Once again a full weekend of games, thankfully, and some excellent contests across the league, especially in Division One - which saw upsets, narrow-come-from-behind-wins, and even a royally-wild tie!
We try to cover most of it, in the Sixth Edition of our weekly video show, the Midwest Wrap. In addition, this week, a quick word from Tariq on the new Flames (who got their first win this weekend), a word with Darshan on his the top-of-the-table Challengers 4th straight win, a chat with Aslam about his Madison outfit's changes, and the usual Top Performers awarded for the week in each division (this week, with the added bonus of a quick interview with the Division Two Top Performer awardees!)
Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for watching!
MIDWEST CRICKET WRAP - WEEK 6
-By Sadiq Yusuf
115 comments:
Fellas..
Our ALNT first game (tuesday - 06/16/2009) has been rescheduled due to unavailability of teams.
The tournament will officially start on 06/17/2009 - wednesday - between - Midnight Pirates and Karachi Cricket club.
Good luck fellas...Go ALNT..!!!1
Shekhs..are the games starting at 6 or 7 pm CST....??
I feel the games should start at 6 pm to finish at 10 pm.. This way the team batting first gets to bat under sunlight...Makes winnig the toss a ++..What do you all think??
games will start at 7:00 pm Rup..
as its hard for ppl commuting to make it at 6:00pm...
also, it helps with the ramadhan season (dunno when its this year)...
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Shekhs said...
Fellas..
Our ALNT first game (tuesday - 06/16/2009) has been rescheduled due to unavailability of teams.
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So, BTW, do we know when this game is re-scheduled to, yet? It was the PakGym-MuslimGym game... Id like to try to come watch that, whenever it is :-)
c8w
we haven't figured that out yet..will let you know as soon as we have this one scheduled.
Again a rainy Sat .. I hope tomorrow's matches do get played ..
Rup .. Did Arena-Illinois match was played? I knew Arena team was here in Chicago ...
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Alpesh said...
Rup .. Did Arena-Illinois match was played? I knew Arena team was here in Chicago ...
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I forgot to ask about Arena - was with the StLouis guys for a large part of the day, dont think they had heard anything though.
Frustrating day in general (though a very fun time spent with the StLouis guys, as much fun as its humanly possible to have during a rainout, really :-)... my Chargers/United game was washed out - no chance of play whatsoever at Heritage, standing water etc - was trying to get some interviews with the StLouis guys and ended up hanging with them for a while. They had a most frustrating failure to get a legal game in against Rogers Park (eventually a friendly played with Rogers Park for 15-overs a side, which I umpired, and which RP won). Iam sure that, once he's feeling a bit calmer, Shiraz will elaborate on his frustrations about the event :-)
c8w
Sadiq bhai -
Not sure if Shiraz bhai will vent his frustration about the rain out yesterday against St Louis. He's been trying to stay away from the spotlight ever since he took over the captaincy :-)
So, Let me provide some detail on what happened. The game was scheduled to start at 11:30 pm (start time for Travel games is late). It was raining when we got there and the ground was completely unplayable. The umpire and the two captains took a look at right away decided the playing conditions were horrible and called off the game.
An hour and a half later, we decided to go back to HP for some net practice and realized that miraculously, the ground had significantly improved in an hour and a half. The pitch and outfield were significantly drier and the baseball diamonds were better than before as well. In other words, conditions were playable. We called St Loius, who were staying at a hotel nearby and asked them if they wanted to play. They said yes. The two captains and yourself (the umpire) thought conditions were good and we decided to play a 25 over game.
Just before start, we got a phone call from "Mr. One man Show" (you all know who I'm talking about)and said we couldnt play! I couldnt believe the extent of micro-mgmt this guy is used to! Anyway, the reasoning he gave was that there was a 30/30 game scheduled at HP later that evening @ 6pm and secondly, the game was initially called off. I believe the words he used were - "we are not playing galli ki cricket". While his 2 concerns were valid, I would like to address both of them.
First, an 11:30 or 12:00 pm start under regular circumstances (40 over game)would have never ended by 6pm. So, not sure why the 30-30 gm couldnt start at 7pm instead of 6pm. That is normally when all night games start anyway. Second, while the rule book does agree with not restarting the game after being called off, sometimes, i think common sense should prevail! We are not playing "Galli" cricket but we are also not playing international cricket! We pay big $$ to play cricket here and majority of us play for fun and the love of the game. I think when a game can go on...it should go on. A mistake was made in calling the game off early but no one new the conditions would change so drastically in an hour and a half. A team had driven 400 miles to play cricket and they were shot down.Why?? I'm not sure why he was involved in the decision making at all. The two captains and the ump were ready, why did he have to jump in? Again, I just feel that sometimes, common sense should prevail and people should just be for playing cricket. Anyway, we have all learned to live with this type of one man mgmt.
Shout out to St Louis who are a great bunch of guys and always ready to play. Good luck to them today against the Flames! BTW, we did get a practice game in yesterday which RP won. It was a 15 over game and could have easily been a 25 over game if so much time wasn't wasted on the phone and we were allowed to play till 7, which would have been the end time anyway on a normal start.
Event: All Star Blogger's Ball
Event Date: 2nd Week or 3rd Week of July
Event Location: Hanover Park (6pm -11pm)
Signup: You can signup for this by emailing me your name and contact number at atifmshaikh@gmail.com. We will finalize the exact game date and get back to you by end of June.
Thanks,
Mr. Shaikh
Rup ...
Good Win .. congrats .. Please shed more details on the match .. also tell us what time the match started ?? As we cancelled our match around 10:30 AM .. as it the pitch n ground looked unplayable ...
As per Shekh's request, here is the update of our game.
Phoenix beat the Challengers by 6 wickets.
Sunday was a beautiful day for a game of cricket. The challengers won the toss and elected to bat. They started off steadily for the first couple of overs. Our opening bowlers were bowling quite well though and we managed to pick up Bhavesh early. We kept some pressure on the batsman and picked up another 2 wickets - one being Darshan. Having accounted for the explosive openers, we then had to focus in on their solid middle order of Afroze, Mahesh, and Nirav. Arun set up Afroze beautifully varying his lenght subtly to get him at second slip very early. Mahesh and Nirav battted for some time before Priyank set up Mahesh with a gem to be caught behind. Nirav, as cool as ever batted with Madish until the break where the Challengers were 74/5 in 20 overs. Shiva accounted for Madish top edging a sweep, and Mitul managed to get the ever-cool Nirav with a beauty at second slip well held by a diving Athreya. Dax was sharply caught trying to cut Shiva by Sharath. Nilesh came in and played aggressively, but we managed to keep him down to singles and twos. Just when he looked like he was going to get dangerous Shiva tempted him out of his crease with a beauty and Sharath finished up the rest. We managed to pick up the last wicket skied of Shiva at square leg. We did very well to restrict the Challengers to 106.
Low totals are always tricky and the Challengers are known to come at you hard to secure 4 points. We started well with Naveen and Shiva keeping the runs flowing, but then Dax got Ganne out to a beauty in first slip. Sharath was the next man in and he dropped anchor immediately. Shiva meanwhile was decieved by Darshan's pace going for a hoick over square leg and was out LBW. Athreya, our in-form batsman, went it next. Unfortunately, he too was decieved by Darshan's pace skying a catch to square leg. At 3 down for about 20 in 6 overs the pressure was on. I went in next and decided to eschew any risky shots and build a partnership. Slowly, but surely, we blunted the Challengers potent bowling attack and chipped away at the target. We went into the break without any further damage at 68/3 in 20 overs. Bhavesh in particular bowled well, as did Nilesh and Afroze, but we kept our heads down, and kept plugging away at the total. It wasn't exactly scintilating batting, but at this point we needed the 4 points! With under 20 runs to go, I needlessly threw away my wicket - caught at deep midwicket of Madish. But by then we were nearly home, and Venkat and Sharath finished the game for us in a little under 30 overs.
Fortunately, we were able to come up with a pretty convincing and a much needed win in the end. The Challengers fought hard and never backed down for a second, but I think they were a few runs short in the end. They definitely are headed to the playoffs, and I hope we can make it there as well after our poor start.
Good luck to Shekhs and the crew.
ICC vs Arena..The awaited post game show...I had to wait for time.. these close games gona kill me....
At noon the rain was still falling briskly..We decided to have an eraly lunch..Hope Arena enjoyed the food we prepared.
We know the rain was going to break and it did just before 1 pm. Ground inspection was a few little puddles and about and hour drying we should be good to go.. We went and got some saw dust and fix the puddles..Thanks to Arena for sticking around till 2 pm before we call the game
I was surprised at all the rain we were good to start a 25 overs game at 2 pm.
Arena won the toss and put us to bat. We started off loosing an early wicket in the second over. Ron joined Collins and the runs came at a t brisk pace..around 7 p/over..The ball moved pretty well given the condiditons..
After 12 over we were 81 for 2 and I figured we could get to 175.. Good bowling from Arena picked up a couple quick wicket as the charge was on.. In form Jack played well for another 50 and in the end ICC only mustered 147 all out in 24.2 overs.
It was going to be a chase for the conditions favored Arena chasing 148 in much much dryer conditions and the ball moving better on the ground.
Arena started well.. the were scoring at around 7 per overs but lost wicket at frequent intervals thus avoiding the gallop to the finish. Game was always on.. Came down to the middle order, but like ICC, Arena lost their way in the middle and soon it was 49 from 5 overs with 3 wickets..13 off the next over.. 36 off 4... 8 off the next and it was 28 off 3.. 9 off the next let it 19 in 2 with 2 wickets.
Prashant was hitting the ball well but it took a beauty of a running catch from yours trully on the boundry and it was 16 to win ..1 wicket..13 off the last over was needed for an Arena win.
Jack bowling...saw 3 off the first 2 balls then he bowled the last bat..ICC won by 10 runs..me heart rate went down then.
Other than a couple of decisions that both teams felt did not go their way..it was a cracker of a game..Well payed Arena and thanks for not giving up on the lousy morning weather...
Until next week from Evanston..Bye for now
Asmar..Thanks for the update...
The league should have let you all play a 25 over game and reduce the 30/30 to 25 overs too...
We had the same scenario hosting Moline at HP and a 30/30 game later. It was comig up on 5 pm and the 30/30 ump came and told me the same.. Margoob and Pres say to hurry up..I'm like you gota be kidding right!!!!We are going to finish our game as quickly as we can and then you will get the field.
It's idiotic to have a travelling game schedule at the same ground for a 30/30 later..I don't know what the scheduling was thinking when the schedule these games.
I hope the remember these scenarios net time the work on a schedule.
Thanks Adi for the update..and congrats on an overwhelming win...
you guys outplayed us in all aspects of the game...
Asmar,
thats unfortunate....yeah a sad situation....
what can you do? :-)
Good win rup...
Thanks Shekhs...I gota figure out a way to stop playing these close games...if not then i guess a house call to Romo for some calming down meds!!!!!
Another match another loss.
This was hard to digest though. We were massacred. We kept Pak Gym to a reasonable score for the first 20 overs but after that it was absolute mayhem.
Small ground didnt help either.
Quoting from the Lord of the Rings during the Battle of Isengard. "What can man do against this madness".
I had to blog this so that people don't say i am hiding from my losses.
Preetam,
Welcome to Div 1 my friend. Pak has a habit of putting up big scores on everyone!!! But we've all been in that boat - so keep your chin up and keep the fire going. Give us some details please.
Thanks.
Firstly, sorry to all for not putting up picks for Pick, Weight, and Win this week. I was extremely busy. Krazzy, I did not get your picks.
Please send the picks to aditya.burman@gmail.com for me to put up for this week. I need them by EOD Tuesday.
Rup, for your "missed" pick, there is nothing that I can do my friend. Sorry, but I could not assume who you had picked for that game. It's up to the person picking to make sure they get it right, otherwise that pick is disqualified.
Definitely will put up picks for this week folks! C8W, I think you can play as well, because I'm sure you won't let your "pick" influence your umpiring decisions. It's not worth the 11 angry people after the game - hehehehe!
Rup,
Congrats on the win. Looks like ICC is playing with some heart and fire in the belly. Just keep building on that momentum.
Lost the toss as usual and Pak Gym elected to bat. Irfan Sohail was let off in the second over. Not a straight forwardcatch but defenitely easy. They were 100+ for 2 in 20 overs. And then they bludgeoned their way to 300. With irfan scoring a hundred and Shahid Munir getting a quick 50+. We knew the total was overwhelming. Our openers tackled Pak gym's fast bowlers well but fell going for thier shots against the slower ones.
Needless to say we learnt a lot of lessons. Especially on how to bowl.
With Lakshmi and vasu not plaing this weekend our bowling was a little weak too. But that is defenitely not an excuse.
Asmar,
Sorry to hear about your game. I agree its a difficult pill to swallow and if I were in your place, I would feel the same way you guys do. It's a disappointing decision. While we don't play "gulli" cricket, neither do we play "internaltional" cricket. Since we pay to play, we should always err on the side of getting a game in.
What I don't understand is this:
We were clearly told the umpire is the final authority. There should be no management phone calls about game decisions. So, why did that happen? And even if scheduling was involved (which should not have been), couldn't you have easily gotten a game in by 6pm?
I know this is a sore topic, but just thought I'd ask.
Thanks Preetam, again, sorry to hear that. But, if you learned a few things, then all is not lost and it means you guys will come back tougher, smarter, and better.
ps. Special mention to Salman from the Bears for Umpiring. He played U-19 was is a young kid, but he was an excellent (one of the best I have had) umpires. All his decisions were spot on. One of the best if not the best umpire I've seen.
So Adi going Crazzzyy on da blog...Nice going though..
Yep..Adi..ICC is trying to find ways to win as we try to gel as a team.. We should become a tough bunch to beat once we can fit everyone in the Puzzle...
This weeks game against Evanston should give us a good idea where we stand..as we will try to field our best 11
Adi..Phoenix..Congrats on the victory over the 4 n' 0 Chals.. That's 2 in a row so keep it going..
Sorry ..Shekhs ..on da loss.. Hope you guys get back on the winning streak...
Preetam...Hard loss my friend.. Looks like you guys ran into a Pak team that was due a big day... Good news is that you guys are new in Div 1 and it seems like you all are learning fast .. hope the winning streak starts soon.
Adi said -
We were clearly told the umpire is the final authority. There should be no management phone calls about game decisions. So, why did that happen? And even if scheduling was involved (which should not have been), couldn't you have easily gotten a game in by 6pm?
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Adi, I was under the same impression. I thought issues should not be escalated to the Prez for such matters and I have no idea who initiated the phone calls...I just know that it took 30mins or more on the phone with him.
We could have easily gotten a game in by 7pm which realistically would have been the end time if we had no rain anyway. It was a travel game and was supposed to start by 11:30 or even 12 pm even St. Louis was to be late. All 3 of our games got rained out without much rain really. Against Eagles, it was ground condition but no rain, against muslim it was a great day to play but r/o due to ground conditions and against St. Louis, we had an opportunity to play a game but we were shot down. Its annoying how we dont get our moneys worth and people stop you from playing the game.
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Aditya said...
While we don't play "gulli" cricket, neither do we play "internaltional" cricket. Since we pay to play, we should always err on the side of getting a game in.
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I agree entirely with this part - IMHO we should err as much as humanly possible on the side of actually getting a game in. After all, this is a league in which everyone *pays* to play - the polar opposite of "professional cricket". So any chance of getting a game must be grabbed, within reasonable limits, purely IMHO.
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Adi said:
And even if scheduling was involved (which should not have been), couldn't you have easily gotten a game in by 6pm?
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I was at the ground till 6:35pm BTW - because I was trying to get an interview with Ganesh about the Trailblazers (it ended up not working out)... at 6:35, when I finally left, the 30/30 night game had still not begun :-) They were all waiting around because the "2 white balls" had not arrived.
The "15-15 friendly" that RP and StLouis played finally began at 4:00 and we were all off the field by 5:45 (I checked my watch). They were supposed to get on the field at 3:30 originally, before 30 minutes were spent on the phone... starting at 3:30 a 20/20 (ie legal by league rules) game would have been completed by 6:00 anyway! And by 6:30 even the 4pm start game (ie post phone-calls) would have gotten 20-overs-per-side in (we were playing from only one end, saving huge amounts of time).
If the 30/30 game (which ended up being played as a 25/25 game anyway!) had been pushed to a 7:00start, we would have gotten 25-overs a side for both Div1 and 30/30 games on Saturday IMHO.
The league probably *did* need to be contacted, however - in this case due to an umpire-change if nothing else! After all, I was supposed to be umpiring at Heritage (United/Chargers, called off by 11, still pouring and an inch of standing water etc)... the StLouis/RogersPark game was supposed to be umpired by someone else, and it was called off by him. I just happened to be with StLouis at their hotel trying to get interviews with Amit and Sohail-bhai when Rogers Park called and suggested a game was possible... and since the other umpire had left by 11:30 (3 hours earlier), they asked me if I would be willing to umpire, which I agreed to. And then everyone from StLouis got changed, rushed to cars, and we all drove furiously to the ground while they made calls to their other players (one of whom had the kit and wasnt at the hotel, another couple of whom were at Pepper-n-Salt) etc.. and everyone made it to Hanover by 3:10 or so for a hoped-for 3:30 start. I got the XI's from both sides, agreed playing conditions with both captains, tossed, told the openers and keeper to get padded up.. and was waiting impatiently as 3;30 approached and the openers and keeper werent heading to the middle.. so I went to ask them what the delay was, they could eat their biryani later I was going to say... and when I got there I found everyone on the phone :-)
c8w
Sadiq bhai,
Thanks for the in depth explanation. I completely agree with you on playing games whenever possible. We could have totally had a 25 over game that day and that just annoys me. Also, thank you for umpiring the practice game and making a video :-)
BTW, guys, no comments at all yet about the CER Probables list thats been announced? :-)
The CER is very close now - stars on Saturday! Iam actually quite bitterly disappointed that it had to be changed to a 2-day format (resulting in 30-over games instead of 50-over games - at the next level this CER team will have to play 50-over games next month... its sad to have to choose that 50-over team from a 30-over tournament! But apparently its expensive and people cant come on Friday of a regular week - it really should have been scheduled on a longweekend by the CER authorities - so thats that).
Anyway. What do people think of the probables list? Pretty good list IMHO - I just wish more people could make themselves available to play! Especially given that its in Chicago! Why isnt Nilesh playing, Sheks? At least Mehul is available Saturday (and hopefully for the final Sunday afternoon too!) We could use a couple more really good spinners in the squad, maybe - at the moment the only confirmed spinners are Asif and Laxmi.
Can anyone think of any really good players who ought to have been on the list but arent?
I hope people come out to watch and support our MCC team for this tournament - we ought to hopefully be in the finals on Sunday afternoon, I hope there will be a very big turnout of people to watch and support our all-star league team in the finals!
c8w
C8W said - "Why isnt Nilesh playing, Sheks? "
Nilesh has personal committments during the weekend, which does not allow him to play. Its unfortunate, but he has to do what he has to do..
"Can anyone think of any really good players who ought to have been on the list but arent? "
Bhavesh Amin - not only he's in terrific form with the ball this season, he's also showing devastating skills with the bat...
Sadiq Sir ..
There should be a list of probables about 30 or so ... and then the Captain n 2-3 other guys select the final 11 ...
From Div 2, I can think of few from Jaguars ... young legs .. Satyam, Shameer, Sikandar... Faraz from my team, Usmaan from Giants ...
There are more good players ... but I want to see more young guys playing in the CER with the outstanding experienced players from Div 1 ...
well for the list probables there is some good players missing, first of all i dont understand the criteria how they pick players and what players have to do to get picked by mcc.
Kamran selection from muslim wow he is out of form for like 2 years now if they wanna pick someone from muslim why they not pick massod or saad.
Lakhshimi selection is out of my mind.
Ajit he is not even playing for his team right now how can he play for CER.
No players selected from bears & rogers park and Bears do have some good bat & allrouders for rogers park i think mr.One man show dont like them anymore.
Four selection from Flames.No surprise.Everbody pay the same amount of money to play in this league.
No players selected from purdue,AAA and royals. WOW
I am only talking about Div 1 cause i think some of our every best players play in this Div and you have to be very good to perform in this div over the years we see some of our best talent from div 2 comes in Div 1 and failed.
So i think we have to put our best players out there in the regionals.
every = very
typo.
Adi i sent u a e-mail bout games if u did not get my mail let me Know.
got it. thanks.
All,
Round 2 of Pick, Weight, and Win is up. Please make sure you submit your entries by EOD Friday. It is your responsibility to make sure you fill out your entries properly. Hope to see more of you participate.
Krazzy, I liked your picks, but I had to change a few. Due to the CER, a number of games will be rescheduled, so I swapped out those most likely to be rescheduled with ones that are played this week.
ps. On the main page, just click on the Pick, Weight, Win link under the Midwest Cricket links section for easy access.
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krazzy said...
Kamran selection from muslim wow he is out of form for like 2 years now if they wanna pick someone from muslim why they not pick massod or saad.
Lakhshimi selection is out of my mind.
Ajit he is not even playing for his team right now how can he play for CER.
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Its hard to tell form, when there has been so much rain - Kamran got a 30-odd in the first game this year, form may not be so bad really. And he's done so well for so long, we all know his ability. And 2 years ago, BTW, Muslim won the title with Kamran (actually, only about 17 games ago MuslimGym were Div1 champs - he's hardly been out for form for 2 years!
Masood - I think the league just doesnt know enough about him, he's played very few games, most people havent seen him yet. I sort of agree about Saad - one of the good candidates for a spinners spot probably (but then Asif, Bakshi, Khadry have the left-arm-spinner spots already, and its hard to argue against those guys).
Ajit - one of the best batsmen in the league IMHO, silly to even argue against him. He played for Wildcats 2 weeks ago and hit a brilliant 60-odd in a low-scoring game. I think the Laxmi selection is actually a very good one too - he should have been selected earlier, one of the better batsmen around (with a terrific record in the past few years in Div2) - his century against the Jaguars in the playoffs last year was probably the best innings I personally saw all year! And he's also a very good offspinner (not many good offspinners in our league who were in contention, probably, especially offspinning allrounders) - I think this is a very good pick.
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No players selected from bears & rogers park and Bears do have some good bat & allrouders for rogers park
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Its a slot-game too, to some extent I guess. I personally think the best 4 or so pacemen in our league are probably Shahid, Mehul, Nilesh Patel, Satish Reddy (and all v good allrounders too) - they all got picked ahead, probably ahead of some of the RP and Bears guys. Id probably have given serious consideration to Faisal Nafasat myself, and maybe picked him somewhere in this group... but thats me.
Other than that, who from Bears and RP would be definites? I dunno. Hammad as legspin/allrounder maybe - but we have Asif/Bakshi/Khadry etc, all v good spinners who bat. The pacemen allrounders above are v good too - cant really replace them. Id pick Nasir of Rogers Park as one of the spinning-allrounders too in the probables maybe - but while RP and Bears are good teams, there are no other very obvious contenders in some ways for all all-star team IMHO. (Kind of true of Phoenix too - finalists last year. Or Peoria - semifinalists last year. They have 1 player each...Adi, Prasanna, Priyank of Phoenix, Madhu, Ravi, Ashwin of Peoria etc, all quite excellent players, but all competing in very strong "areas" in some ways - top-order batsmen (Kiran, Ajit, Faisal etc as other contenders), pacemen (Shahid, Mehul etc other contenders). Not unreasonable that they just narrowly missed out in some ways.
c8w
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Four selection from Flames.No surprise.Everbody pay the same amount of money to play in this league.
No players selected from purdue,AAA and royals. WOW
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Kiran of Flames makes it because he has long been one of the best long-innings batsmen in our league, IMHO (and this is usually a 50-over game, will be 50-overs in the Western Regionals too).
Nasir - I mentioned who I think the *best* 4 pacemen-choices in our league are, in my personal opinion... but you want some other young pacemen too, and Raheel and Nasir are among our best younger pacers surely? Faisal of Bears may be as good or better... but he isnt as young either, which must have had some consideration.
The other 2 Flames guys are kids - probably picked more for "exposure" than any other reasons. I doubt they'll be in the final XI (IMHO the best 11 should always take the field, regardless of age), but you want them in the squad of 15 to gain experience and see what that level is about, I think.
Who would you pick in the all-star side from AAA, Royals or Purdue at the moment, and more importantly who would you drop from the current list to include them? Purdue, 3 years ago..I might have had 3/4 of them in the list - they were very good, and we had seen them in the league 2-3 years each already (playing in Div2 and then in Div1). But today, we just dont know about Purdue I think - this year its another brand-new team almost, we have no real idea how those guys play yet (we will soon, as the season progresses)... they are almost all completely new to our league. Maybe Rohan Handa is really good, for example.. but only 2 teams have seen him so far (I know I havent seen him, at least)... we'll just find out more as the season progresses.
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I am only talking about Div 1 cause i think some of our every best players play in this Div and you have to be very good to perform in this div over the years we see some of our best talent from div 2 comes in Div 1 and failed.
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We also saw Purdue come from Div2, and reach the finals of Div1 in their 2nd season. We saw Phoenix come from Div2, and reach the finals in their 3rd or 4th season? In the last 6-7 years, how many other "always Div1" teams have actually reached the finals of Div1 like these recent-Div2 teams did? I can think of PakGym, United, Challengers, Wildcats, MuslimGym - only 5 Div1 teams have reached the Div1 finals in the past 6-7 years, havent they?
c8w
FOD, i am not saying this is not a good team but i wanna know the criteria as a player to atleastbe mention in the proables, and by the way why there is three left arm spinners in this team u need options we should picked one very good off-spinner and leggie for off-break bowler i think they should picked bhavesh but now u gonna say that we have afroze,amit and laxmi but all of them r part time bowlers when u pick the team u have to pick the specialist and from bears how bout shahid ali and from rogers nasir nazar from purdue faraz ayoob another young guy just for exposure i know this is a very good team and this team will win but u ask us a opnion i am just giving my opnion and for kamran good selection but why not imran how bout darshan but irfan selection is good very under-rated guy hope they will do the best and retain their title, goodluck to all.
Is the CER this wek end???.
How come only one Div 2 player picked..No wonder div 2 is dying.
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krazzy said...
the way why there is three left arm spinners in this team u need options we should picked one very good off-spinner and leggie for off-break bowler i think they should picked bhavesh but now u gonna say that we have afroze,amit and laxmi but all of them r part time bowlers when u pick the team u have to pick the specialist
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I dont disagree with you above BTW - agree with a lot of it. You do want some variety if you can get it.. but the bottom-line is also to have the *best* spinners, with variety being in some ways the slightly second-ish criteria.
To me, I think Asif, Khadry and Bakshi are probably the three *best* spinners in our league, period. No matter what kind, they are the 3 best spinners.. in my ideal first XI for our league, Id have 2 of them probably!
Outside of that... Iam sure they would want a great leggie in the team, but really our league probably doesnt have a *great* leggie. Some promising ones etc (Hammad is one IMHO).. but as a pure spinner he can still improve, and will IMHO.
Offspinners.. somewhat similar. There is probably no offspinner who is as good a pure bowler as Asif, Khadry etc.. but the three guys above (Amit, Afroze, Laxmi) are very very good batsmen who also bowl useful offspin. Laxmi I think could bowl several decent overs at the CER level - and he is also a top-order batsman with decent technique even in our lineup I think, and also a very attacking batsman - so a very worthwhile pick IMHO.
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and from bears how bout shahid ali and from rogers nasir nazar from purdue faraz ayoob another young guy just for exposure i
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I agree with you about Nasir from RP - as I mentioned above, I think he's a very good bowler, should be a contender. Shahid Ali from Bears.. honestly I know comparatively little about him (hardly ever umpired him somehow, havent seen enough of him up-close), tougher for me to judge there. Faraz from Purdue Ive seen - I think he's very good, and yes, would make a very good "young player" choice. Abjijit and Fahad are younger by a couple years though.. and Abhijit is the only Central-East player in the USA U19 team; Fahad is in the USA U19 2nd team.
There are a lot of good young kids in our league in general... Hassan of CCI just took 5/15 this weekend in Div2! There is a chance that there will be a regional U21 type tournament held during our World Cup in August - hopefully all these young kids will get a chance there!
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know this is a very good team and this team will win but u ask us a opnion i am just giving my opnion and for kamran good selection but why not imran how bout darshan but irfan selection is good very under-rated guy hope they will do the best and retain their title, goodluck to all.
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I think the thing with Imran is the injury - barely played at all last year with the stress-fracture, came back only late last season. Darshan, Mahesh etc, lots of good choices around, great players - but its hard to drop anyone picked, which you hae to do to include anyone else.
c8w
The problem that has been plaguing US cricket is Clarity or lack of it. It starts at the National level. (Although, I shouldn’t complain about it because some of my friends benefitted from it.) I think so many people wouldn’t have had so many questions if there was a set selection process. And a selection committee. Maybe there is one and I am not aware of it. I think it is a good team but I would have wanted some representation from DIV 2 and 30-30. Many devastating players there as well. Jack from ICC, hari kiran from qc kings are two names that jump out. They are both great bowlers as well.
I don’t agree with alpesh about selecting 30 players and the captain choose the XI, though. Too confusing. Do it as the league is doing now. Select the probables. Filter them out to 16 and let the captain decide on the final XI.
i hope we never make Sadiq a selector. :)
all in jest, Sadiq.
I disagree with the Captain deciding the final XI. He should have input, but a "selection committee" should decide the final XI. The captain does not always know who can do what since we don't play as a midwest team until actual game day. There is not even a net session for the Captain to see and learn. We have all seen clear favouritism by players for people they know, which can be somewhat eliminated by a selection committee of multiple people.
Note, this is not a knock against Sohail at all. I have never seen him be biased, though I have not played with him much. However, I have seen and we all know that this exists, at least with other Captains/players.
Very true Adi. I was taking into account some net sessions. Without the net sessions i dont even know how all players can gel as a team.
Why do I keep seeing so many people talking about "chuckers being Good spinners". Both Bhavesh and Bakshi will not be allowed to bowl at the National level..??..Heck if it's up to me they don't bowl in our league unless the stop chucking.
Sadiq..as an umpire you should be able to tell when some one chucks the ball...Then aagain you let Faraz (Titans) Pelt down 4 ICC bats (all Bowled) Though we keep screaming that he was pelting???.
then again given you keep pushing these chuckers for representation make one wonder if you know what chucking is!!!! No hard feelings..just my take::;)))
A captain should always be on the selection panel in my View..He needs to know of all the players being selected ....!11
And we keep selecting too many old players to go to CER???
On a different note. Somebody please explain to me what CLOSE is. How can a runout/stumping be CLOSE. It is either out or not out. I thought DIV 1 would be better with those things. But it never ceases to amaze me.
Somebody please explain to me what CLOSE is. How can a runout/stumping be CLOSE.
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Preetam.. I feel that this answer was given because someone question the umpires decision of "Not Out". If the question was not asked then you would not have gotten "too close to call, benefit goes to batsman".
If the umpire just said too close to call on the appeal, then he is plain ignorant..!!!!!!
Sadiq : No offence to anyone but in a CER team you cannot take people with suspect bowling action, and no matter how good that person can be.
Another thing if you look at the CER team is everyone is nearly or already reached their cresendo, and at the same time the same people have been playing in all tournaments all the while, so when is the league allowing new players to actually perform.
Just taking younger guys for experience is not enough, given them a chance, and another point you never talk about is fielding, you gave an analysis of how good a batter or bowler one is but can you also say the same about their fielding strength..
I guess that is were fresh legs can help the league, but no one cares about that aspect in the Management...
One more tourney and one more bag of worms.... just my thoughts ... not to offend anyone..
Naren, damn you hit the nail right on, in this league they only see 2 aspects of cricket, batting and bowling. half the team is slow as helllllll.
Sohail is nice guy a very good cricketer but i think he should tell mr TA he wouldn't be playing any more tournaments at the regional or national level.
Naren
You have some valid points there regarding CER team selection.....
5 games have been played this regular season (some teams have played either 4 or 6).... this should give the selectors a good measure of how good the players are this season.....
It is possible (for example) to have 5 different opening batsmen to be in good form at this point of the current season but then the selectors have to consider the opposition against whom they performed.....
The selection of the CER team should be BASED PRIMARILY ON PERFORMANCE ONLY (everyone must be good in fielding/running.. this is something that has to be defined well)... players who are considered controversial (bowling action/behavior) must be left out obviously..... I think it is a fairly simple process if we just stick to such rules.....
Rup, Three games three stumpings and the answer we got was 'Too close". I cannot for the love of god understand that. And this is just the stumpings i am talking about. Not the many runout appeals.
I agree with Shiva. It is a fairly simple process if we think about it.
Naren, right on dude. Practice is on this thursday. I promise we will bat and bowl this time.
Sorry Preetam..understand your frustration but unless we have neutral/third unpires the close calls at square leg will go in favor of the batsman...
It's something I have come to live with...the obvious outs are the one that gets me going...What can we do???
Get rid of the old guys..HMMMMMM..!!! This will only happen if they say no more regionals for me or new Mgt/Selection panel...pick your poison..!!!!!
Preetam: I actually would prefer fielding practice over batting/bowling since that is one thing I know I can improve, and at the same time that is one thing which is always ignored, I will come down for practice.
With regards to CER, in my view ¾ of the team averages around 35 years( I might be wrong on the age part though), and I think from the past 5 years or so the team has been the same with maybe 1-2 changes in the 16 but might not be in the 11 which brings in Adi’s point of Captain favoring his bunch. In a few years time when all the elite hang their boots in our league we will be left with a void to fill in terms of having the experience of playing at the CER level, and being in the 16 is not the answer to that question. Our seniors have to raise their hand and say that they have had enough and let a younger player take the chance. Would that happen I doubt it.. hope common sense prevails
Preetam,
General expectation regarding run-outs and stumpings are as follows:
1. If it's close, forget about it - you will most likely not get it.
2. There are a few players on a few teams where unless it is obvious from 100% of the angles, they will not give it out!
3. There are just a handful of players on a handful of teams that are truly honest and will give it out even if it is close.
For point 3, the Royals are one such team - very sporting. There may be a couple of others. This is not to say that all the others are not sporting, but there are just a few.
If teams claim bumped catches, how do you think run-outs and stumpings are adjudicated? :)
Rup,
In our league, the Captain should have a say in the process and be a part of it, but the final decision should rest on a non-biased selection committee. Anything else will lead to favouritism (knowling or unknowingly) to team-mates.
Of the probables, most of them are actually pretty good fielders. Shahid, Nilesh, Mehul, Amit, Afroze, Irfan, Kiran, Asif, Faisal, Ajit, Donieke, Laxmi are all very good fielders. The others may be too. Very few of these guys are at a standard that I think is not sufficient - but there are a few.
As for age, rotation, etc, that is what all teams struggle with. The same discussion is held in India, Australia, MWCC, etc etc. It's a tough one and both sides have very valid points. I'm on the fence on this one.
Adi/rup,
I have come to live with that. I call close "lifting your foot over the line" not "stepping out and coming back in".
Fielding part i agree with you too. all those you named are good. Especially Lakshmi as i have seen him more than the others. But how many of them will be playing in the final eleven.
And to Naren's point. what is the point in playing a bowler who would be called. He would become a traveller.
Anyway, i think i am ready to move on to the next topic....tomorrow.
Signing off. have a train to catch.
ciao.
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naren said...
Sadiq : No offence to anyone but in a CER team you cannot take people with suspect bowling action, and no matter how good that person can be.
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Naren - I mostly agree with you here, but you'll note that not many people with a "suspect bowling action" have been chosen among the probables to start with :-) The only one who can be considered that in the list is Bakshi... and Bakshi went to the CER last year, where there were 2 neutral umpires in every game (a couple of them actually Ranji Trophy level umpires - one had umpired 7 games at the first-class level the previous year in India), and he was not called once! In fact, he won the "Bowler of the Tournament" award for taking the most wickets! And other than Baksi (who was passed by the umpires last year), there is not a single player in the probables list who is considered to have a suspect-action, is there?
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Just taking younger guys for experience is not enough, given them a chance, and another point you never talk about is fielding, you gave an analysis of how good a batter or bowler one is but can you also say the same about their fielding strength..
I guess that is were fresh legs can help the league, but no one cares about that aspect in the Management...
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Again, I think a lot of the players who will be in the final list are actually *very* good fielders - so I dont know where this argument comes from. As Adi pointed out - Afroze, Shahid, Laxmi, Doneike, Kiran.. these are some of the best fielders in the league! If the final XI, is, say, Sohail, Faisal, Kiran, Amit, Laxmi, Afroze, Shahid, Mehul, Asif, Doneike, Ashhar... thats actually an 11, there is hardly a single less-than-terrific fielder in the whole bunch! I'd say in any 11 we put up from this squad, I think we'll find that we have about 7-8 good fielders in it - which is pretty damn good, really.
c8w
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naren said...
With regards to CER, in my view ¾ of the team averages around 35 years( I might be wrong on the age part though), and I think from the past 5 years or so the team has been the same with maybe 1-2 changes in the 16
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BTW, we have actually *played* the CER only *once* in the past 5 years :-) In fact, we didnt play the CER for like 7-8 years.. until last year, which was the first CER experience for pretty much all the guys who played in it :-)
To me, this whole "age thing" is a bit of an irrelevancy *at the moment*. Honestly, the CER team is an absolute *joke* at the moment, nationally - its a laughing stock. I said so in my commentary on the show, and I wasnt exaggerating, honestly - people around the country genuinely think nobody knows how to play cricket in this area. Thats what happens when you lose by 300 runs in 50-over matches time after time - NorthWest (Seattle/SanFran), CentralWest (Texas), SouthWest (LA) all plan for this tournament, talk about it all year, all fight like dogs to try and get into the top 2 spots (because top 2 go to nationals, which maximizes your chances of getting US players).. and our CER team is the joke that goes 0-3 every year, year after year, and is only there to be used to improve runrate of other teams!
IMHO, the *first* job is to get some respect back - it is *the* most important this year. Thus, I dont care one way or another about young guys *this year*.. building for the future, all that stuff can wait for next year. The critical need of the hour is *the* best players playing, all the best players, so at least we compete at the Western Regionals, show we can battle on the cricket field and not roll over. Thus, for 50-over games, I want the absolute *best* lineup possible - which means terrific batsmen who know how to play 50-overs and are fit enough to bat long too regardless of age, still (ie Kiran, Ajit, Amit etc - even if a couple are in their 30s), the *best* pacemen (ie Shahid, Mehul, Nilesh Patel - even if Mehul is now in his 30s), the most penetrative spinners (Asif, Bakshi, Khadry - maybe 1 in his 30's?)
Last year, when our players didnt go to the Western Regionals, the CER did actually take Abhijit, Saminda etc to those regionals in Houston - they were on the team that lost by 300. It wasnt their fault - theyre great young prospects - but at the Western Regionals, this year we should be taking the absolute best XI. After some respect is won back this year, we can start working some younger players into the XI etc. Anyway playing and doing well in Div1 in our league is good training for the next level, since Div1 is such hard and good cricket here (now if only we went back to 45-overs to prepare for 50-over CERs... :-)
c8w
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Preetam N said...
I think so many people wouldn’t have had so many questions if there was a set selection process. And a selection committee. Maybe there is one and I am not aware of it.
I don’t agree with alpesh about selecting 30 players and the captain choose the XI, though. Too confusing. Do it as the league is doing now. Select the probables. Filter them out to 16 and let the captain decide on the final XI.
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I agree with this. Iam hoping to actually get a "guest interview" on our show this week (not sure its going to happen yet, logistically).. with someone from the Seattle league in the North-West Region (Seattle won the NW region for the first time in history last year, beating the long-time champs San Francisco; this year Seattle defended its championship, winning for the second time, beating SanFranciso *in* SanFrancisco).
Its instructive to see how they do it out there. Their 3-day 50-over NWR tournament was like 2 weeks into the start of their season, in mid-April! So they selected 30 probables in like *February*, with still snow on the ground. They had all 30 attend like 5-6 training sessions indoors.. a lot of it physical training, plus whatever cricket was possible, then cut it down to 15-man squad in late-March (a couple or so weeks before the actual tournament). *Then* the final 15-man squad played together *as a team* on the field.. they played 3 games as a team against other teams (the first one against a team comprised of the 15 who were probables but not in the 30.. thus guys with motivation :-) The theory being that this is the best way for the captain to know all his own players before the tournament - whether the left-arm-spinner requires his point squarer or finer, stuff like that.
Then, with a coach (qualified coach, who coached 15-years in England) etc, they headed off to SanFrancisco to play their opposition. And won the effective "semis" by like 6-runs, and the finals by about 10-runs.
Its sort of the difference between Australia/SouthAfrica and India/Pakistan (pre John-Wright, about 2000). Where the opposition comes in all prepared, all their homework done, laptops used to analyze fielding-positions etc.. and our guys come in with 2 net-practices (where there was tea-biscuit passed out when you werent actually batting in the nets). And just like India/Pakistan sometimes did, our guys will still win sometimes, just based on superior talent :-) But you dont maximize your potential (and win consistenty year after year) unless you have a similar level of organization as they do, probably.
c8w
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Rup said...
Why do I keep seeing so many people talking about "chuckers being Good spinners". Both Bhavesh and Bakshi will not be allowed to bowl at the National level..??..Heck if it's up to me they don't bowl in our league unless the stop chucking.
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Rup - you were at the CER in Detroit last year, when every game had 2 neutral umpires, and 3 of the umpires were current first-class-cricket-level umpires (all the umpires there were "qualified" umpires, having passed the umpiring exam for first-class cricket etc; and 3 of them had actually umpired in first-class cricket the previous year).
Note, *none* of those qualified fc umpires called Bakshi - and he bowled in all 3 games. He won the "Best Bowler of the Tournament" award for taking the most wickets - and not one of the qualified umpires called him for chucking once! I talked to the most-experienced umpire there after the tournament(he had actually been a "4th umpire" for an international match between India/Australia the previous year)... he said that the faster one may have been suspicious, but under the "15 degree" rule he'd allowed him to get through.
If he gets passed by qualified fc level umpires...what can we say? And how can we say he wouldnt be allowed to bowl at the national level, when he already *was* allowed to bowl at the national level at the CER last year, and did it with success?
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Sadiq..as an umpire you should be able to tell when some one chucks the ball...Then aagain you let Faraz (Titans) Pelt down 4 ICC bats (all Bowled) Though we keep screaming that he was pelting???.
then again given you keep pushing these chuckers for representation make one wonder if you know what chucking is!!!! No hard feelings..just my take::;)))
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After your guys suggested Faraz was chucking, I stepped back and tried to watch him from behind. Its very hard to tell from there (which is why chucking at all levels is always called by the neutral leg-umpire, of course)... but from the back he didnt appear to be chucking to me. (Ive also not heard this allegation made about Faraz in the past to me, BTW - and he's been bowling in our league for 5 years now).
As for my opinion of chucking in general - I think the top wickettaker in the history of international cricket chucks regularly, so what do I know :-) I personally think there are probably half-a-dozen current chuckers in international cricket anyway... maybe with the "15 degree rule" theyre all ok, and its just me who is an extremist in this regard :-)
c8w
how in the hell lakers won last week?
how did they do it without freakin shaq?
i just don't understand..........
All,
Please be careful on the comments you make or the questions you ask.
It has an indirect effect where C8W responds with manifestos instead of just quick responses!!!!!
:):)):):):):):)
Bad boy, lakers won because they played better. Kobe is a demi-God on the floor (jordan being God).
Anyone else making picks for Pick, Weight, and Win? Just click on the link under Midwest Cricket Links on the right side of the Blogger page.
(Ive also not heard this allegation made about Faraz in the past to me, BTW - and he's been bowling in our league for 5 years now).
==============================
Finger he did not chuck in his first 2 overs. He started to pelt in the second spell as the ball got damper, and that's where it was difficult to play him. We asked you to change the wet ball because it had a high ridge on the center seam and was starting to skid....you did not...At least a dryer ball would have prevented the skidding effect on the pelts!!!
That's my take and I am sticking to it.
If he gets passed by qualified fc level umpires...what can we say? And how can we say he wouldnt be allowed to bowl at the national level, when he already *was* allowed to bowl at the national level at the CER last year, and did it with success?
============================
So because some one is qualified to be a judge means they will always judge right...If this is true then can you explain why so many inocent people are locked up or prevented for active society?.
looked how Hair botched up the England/Pak test. ..
CER is not National..It's inter league of the Mid West.. and in my view it worst than our local league in promoting the right cricket.. !!!!another of my take.
My final take..we need to get rid of the chuckers in this league but it will be hard to do when the most seniors of our umpires condone or have a blind eye to pelting!!! My final take
Adi,
Nice to know someone agrees with me about Kobe Bryant! He owns the court like no one has since MJ!
Rup, have a few cold ones and take a deep breath my friend! C8w is right, if first class qualified umpires have cleared Bakshi and offered their reason too about the 15 deg rule then who are we amateur club cricketers to question that? As long as he's not called by a qualified umpire we should let him play in regional/nationals.
Adi/ Asmar......
right on the money.....the closest thing to Jordan - Kobe Bryant....no doubt...
Shekhs bhai ..
do some publicity abt the AL 20-20 starting today ..??
Shekhs,
The weather doesn't look too good for the RP vs Challengers game scheduled for tomorrow night buddy...this sucks!
Appu,
Why dont you do the publicity..... :-)
Fellas....yeah, we have the ALNT tourney starting tonite...
A good match on the card....last years quarterfinalists - Midnight pirates and a brand new team - Karachi cricket club.
I've been under the weather so unfortunately couldnt get you any refreshments..
will arrange for some in the finals..
yeah asmar..it sucks...it doesnt look very good tomorrow..
I'm gonna watch the weather until tomorrow morning and get some inputs...
will keep you posted..
Pirates lost to Karachi CC by 3 wickets and 9 balls to spare in the first 20-20 match ... Pirates got allout for 100 in the 15.4 overs and Karachi chased it well in the end ...
More details later ...
wow.. Mr.Rup is on fire. LOL
Yes Midnight Pirates lost to Karachi. One of the worst teams when it comes to playing with respect for the opposition team. Abusing our players, abusing our moms & sisters... arguing with umpires for 10 minutes about a no-ball. BTW someone should explain Karachi team about spinner no-ball rules... they think its the same for fast bowlers and spinners..
Only a couple of their players were horribly behaved.. others were ok.
Bad batting let us down, I feel it was probably because we had to switch between the game formats. But we will put a real good show the next game..
We did fight till the end. They only won by 2 wkts.. and they chased it in the 19th over.
Shekhs...Whats ur phone number? Need to talk to you.
Lakshmikumar
Rajiv...said...
wow.. Mr.Rup is on fire. LOL..
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Na...Just a little concerned that we keep selecting these old players/chuckers and we keep getting the same old results...
CER is not about winning the Mid west title but promoting our good young players on the chance that they will make it to the USA national team..
Rajiv .. good work .. Btw .. I am going to talk with Shekhs bhai abt yesterday's incident and he will talk with the concerned player ...
If I am correct i think MCC has adopted the rule that all full tosses above the waist should be called a no ball..
Yes ICC and international umps do give spinners a little more height but that because It's left up to the umpire's call..not to mention better playing conditions..
In our Night tour..no matter who is bowling.. a full toss above the waist should be called a no ball.. the lighting at HP is not what we can call good.!!!!!
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Alpesh said...
Rajiv .. good work .. Btw .. I am going to talk with Shekhs bhai abt yesterday's incident and he will talk with the concerned player ...
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So what incident was this, exactly? Were you the umpire, Alps? Let us know more, will you - what happened? :-)
Who is Karachi Cricket Club, anyway? New name.. are they mostly guys from our league, or people from outside of our normal league?
c8w
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Rup said...
CER is not about winning the Mid west title but promoting our good young players on the chance that they will make it to the USA national team..
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I suppose there is a fundamental disagreement then - because I *do* think its about winning :-) I dont think losing ever does any favours to anyone - and at the Western Regional level it devalues a tournament that is highly competitive (except for our team).
I think that, especially at the Western Regional level, our cricket is a joke, and considered a national embarassment. As a consequence, none of our players will ever get any respect either - not until we actually show some sort of competitiveness on the field. The *first* thing we need is to get some respect - which only comes by selecting our best players this year, regardless of age, and doing well enough to earn that respect on the field. Once we do that, *then* we can look further - as of the moment we are nowhere. The team and the players both get laughed at, and as a result anyone who gets picked from the reason is immediately seen as a "quota pick" - thats the first thing that needs to change.
It all stems from *first* being competitive at the Western Regionals at the senior level - thats the bottom-line (I remember Abhijit telling last year, for instance, that when the CER U19 team went for the U19 nationals, he met a NY U19 player the day before the tournament... and he said something about "oh, youre from the region with the horrible team?"... the juniors are beginning to change that perception at the U19 level, but it will never go away until we are competitive *at the senior level* first. The Bangladesh U19 team can do well if it likes... but as long as Bangladesh gets thrashed by everyone at the test-match level, Bangladesh cricket will continue to be considered a joke, no?
We took "kids" to the Western Regionals last year - and lost to Texas by 300 runs in a 50-over game (Texas 430 in 50 overs, CentralEast 130 allout). That does no favours to anybody - not even to the kids, who are considered part of a joke-team, and probably get labelled wrongly early in their careers, before theyve even gotten a chance to develop their abilities.
We need to take our best players right now IMHO - and yes, they shouldnt be *too* old.. but they arent, in our present squad, only the captain is a veteran (which is the right way to go about it), and he's still fit enough and more than good enough to be in the side. Shahid played for the USA last year - there is no reason why players of the calibre of Asif, Mehul etc shouldnt have a chance at something similar if they do well the next year or two, even if they *are* already 30, as long as they are physically fit. When the youngsters - Abhijit, Fahad, Moin, Jacques Gerber etc - all get good enough to be the best players in *our* league (which will hopefully happen very quickly), then that will be the time for them to move onto the CER, and then hopefully move onto playing for the USA as well.
All IMHO, of course.
c8w
Sadiq Sir ..
I played for Pirates y'day ... :)
Btw .. Karachi CC comprises mostly of players from Bears - Div 1 with Alay (Hammond) and few others ..
I will update abt the incident later .. but to say we look forward to Div 1 teams thinking that they know to play the game in a fair and hard manner and we can learn something from them.. We consider it as a privilege .. but due to 1-2 players (note that rest of the team was ok) .. it really leaves a bad impression ..
Most of the Div 1 teams that i have seen are very sporting and you really can learn a lot from them .. but not from this guy ..
Lakshmi,
217-553 3178
with all due respect Rup, I have to agree with FINGER on this one....
it is about RESPECT and winning at a regional level.....
now about giving exposure to younger talent, we already have enough tourneys (under 19 for instance) for that..
but, we seriously lack respect when it comes to talent around the region and nationally...its a joke..
and like finger mentioned, we are better than that..
We have at least 2-3 players who can represent us nationally for sure (Shahid and Abhijeet did already)...
Mehul (he's getting old :-) ) and nilesh could've made it easily in their prime..so could satish (yeah he's getting old too)..
the issue is we dont get that respect..so we need to go out and showcase some talent...let them know, Midwest's got talent..
about last night's game...
I apologize to the "Pirates" for any despicable behaviour...
I'll talk to the concerned individuals about the same...
glad you guys took in the right spirit....kudos!!!
Shekhs .. it good and ok to disagree..I never said for us to send an under 19 team... I want us to send players who can play and got some good cricket years left not people in their 40's +.
Finger CER is not messed up because we send kids every year..it's because of the politics that we were never able to select a good bunch of Guys.. even when the good guys go they are not represented properly when it comes to Selection.
You use Bangladesh as a refrence for picking old guys..May be you need to look at the politics behind Bangladesh problems in cricket..Take Zimbabwe as another example of how politics kills cricket.
I went to the regionals twice representing CER.. got put on the reserve team of 3 players for the WI busta cup tour 1999 .. 5 players witout US qualifying rights was selected and had to be dropped..I never heard back from the selectors .. this is the kida crap that is still going on in US cricket.
We could argue all day long on respect in winning .. but cricket ain't winning when you are selecting 40 year olds to represent your state/league..
Back To MCC...
Shekhs..the weather looks bad for the next couple of hours.. are you guys still on for tonight game?. I may stop by.
Give me a call if the game is on.. like around... just before the game starts?.
The weather looks fine for this week end.. hope all ground will be fit for cricket..WP 3 is still dead i hear..
yeah Rup..the game is still on..will call ya from the ground..
will be a cracker....hopefully..
RPCC has a good team....a mix of some young guns from flames and other teams...
hopefully, we'll have a good game..
What a great Pak win in T20 Semis..... Shahid Afridi clearly is the MAN.... Dont be surprised if they win the championship
Looking at the revised scehdule AAA dont have a game for 4 after this wknd....u would after all these rain affected games we would get to play a little more..i guess not...this really sucks....Any teams in the ALNT looking for players please contact me..i really need to play. Thanks....
Just felt a need to post to hit the CENTURY Mark. So much catching up to do.
TD/LOE, what exactly is going on in that picture?? I can guess, but I'd like for you to share!! :):):)
Shekhs, Shiraz, what happened with the night game. The last I saw before I left, it seemed that the Challs were ahead.
For all those wondering about that no-ball call. 1st of all it was a spinner looping the ball and it was maybe at the waist height if not lower. So if the ball was going downwards at waist height, no way its a NO-BALL.
The leg umpire called the no-ball. But the main umpire over-ruled it. But the batsman fought and stayed on the crease arguing for 10 minutes. Finally the umpire said he thinks its NOT a no-ball and told the captain of KARACHI team to come and take the batsmen out of the field.
While going out of the field, he threatened one of our players SHAMEER (from Jaguars) that if shameer opens his mouth again on the field he will be taken care of by the batsmen :) hahah (the batsman was outrageously funny). After this a lot of the players from karachi team sitting in the dugout were calling names to midnight players' mom and sisters. And called derogatory words to shameer and other.
This was ridiculous and sucked because I have had so much fun playing in the Midwest league for the 1st time this year... and this incident just makes me feel disgusted. Being in the Jaguars team (leading 4-0) I almost don't want to play in Division 1 next year, if we qualify that is, if this is what a Division 1 team is made up of.
I have to mention one thing here... that incident pumped us up so much... we almost took the game away from them. they had 4 overs left with 5 wickets and 4 runs remaining to win. We took them into the 18overs... with 2 wickets left. Thanks Mr.Batsman!
Rajiv ..
We will not be practising today evening due to the heavy rain ...
Adi,
Challengers made 169 and were able to get RPCC out for 97 (IIRC).
Dax had 5fer...Nirav had 3 etc...
Tough luck RPCC!
Good luck!!
We are extremely happy to have Tushar back in our side.....it was good to see him in the field..
Rajiv,
I understand yours and your teammates frustration.
But, please dont assume things about entire Div 1. Some are cocky, but most of them are willing to help and very easy to approach. I myself played in div 2 for a long time before I played in Div 1 and have only good things to say about Div 1 players.
I did talk to the few individuals and am convinced that they wont behave like that anymore.
Please put this behind and continue your successful season.
Let me know if you have any more issues or concerns.
Good luck!!
Shekhs
Sheks and all,
We are talking about a batsman here.
Let us be very honest about it.
The person here is Afroze Siddique (if folks were afraid to use his name here). I do respect this individual a lot but the manner he behaved does not warrant that respect anymore.
When he misfielded and folks on the boundary line jeered for that, he could not take it and he reacted pretty strongly against it.
He is not the boss of Midwest nor of any state or city.
And the manner he behaved when he got out was truly suspend-worthy.
If he had continued like that for a longer time, I had a good mind getting him arrested for threating folks (which is a crime too)
And if it was a different place, time and not cricket, I do not know if he would have survived without being mishandled.
We respect a lot of Div I and Div II players and we enjoy playing with Div I players too.
I believe he and everyone else who behaved so badly need to send a apology mail to Midnight Pirates and Midwest Cricket management along with ALTN needs to take action against the concerned team and player(s).
Again, this is my opinion and the blogger admin (Adi) can delete this post if he deems it necessary.
I am blogging here for the first time and hope that this blog comment remains here for the good of Midwest Cricket.
Cupid,
I'm not going to delete your post. :)
All I ask is that people keep it civilized, and your note was. The rest is opinions and it's a slippery slope if I start censoring opinions or facts.
So, keep sharing your opinions, and keep blogging.
One more interesting inconsistencies seen in our league is the ways teams enter the scores ... i don't know if this is a deliberate thing or ignorance ... but in most of the matches ... it appears the bowlers figures are changed to make them look better and the numbers do not match ...
Check for instance .. http://www.midwestcricket.org/asp/Score88.asp?id=3641 .. Illinois scored 147 in 25 overs .. so I wanted to see which bowler got thrashed .. but if you add the bowling figures .. the total number comes out to be 105 runs .. which shows that there were 42 byes/leg-byes .. poor keeper - (Shyam, Ex-Madison) rite :)
There are many such matches ... 5-10 runs here there is ok ... but not such big discrepancy ..
Sadiq Sir .. what say on this ?? All this numbers are imp ... as teams for imp tournaments are selected on basis of this numbers ...
Rajiv, Cupid, et all,
My opinion is this - it's not about Div 1 or 2 players. Both Divs have good sportsmen and both Divs have poor sportsmen (in terms of spirit). Sometimes, even the best sportsmen have an off night and can behave poorly. Sometimes people are provoked as well. Normally, I find there are two sides to every story.
But regardless, people should behave respectfully whether they have played for a long time or not, whether they have played in Div 1 or 2, or whether they are good players or not.
If you question playing in Div 1 based on last night, it'll be your loss honestly, if you guys do qualify. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of the Night tournament, good luck, and do keep the bog updated with your reports, opinions, and any random thoughts! :)
Cupid,
I dont think there is any need to delete your post, as its civil enough for the blog....
Like I said before, I did talk to those guys and they feel bad about it, was the spur of the moment.
I dont think we need to escalate this to another level.
As far as written apology and other serious stuff goes, I think its pushing it a bit far..
I already apologized on behalf of ALNT to the pirates and I think thats sufficient enough.
I completely respect everybody and their opinions and you are entitled to have one. :-)
But, this is as far as we can go with regard to an apology.
I dont think there was anything done to suspend anybody and lets not open a can of worms here.
Shekhs
Alpesh, This particular match ICC vs Arena may be an exception in terms of scorecard tally.
Also, remember bowling figures are something that comes from opposition team's batting scorecard majority of the times. If that data is bad then it is very difficult for the team to fix it. I don't think most guys here care about details to that tiny more than total team score.
I am sorry for mentioning Div 1 as a whole. My context was in terms of just that one player, so completely my fault.
I have a lot of respect for everyone and this being my 1st year at midwest I had really really high expectations from Div 1 players and what happened during the other night lead me to think otherwise. When we complained about him, everyone on his team and the umpire said he has a Attitude problem, which makes me think its the league's inability to take action that is leading to his repeatitive behaviour. Anyways lets end this here.
Sorry everyone for my outburst.
Jaguars plays Madison at Madison. Tomorrow its sunny with 82F.. you guys think the ground will be ready to play with this crazy rain today???
Anyone from Madison here? please throw some light on this topic!!
Rajiv,
Don't worry about the outburst. You're entitled to it and it really wasn't that bad. I guess, I don't want your expectation of Div 1 players to be too high. We're just as good/bad as any other players in the league!! :)
Moving on, I think the jaguars are looking good this year. You guys are a very strong team in Div 2, and if you make it, I think you guys would be very dangerous in Div 1.
What do you think is a par score in the night tourney? I haven't played at HP this year, but just thought I'd get your input.
I think that the par score in the ALNT is about 125-140... if you have a good/decent bowling attack the above score is enough. we felt we were short of 20 runs esp after we were 50 in 5 overs :)
Because of the nature of the 20-20 game... its almost always best to chase i think!!.. lets see how these games go ahead... gud luck
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