The 45-over Conundrum

The British author and historian C. Northcote Parkinson
once wrote (later made famous as "Parkinson's Law")
that "Work expands to fill the time available
for its completion". Meaning as a corollory, one
supposes, that no matter how much more time
you're given, you aint gonna get anything extra
achieved. Our current cricket season seems intent
on once again proving the truth of Parkinson's Law.

When the Powers That Be changed the Division One
format to 45-overs-a-side from the tried-and-trusted
40-overs, the natural assumption of everyone
involved was that scoring would increase. Totals
would go up proportionately (or, some felt, even
disproportionately - since the extra 5 overs
might well translate to an extra "5 slogging
overs" rather than just "building" overs). But
all had reckoned without good old C.Northcote.

So far there have been 34 games played under
the new 45-overs-per-side format; thus, there
have theoretically been 68 opportunities for
a First-Division team to bat 45 overs (but
only theoretically - in actuality, obviously,
it is much closer to only 34 such chances, by the
teams that are batting first only; and
maybe even less, since some games have been
played with a reduced-overs format due to weather).
Even so, the numbers are instructive, not to
stay stunning - the total number of times
45 overs have been actually been batted this
season is... 4!

Those 4 occasions are:
1) Milwaukee United vs United

2) St Louis vs Rivercity

3) Milwaukee United vs Flames

4) Bears vs Purdue


As can be seen, only 3 teams have managed this
feat so far - Milwaukee United has done it
twice. Special mention must be made of
Pak Gym however - who have twice totalled over
270 so far, but without actually batting out
the full 45 overs either time!

Having been present on both occasions when
Milwaukee United achieved this feat, I think there
were a couple of factors in common. Both games
were played on astroturf at Whitewater - a good
batting track. Both times Milwaukee started slow, a
solid start with singles and twos provided by their
openers, keeping wickets in hand for late order
hitting. And both times that late order surge was
provided by some fleet-footed and tireless running
allied with some incandescent strokeplay from their
brilliant late-order duo, Satya and Bhavneet - who
must both surely be among the best allrounders in the
league. (Against United this duo smashed 120 runs in
the last 12 overs - Bhavneet bludgeoning 3 sixes in
his unbeaten 81, and Satya 4 sixes in his unbeaten 48.
Against the Flames they reversed roles to similar
effect - Satya hit 1 six in his 51 while Bhavneet
smacked 3 more in his unbeaten 45, as this time 126
runs came off the last 15 overs of the innings). And
both times, with that frenetic late-inning charge
coming from solid batsmen who were well set,Milwaukee
United still had wickets to spare at the end.

It is interesting to ponder what has led to this flood
of all-outs from Division One batting sides - many of
these same teams, after all, often had wickets in hand
in past years when their alloted 40 overs came to an
end. Could it be that, subconsciously, some teams are
being more aggressive than usual as they think they
need to set higher targets this season... and are
losing wickets more rapidly as a result? Or has the
bowling and fielding improved this year? Or might it
just be an early season statistical anomaly, with
batsmen not yet hitting the proverbial mid-season
form, and with everything due to return to normal
fairly soon?

Each team will obviously have to find its own style to
maximize their 45 overs - Milwaukee United seem to
have found theirs earlier than most, which has led to
their fast 3-0-1 start. There are signs that other
teams are beginning to adjust to the new format too,
though - 3 of the 4 occasions teams batted their full
45 overs came this past weekend. (Before this weekend,
the full 45-overs had been batted one single solitary
time in 26 matches, a quite staggering statistic). 15
out of 18 teams have still never batted their full
45-over quota yet, however, so there is clearly more
adjustment to come.

Once the league as a whole adapts, it will be
fascinating to see if the scores are indeed higher in
45 overs this season, than they were in 40 overs last
season. Or if an old British historian will once again
be proven correct - and it will only be the time
(overs) available that will have increased, with the
actual production (runs) seeing no change whatsoever!

By Sadiq Yusuf

Master Blaster Imran Syed

It was a cold, wet, windy day.. temps were in the 50's (is this march or june?). The ball was hit high in the air towards deep long off.. it was now a battle between the fielder and the wind gods. There was a good bit of dancing, both by the cricket ball (caught in the wind) and the fielder trying to catch the ball (the fielder can now audition for "dancing with the stars", except he aint no star). Guess who won.. the wind, ofcourse, and the prize for losing was a broken right thumb. That unfortunate soul trying to catch the ball was me and what hurt more were a bunch of sixes by the same batsmen after that letoff.

That was the only chance that Irfan Syed, from Muslim Gymkhana, playing against the Tigers, offered in what could be described as an exhibition of superb, clinical hitting. He remained unbeaten on 113, scoring 10 mighty sixes and 5 fours. There was not a single cross batted shot. He is tall and uses his height very well to reach out to good length deliveries and smack them high over long on and long off. In the past, Kamran has been our chief tormentor and when he was nailed in front by Ravi, we thought half the battle was won. We were so wrong !! With Irfan, anything that is overpitched can be declared an automatic six. The good length balls were safely negotiated, the bad and not so bad balls were all punished.
The only positive note for us was Vinod's bowling. On a day when everybody went over 8 runs per over, he finished with figures of 6-1-14-0.

After defeating the Wildcats and destroying the Tigers, Muslim Gymkhana is high on confidence and a team to beat. They have Milwaukee United, Pak Gymkhana and StLouis coming up... it will be interesting to see how they move on from here.

The Saga Continues…

The 2006 season is in full swing and it’s getting exciting. Two players who had finished their last season in style have stepped it up a notch and are continuing to dominate their respective divisions with electrifying performances. No points for guessing this one!!!
I am talking about Satha Sivapragasam from Capitol CC and Shahid Munir of Pak Gymkhana.

Satha has started this season with a bang!!!! His blistering centuries in both games he has played speaks for itself. The recent mammoth 175 against Jolly Rovers CC with 13 fours and 9 sixes can just be the beginning of what is to come for rest of the season. Satha is undoubtedly the most feared batsmen in Division II. I can only imagine the frustrations of the opposition and a long day of fetching if they fail to get him out early on. With about 75% of the season remaining we can all look forward to a 1000 runs season from him if he continues his current form and dominance.

Shahid is probably one of the best all-rounders in the league. The ability to take games away from opposition with clean hitting and quick bowling makes him an extremely valuable asset to Pak Gymkhana. With three half-centuries in the last four games he is poised to rake up lots of runs for a successful season. He has made a mark as one of the quickest and best bowlers in the league. Four wickets in four balls – that’s just impressive by any standards, and I am sure that’s a league record. Milwaukee CC can attest to it that he can produce Yorkers at will and before you can react the furniture will be rearranged. Shahid has dominated the ranking table consistently in the past few years and I think this year will be no different.

Watch out for these guys and follow them for rest of the season ….We wish them the very best of luck for the season!!!! - Until they are playing against your respective teams :):):)

"Just be men, be sportsmen"

"Just be men, be sportsmen," he said. "At the end of the day, it's a sport that you are playing and you've got to trust your competitor, the guy you are playing against. Of course, it's left up to the umpires, but if you can't come to a decision, if we can't back each other on the field, even though we are on opposite teams, it doesn't say much for the sport."

That was Brian Lara, talking about the Dhoni controversy after the First Test between India and West Indies in Antigua. Irrespective of what any of us think about that incident, I think Mr Lara has a very valid point, especially in the context of how we play in our league. We are fortunate to be able to play organized cricket in this country. It may be an amateur league, but we certainly play a very passionate brand of cricket. Most of you have played a lot longer in MWCC than me, but I'm sure you will agree with me that we have all seen situations where the unsaid and unwritten code of brotherhood among cricketers have been broken. I personally think that it will be a lot more fun if we all as individuals try to respect and trust our opponents a little bit more. I know that a lot of players agree with this. In our own league, I have seen batsmen walk after nicking a ball. Last week, I saw a wicket keeper admit grounding a catch after seemingly having taken it, and that too, without any pressure from anyone. Last year, amazingly enough, I even saw a square leg umpire ( or should we say square leg batsman because sometimes you never know if he is there as a 3rd batsman or coach or water carrier) call "one short". I wonder, wouldn't it be great if such behaviour were the norm and not the exception?

I don't claim to be a saint. I have had my fair share of unsavory conduct.Things that I'm really embarrassed about when I look back. Once, when I was a kid playing yard cricket I went home with the bat ( the only bat!) after being given out. It was my way of sticking it to the guys. Alas, little did I know that my own match referee had caught me in the act and unlike the ICC version, had no qualms about taking immediate and unilateral action. My father who unknowing to me was watching the incident from the terrace of our house made me go back and apologize to all my friends - for a 10 year old, having to do that was humiliating. But, it was a lesson that I never forgot. These days, if I do something idiotic ( mostly a spur of the moment thing) I try to go back and apologize to whoever I may have crossed. It's not easy to suck it up, stick your hand out and say " I'm sorry", but I guess easier than having to live without putting a closure to it.

Just think about how much more fun it will be if before each match, the Captains, the teams and the Umpires all shook hands and agree to play hard and fair in the true spirit of the game? No personal sledging, fielders wishing new batsmen Good Luck, Batsmen walking if he knows he edged, fielders being honest about boundaries, sixes, catches and run outs. Maybe, even the square leg umpires can be fair and objective ( I know that is asking a lot...but still). In the event that a "heat of the moment" incident happens, wouldn't it be great if, once everything is under control, the players involved themselves apologize and shake hands with each other ( maybe with a bit of a push from the team mates).

I'm old enough to realize that nothing is going to be perfect. But as an eternal optimist, I believe that together we can get better. Its up to each one of us - " Just be men - be sportsmen"

The New Washington Park Pitch: First Look

The new WP pitches saw real action today for the first time and the verdict is good ( with one major question). My team played at WP-4 today and after batting on that wicket I can tell you that it is a super pitch for both batsmen and bowlers. The bounce is even and there is good carry. The surface looks well polished with a nice clean sheen and once the mat goes over it there are no bumps. So overall it looks very good. The soil on either sides of the pitch was very loose and so the nails were going down like a hot knife on butter ( in fact I was just pressing the nails down with my hands!). In the next few weeks, I'm sure that will slowly get harder. I think the MWCC Team that did this project has done a good job.

But, there is one slightly baffling issue. If you look at the photo above you can see that there is a 3-4 feet patch of gravel where the bowlers run in. While I assume this was intended to address the legendary run up problems where by the middle of the season bowlers have to carefully navigate a ditch created by countless bowlers landing or pressing on the same spot over and over, I'm not sure how this new gravel patch will solve the problem. On the contrary it raises some new issues.

First of all , if a player dives in that area, I guarantee you that he is toast ( Though the always athletic Giants wicket keeper Shashi Buluswar was seen putting life and limb at risk by flinging himself at the stumps in a run out attempt - but then, we are talking about normal people here!). I think the wicket keepers are going to be a bit annoyed since this impacts them more than anyone else, especially when standing up. Secondly, if the ball lands in that patch ( happens several times when fielders throw in from the deep), it soon starts to lose shape. In fact, in today's game we had to replace the ball around the 30th over.

Personally, I would have preferred the old grass strip with teams bringing soil or mulch to patch up any ditches. But, then we cannot make progress if we try to make everyone happy. I'm still curious to know why this particular choice was made.

The pitch itself is great. Here is a pat on the back to all those who made it happen. Thank You!

MCC Pitches

Recently the news going around was that the Washington
Park pitches were to be re laid (or reconstructed as
we’re talking cement here, not turf!). I have now
played at almost all the MCC grounds bar the ones in
Indiana and I can safely say that the most enjoyable
cricket is played where the pitches are hard and true.
They offer nice bounce and carry for the quick
bowlers, turn and bounce for the spinners and the ball
comes nicely on the bat for batsmen willing to play
their strokes. The Washington Park pitches offer that
along with the astroturfs at the St. Louis and
Milwaukee United (Lindsay Park is it?) grounds.

The only pitch that needs to be re laid in my opinion
is the one at Hanover Park, which can at best be
described as a spongy carpet! We have all seen time
and again a spinner’s ball bouncing at throat height
from a good length, while the faster bowlers’ balls
sit up. It is definitely a batsman’s paradise as night
cricket is played here which produces quick runs and
also the final last year, where 600+ runs were scored.
I understand that for night cricket to be popular
there have to be 4s and 6s, but it would be even more
interesting if there is a Washington Park style
matting-over-cement or the astroturf seen at St Louis
and Lindsay Park grounds. The Hanover Park outfield is
the quickest of all in my opinion and I don’t think
the runs will dry up if we change the pitch, it will
just make for more exciting cricket.

Written By: Raheel Akhtar ( Pak Gymkhana)

The Great Cliched Weekend

So what is the biggest cliche in cricket? Why its
the hoary old "The game is never over till the
last ball is bowled", of course. Along with
"It's a game of glorious uncertainties".
Unoriginal stuff, no doubt - and it makes me
wince every time I hear yet another boring
international commentator say it.

And yet...sometimes things happen that make
you wonder if those really arent the only things
you *can* say. This weekend was one of those
times - I was involved (and around) a total
of 3 games this weekend, and ALL of them
fit the above cliches to a T.

The first was a game I was next door to -
the Wildcats against the Bears at Washington
Park, as big a Houdini-act as the league has
seen in many a year. The reigning champions
started their title-defense solidly enough,
moving to 70 for 3, before things went
horribly wrong. Faisal broke through twice
in quick succession, Hammad claimed a couple
with his leggies, Arif ran through the
tail in an inspired spell of 4 wickets in
three-and-a-half overs, and the champions
were down and out at 124 allout. The script
went according to plan as the
Bears began their chase - they advanced
serenly to 91/3 by the 20-over break, with
the amazing veteran Humayun Mirza set
solidly at 41*.

And then the first of those Glorious Uncertainties
of our Cliched Weekend kicked in. A wicket
was claimed with the first ball after the
break, another with the first ball of the
next over, and an improbable fightback
had begun. When Hammad was consumed by
Nikhil and Salman holed out to Ramji, the
cat was truly set among the pigeons. The
Bears crumbled under the sustained (and by
now almost patented) Wildcat pressure, and
when lastman Faisal was finally runout (by
half the length of the pitch), the Wildcats
had Escaped to Victory in the improbable
manner usually envisaged only by the
ultra-sappy Hollywood (or Bollywood) writers.
They had won a quite ridiculous game of
cricket by 5 runs, as the Bears contrived to
lose 7 for 28 with the game on the line.
Satish and Nikhil had bowling unchanged and
done all the damage after the break, ending
with 4 and 3 wickets apiece.

While these crazy things were happening on
Ground 4, I was on Ground 3 busy watching
some more craziness first-hand. The Jaguars
had batted first and received varied
contributions in their innings - 27 from RP
and 30s from Kalyan and Harshad, which took
them up to 191 against a good-looking
Continental attack. When Continental chased,
veteran Hafeez took on the Jaguar bowlers
with gusto, and Continental were in command
at 108/2 at the 20 over break.

However, once again the break started the
craziness. Hafeez fell for an excellent 65,
and Continental crumbled, losing 5 for 38
to be reduced to 145/7. Iftekar and Zeeshan
hadnt given up, however, and they launched
a brave counter-attack for the 8th wicket
and reducing the target to only 10 required
off the last 3 overs before Zeeshan went for
one shot too many and holed out. Number 10
Sandeep played a couple of crisp shots,
however, and the target was down to 4 runs
to win off 8 balls. But there was one final twist
left in the tail however, and Harshad produced
it - he consumed Sandeep caught behind, and
clean bowled the last-man second ball to end
it! The Jaguars had won by the wafer-thin
margin of 3 runs, with poor Iftekar stranded
with an unbeaten 21 at the other end - and
with 7 balls still left to play!

After bearing witness to such craziness on
Saturday, (when games in Washington Park had
been decided by an average of 4 runs per game :-)
I thought Sunday might be a little
more ordinary as I headed to Peoria for what
I thought was the Game of the Week in Division
Two. Peoria CC, with 8 players who ended
the regular season as #3 seed in Division One
last year with Rivercity before leaving to
form their own team, were playing last year's
Regular Season Champions IIT. The game took
place at the excellent new Peoria CC facility -
the first-ever game at the ground which has
a brand-new pitch (complete with brand-new
astroturf), and a sort of mess-hall 50 yards
away with lunch-time seating, excellent bathroom
facilities, and even the capability (if advance
warning is given) of having burgers and dogs
prepared on a grill by cafetaria staff! With
a consistently strong breeze from the river
a half-mile away, it looks like it will be
a most pleasant place to play cricket.

The game began with Peoria CC playing like
the first-division team they basically were
last season - an excellent bowling effort
to start, throttling the IIT batting. Their
only blemish was the number of wides conceded
as they failed to control the copious amounts
of swing their pacemen obtained - but still,
they reduced IIT to 57/7 a couple of overs
after break, and it looked to be a very quick
day in prospect.

What IIT CC has always had, however, is a sort
of bulldog fighting spirit, a kind of cussed
refusal to give up on a game. Rohit, Mihir
and Pallav combined to put up a remarkable
101/1 in the remaining 17 overs, and IIT made
it all the way up to 158/8 by the end of their
40 overs, a quite outstanding effort. They
now had something to bowl at, something that
had looked very unlikely only an hour earlier.

Peoria CC made light work of it at the start
however - aided by a couple of missed slip
catches and some clean and bludgeoning hits
by Kiran, they marched to 83/1 by the 20-over
break. This continued after break as well, and
at 97/1 off 24 overs, it looked all over bar
the shouting.

This wasnt The Great Cliched Weekend for
nothing, however! Kiran was excellently
caught at midoff (off a skimming, low, flat
hit), and wickets began falling at alarmingly
quick intervals. Sudipto winkled out two
wickets with his deceptive offspin, a runout
complicated matters further, and Arka claimed
a caught behind to make things very interesting.
When Madhu's attempted big-hit over midwicket
went a mile into the air instead, and
was calmly held by the bowler Arka when it
came down, Peoria was suddenly still 35
away with only 4 wickets in hand. Padmaraju
in his next over claimed Raja and Santosh
while bowling a double-wicket maiden that
changed the game completely. And Peoria's
last hope Vivek Bhaskar was amazingly,
brilliantly caught the first ball of the
next over - a straight hit over the bowler's
head was somehow run down by the wide-longon
fielder Amit Patil, who covered at least 25
yards to hold a fantastic catch on the dead
run. Two balls later a close leg-before appeal
was turned down (the ball struck the pad
marginally outside the line of offstump, and
he was playing a shot :-), but the batsman
tried to steal a leg-bye and was runout
instead... and IIT had pulled off a remarkable
victory, as Peoria had contrived to somehow
lose 9 for 29 in 9 overs, and be bowled out
with 6 overs still to play!

Those were the three remarkable games of cricket
I was involved with this weekend. Three games,
all of which were dominated by one of the teams
most of the day, and yet it was the other team
which eventually won. Games where one team
appeared to have the game easily in hand, had the
game won at a canter really, about an hour
before they somehow ended up losing! The Wildcats
claimed 7/28 to win by 5 runs, while defending
124! IIT started the day at 57/7 - they should,
by rights, have made about 80 allout and been
heading home an hour later... instead they
managed to put up 158, saw the opposition
reply with 97/1, and *then* claimed 9/29
to almost comfortably defend 158 by a margin
of 32 runs!

I suppose cliches are cliches for a reason -
they may be old and hoary, but they are
usually true. (Oh, and the amazing Satha
played his first league game of the season...
and, of course, made a century in about 50
balls. In our league, I dont suppose there
is anything more cliched than that - they
ought to only put it in the "headlines" if
he actually fails to make a century on
some weekend in the future).

Written By: Sadiq Yusuf

24 All Out!!!

No that is not a typo, it's not 124 or 42. If you
happen to go to the midwest webpage (which you
probably have since you found this Midwest Cricketer
link ;) ), click to view the scorecard behind the
first headline of Division 1 this week (by the way my
name is spelled Raheel not Rahil, who's incharge of
the headlines?!). Pak Gymkhana vs Milwaukee CC played
on Sun, May 21 was looking like an even contest with
Milwaukee having the slight edge after they had
reduced us to 153 all out (from being 100-odd for 3 at
the 20 over mark). The total was a fighting one,
nothing more nothing less and we were one bowler short
wth Farman bhai injured. Myself and Imran Ahmed (a new
recruit) got the ball rolling and we struck some
telling blows early on with Imran dismissing both the
openers and I dismissed 3 middle order batsmen
including the lynchpin of Milwaukee CC Asif Mahmood.
The score was 19-5 and Milwaukee were looking to
restore some respectibility to the scoreboard more
than anything else.

At this point the captain Rashid bhai took Imran off
and gave the ball to Shahid Munir. After warming up in
his first over which went for a solitary run, Shahid's
2nd over read like this W-W-W-W-0-0. First 2
unfortunate batsmen were bowled, the third managed to
somehow get his front pad (or foot shall I say) in the
way and was lbw, the fourth again bowled! The last 2
balls inexplicably missed the stumps and the over came
to an end! It was exhilerating stuff, high pace and
bull's eye accuracy. I completed the rout in the next
over by bowling the last man with the first legal ball
and Milwaukee CC were 24 all out in 10.1 overs. Mr.
Extras top scored with 10 and the highest score with
the bat was 4 !

Written by: Raheel Akhtar (Pak Gymkhana)

( Note from Editor: Raheel, I'm not the editor for the MCC Home Page. That is done by the webmaster. I hope he reads this and makes the necesary correction - Hari)

Sleep is for normal people and Faraz is anything but Normal

A guy goes to work Friday night, works all night and then travels 3 hours to Urbana to play a game, finds his team in a mess at 23 for 6, bats through the innings until the 39th over by which time he is the last man out but not before scoring a tenatious 60 to help his team to a respectable 139. He then comes back and bowls a fiery spell with the new ball, takes 2 wickets in his first over, comes back to bowl a mixed bag of spin/pace to take a further 3 wickets, then takes a key catch to secure a miracle come back win for his team all the while chatting away relentlessly to lift the spirits of the fielders and bowlers. After the game he travels back 3 hours to Chicago and goes straight to work! What do you call this guy?? His name is Faraz Sarwar Durrani and I'm lucky to have him as my team mate.

Faraz embodies the spirit of the Midwest Cricketer - that rare breed that waits patiently through six months of brutal winter and then happily comes to play in the semi-freezing early spring months with a "whatever it takes" mentality. Do you have players like this in your team? Send their stories ( with photo) to editor@midwestcricket.org.

How Can I Contribute?

If any of you would like to write on this blog, please feel free to send in your articles to editor@midwestcricket.org. You can also send one photo with each article. Make sure you let us know your full name and Team name. Match Reports, Player Profiles, New ideas etc are most welcome. We cannot promise that everything that we receive can be published.

If you want to post Interviews, match Clips etc taken with a camcorder or Cell Phone, here is how you can do it. Post the clips on either You Tube ( youtube.com) or Google Videos ( video.google.com) and then send a link to editor@midwestcricket.org with a brief summary of what you want the description to say. Again, don't forget to send your full name and Team name.

The Weather Ballet

The rain Gods had no mercy on us this past weekend…It’s been a frustrating time for most teams to get this season off on an exciting note due to the bad weather. Well, with all the optimism, I hoped that by the weekend it will all play out Ok and we will have an exciting weekend of Cricket. That was not the case to be and most games this weekend were rained out…except for a few that happened on Sunday.

The first thing I do every Monday morning is to check the weather channel and more often than not it’s not pleasant. An occasional rainfall, cloudy and thunderstorms are part of the mix ninety percent of the time. Starting then and up until the weekend I pray to the rain Gods to have mercy…because I have waited eight months to play cricket…

I have begin to realize that the cricket season has become a parcel of my life…and playing cricket has great impacts on my everyday life…but not being able to play has adverse effects too….The minute the truth hit me and all my optimism went out the door, I felt depressed and weak. That led to a fever and by the end of the day I ended up with high temperature helpless not knowing how I could make the weather better…

With so little time in a year to enjoy something we love so much, the best we all can do is to hope its going to be warm, sunny and bright this coming weekend and the rest of the season…

New Pitches at Washington Park

Those of you who have games at Washington Park on the week of June 3rd: Be prepared for the sweet smell of fresh cement ( is there such a smell?!).Tariq confirmed today that new pitches are going to be laid on grounds 2, 3 and 4 of Washington Park on May 22 and 23. Workers are going to rip out the existing cement pitches and fill in a brand new pitch. So, those of you who are in to watching that sort of stuff can show up at the ground on those two days! You won't be alone. Tariq says he plans to be there too. That is why he is the president and I'm just a lousy blog writer.

The First Week

Life has become hectic after being appointed General Secretary this year. People thought I was crazy to accept the role considering that I am working full time and studying part time. Wifey has been very accomodating of this and has promised to help me out with the additional responsibilities. If some of emails have a feminine touch to it, you now know why.

What a week it has been and I must say I was mighty pleased with the way Washington Park looked when I walked in early on Saturday. The grass was well cut, the boundaries and the 30 yard circle were marked. My cover drive did manage to almost reach the fence, it was a great feeling.
Teams that played in WP-1 didnt quite share the experience that we did, but in all, I heard some good words from all the teams. Magnus did a terrific job.

Our first game against United did not go according to plan. Catches win matches and that was very evident in our game. They caught half, quarter chances while we dropped sitters. Sunil Kulkarni took blinders, one of Anand and other of Vinod to completely turn the momentum in their favor. I was in the non-strikers end when a full toss was smashed by Vinod back to the bowler(Sunil) who dived and caught inches above the ground.

We now travel to Wisconsin, where another United(Milwaukee United) team awaits us. Hopefully, its our turn to take the catches and get 4 points.

Back in Washington Park

It was great to get back to Washington Park this Saturday. It was a bit disappointing to see that only the grass on our ground was not cut ( Probably because my game was at WP1, which is not an MCC Ground), but glad not to see broken glass. The good news about the bathrooms is that the public restrooms on the south east corner of the grounds is now actually open, but the bad news is that it is still a nice, long walk which means that the trees and bushes around the ground got watered down well this weekend. Jaggi tells me that the management is working with the City on getting the potties in place soon.

United Cricket Club ( photo above) is a smart team. Notice that most of them are well layered with stylish sweaters and jackets. Maybe that explains why they won in style over Tigers. Remember that in the month of May, it makes a lot of sense to wear thick layers if you have a game at Washington Park. Even if it is 70 degrees, the wind can freeze your rear off, especially while you are sitting outside the field.

My team, NoStars got manhandled by Eagles and so it was not a particularly good weekend for us. As far as I'm concerned, I'm seriously thinking of taking up another game..maybe golf..where you don't get hit by hard balls. I need to ice down the swelling again before I can sleep tonight. Still, I'm glad that we are back on the field. My mother was right - I'm nuts about this game. But, I'm glad I'm not alone.

The 2006 Season - Finally!!!!

Hi Everyone, Welcome to the MCC 2006 season! Whew! Like a lot of you, I have been waiting for this weekend for months. Its that time of the year...time to start looking forward to picking up the broken glasses from the Washington Park pitch ( 7 months worth of broken beer bottles - Ah), time to struggle with the Mat trying to roll it in to position while also trying to make sure that the darn blue cover does not fly off in to the lake, walking 1/2 a mile to relieve like a gentleman ( and who can forget that first breath inside those portable potties-eh?!)- All said and done, I still love this experience. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be able to play organized cricket like this in the US of A. Its a blessing to be able to hang out with a terrific group of guys and play a game that we all love ( Thank You, Dear MCC!). So, lets just go out there and make the most of it. I hope you all have a terrific 2006 season- safe, exciting and some great cricket!

Now, that being said, I also want to welcome you all to our new blog. Last year we had a lot of fun with the Newsletter and we hope we can build upon that this year in a different format. We are going to learn how to develop this as we go along. Feel free to send us your ideas. You can also comment here ( Be kind!). We hope you like this.