MichCA Indoor Tournament Final Tonight (Saturday 13 April, 7 pm)

The Michigan Cricket Association reminds everyone that the final of the MichCA indoor tournament will take place tonight in Auburn Hills, spectators are very welcome.  MCA’s own Anurag Yerabati is expected to play in the match. Information below (reproduced from the official announcement):

“Michigan Cricket Association USA would like to congratulate  Gladiators CC and Michigan Premier CC for making it to the final of the Winter Indoor Tournament 2013. We are grateful to Susheel Bhat and Shahid Malik for organizing the tournament. Special thanks to Shahid Malik and others for helping in umpiring the games at no cost to the league.

Please join us to watch the Final and encourage the players from both the teams.

Final will be played today, 4/13 at 7:00pm

Tournament Venue:

Great Lakes Golf Center,

3951 Joslyn Road,

Auburn Hills, MI – 48326″

Spring (sort of), so Practice Again (Sunday, 14 April, 5 pm)

MCA Joint Head Coach Vasanth Krishnaswami has declared Sunday an appropriate day to practice again, anticipating the best weather of the weekend that day at Lyon Oaks Park (52221 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, MI 48393). Players should assemble at 5 pm, ready to reintroduce themselves to their kit and to (we hope) the sun. All are welcome, novices included. There is no charge for practice this week, although motorists may have to pay to enter the park.

USA U-19 Selection Process Underway, Michigan XI Being Formed

A nationwide selection process for the USA U-19 team is now underway. There will be a selection tournament in Chicago over the weekend of 20/21 April, at which national selectors hope to see all eligible players interested in being considered for the national under-nineteen pool. There will be a Michigan XI at this selection tournament, with representation from MCA. If you have not yet notified MCA Joint Head Coach Vasanth Krishnaswami of your interest in participating, you should do so immediately.

Signs of Spring Mean Practice (Sunday, 7 April, 5 pm)

With the appearance of spring, MCA awakens. Joint Head Coach Vasanth Krishnaswami has declared Sunday an appropriate day to begin practice, anticipating that there will no snow at Lyon Oaks Park (52221 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, MI 48393). Players should assemble at 5 pm, ready to reintroduce themselves to their kit and to (we hope) the sun. All are welcome, novices included.

Atlanta U-17 Side Seeks a Player for Matches in Chicago

Next weekend (29-30 September), an Atlanta U-17 side, managed by Vijay Ganji, travels to Chicago to face a side representing the Midwest Cricket Conference. MCA is already planning to contribute a player to the Atlanta side, but Coach Ganji is looking for one more player to complete his XI. If you are interested in playing, please contact MCA’s Information Director immediately.

Below are the details of the series, as published on the MWCC web site:

MWCC – U-17/U-19 TOURNAMENT

In its continuing quest to help young players in this region improve and refine their cricketing skills, Midwest Cricket Conference is proud to present the inaugural inter-city Youth Tournament for primarily Under 17 (and some Under 19) cricketers.

One of the best-known Cricket Academies in the country – Cricket Academy USA of Atlanta, Georgia, led by our very own Anand Tummala (coach of the Shekhs/Tushar Youth Coaching Camps) – will be touring Chicago over the weekend of the 29th and 30th of September, 2012. They have very kindly agreed to play Midwest Youth in 2 40-over games, one on each day.

Dates: September 29 & 30, 2012
Format: 40-over games, one on each day
Location: Chicago, IL
Teams: Midwest Youth vs Cricket Academy USA (Under-17 teams, with 2 Under-19 players permitted in each playing XI)

Players Eligible:
Under 17 Qualification: Born on or after April 1, 1994 (ie less than 17-and-364-days at start of season)
Under 19 Qualification: Born on or after April 1, 1992 (ie less than 19-and-364-days at start of season)

MCA Youth Camp Ends with Victory for Players over Coaches

MCA’s summer youth camp concluded on Friday, 14 September, with a two-innings match between the Players and their Coaches and Parents at Lyon Oaks. In fading light an anxious umpire (whose decision making had already been called into question several times) ended play with the match apparently drawn, but consultation of the playing conditions revealed that, in such an event, the team with the first-innings lead would be declared the winner. The Coaches and Parents had scored an aggregate of 85 runs in two innings when bad light stopped play, but Shreyas Bolar’s power-hitting had earlier taken the Players to 55 in eight overs, while the Coaches and Parents had been able to muster only a modest 42/6 in their first innings, so the Players were duly declared victorious. Highlights for the Players included: the spectacular yorking of Coach Gordon Makin by the Players’ Captain Sarosh Irani, a dismissal that brought whoops of delight from the entire field as the Coaches and Parents’ opening batsman played all around the delivery; excellent batting and bowling from the diminutive Vidvath Vasudevan and Amit; good work behind the stumps from Sameer Yelamarthi; enthusiastic and economical spells from Tejas Bolar, Vishrudh Vasudevan, Tejas Bolar, and Atharwa Kale; fine efforts with ball and bat from Smit and Dikshant; and some good bowling from the injured Advath, who came on to assist an increasingly bedraggled Coaches and Parents’ attack. In the field MCA Joint Head Coach Vasanth Krishnaswami let his side down at least twice, blaming his drops on the poor light, while fellow Joint Head Coach Shyam Mayasandra’s run-out also contributed to the defeat. Coach Chamila Kannangara seemed to prefer advice to action, and it was left to the Parents to shore up their side’s efforts, both with bat and ball. Had Ashutosh Kale not been no-balled twice for over-stepping after appearing to take wickets (not the only dubious decisions from MCA’s Information Director, whose eyesight and competence were repeatedly questioned by Coach Gordon Makin), the story might have been different, as Parents Vasu, Bal, Narine, Ardeshir, and Venkat also worked hard to remedy deficiencies in the performance of the Coaches.

Once the bad light had curtailed the cricket, players, coaches, and parents gathered in the middle to celebrate the end of the camp. Coaches were thanked for their efforts over the summer and players congratulated for their accomplishments and evident skills. MCA hopes to offer indoor coaching and match sessions starting in October.

Although the umpire’s decision to abandon play because of bad light was almost universally criticized on Friday, the picture above suggests that the light at Lyon Oaks was, indeed, rather poor as camp concluded.

Motown-MCA Season Ends with Defeat to GDCC

Motown-MCA’s season of “almosts” ended with another “almost” on Saturday, 15 September, at Lyon Oaks, when they lost by three wickets to Greater Detroit Cricket Club and were eliminated from the MichCA forty-overs tournament.

Motown-MCA, batting first, were 113/2 (but could score only 175/8 in 40 overs); man-of-the-match Murali scored a brilliant 96, took two excellent diving catches, and bowled 6 economical overs (but ended up on the losing side). The season in a nutshell.

Among other highlights of the Motown-MCA innings, MCA’s wicket-keeper batsman Gordon Makin was second in runs scored with 22 and shared in a 70-run second-wicket stand with Mani Ramprasad; MCA’s Joint Head Coach Vasanth Krishnaswami scored a comfortable 13 not out at the end of the Motown-MCA innings, sharing an unbeaten ninth-wicket stand of 30 with Khayam Hashmi (14 not out), and then took 1/16 in four overs; Khayam took 1/30 in six overs; MCA’s Anurag Yerabati bowled seven overs, taking 1/35 and executed an excellent run-out.  Motown-MCA’s bowling also provided moments of optimism: despite solid knocks from Kumar Devineni (20), Keyur Patel (25), and Rohan Wanchoo (20), the home team certainly fancied their chances when the visitors were 81/5 and then 126/6. But, once again, it wasn’t enough.  Motown-MCA almost pulled it off, but a sixth wicket stand of forty between the apparently ageless pair of Faisil Sultan (38) and Shahid Ahmed (18 not out) took the match away, and a crestfallen team left for refreshments in Wixom, where they considered a season full of opportunities, promise, and, ultimately, disappointments.

Motown-MCA lost the toss and were put in, with Vijay Patel and Gordon Makin obliged to face the swing and skid of Taimoor Ahmed and Chandan Sood on a damp morning. Although Vijay fell early, caught behind (one of three catches for GDCC wicket-keeper Arfin Mustafa), Gordon survived initial struggles and, together with Mani, saw off the new-ball bowlers. When Gordon was caught behind off Shahid Ahmed with the score on 70, a solid base had been achieved, although the stand might have been bigger had the running between the wickets been crisper. Nonetheless, with 22 overs left, Motown-MCA felt optimistic. Gordon’s dismissal brought in Murali, the only Motown-MCA batsman to reach or clear the ropes (3 sixes, 3 fours), and his superb 96 deserved to be part of a winning total. But the familiar middle-order collapse saw Motown-MCA go from 113/3 when Mani was dismissed to a bleak 145/8, which included two ducks and two run-outs. Khayam and Vasanth added respectability, the only players apart from Murali and Gordon to reach double figures, but the final total could have been a lot more. The story of the batting in 2012.

In reply, GDCC got off to a good start, with a first-wicket stand of 41 between Kumar Devineni and Keyur Patel, but when the former was brilliantly caught off Khayam at second slip by a diving Murali and, two runs later, Anurag had the no. 3 batsman Omar Mustafa caught behind without scoring, the home team’s tails were definitely up. Sravan had Keyur Patel caught by Vasanth in the eighteenth over with the score on 74 and the following over Vasanth, whose recovery from shoulder problems has been one of the highlights of the season, had Kashif Saeed caught by Murali tumbling acrobatically in the covers, without GDCC adding to the score. When Mani removed the dangerous Rohan Wanchoo, caught at deep midwicket by Vijay Patel with the score on 81, Motown-MCA had a scent of a semi-final place. Then Arfin Mustafa and Faisil Sultan steadied GDCC with a stand of 45, although Anurag gave the hosts hope again when his direct hit ran out the GDCC wicket-keeper. The moment that hope finally disappeared was probably when MichCA President Shahid Ahmed, who, like Faisil Sultan, showed the value of experience with excellent shot selection and good running between the wickets, was put down behind – a difficult chance for the wicket-keeper standing up to Vasanth, but one that, if taken, would have put the batting team under pressure again (and a big disappointment on a day when Motown-MCA fielded well). As it was, the seventh wicket finally fell with only 10 runs needed (another excellent run-out, this time engineered by Khayam), and Ghanta Rao had no trouble in ending the match.  When a final push was needed, Motown-MCA’s bowling and fielding had not been quite crisp enough.  The story of 2012 in the field.

However, despite another day of disappointments, spirits were reasonably high over refreshments in Wixom, as the team contemplated its youth and potential. And next season is only six months away….

Motown-MCA 175/8 (Murali 96, Gordon 22, Kashif Saeed 4/38) lost by three wickets to GDCC (178/7, Faisil Sultan 38, Keyur Patel 25, Kumar Devineni 20, Rohan Wanchoo 20). Man-of-the-match: Murali.

Summer Youth Camp Concludes Friday with Players vs Coaches and Parents Match

MCA’s summer youth camp will conclude at the Lyon Oaks ground on Friday with a match between the players who have participated so enthusiastically in the practice sessions all summer and all available coaches and parents. The match starts at 6pm, all MCA families are urged to participate, while it is hoped that members of the youth camp will persuade at least one parent to turn out for the opposition.

Depleted Motown-MCA Go Down to Grand Rapids

In the first match of the second round of the MichCA forty-overs competition a nine-man Motown-MCA team, depleted by the commitments of players to other clubs and other competitions, traveled to Grand Rapids on Saturday more in hope than expectation. The main hope was that at least two players could post big scores in at least two big partnerships and that the bowling could pull off a miracle. Despite some sterling efforts, it was not to be.

Batting first, Motown-MCA openers Gordon Makin and Vijay Patel gave the team a good start, Vijay falling for an aggressive 20 in the eighth over with the score on 42. Jashwanth Reddy went quickly, but, while Gordon and Mani remained at the crease, a decent total seemed possible. Gordon saw off the GRCC quicks and batted fluently, but he and Mani struggled to rotate the strike, and after Gordon fell for 39, top score for the innings (two fours), misplaying – to his own evident frustration — slow bowler Gogi Singh, with the score on 104 in the 23d over, things went down quickly. Mani was Gogi’s second victim, caught for 30 (one six, one four), with the score on 132, and Motown-MCA’s innings petered out for 146.

The bowlers made valiant efforts as GRCC replied, but on a small ground the target never seemed out of reach, despite Murali (2/17) making good use of the new ball, as the first three batsmen scored only 18 between them. Man of the Match Gogi Singh went after the bowling, and amassed an aggressive 89 n.o., as GRCC strolled home by seven wickets.

Motown-MCA can still qualify for the semi-finals, but a big victory over GDCC at Lyon Oaks this Saturday will be needed.

Motown-MCA (146 a.o. in 32 overs) lost by seven wickets to GRCC (147/3 in 20 overs).

Motown-MCA Practice Thursday, Another Key Match on Saturday

 Motown-MCA practice is at 6 pm on Thursdays, at the Lyon Oaks cricket ground in Wixom. Motown-MCA always welcomes new players – if you are interested in playing for the team, just come to the weekly practice and make yourself known to one of the senior players. Since sister-club M.P.C.C. also practices at Lyon Oaks on Thursday nights, scrimmage matches are sometimes arranged as well as net practice.

Motown-MCA has a vital match against Greater Detroit C. C. at Lyon Oaks on Saturday.  If you have not yet notified the Motown-MCA captain, Sathish Thandapani, of your availability, please do so immediately.  A strong lineup is essential for this match.