But anyway, better late than never I suppose.. dealing with the exciting and controversial Week 9, including cricket-highlights of the Eagles/Purdue game, an interview with Eagles captain Preetam about the differences between Division One and Division Two, Top Performer awards in all divisions, and this time including interviews with two of the top performers of the week, one each in Division One and Division Two - Laxmi of the Eagles and Amer of the Giants.
Late though it may be, hope you enjoy watching it!
MIDWEST CRICKET WRAP - WEEK 9
- By Sadiq Yusuf
65 comments:
Amer from giants look totally lik Wasim akram from the side...
at least he put up numbers like Akram...
kudos Amer!!!
Nice job, Sadiq. You're improving as the webisode host day-by-day, episode-by-episode. You've cut down a lot on "umms", improved lighting from the first episode and appear much more comfortable in front of the camera. Your preparation to become a cricket reporter for ESPN, once T20 comes to the US, is well on track :)
If you don't mind asking, how much time do you and your team spend in producing a full episode? From planning to post-production to releasing it to the public?
Maverick said...
"improved lighting from the first episode"
**************
Improved lighting? Look at my face. Lord of Darkness. Actually can't blame Sadiq. Kaal hoon tho kaala hee ayega.
Is everybody set for the big game tonight?
Hope Rup and co show up.
Shekhs,
No I will not be showing up to the bloggers ball simply because even if I did, you wouldn't believe who I was.
I will drop by later in the night but i will not be available to play...
I hope you guys have a good fun filled game with Sadiq doing the umpiring chores :-)
Speed..
dont worry about me/ us figuring out who you are bud.....
as long as you come, we'll be happy..
we just want to get out there and have fun...all bloggers..
so come on ...try to make it..if you are not on the roster yet..
see ya there..
yeah Preetam..I'm pretty excited about tonite..
dunno what happened to Rup...
will have to call him....keeping a low profile I guess.
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Nice job, Sadiq. You're improving as the webisode host day-by-day, episode-by-episode. You've cut down a lot on "umms", improved lighting from the first episode and appear much more comfortable in front of the camera. Your preparation to become a cricket reporter for ESPN, once T20 comes to the US, is well on track :)
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Thanks, nice of you to say.. but Ive actually thought the reverse lately! This last episode I was more uncomfortable than ever before I thought, struggled mightily with the recording intros etc.. the interviews themselves are comfortable enough (though probably too long cos I talk too much), the other stuff I still find very difficult :-(
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If you don't mind asking, how much time do you and your team spend in producing a full episode? From planning to post-production to releasing it to the public?
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Too much? :-) I dont even know, try not to think about it I guess :-) - and its not even *my* team, its really Faisal Baig doing all the work, all by himself! I dont know how he does it, frankly.
It varies from episode to episode I guess.. last espisode was a killer. The "cricket highlights" and "interviews" were spread over 2 different disks, and my "recording" was on a third disk.. the Purdue/Eagles game footage used up all the batteries, so none was left for the interviews with Preetam and Laxmi :-) Both were cooperative enough to come to BK after the Hammond-game.. where we recharged the battery, ate, and then did the recording in the parking lot (in fading evening light :-)
I suppose it then took a while for me to view the footage again, plan the intros around it, then do the actual recording (which was horrible last week since I wasnt comfortable for some reason, took most of an evening).
Once Ive figured out who the Top Performers are, I email them (or their team), and ask for pictures etc for the show.
Then I hand the disks to Faisal, with email notes about what goes where... and then the real work begins! He got all the disks downloaded onto his computer, then viewed the entire footage (3 disks), then decided where to make the "cuts" for editing.. then went ahead and did it all (2 disks, 1 hour of cricket-footage interspersed with 3 interviews.. of which we used maybe 15 minutes worth), still making it look smooth in the process. Then added in the graphics, and the music. Then rendered the whole show.. and had disk-corruption issues to deal with this time! But managed to do it again, and get the whole show re-rendered (making last-minute cuts.. we had a CER-relevant interview from Seattle, about preparations for a regoinal.. but the show was too long so we decided to use it next week in the CER-show instead).. and *then* finally the show went up ready to view :-)
And then I email everyone who showed up on the show (interview or Top Performer list) and let them know they were on it, so they can watch :-)
Anyway. That was last week - a very bad week, and a late show. Hopefully other shows will be a little bit smoother, with a little less time involved :-)
Still, its worth it if people get to see it I guess. It would be nice if more people got to know about it and see it, at least amongst our MCC-community... we're still trying to get a link to the show added from the main-page of the MCC website, to make it easier for people to watch at least, but without any luck to date... hope that happens sometime.
c8w
I think everyone who watches the show is obligated to donate to UCC.
Nice job Sadiq bhai and Faisal....good on you guys
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naren said...
I will drop by later in the night but i will not be available to play...
I hope you guys have a good fun filled game with Sadiq doing the umpiring chores :-)
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Actually Ive been feeling quite crappy all week, congested-fever etc.. (too much yelling and excitement during the CER-final I guess :-).. so I defn wont be there to start the game either. Like Naren I'll drop by hopefully 7:30-8ish or so.. if some umping is still needed I'll do it then, but dont think I could survive a full game of it :-)
c8w
Sadiq, Great work on the webisode. It would be nice if every team can have a volunteer who can record something like highlites of their matches and forward to the Saqiq/Faisal team. That way it will tremendously improve in terms of coverage also.
What do you think? Especially interviews of players and that would be great content.
Looks like the bloggers ball is going to be rained off anyhow....Thundering now
The Skies close to Hannover park dont look threatning as of now.
For the Bloggers who are coming down for the game a birdie view :-)
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naren said...
The Skies close to Hannover park dont look threatning as of now.
For the Bloggers who are coming down for the game a birdie view :-)
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Hm. Keep us updated, Naren? In the north-burbs its storming a bit already - thunder and rain. If HP is fine it would be great (though unusual) news!
c8w
Hello All,
Shiekh's X1 beat out Shekhs X1 with stand out performances from Romo the "...." with the ball. He saved the game for us. The other team needed 8 in 4 balls and Romo was bowling, he bowled really well and did not let the other team score.
MOM Romo...
HAHAHAHAHA
he bowled really well after the second ball
hahahaha.....
yup...he only gave 6 runs in 5 balls...
Fellas..
A big shoutout to the Management for letting us use the facility and supporting us for the "All star blogger's match".
Without their support, this would not have been successful.
And a huge one to Atif Shaikh for getting this done....kudos dude!!
And to whoever missed this....yeah you did miss an amazing evening...!!
Thanks to everybody!! It was a blast.
Just FYI: We have about $ 100.00 in our blogger's pool, leftover from the match.
Come up with something creative that we can do with this money or even have another blogger's game towards the end of the season.
Thanks
Shekhs
Well Rom was complaining that it didnt feel like a 22-22 so he had to step in and ROManchak bana diya.
Thx Atif & Shekhs for organising. And I really liked Atifs idea that everybody needs to bowl. It is fun. Maybe we should make that a rule next time onwards.
Great food. And thank you to Mgmt too.
It was 2.00 by the time i went home. How long did you guys stay?
hahaha..nice one preetam..
we left right after you left...
I completely agree that we should make everybody bowl next time....
Adi, you'll open bowling for us..in case you are in my team again...
It was good fun as a spectator watching Romeo giving away 16 runs in 1 ball, Sadiq is that some sort of a record in our league :-)..
I reached at around 1:15 ishh..., it was good fun after the game too with all the fun guys staying around later with Romeo's Chick magnet stealing the thunder from Alpesh's umpiring blunder..
This was undoubtedly one of the most fun cricketing events of the year. Thanks Atif, Shekhs and the management!
And thanks Shiraz for my new nick, it takes one to know one ;)
Great performances by everybody all around, especially Arif who looks like a Wildcats natural.
As far as my bowling goes,I wonder why the Wildcats captian does not use me more often as a bowler.
now you know why buchia doesnt let me bat or bowl...its getting to the point where he's gonna stop me from fielding as well now...
Sounds like I missed out? or did I?
mwahahahahahahaa
Hey guys that was a lot of fun. Had a blast. Kudos to SHEKS and ATIF for organizing this event.
SHEKS I would suggest we have one more event somewhat similar to this before the end of the season.
speed...hahaha nice one..I know you were there....
Masta, yes, we will try to have one more before the season ends..
sorry guys, couldn't make it. Hope you all had fun. Was traveling back.
scores of bloggers ball pls and summary..... thank you....
yeah..and please change Romo's and my name in bowling figures...you can put Nilesh and Bhavesh respectively...
Do you know who I am Shekhs?
I am willing to reveal my identity
Go ahead and guess
I completely know who you are....hahaha..
you are willing to reveal your identity...then why should I guess?
reveal it..
WildCats Beat Flames by 1 run, another close game, with cats defending another low scoring game of 121 in the last over.
Another close game here too .. :)
Titans lost to Madison by 1 wickets and 2 balls to spare ... we were unable to defend 181 ... :(
Hello Friends,
I wanted to send this note to thank each one of you for your support. I had a blast playing in this All Star Bloggers Game and hope you had fun too. If the interest holds up and scheduling allows we will play again later this season.
I don't think I will ever forget the last over of this game. 6 balls and 20 runs needed and in a flash it was 5 balls and 8 runs left. Well Romeo pulled a rabbit out of hat this time. WOWZEE. In the end I want to thank Chiragh Patel, Aditya Burman, Shekhs Aravind for their help and support. Special thanks to our Midwest Cricket Conference and our President Tariq Ahmad for HP Ground and his support.
I will upload pictures of this event on our Facebook Group ..... check it out Monday.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62038702669&ref=ts
TD aka Lord of Erection
Sameer Khan, Ram L., Naren M. & Sadiq Bhai .... Thank You for making it out there on Thursday. I know Sameer was injured but he kept his promise with me.
Prasanna and Mitul bowled well and Naveen, Aditya and Athreya saw Phoenix through for a 9 wicket win over AAA
Shiva
Purdue defeated Milwaukee
first CCI loss... to Springfield!!
Eagles lose to Peoria by 18 runs.
Close and well fought game. A lot of seesaw too. Peoria won the toss and elected to bat. We had them at 70+ for 5 at 20. Then Kashif and kiran got a good partnership and peoria ended up with 218. We were about 90+ for 3 at break and getting to the target easily but kept losing wickets regularly after that and ended up with 18 runs short.
game was tight and was anybodys game till the last ball but peoria prevailed in the end.
Mankesh got 67 and Subbu got 40 for us. Vasu bowled beautifully taking those quick wickets and also held on to a beauty at slip.
I know how flames feel. it is tough losing close games.
Thank you to Peoria for a good game and for being such gracious hosts. Win or lose always a pleasure playing against you.
Madhu thank you for the excellent biryani.
lastword: To all the non-regular umpires. Teams will appeal but you guys need to be strong in your decisions. if it is an out it is an out even the first time it is appealed if it is not then you stand your ground even if it is appealed a hundred times.
Poeria was able to put together best performance of this season.
1st game we played against Eagles at Mossville on Sat (7/25). We won the toss and elected to bat. Talal & Madhu opened the innings for us. They were moving along nicely, especially Talal did play pull, drive and cuts with full control. At this moment Eagles brought in Vasu who gave 10 runs in his 1st over but he came back very strong in next over by getting Madhu in 2nd slip. Next man to go was Talal caught in deep cover after scoring 29. Peoria was 60/2 at this juncture. Here come similar moment for Peoria where we been struggling in whole season, when we lost our 3rd wkt on 62 (Devraj next to go). Chakri and Yousaf didn’t stay long either, Chakri played a soft drive to mid on and took off for single but misunderstanding cost Yousaf’s wkt and after two balls Chakri got out at gully of Vasu. Peoria 64/5 at this moment.
Kashif (friend of mine) & Kiran steady the innings and put together a great partnership (approx 90 plus runs) – after doing great damage control and putting Peoria back on for decent score on the board. Eventually this was our match winning performance. Kiran played great supporting role and Kashif took on role of scoring. Kiran got out on pulling at deep mid wicket. Kashif and Bharath took Peoria to 217. Kashif score 77 runs and Bharath 22.
Eagles batted excellently – put up 199 for loss of 10 wkts in 37 overs. They batted with patience and guts. Mankesh & Subu batted with aggression and at times with full responsibility. Took singles and doubles – occasional boundary which kept them close to required run rate but they kept losing at regular interval. Kashif bowled exceptionally well, he took 3 wkts including Mankesh who played well. Chakri go Subu wkt, Sub tried to clear the boundary, got caught at long off. Last man got run out (excellent throw from Dev from deep midwicket).
Peoria won by 18 runs, got very needed 4 pts.
Peoria vs. Muslim Gymkhana,
Muslim Gym Won the toss and elected to field. This time we send Vijay with Talal to open but he got out in 3rd over at short midwicket of Kami. Devraj went to bat, he & Talal steady the innings but Talal judged LBW – Peoria was 23/2 – Kami took this wkt too.
Chakri & Devraj put together partnership of the season – They batted till the drink break and we were around 94/2 in 20 overs. At this moment we were targeting 220 in 40 overs. But after water break both got fresh and start stroking the ball very nicely – converted 1s in 2s and 2s in 3s. Without taking any risk they were getting 7 or 8 runs per over. MG were operating with their best threat (spinners – Saad & Moaz). The way Chakri & Dev played spinners was remarkable. You don’t see that many batsmen in this league who play spinners with such command. That brought change in bowling, medium pacer (Pradeep) and quick off spinner (Arshad) but no luck for MG. Meanwhile Dev & Chakri completed their respective 50’s. Imran changed the bowling again – Peoria was around 150/2 but Kami got much need break through by getting Chakri wkt but he did his job by scoring 56 runs & put 130 plus run partnership. Next man Yousaf went to bat – Devraj & Yousaf accelerated socre but Devraj got out by pulling Kami – Devraj score 89 runs. Score was around 170. Next man Madhu joined Yousaf, after scoring quick 8 runs of 4 balls Madhu got out at Point of Pradeep ball. Peoria was 175/5 in 32 overs. Yousaf & Kashif start playing with caution. Score was 190 in 35 overs. Imran was using Kami & Rizwan at this time. 36th over Yousaf & Kashif took 20 runs in Rizwan over and 19 runs in Kami’s over. Score went to 229/5 in 37 overs. Yousaf got out at score of 235 – still 2.4 overs to go but Kashif kept playing the way he played yesterday against eagle. Flicked Pradeep in same over for huge six at backward square leg (it was around 80 yard boundary). Peoria end up putting 271/8 in 40 overs. Peoria scored 180 runs in last 20 overs.
MG didn’t start well – lost Kami in 3rd over (bowled by Kiran with nice in cutter). Masood and Moaz start playing with great responsibility but Yousaf pull blinder of Kiran ball at Mid off (Catch of my life – I don’t know how I took it, My teammates can describe it or Anwer Bhai.) – Moaz gone too (Kiran’s 2nd wkt). Mahmood and Masood stabilized the innings but taking singles and doubles but Masood got out in 2nd slip of Asad’s bowling, next man is Imran and he got out of 1st ball he faced from Asad (caught by Madhu). MG lost four quick wkts. They never recovered from these early loses. Mahmood played excellently for his 53 not out. MG got all out for 139. Chakri & Ani finished the tail. Great effort by Peoria.
Great inning by Devraj & Chakri.
Sadiq, I hope you are happy with my updates because you always complaint that I don't come on blog- man this thing too much time. Its tough for me to submit these reports. I'll request one of my teamate to do this job on Peoria behalf.
Good back to back wins for Peoria... Preetam hard luck to you guys..
Congrats to the winners. Good luck to those who didn't win this week.
Finally, it seems like the weather is holding up and we are getting some cricket in - after a ridiculous number of rain outs.
How about another Bloggers ball game?
Here is the CER team selected for the Western Conference to be held
from July 31st to Aug 2nd in Minnesota.
TEAM:
Khawaja Usman Shuja (Captain)
Amit Kumar (Vice Captain)
Ashar Mehdi
Fahad Babar
Lakshmikumar Rajaramachandran
Asif Mehmood
Mohd Yusuf
Nasir Mehmood
Akhil Pathan
Abhijeet Joshi
Shahid Malik
Saminda Siriwardena
Arfeen Mustafa
Mansab Butt
Fawad Raza
Manan Patel
Manager: Khurrum Syed
Coach: Raghuram Srinivasan
Congrats to Peoria on back to back wins...nice ..
Thanks for the report Yusuf bhai....you've officially taken over from Madew in elaborate reports.. hahaha..
Congrats to all the winners..!!
Tough loss Preetam...kudos to you guys to put up a good fight against a good Peoria team.
Challengers won against STL by around 24 runs.
Will come up with a report soon..
WoW Sahid not in the squad for regionals, that is a surprise to me.
Sahid = Shahid*
Naren,
I think Shahid is not in the CER squad because he is not going to be available for the regionals. It's not a question of performance - he was the MoM for the finals!!
We are glad to announce that CRICKET MERCHANT is one of the official sponsors of Western Conference being held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Would love to see if few of our folks can bring home the awards and specially “Man of the series award –GM Hero Bat”
Click the link for more details - http://wcc.minnesotacricket.com/
Not sure if everybody has seen this video ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vmmHPHqrf0 .. our Phoenix stars talking and explaining cricket ...
Alpesh, we aren't "stars", but yeah, we did help some folks making a documentary from Northwestern University on cricket. We were actually playing the Bears, and since we were batting first, ended up getting interviewed as well. You'll notice, early in the piece a cover driver off the front foot being practiced on the grass - thats me!! :)
I didn't do any interviews, but the rest of the team did. What's really interesting is the quality of the pictures and the commentary - a dig at our very own C8W. hehehehe.
Hi all,
sadiq or FOD aka c8w i was wondering that asif mehmood did not play in cer so how he got selected in western regional big ??? if he got selected bcuz of his past performance in cer i think this is totally wrong and unfair to those guys who play in this year cer and perform well .....wht u think sadiq i need ur opnion & i wanna know who can get selected if not asif i think kami.
Street Fighter,
Asif did play in the CER this year.
Zangief or Sagat?
Preetam,
Gr8 game...both Mankesh and Subbu played excellent..with support from GG..You guys are very good team...all departments are looking gr8 on ur team..You guys are hungry for success..Looks like biryani..took care of ur appetite on our game day..hehe...Wish guys the very best for rest of the season..Cheers
Madhu
Madhu,
How come they got Biryani and we got Pizza? I mean, the pizza was good and all, but c'mon, biryani is biryani! :)
Shekhs,
On another note, we went to Salt 'n Pepper on Sunday and it was good. First time I went. Definitely not the last..... :):):)
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Aditya said...
I think Shahid is not in the CER squad because he is not going to be available for the regionals. It's not a question of performance - he was the MoM for the finals!!
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Yes, thats still our regions big problem - people dont make themselves available. Our pace attack of Shahid and Mehul reduced the opposition to 26/7 after 8 overs in the finals, taking 4 and 3 apiece.. and *neither* are available for the Western Conference! I was hoping we'd have Usman, Shahid, Mehul, Akhil etc.. then we'd *really* have a team (and this after Nilesh, Satish, Khadry, Bakshi etc didnt even make themselves available for the CER itself). Major pity.
c8w
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street fighter said...
sadiq or FOD aka c8w i was wondering that asif mehmood did not play in cer so how he got selected in western regional big ??? if he got selected bcuz of his past performance in cer i think this is totally wrong and unfair to those guys who play in this year cer and perform well .....wht u think sadiq i need ur opnion & i wanna know who can get selected if not asif i think kami.
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As Adi pointed out, Asif did play in the CER - he didnt play on Saturday, couldnt make it down, but played the final on Sunday (when MCC was 60-odd for 6, it was Asif and Ashhar who hung in and carried MCC to 115 before Asif fell.. then we collapsed to 122 or so for 9, and *then* Kami and Laxmi rescued us again).
What I wish, though, is that cricket in the US in general didnt have so much of a "how many of our guys got in" thing to start with.. you should only get in on merit, or not at all, no matter what region or league youre from. If we have nobody good enough to make the US team, if there are actually *better* players elsewhere.. so be it. Same in this region... I wish there was not this "7, or max 8, from MCC" business to start with.. just take the best, on performance and fitness, forget the rest (ie ignore what league they play from, whether theyre young or not, etc.. as long as theyre fit thats the most important thing; do tests for fitness if you want to, as they do in the North-West Region).
Kami had a decent tournament, but not great - didnt have too many opportunities, sadly. Similarly Faisal of United played 3 games and didnt do outstanding - had one terrific 40, but that was it. But.. there are at least 4-5 people on the squad who did no more than either of them.. and are not *better* players than either, for sure (as we've seen over the past year or two of extended performances, not just "small sample size" events that are one-weekend-long). There are players on the squad who had maybe one 30-40 innings and no more.. some even less than that. But theyre the "default picks" from their own leagues, who must have representation. Thats why you end up with a less-than-strong team in all regions, and even for the US national team IMHO. Whenever merit is not the only criteria, youre going to have non-great teams, no matter what country or region you play in, IMHO.
c8w
Adi...
Pepper n Salt rocks bud...love that place..
:-)
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Shekhs said...
Adi...
Pepper n Salt rocks bud...love that place..
:-)
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Bah! Its decent for the area.. but the only reason to go to it is if youre hungry and at Hanover Park - its not destination dining :-)
Not a bad place.. but still, IMHO, not a patch on Usmaniya, or Sabri Nehari, or Khan's - all on Devon. (nor on the odd takeout dish from Malabar Catering up in Glenview, but thats a different story :-)
Oh, and Paradise used to be better than Pepper-n-salt a year ago too (Golf and Roselle, IIRC?).. but I havent been to Paradise this year, so am not really recommending it anymore :-)
c8w
Finger,
I have to agree with Usmaniya and Sabri...dunno about the other places...also hyderabad house (the shack across, the old one) has good biriyani.
we'll have to have a biriyani outing in Devon one of these days - Blogger's Biriyani Nite out !!
What is up with all of these schedule changes? First no game then game was on and now no div 1 games again!
What gives with the scheduling I know more than a few people that are getting pissed off at mgmnt.
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