a couple of bad umpiring Decision and some good bowling for the opening attact saw ICC sitting at 24 for 4 in the 7th over...
You know I was not going down without a fight. Good support from Nookhram & Annand and mu pulverizing the attack saw us to 103 for 5 at break..first ball after break..Satish produce a beauty to bowl me for 49..We were batting 10 deep so the lower middle and tail decided to stick it out. A 38 run 10th wicket stand saw ICc home to 177 all out in 37.2 overs...
After a nice lunch Moline got off to a Very Shaky start. They struggled and lost their 4th wicket in the 10th over at 24. The struggle continued for a little more then QC opened up. The lost a couple more wickets and went in to Break at 80 for 6 ..Kiran and Veeru took 40+ in the last 5 overs to Break..
After Break QC came out swinging. Kiran and Viru both were hitting hard and some poor ICc bowling soon saw the run rate Below 4/over.
Amir came on the attack and when he bowled Kiran the stil needed 33 to win. Veru kept on his big hitting but Amir was bent on finishing the tail. George took a beauty over the catch on the Boundry line..got Veru out saved a sure 6 and 10 to win..1 wickets. The very next ball the batsman swung as hard as he could..A skier..a mile up in the center of the wicket..Collins ran in from behind the wicket to take a stunner.. falling over the cover fielder coming in and tumbling to hold on to a one handed finale..ICC won by 10 runs..
Great win for ICC.. Tough loss for QC who fought to the end..Let Seeis ICC can continue the good play..
Next match report .. 06/07/09 from Hammond In.
Yep..it's tha same Madan who played for Peoria last year... We were hoping to see Satha but I heard he had Family plans.
We had great match with Flames...I cannot believe how good U-19 kids were (Moin, Abhijit, Shankar and Fahad)...They took the game away from us and we had to make quite a few changes to keep the scoring rate under check and just wait for the errors from the batsmen...I would like to pass on my commendation to Krishna, Ajit ( All those involved and MWCC academy) and I could the see fruits of labor right in front of our eyes! It was display of scintillating proper opening pair cricket batting I have seen a in while in MWCC..After watcing these guys in action all I can say these kdis great future..and will make our MWCC proud..Flames opened with Moin and Abhi..and what form both the guys are in..I am sure Div-I bowlers are in for a real surprise...Some might get their 'hines' hurt by these so called Kids..Flames is very good team this year..with proper mix of experience..and young guns...We Wish them the best..and I would suggest everyone who enjoy good cricket to watch these U-19 kids in action and they give real treat to the eyes...Wishing Flames and the ofcourse the KIDS on the block.. the best...and fruitful season ahead..
Cheers
Madew
PCC
Madhu..nice to see you on da Blog...
Can we get some more details from you on da game..
==============================
They took the game away from us??
Does this mean you all lost
Rup..I would say we did pull out a win courtsey of posting good runs during our batting 232 runs in all...Some times criket is all about starting postive..and these...2 did the job for Flames..Both Abhi and Moin were running so hard..converting 1's to 2's and putting so much pressure on the field..they got their runs just basically running between the wickets..did not see even remotely trying to hoick any way..just sublime inninngs with proper cricket shots....quite few runs on the off side..simple tucks... deft placements between the fielder....Abhi one monstrous pull to one bounce boundary..I really enjoyed watching...should add was just mesmerized for a while..they didn't loose wicket till 17 odd overs...it was chanceless..untill asking rate creeped up and Moin..tried to chip one placement went wrong for him...Kiran (Perennial MWCC batsman what can I say) slogged but it was little late..when asking rate was almost 10 runs..Nasir and Kiran...played T20..in last 4 over or so..but we were lucky it pull it off...PCC is still working getting together some of the strategy right...we have quite few news kids in our team ourselves..and they are also..getting ready for the challenge ahead..Over all it was a fantastic game....we certainly enjoyed it...Thank you to the USA U-19 Kids..!
Cheers
Madew
PCC
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Rup said...
Madhu..nice to see you on da Blog...Can we get some more details from you on da game..
==============================
They took the game away from us??
Does this mean you all lost
------
No, they won, but narrowly - Peoria got 232 in 40 overs, and won by only 14 runs in the end.
Second Rup here - more details on the game would be great :-) Flames were eventually 218/5 chasing 232.. a very good chase against a big score, but they did have wickets in hand at the end - kind of unusual. Was the required-run-rate just too high at the end? 232 is a very big chase early in the season - nobody has done it successfully so far this year I think. Was curious how many runs were needed in the last 20 overs, the last 10 overs etc.
Very creditable performance by all the kids - Shankar 4/39, Moin 1/46, Abhijit 2/24; with the bat Fahad 30, Abhijit 53, Moin 21.
c8w
10 overs 110 with 7 wickets in hand ..equation was 6 overs 58 with 6 wickts then its 4 over 38...1 over 28..Kiran was in murderous mood..but we are happy that we prevailed...in the end...we have some kinks to work on and fine tune few things little bit..
M
Wow Rup, congrats .... Hard luck to QC Kings.... Satha - should be interesting if he comes for Springfield .....
Mehul got a 7-fer this weekend. And Faisal got out for duck! Wow, that's a pretty amazing duo of feats in one game!! :)
Another, somewhat unheralded effort this weekend was that of Hammad from the Bears. I thought he bowled beautifully against us. He started of a little on the shorter side, but his line was pretty good. But soon he settled into a rhythm and the loop, drift, dip, rip, turn, and bounce was pretty darn good. There were just some balls that were perfect leg spin deliveries - regular jaffas! Throw in his googlies, and it made him more dangerous. Just unlucky to not get more than 1 wicket. Props to him! I thoroughly enjoyed facing him.
Rup,
Thanks for the food buddy. I did try some of the curry chicken and veg biryani. It was damn good! Sorry we were not able to linger around and chill, but evening plans were made in my absence and had to get home in time to honour them. Will definitely catch up with you soon.
Congrats on the win and hard luck on the loss. But I'm sure you guys will have a good season this year.
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Aditya said...
Mehul got a 7-fer this weekend. And Faisal got out for duck! Wow, that's a pretty amazing duo of feats in one game!! :)
Another, somewhat unheralded effort this weekend was that of Hammad from the Bears
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Not just a 7-fer, but a hat-trick as well according to the Weekly Summary! And Roger's Park's two not-out batsmen, according to the same summary, seem to have gotten nearly 60 runs between them.. and they ended about 125/9 or some such! Was it really like 60/9 at one stage? And then Rogers Park only lost by 2 wickets? Quite a fightback! Any more details of this game (from Shiraz or anyone) would be great!
As for Hammad... he's one of the most underrated players in the league in general, I think. A very good leggie.. there arent that many leggies in our league I guess, but he is surely one of the better ones now. And he's a very very capable batsman - good defense, can stay in the middle for a while, and is capable of some huge hitting too when its required and the situation calls for it (he won Bears a couple of games with his batting last year IIRC). But for some reason he seems to fly under the radar a bit - probably has deserved much more notice than he's gotten for the past couple of years at least!
c8w
Nice Win Adi..Hope this starts up a long winning streak...
I was hoping you all could have stop by..we had a lot of extra food and Drinks was a plenty...Well i guess next time.
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Aditya said...
Rup,
Thanks for the food buddy. I did try some of the curry chicken and veg biryani. It was damn good!
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There was Caribbean Chicken Curry at WP on Saturday? Damn, I knew it was a bad day to have my game moved from WP to Hanover :-)
c8w
Eagles Vs Chargers
Eagles lose to Chargers. I think it was not one reason for losing it was just not our day. Hopefully we will put up a better fight next time.
Congrats to all those who won. And better luck to teams that could not make it.
Preetam, hard luck. Looks like the Chargers had a very good allround game. In my opinion they are a very dangerous team and I'm always a little nervous playing them. They can be so explosive.
I'm sure you guys will click next game and then watch out.... the Eagles are here to stay!
There was Caribbean Chicken Curry at WP on Saturday? Damn, I knew it was a bad day to have my game moved from WP to Hanover :-)
==============================
Sorry Finger...I know you love the game more than some Carib-curry!!!..
If you are not doing anything you can stop by Sat June 13th. We are hosting Arena...I'll make sure to save you some..
Shuaib Menk,
Congrats by the way for your awesome win against SL. They are a good team, so that's a credit to you guys for pulling it off.
What happened with the Challengers?
Still, you guys are quite capable of having a very good season if you play consistently. Good luck.
Sorry about the loss Preetam.. you guys are a good enough bunch to win in Div 1 so all you got to do is correct a few minor errors and the winnig strak starts...
Hpoe your next match report is a winning one..good luck
Sadiq bhai, per your request, I will share some details of our low scoring but extremely well played game of cricket against United.
Rogers Park won the toss and elected to bat first and things were looking terrible for us right from the start. Mehul's in-swing combined with some poor shot selection on our part created a never before seen situation for us. He got a hattrick almost identical to the one Irfan Pathan got against Pakistan in a test match a few years ago. Mehul ofcourse, as you know, ended up with 7 wkts and I think the best of teams would have had their hands full playing him on this day.
With 2 Mehul overs still to go, United had RP reeling at 60 for 9 and were confident they would be home early on this day. I had walked in to bat at no. 10 in the 13th over and the last man, Aamir joined me at the crease in the 21st over. Him and I played out the entire 40 overs and gave our bowlers atleast something to work with. We ended up with a 62 run last wicket stand that got us to 122/9 in 40 overs
Mehul was not the only unplayable pacer on the day. Sufian got us off to a great start getting Faisal in his first over and he was unplayable throughout. He ended up with figures of 2 for 15 in 8 overs. It was a low total but we made it anything but easy for the champs to chase it. We kept fighting and took wickets at regular intervals. Their highest batsmen total was 18 I believe (Mateen). We bowled and fielded well but in the end, we fell just short as they got to the target in the 37th or so over with 2 wkts remining.
It was a low scoring game but full of drama. All credit ofcourse to United who got the win in the end but we were just proud of the effort and fight put in by our guys after being in such a big hole early on.
Good luck to United in the next games.
Asmar and RP,
That was a great fight from you guys after being down 60/9. A win would've definitely been the highlight of the week, and maybe even the season.
Adi, congrats on your win over the Bears. I totally agree with Sadiq that Hammad is one of the most under-rated players in our league. I wish there were more leg-spinners in our league. Even a decent quality leg-spin can surely test a lot of batsmen, especially the compulsive cross-bat hitters, in the league.
8 55.4 2 216 6 36.00 3.9 2-15
10 51.2 0 270 14 19.29 5.27 5-38
12 91 2 312 14 22.29 3.43 3-37
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Adi/Finger...Unless I am missing something when it come to rating a player..how can you all say Hammad is the most under-rated MWCCplayer given the above..(last 3 years bowling stats for Hammad).
He has bowled 198 overs at 4.03 p/Over..34 wickets at 23.47p/wicket...His batting avgs in the low teens..
there are a lot of other playes with better stats that are not even mentioned in any conversations..
My take is he may have had another good day against Phoenix..Underrated.NO!!!!
United Cricket Club has a week off and looking to play some practice matches. We have Washington Park #1 on June 6th and 7th. Interested teams, Please send me an email at president@unitedcricket.org
Adnan Baig
United Cricket Club
Thx Adi, Rup. We will try to finetune ourselves and show more mettle next time.
Preetam Sir ... I expected your team to win the last match ... Never mind ... there are atleast 13 more next times :) All the best ...
In Div 2, two major upsets ... Rovers losing to CCI n Evanston losing to Hammond ... Wow ... Div 2 becoming interesting with less number of teams ...
Alp..that will be nice if div 2 get more competitive..I am as surprised as you on the upsets..Never would have picked Hammond over Evanston.. the heat is on...
For now i think the Jaguars may be the pick to Win Div 2 this season..??.
I would also like to put in a special mention for the Giants. They had a goos game, beating Arena in its own backyard after traveling 5 hours. With all the turmoil of Tonald Trump leaving and other things, it seems like Gaints has geared up for a fight this season. They have some nice young kids in the team now, and youth always equals uptake in effort.
Also want to give a special thanks for all my Boys who put up a great fight against United this past week. While Mehul had us bleeding when he finished his spell in the 16th over at 46 for 8, we still had them bowl all 40 overs of our innings, as well had them on thier heels thorugh out the chase with them winning in the 37th over with only 2 wickets left. Also we dropped sitters for both of thier highest scorers as well, when they were in single digits. All credit to United for pulling in the 'W', although, during a season there are some losses that reflect and build the character of a team. Our game agianst United was that game for us. I am confident that Rogers Park has emerged a stronger team after last week and we will be ready for the upcoming challenges in weeks to come.
Midwest, thanks for your kind words for Rogers Park.
Best wishes to all teams playing this week. We have a bye, so we will enjoy the discussion without being part of it this week.
I wonder what is going to happen of all the scheduled games at Wash park 3. Flames is scheduled to play there this weekend against AAA, and I understand that the ground is still water logged. I think all of these games should be re-scheduled to another venue, until we have resolution for this problem. While it will be a scheduling effort, Raining all games out at Wash Park 3, should not be a reasonable option. Thoughts?? Perhaps having a Night Game at Hanover Park is an option for theese games, if available.
The Park district was working on ground 3 last week end..hope the were able to fill up the mud hole and allow for some draining..
If not .. and with the current rain ..we can kiss this coming week end bye-bye again.
ICC has got to go to Hammond..another duck pond when it rains a little hard..My fingers are crossed for this week-end against the Titans.
shiraz need your email
Shiraz.Najam@Gmail.com
Gentlemen,
I was unable to setup the kind of Fantasy league that I wanted - similar to a Fantasy football league where we keep stats on fielding, bowling, batting, and can make up teams, etc. I will try and set it up this year, but it will be tough. Just something to build a little competition, etc.
In the meanwhile, I am going to setup a different kind of competition. Hopefully, people will take part in it.
Adi said......!!
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In the meanwhile, I am going to setup a different kind of competition. Hopefully, people will take part in it.
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When can we expect to see this out..Adi..
CRY-MCC tourney:
Hey guys,
The tennis ball 8 over tourney from last year is back! For those of you that participated or watched, you may remember it was a lot of fun! This year, we have added on another charity that'll benefit from this - ARMANN.
We are going to follow the same format as last year. The first 12 teams to register will be accepted.
The dates are July 13,14,20,21,27,28. Basically, monday and tuesday nights at Hanover Park.
Please write us with questions/registration:
1.Shweta: shwets16@gmail.com
2.Romeen: yomeen@hotmail.com
3.Narasimha: nnarasimha@gmail.com
4.Mehul: mehul@spengineers.com
Thanks and looking forward to a great tournament!
Way to go Romo... I will be looking for a team to hit a few tennis balls...Just hate to bring up anything pink but got to on this one...Are we going to get the pink balls .. them Europeans think it's better under lights??..::))LOL.
CCI..Rovers...when da ya all plan to enter your Scores for last week games..???.. Ya all hold'n up a lota critical info..please pass on..
Adi...Are you alive???
CHANGE THE NAME OF THIS BLOG TO RUP'S BLOGGER.
We will do it today.. we lost to CCI in a close game..we batted first and we are fairly comfortable at 100/2 at 20 overs.. Their spinners came in and bowled great and we had a middle order collapse which got us all out for 153.
Our bowlers bowled great and got them for 60/6 and we had them at 110/8. But Safdar played really well for 56 and a well deserved win..
Alp..that will be nice if div 2 get more competitive..I am as surprised as you on the upsets..Never would have picked Hammond over Evanston.. the heat is on...
For now i think the Jaguars may be the pick to Win Div 2 this season..??.
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Rup,
You know that Div 2 is wide open anything can happen .... Every team looks good now considering the upsets this season.....
Should be interesting, man I am so missing out on all this ....
Rohit
Rup, I'm alive, just busy.
Ok, so the game is out - Pick, Weight, and Win. If anyone can come up with a better name, I'll use that.
It's a game of predictions. Let me see if I can get a fantasy game going as well, but that is tough and time consuming to setup and maintain.
wow, did I pick a slow day to come back or what????
Where is everyone?
Na Cool..!!!!.. Leave it the way it is..I am just cricket crazzzzYYYY..!!!
In a couple months we will all go into Hibernation..then we will call it DA COOLer blog.
Thanks for the game ADI..I am guessing the weights are 1 to 7 with 7 being the highest except the Bonus??..right
Yes, that is correct.
Guys, if people are posting comments in the area for the "game", I'm deleting them. That is solely for the game. Will put up another weekly chat group today, if I don't get something from C8W and the gang.
Dinesh..what happen to ya all Score card..no info in yet..
CCI..Can we get your score card in?.
Adi...
It may be worth to get a new blog opened for midwest games ... likes midwestcricketgames.blogpsot.com ... or so ... this may keep this blog limited to just blogging .. we can put up a link of that blog here and also mention about it in our weekly posts ...
Pancham Da, Pancham Da,
The news from cosmos is that two weekly threads does not augur well for your team. So, you might want to consider only one thread.
Zamorin - Been a while, what are you upto? There's a surprising news from cosmos for you...
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