Newsletter
September 10, 2009 Issue #99
Hello and welcome to this edition of the I.E.C.C. Newsletter.
Index
- Nagoya to launch its T-20 this month
- The fine print
- Asia & EAP news –
- Indian Engineers’ Japan Cricket Rating – New results
- Announcements
- IECC poll results
- Reader’s corner
- Best of the web
- Snippet of the month
- Trivial facts from our Archives
Nagoya to launch its T-20 this month
As reported in this space earlier, Nagoya Cricket Club and Khan Enterprises Inc. are to launch the first ever cash prize T-20 tournament this month. The tournament, named “Nagoya KCL T-20 2009”, is open only to the top 8 teams of each group of the KCL competition and carries a prize of JPY 100,000 for the winner and various other cash prizes. The top 8 teams of KCL this year are Al Karam, Giants, Indian Engineers, Lalazar, Nagoya, Serendib, Shizuoka and YC&AC. The competition will be held at Shizuoka. The T-shirts of player are sponsored by Khan Enterprise Inc.
Well, it is an exciting development indeed and we hope that this becomes a tournament that will be known outside Japan sooner than later, which probably will, because of the prize money. However, the challenge will still be the organisation of logistics particularly because of the fact that the tournament will be held in Shizuoka. It wouldn’t be a surprise if one or two eligible teams drop out of this tournament because of the distance, despite an attractive prize money.
The KCL competition, meanwhile, saw some usual suspects and surprises in the semi-final lineup. While Lalazar muscled its way to the top by beating the favorites, Al Karam, in Group B, and YC&AC being relegated to third position, a big fall from their top position last year, the Shizuoka Kytes surprised a few (probably themselves too!) in Group A with their semi-final berth. The other qualifier from Group A is the Serendib and Tokyo Giants from Group B.
Kansai Cricket
Jason from Kansai reports:
Jason from Kansai reports that although there are enough number of teams down there at Kansai, the Kansai Cup doesn’t seem to get going mainly due to lack of grounds and at times teams not turning up for matches. The only regular ground available is that of KRAC but available only once a month for cricket.
Editor** Kansai needs grounds, supporters and volunteers (and ideas too) to get the tournament going. If anyone has anything to offer, please contact us.
KCL results are available here
YC&AC Sixes to be a night event on October 4
YC&AC announced that they have postponed the annual YC&AC Sixes to 4th October, which was originally scheduled to be held on September 27. The tournament this year comes in different form – Day & Night cricket. This is a tournament that has its teams based on nationality. The likely teams this year are ANZAC, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, International, England and Japan.
Indian Engineers on Twitter
Well, the Engineers can’t be away from latest technology for too long. Follow the Engineers at http://twitter.com/ieccjapan/ for live match updates and other cricket updates.
Pacific Friendship Cup
YC&AC became the first team to qualify for the Pacific Cup finals this year after defeating the Indian Engineers in the semi-final. The second semi-final will be between Paddy Foleys and Tokyo Wombats. Tokyo Giants, the defender and a strong contender for this year too became an unfortunate victim of the rain rules in the league level. According to the rules, which set a deadline date by which league matches have to be finished failing which a coin will be tossed to decide the winner, the Tokyo Giants vs. Paddy Foleys game was decided by the toss of a coin which fell in favour of the Foleys and the Giants were eliminated from the competition. Cruel as that can be.
The history of the PFC can be read here.
The Fine Print
Former Jamaica prime minister P.J.Pattersonn lambasted his cricket board of being too slow in moving to implement the changes to improve the boards governance and the national team’s performance as suggested by a Committee that included himslef and others. “It is erroneous to pretend or attempt to portray the notion that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has accepted and is proceeding in accordance with the Report submitted by Sir Alister McIntyre, Dr. Ian McDonald and myself.” Patterson said in his column. “I challenge anyone to point out a single iota or even the semblance of change which has been made to the composition and structure of the WICB as a result of our Report.”, he added.
###
Fashion is an important part of daily life for West Indian Dwayne Bravo His forearm sweatband is always matching the colour of his sunglasses. It has reached a stage now where he is even matching with skipper Chris Gayle’s quirky sunglasses (the fashion jury is still out on those though many have said that Chris looks as though he has attended one too many kids birthday party in recent times). Bravo was recently seen in pink t shirt, black pants and pink and black sneakers when the team appeared at the National Stadium in Jamaica to watch the Usain Bolt v Asafa Powell clash.
###
12 former cricket stars from England and India clashed on Switzerland’s snow-capped Jungfraujoch mountain in a friendly match organised by Beyond Boundaries, an Indian sports travel company, in association with Jungfraunbahen (Swiss Railways) and Swiss International Airlines. The match was held on India’s Independence Day on a specially made 18-yard strip with five-overs-a-side at 3,454 metres above sea level. While Kapil Dev, Roger Binny, Syed Kirmani, Sandeep Patil, Anshuman Gaekwad and Ajay Jadeja formed Team India, their opponents, the All Stars, included Alvin Kallicharran, Geoff Howarth, John Emburey, Chris Broad, Collis King and Neal Radford. MAK Pataudi and Farokh Engineer donned the umpire’s hat. Combining Swiss scenery and a uniquely English sporting passion, the event aimed to highlight the appeals of Switzerland to English cricket fans.
Comment: We had seen cricket at the Himalayas and now this.
What next? Cricket at Sahara? or middle of the Atlantic ocean?
###
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the schedule for the ICC World Cricket League Division Six, which offers teams the opportunity to progress to the 2015 World Cup.The tournament got underway on 29th August and the top two sides will be promoted to Division Five with such promotions continuing up until the World Cup Qualifier in 2013. Division Seven champions Bahrain and runners-up Guernsey are joined by Botswana, Malaysia, Norway and hosts Singapore.
###
Former South African captain Shaun Pollock has stated that he believes that One-Day Internationals are the best format of the game. “Having played a lot (of 50-over cricket), maybe I’m a bit more of a sucker when it comes to appreciating the game,” Pollock told the ICC of T-20 game. “The fast 20-over game has caught the imagination of many but if you get off to a bad start then you can cost yourself the game. There is a lot of skill involved in the 50-over game and it’s over a much longer period, so that allows teams to have a bit of a mishap and recover from it and you’ve got time to implement tactics.” he
said.
###
Troubled all-rounder Andrew Symonds took a dig at the Ashes losing Australian team by criticising the world champion’s team culture. “I suppose you like to go out on your own terms. But the way I was, that I am, and the way the game was headed …
if you can’t sit in the pub and watch a football game over a beer, if that’s upsetting team rules and harmony, there’s no place for me anymore,” said Symonds, adding that although he is upset with the way he was thrown out of the Australian team, he still desires to wear the baggy green.
###
Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden has called for scrapping the Champions Trophy as there already is a World Cup in the 50-over format. There’s too much cricket, too much of it is meaningless, and there are just too many different formats,” Hayden wrote in his vision for cricket. He also suggegsted the T-20 World Cup should be played in every four years instead of the current two years and a a two-month window for the Indian Premier League to avoid overlapping of schedules.
###
Former Pakistan batsman Qasim Umar reportedly said on a television show that Viv Richards took performance-enhancing drugs during his playing days. According to a Press Trust of India(PTI) report, Umar said that Richards, “himself confessed to him that he used to take drugs to release tension and improve his stamina and endurance levels.” Mervyn Richards, the younger brother of sir Viv Richards, put the allegation down to jealousy. “This has come up at a time when Usain Bolt is breaking records. It’s funny how allegations are made against extraordinary players. Yes, Viv was enhanced by something. It’s called passion.” Mervyn said.
###
An audio tape which has been leaked by an unknown person from within the Pakistan Cricket Board has national selector, Mohammad Illyas talking openly with his close friend and PCB Chief Operating Officer, Salim Altaf, about how Pakistani players fixed matches in the first season of the Indian Cricket League. In the audio tape, Altaf asks Illyas about a fight between former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and batsman Imran Farhat (who is the son-in-law of Illyas). Illyas says the fight was serious during the ICL in 2007 and happened because some players were fixing matches. Illyas says in the conversation which a former Board official has confirmed was taped when former Chairman of the board, Dr Nasim Ashraf had ordered thetelephone lines and the office of Altaf to be bugged at the
Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
###
Cricinfo editor said in his article that the dream that Papua New Guinea and Estonia would one day play Test cricket was always a false one.
Comment: Did he miss Japan?
###
Australia losing the Ashes and slumping to number four in Test rankings is good for world cricket as it gives other teams the confidence to shine in the future, Pakistan great
Wasim Akram said.
###
Source: Various web and print media
Asia & EAP News
Pepsi ICC EAP Men’s Cricket Trophy 2009 to be held in September
The official tournament programme for the Pepsi ICC EAP Men’s Cricket Trophy 2009 will be held in Apia, Samoa from 17-25 September with eight national men’s teams competing in both T20 and 50-over cricket.
The 50-over competition will be run in two components:
* Pepsi ICC World Cricket League (WCL) teams – Fiji, Japan and PNG will play each other in a round-robin competition and this will provide those three Members a great opportunity to play more cricket and hone their skills for upcoming WCL competitions.
* Non World Cricket League teams – Cook Islands, Indonesia, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu will play each other to earn the right to be the highest-ranked EAP team and thereby strengthen its case to be elevated to WCL Division 8.
Afghanistan and others qualify for ICC U19 Cricket World Cup
Afghanistan, Ireland, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the USA secured their places in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup after recording victories in the U19 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Toronto.
More news and brief score card at: http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/the-icc/icc_members/eap/newsdetails.php?newsId=1090
Indian Engineers’ Japan Cricket Rating – New results
Results as of August 31:
Lalazar gate crashed into the top 10 with some heavy wins against top ranked teams in the KCL match, which gave them some handsome bonus points. Here is the list of the top 10 teams(last month’s ranking in brackets):
1 Tokyo Giants (1)
2 Nagoya (2)
3 Tokyo Wombats (3)
4 Serendib (5)
5 Wyverns (6)
6 YC&AC (4)
7 Lalazar (19)
8 Adore (10)
9 Indian Engineers (9)
10 Al karam (7)
10 Kansai Lions (8)
See the full list here.
We encourage all teams to send us your result statistics regularly so that your team’s rankings remain as accurate as possible. We are in a position to obtain the results of the official tournament matches on our own but we are looking for the results of the friendly matches.
Announcements
Umpiring opportunity in Japan/EAP
I’m sending this to club and league representatives in JCL, KCL and Kansai. If you know of anybody else who would be interested, please forward this announcement. Note that this is not compulsory – your team does not have to provide a name – nor is it limited to one person per team.
I’ve been asked by Brian Aldridge (EAP Umpire Coordinator) to gather names and email addresses of people in Japan who are either a) already active as an umpire or b) interested in becoming involved. This is part of an initiative by the ICC’s East Asia Pacific region to increase and improve the level of cricket umpiring across the region. By joining the initiative, you are not being required to do anything. You are simply making yourself known and you will receive a newsletter and other umpiring information from EAP representatives. The long-term intention is to build up a broad base of competent umpires across the region and to identify candidates for regional tournaments and for selection to the EAP Umpires Panel and the EAP Supplementary Panel.
Contact me at: neil@umpire.com
Shizuoka Kytes Lawnmower Drive Unit Fundraising Program
By Neil Harrison:
Do you remember the 2007 Shizuoka Kytes Lawnmower Fundraising ICC World Cup Extravaganza? Of course you do. You enjoyed it so much you helped me raise 25,000 yen to stop our lawnmowers falling apart. Now you get another chance to give us yer money with the 2009 Shizuoka Kytes Lawnmower Drive Unit Fundraising ICC Champions Trophy Extravaganza. Very generous of the ICC to time this tournament just as we have two mowers in for repair and we are looking at a big repair bill. The Honda needs a new drive unit and that alone is going to cost us 35,000. Parts for the Yardman will cost us 5,000. Then there’s the labour…
What do you have to do? Like last time, the idea is just to have a bit of fun and hopefully get a bit of cash in towards the cost of our repairs. The rules are attached. Veterans of 2007 will notice a couple of changes – some due to the different format of the Champions Trophy, some due to my inclination to fiddle.
Rule 4a: The point is, your 11 should be feasible as a team – not just 10 bowlers and a keeper or whatever.
You can enter teams for people outside the country as long as you’re prepared to pay for them. You can enter more than one team (but pay 1,000 yen per team).
Like last time, I’ll send out a full list of everyone’s teams and I’ll send updates as the tournament progresses, but you’ll have to wait for
the first few matches because I’ll be umpiring hard in Samoa. Such a grind, this international umpiring lark. If possible please send your teams well before the stated deadline (Sept 21st) so that I can get everything sorted out before heading to Samoa. You can always tinker with the team up to the deadline.
Links:
ICC: http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/events_and_awards/champions_trophy/index.php
Cricinfo: http://www.cricinfo.com/iccct2009/content/series/374074.html
Squads: http://www.cricinfo.com/iccct2009/content/squad?object=374074
The Rules:
1) You pay 1,000 yen and you enter a team.
2) At least 500 yen of your money goes towards Kytes’ mower repair bill.
3) Up to 500 yen of your money goes towards prizes, as follows:
a) Highest Score: 4,000 yen
b) Lowest Score: 1,000 yen
(Assuming I get 10 entrants. Who pay. I might increase these and add more prizes if I get more entrants.)
c) Best Team Name: Bottle of Hardy’s wine
4) You choose a team of 11 players. Give your team a name.
a) The team must consist of:
at least 4 recognised batsmen
at least 4 recognised bowlers
one wicketkeeper.
b) You can choose 4 players from your own country. If your country is not represented, tough.
c) You cannot choose more than 3 players from any other country.
d) If a player pulls out of the tournament for any reason, his place in your team is automatically taken by the player called up to replace him in the squad.
e) If any two teams are identical, I’ll be in touch.
5) Your team must arrive at neil@jp.fujitsu.com by midnight on September 21st.
6) You score points as follows:
a) For every run scored by one of your players – 1 point.
b) For every wicket taken by one of your players unaided as a bowler – 30 points (ie. bowled, lbw, hit wicket).
c) For every wicket taken by one of your players as a bowler with help from a fielder – 20 points (ie. caught or stumped).
d) For every catch or stumping taken by one of your players – 10 points.
e) For every runout effected by one of your players – 18 points, 9 points etc, as listed on the scoresheet.
f) For every Man-of-the-Match award taken by one of your players – 10 points.
g) To highlight their position as jokers in the pack, scores for West Indies players count double.
Readers’ Corner
I was very interested to read Peter Roebuck’s comment quoted in the Newsletter issue 98: “To that end, sense the sudden, growing excitement of youngsters glued to television sets in Papua New Guinea, Japan, Sierra Leone, Vanuatu and Afghanistan.” I read that also in his original article on Cricinfo and posted the following reply (without a response!) as follows: “I would much appreciate Peter Roebuck kindly advising to which TV channel viewers in Japan are tuning in, so that I can do likewise. To the best of my knowledge, cricket is not televised in Japan (nor is it likely to be in the foreseeable future!). We have to make do with the internet, or visiting the very few pubs or Sports Bars which have a (quite possibly illegal) satellite connection.”
Tony Fordyce
YC&AC
Editor** We encourage our readers to write back to us with your articles, opinion, feedback and criticism. Feel free to write about anything related to cricket, in Japan or outside.
IECC Poll results
Here is the last poll result:
Can England wrest the Ashes?
Yes 80%
No 20%
Can’t say 0%
(This result was before the final Test)
Take the new poll:
Should the ICC Champions Trophy be scrapped?
Best of the Web
A Japan Times article on Cricket in Japan
Gorillas play cricket, a promotional ad for the ICC World Twenty20 released by ICC
Snippets of the Month
Note: Beginning the Issue #39 (May 6, ’04), we bring you some interesting snippets from the cricket world, to celebrate the fourth anniversary this Newsletter and first anniversary of our popular “Trivial Facts” series. The same will be published on the front page of our website too.
“The consensus was to bowl in the right areas and the channels” – Kumar Sangakkara revealing a hitherto unknown secret of winning after winning the first Test against Pakistan recently.
Trivial facts (from our Archives)
1. Malaysian born Lall Singh played for India in 1932 against England at Lords.
2. France is the current Olympic silver medalists in cricket. England had defeated France at the Paris Games final in 1900, the last time cricket was played in Olympics.
That’s all in this edition!
![[CIMG1528.JPG]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_aMQNVyNdhrI/SqoQ68Yh00I/AAAAAAAAAQ4/nvyOjMwkFr0/s1600/CIMG1528.JPG)
![[CIMG1529.JPG]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_aMQNVyNdhrI/SqoQiQRjKhI/AAAAAAAAAQo/iBqNIq4ZQzU/s1600/CIMG1529.JPG)
![[CIMG1522.JPG]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_aMQNVyNdhrI/SqoQiLFo9JI/AAAAAAAAAQg/wEYysYEp1KU/s1600/CIMG1522.JPG)