MCA’s 109 Not Enough to Beat Troy

Sunday, 13 June was lucky for some, but not for MCA. Captain and Joint Head Coach Shyam Mayasandra asked for 150 when his side batted first against Troy, but MCA’s respectable, yet not spectacular, 109 turned out to be not quite enough, and the Academy lost in the nineteenth over of Troy’s reply. Gordon Makin was chosen by Coach Shyam as youth Man-of-the-Match for his twenty.

MCA’s core squad was thinned this week by high school graduation events and finals, so Coach Shyam recruited three new senior players from sister club Motown: big-hitting Satish Thandapani, whose 23 turned out to be MCA’s top score, and Motown’s two young newcomers, Murali Venkatapathy and Mani Ravikumar, whose 2/23 gave the Academy a fighting chance when Troy replied.

This was MCA’s first visit to Chet Singh’s ground at Tag’s Sports Complex in Hartland in two years, and several players took advantage of the proximity of the minigolf concession stand to enjoy ice cream and sodas, while Bradman-like practice with stumps and golf balls was another novelty. What wasn’t so novel was that MCA needed every batsman to score and the senior players to score big if the total the captain wanted was to be reached. But when Troy put MCA in, three wickets fell for a mere twelve — openers Rohit Mogalayapalli (bowled by Vamshi), Shyam Mayasandra, caught at mid-on off Troy captain Venkat, and Ani Mayasandra, also caught off the Troy captain, at square leg. Gordon Makin, batting one-down, and Neill Quinlan (three down), making his 2010 début, carefully rebuilt, but the score was only 43 at the end of ten overs when Neill retired hurt. New batsman Murali then fell lbw to Harsha immediately, and prospects looked bleak for the Academy, but Satish and Gordon put on 26 together before Gordon, feeling the need to put more runs on the board quickly, was caught at deep-ish mid-on, trying to lift a ball off Troy’s Satish Ketkar to the boundary. Mani fall cheaply but Chamila Kannangara hit a spectacular six before following Mani, also bowled by Avinash, while Satish continued to hit out until he was caught near the midwicket boundary. Anurag hit an aggressive 10 before Ryan Quinlan, also making his 2010 début and the returning Neill Quinlan (one of two father-son pairs in the MCA team on Sunday) took the score to 109/9 at the end of twenty overs.

The total gave MCA’s bowlers something to bowl at, and the Academicians’ progress over the last few months was indicated by the economy with which they pursued their attack of Troy, giving up fewer extras than their opponent, and generally bowling well. It is true that they began the defence of their total in the worst possible way, with Gordon conceding one bye along with five penalty runs off the first ball of the innings, as the ball hit his helmet, placed injudiciously behind the stumps. But openers Chamila and Ani give up only 28 runs in six overs, Ani starting with a maiden and lots of swing, while Murali bowled four overs for only 19 runs, and Anurag two for only 11 before he took over behind the stumps after the drinks break. Mani began with two overs for two runs and one wicket, but couldn’t quite sustain his parsimony as Troy attacked, and MCA’s failure to remove man-of-the-match Ankur, who carried his bat for 35, plus the middle order aggression of Shyam and the experienced Satish Ketkar was too much for MCA.   The captain brought himself on, but could not get the needed breakthrough; nor could Gordon, whose leg breaks were hit for the winning runs.  At the end of the match Troy’s senior men, led by Satish Ketkar, were generous in their praise of MCA’s progress, while MCA’s Shyam Mayasandra also spoke positively of his charges, and reminded everyone that the logjam in the middle of the league table means that MCA still has a fighting chance of making it to the Super Sixes. The next match is against Greater Detroit next Sunday morning, at Lyon Oaks.

Scorecard

MichCA Youth Camps in July and August

MichCA has announced its annual youth camps, held this year at Bloomer Park and at the Canton ground throughout July and August.  The Bloomer camp is on Tuesday evenings, the Canton camp on Thursday evenings.  MCA members have enjoyed this camp in the past, and may find it a useful supplement to MCA practices.  MCA members attending the camp are encouraged to recommend MCA to camp participants — we are especially anxious to recruit more young members and to build our base of U-11 and U-13 players.  Details of the camp in the attached.

MichCA Youth Camp 2010

Canton Cricket Ground Dedication, Thursday, 17 June

On Thursday the new Canton cricket ground (already familiar to MCA’s T20 team) will be officially opened, at the beginning of the Canton Liberty Fest (see http://cantonfun.org/).  Details of the cricket ground dedication, which begins at 6.30 and is hosted by Canton Cricket Club, are in the flyer attached; all are welcome at this event.

CantonGroundDedication

Tryouts for CER U-19 Team Announced

MichCA has announced the schedule for tryouts for the CER U-19 team:

“Session 1
June 15, Tuesday [6:00 pm to 8:30 pm]
Bloomer Park
345 John R Road,
Rochester Hills, MI 48307
Phone: (248) 656-4753

Session 2
June 22, Tuesday [6:00 pm to 8:30 pm]
Lyon Oaks County Park
52221 Pontiac Trail Wixom, MI 48993
Phone: (248) 437-7345           
 
Players are required to have full cricket gear when they come for the tryouts and are encouraged to wear white cricket uniform. Players will be required to register at the time/venue of Nets. Players will be required to provide Name, Address, Contact details (email & phone), Date of Birth, Residential Status in USA, cricket skills and preferences etc (and any other relevant information deemed necessary to establish player eligibility and manage the logistics).

U-19 player ‘Age Eligibility Cutoff ‘ is born on or after Sept 1, 1990. A photocopy of the main page of the passport will be needed to verify the date of birth.”

MCA encourages all eligible members to try out.

US Cricket, Michigan Cricket, and the International Media

In the last few months USACA (the board in control of cricket in the USA) has made significant strides to reassert the United States as a cricketing nation, with the potential to rise above its current rather lowly status. The US national team has begun to make some strides forward, while the decision to host two T20 matches between Sri Lanka and New Zealand at the nation’s first cricket stadium in Lauderhill, Florida, last month, generated much media coverage in the US, some of it quite positive.

Moreover, the media in cricketing countries have shown considerable interest, even curiosity, albeit often with a significant element of cynicism, about plans to expand the footprint of the sport in the homeland of baseball.

Meanwhile, the ICC has helped to promote the idea of America as land of endless cricketing potential (one of its favorite notions in recent years), with the production of a documentary film about cricket in America – available in full at this URL: http://www.nuview.tv/#/special/cricketusa/1/. And Lord’s is currently hosting an elaborate exhibition about cricket and baseball, for which the BBC has produced an interesting audio slide show.

A recent edition of Harsha Bogle’s Cricinfo podcast was devoted to cricket in the US, and includes an interview with Don Lockerbie, Chief Executive of USACA. You can download that podcast from the Cricinfo web site, or from this URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mlmakin/Cricket/’The%20ICC%20should%20look%20at%20the%20USA%20for.mp3

And last, but by no means least, the BBC’s famous radio commentary program, Test Match Special (available streamed online live, all over the world whenever the coverage is of England home matches), devoted the Friday lunch interval during last month’s first Test Match between England and Bangladesh at Lord’s to a discussion of cricket in the US. The broadcast included coverage of the Lord’s exhibition, and interviews with: Mahela Jayawardene, who discusses his experiences in Florida; with the English cricketer Ian Pont, who has spent some time in the USA, and who once tried to win a contract with a baseball team; and, again, with Don Lockerbie. If you listen carefully to the discussions, you will hear, about twenty-four minutes into the recording of the broadcast, the BBC’s chief cricket correspondent (and former England and Leicestershire bowler) Jonathan Agnew read part of an email from MCA’s Information Director, although, alas, MCA did not get a mention on air (which was the intention when that email was sent). You can download the whole discussion here: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mlmakin/Cricket/TMS-USA.mp3 (coverage of the lunch interval starts with Phil Tufnell talking about the band about to appear on the Lord’s outfield – only in England…).

Many of the initiatives currently underway seem promising, and the enthusiasm of Lockerbie is touching and will surely seem to many outside the USA “truly American” (optimistic, energetic, perhaps even a little naïve). However, anyone at the parched “grass roots” of American cricket is probably entitled to wonder about the benefits of some of these initiatives for the Saturday and Sunday cricketer, looking for better grounds and more local support, while the “trickle-down” effect of even the most successful of the initiatives will probably take a long time to reach youth cricket and America’s small number of cricket academies, which appear destined to remain, at least for the moment, obliged to fend for themselves.

However, it would be churlish in the extreme not to share the enthusiasm of USACA’s CEO, and it is surely a good thing that, for example, hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions?) of listeners to TMS in England and around the world heard something about cricket in Michigan, even if Agnew could not pronounce the name of the State correctly…

MCA Triumphant in Memorial Day Weekend Tournament

Michigan Cricket Academy was victorious in its own Memorial Day Weekend Tournament, 2010, emerging top on net-run-rate after a three-way-tie for first place between the hosts, Great Lakes Cricket Conference Colts (the runners-up), and the Michigan Cricket Association Colts, with a very young Chicago Combined team, captained by tournament MVP Srijay Kumar, fighting valiantly throughout the weekend, but eventually occupying fourth place.  GLCC’s captain, Salman Ahmed, won the Best Bowler award, while MCA’s Jai Nirban was Best Batsman.

The round-robin tournament, played primarily at U-19 level, with teams allowed to field up to four U-21 players (although, in fact, both Chicago and MCA had significant numbers of U-15s and U-13s in their squads), entered the final day with every team in with a chance of a trophy: MichCA had beaten both GLCC and Chicago on the opening day, and could be champions with a defeat of MCA; GLCC had recovered from a rather lethargic defeat to MichCA to beat the hosts on Saturday afternoon, and had a chance of either the runners-up or winners trophies, as did MCA, which had beaten Chicago handily and lost narrowly to GLCC on Saturday, while Chicago, although winless, could still get its hands on a trophy if it could beat GLCC on Sunday.

SUNDAY’S MATCHES

Sunday’s Chicago-GLCC match was played at Bloomer Park, Rochester Hills, and, with the out-of-towners now strengthened by two senior men (Fahad and Moin Barbar) who had been unavailable on Saturday, a close contest looked likely.  GLCC, batting first, made 150/9 off the regulation 30 overs, with the key contributions coming from Naeem (29) and Wasim Patel (a sterling 56 not out, and the third half-century of the tournament). Chicago’s opening bowlers played a leading role for the visitors, Moin taking 3/27 and the captain Srijay 2/19.  Chicago must have thought the target more than within reach of a strengthened batting line-up, but when Fahad, Parth, and Vybhav all fell within six overs, with less than fifteen on the board, it was clear that the visitors were bound to struggle.  Only Srijay offered real resistance, his fighting 23 ended by opposing captain Salman, who had him caught for 23, one of four wickets taken by the GLCC skipper.  Chicago were all out for 92 in 29.1 overs.

Meanwhile, at Lyon Oaks Park, MCA played MichCA in a new edition of a familiar rivalry.  MCA, led by eighteen-year-old Kishan Patel, won the toss and elected to bat, with the skipper unworried by the morning dew.  He instructed his openers, fourteen-year-old Gordon Makin and fifteen-year-old Ani Mayasandra, that their job was to stay in, and see off the new ball, hoping to neutralize the threat of MichCA’s star all-rounder Taimoor Ahmed, who had played a key role in MichCA’s two victories the day before.  Gordon and Ani did their captain’s bidding, with an opening partnership of 48, which provided the foundation for a final score of 153/8 in thirty overs.  Gordon batted 21 overs for a patient 30, before falling to a slower ball from Haris Ahmed (another of the tournament’s top bowlers), while quick knocks from Kishan and Dhwanit Patel contributed 15 each, and Jai Nirban played his usual role for the weekend by taking the attack to the MichCA bowlers and scoring a rapid 31.  Haris took the key wickets of Gordon and Jai, but MCA lost only Deepak to Taimoor, late in the innings.  MCA also managed, late in the innings, to rattle MichCA in the field, just as MichCA had done the day before to GLCC — the hosts reached their final score with a run five off the last ball.  In reply, keeper Hamza Ansari (who had an excellent all-round tournament) and Ali built a good base for MichCA in a solid opening stand, with Hamza lasting into the final overs before falling for a careful 21 to Gordon, who turned one and had Hamza play on.  However, earlier, when Taimoor fell, caught behind by Anurag Yerabati, to Jeet, for only 13, MCA began to feel confident (knowing that Taimoor’s team included among the lower-order batsmen several players with little experience of the hard-ball game). When Jeet dismissed Haris in exactly the same way with the next ball, the hosts could not contain their delight, and Kishan Patel, whose vocal and often witty leadership on the field kept his team energized throughout the innings, later identified those two balls as the keys to MCA’s victory.  Like Hamza, Deepa (19) offered stout resistance, and, like Hamza, he fell late to Gordon’s leg spin, caught and bowled.  Once the two of them were out, the lower order crumbled, and MichCA were all out for 116 in 26.4 overs.  MichCA, under the excellent captaincy of Taimoor, who had a very fine all-round tournament, must have felt desperately unlucky that Sunday’s loss moved them from first place to third, but MCA had done its job.  Senior MichCA umpire (and distinguished first-class cricketer) V. V. Giri chose Gordon Makin as his man-of-the-match, “not for his runs, not for his wickets, but for his patience”.

MCA and MichCA left Lyon Oaks for Sunday’s closing ceremony at Bloomer Park with only a vague sense of who might get a hand on which trophy, and so there was much delight in the MCA motorcade when the news came through that the hosts’ net run rate put them well ahead of the two other teams with two victories. 

THE CLOSING CEREMONY

At the closing ceremony, MCA’s generous sponsors, Iknowvate Techologies, U and I Business Solutions, Nrityollasa Center for the Performing Arts, Michigan Cricket Association, Global Sports, and V2Soft, Inc., were all thanked, as were all the participating teams.  MCA officials expressed particular gratitude to the senior umpires, Dr V. V. Giri, Avinash of Troy C.C., and Amir of Canton C. C.  Amir, attending the closing ceremony, graciously donated his umpiring fee to MCA (now a non—profit organization, and actively seeking tax-deductible donations). 

After the closing ceremony, MCA Joint Head Coach Shyam Mayasandra remarked:  “MCA, as with the  other tournaments we have hosted over the last six years, has once again demonstrated, in our own small (but not, we hope, insignificant) way, what can be achieved for young cricketers when the various regional academies combine forces.  We have given our kids an excellent opportunity to display their cricketing talent, and offered them a route-map for further progress in the youth game in this country.  By creating a general buzz among young players, with what we feel has been a well conducted tournament, we have provided a stimulus for competitive development and an advertisement for the possibilities of youth cricket in our area, and we have given all our young players something to look forward to, with the prospect of more tournaments, including our own annual Labor Day Weekend Tournament, at which we expect a large number of teams to offer significant and challenging competition.”

SATURDAY’S MATCHES

On Saturday, Chicago had started the day by playing the hosts at Bloomer.  Kishan, one of four outstanding young captains, won the toss and batted.  As would happen on Sunday, MCA’s innings was built on a strong opening stand, this time of 50 between Gordon and thirteen-year-old Rohit Mogalayapalli.  Gordon was surprised by a straight one from young Arnav, and bowled through the gate for 15, but his opening partner, Rohit, went on to dominate Chicago with a splendid 71, the biggest score of the tournament (MCA coaches took great pleasure in the facts that several of their top performers were U-15 players, and a significant number of the team, including both Gordon and Rohit, are American-born and have never played cricket outside of the USA).  All of MCA’s top order got among the runs (Swapnil – 15; Dhwanit – 23;  Jai –33; Kishan – 11; Ani – 14), enabling MCA to post a challenging total of 214/9 in 30 overs.  Vybhav was the pick of the visitors’ bowling, with 3/34.  In its reply, Chicago was bound to find the going tough, not least because it had been forced to borrow sixteen-year-old Krishna Kompella and eleven-year-old Neil Makin from the hosts (the former scored 15, opening, while the latter, batting eight-down, scored two not out), and, although Srijay played a captain’s innings of 38, the visitors did not have enough artillery to get close to the target, ending on 149.  Pawan Canchi’s economical off spin took three wickets.

Saturday afternoon’s match at Bloomer, between Chicago and MichCA, was shortened to 25 overs because of time constraints.  Chicago won the toss, and batted, with fifteen-year-old Parth Joshi opening and leading the way; with a powerful 55 he became the second U-15 player to score a half-century in the tournament, but only Srijay, with 24, stayed with him, and Chicago finished all-out (with only ten men) for 112.  Taimoor’s three wicket-haul (3/10) led the way for MichCA, with Haris and Shereyar each helping themselves to two.  In reply, MichCA knocked off the runs in 23 overs, with Arsalan’s 17 and Asad’s 25 n.o. the biggest contributions.  Parth helped himself to two wickets for only 16.

At Lyon Oaks on Saturday, MichCA Colts defeated GLCC Colts in the morning match, with Taimoor Ahmed leading his team.  Hamza and Ali opened for MichCA, who batted first, and built slowly but surely, with Hamza scoring a very solid 20; Ali, Haris, and Arsalan all scored in the teens, but the key innings was the captain’s: his 49, well-paced, led his team to a final total of exactly 150, off thirty overs, with eight wickets down.  Naheel led the bowling, with three wickets, but GLCC knew that they could have done better – at least half a dozen chances went down, including Taimoor before he had got into double figures. In reply, GLCC saw strong efforts from Naeem, Ashraful, Wasim, and Suleiman (18, 15, 18, and 16 respectively), but no one could stay long enough to dominate, while Taimoor’s figures of 6-0-9-2, Haris’s of 6-0-15-4, and Arsalan’s of 3-0-20-3 told a very different tale from GLCC’s.  V. V. Giri had not hesitation in choosing Taimoor Ahmed as man-of-the-match.

Salman and his team were determined not to repeat the morning’s mistakes, and to shake off early-season rust, when they played the hosts in the afternoon at Lyon Oaks, in a match shortened to 20 overs.  A confident Kishan Patel won the toss and put GLCC in, but the bowling and fielding of Salman’s team were much tighter now, and Salman’s own three wicket-haul led the way for GLCC.  Manpreet Singh, making his only tournament appearance, scored his 39 at an IPL rate, but Jai was the only other MCA batsman to score in double figures (17).  A final score of 85 in exactly 17 overs looked modest indeed, but Kishan raised his team with a fine opening spell and again later with two wickets, ably supported by Dhwanit (three wickets), Jeet, and Manpreet.  When GLCC were 16/3 and then 24/4, MCA had high hopes of defending their low score, but a fine 28 from Suleiman and a swashbuckling 22 from Yasin took GLCC to the brink of victory.  As MCA hunted for a way back, Kishan turned to his secret weapon, eleven-year-old Neil Makin (now returned from his spell on loan to Chicago), but GLCC managed to escape Neil’s one over intact, taking six runs off the youngster, and giving only one hard chance.  It should be noted that Neil was not the youngest player to bat or bowl in the tournament.  That honor went to ten-year-old Srijith Kumar, who bowled three economical overs in two days and made three appearances with the bat (against Neil’s one). After Neil’s over, Dhwanit returned to make it interesting, dismissing both Suleiman and Yasin, to leave GLCC wobbling on 79/6 at the end of 18. But Salman and Raj steadied the ship and saw GLCC home in 19 overs.  V. V. Giri chose Yasin Patel (4-0-14-4; 22) as his man-of-the-match.

Overall, the tournament, run on shoe-string and with a small but active staff, seemed a success, with praise coming from players, coaches, and umpires alike.  MCA felt that the format provided the best arena for the available talent, and gave opportunities to players of all ages.  The Memorial Day Tournament is the smaller of MCA’s two annual tournaments, and the Academy is now beginning preparations for its bigger and much more demanding Labor Day Weekend Tournament (clubs are invited to contact the Academy if they would like to participate).  Meanwhile, MCA’s players return to league duty this weekend, as the Academy team plays Ann Arbor C. C. in the MichCA T20 competition.  Pictures on the tournament are available online at MCA’s Flickr feed.

Match Results:

Saturday, 29 May, Bloomer Park:
MCA (214/9 in 30 overs; Rohit 71, Jai 33; Vybhav 34/3) defeated Chicago (149  all out in 29.5 overs; Srijay 38; Pawan 27/3).
Chicago (112 all out in 26 overs, Parth 50, Taimoor 3/10) lost to MichCA Colts (114 in 22.5 overs, Asad 25 n.o.) in a 25-over match

Saturday, 29 May, Lyon Oaks Park:
MichCA Colts (150/8 in 30 overs, Taimoor 49, Naheel 3/29) defeated GLCC Colts (125 in 30 overs, Haris 4/15)
MCA (85 a.o. in 17 overs, Manpreet 39, Yasin4/14) lost to GLCC (86/6 in 19 overs, Dhwanit 3/26) in a 20-over match.

Sunday, 30 May, Bloomer Park:
GLCC (150/9 in 30 overs, Naeem 29, Wasim 56 n.o., Moin 3/27) defeated Chicago (92 a.o. in 29.1 overs, Salman 4.27).

Sunday, 30 May, Lyon Oaks Park
MCA (153/8 in 30 overs, Gordon 30, Jai 31, Haris 4/28) defeated MichCA Colts (116 a.o. in 26.4 overs).