Newsletter
November 11, 2009 Issue #101
Hello and welcome to this edition of the I.E.C.C. Newsletter.
Index
- MCC tours Japan, Giants win KCL final
- The fine print
- Asia & EAP news –
- Indian Engineers’ Japan Cricket Rating – New results
- IECC poll results
- Reader’s corner
- Best of the web
- Snippet of the month
- Trivial facts from our Archives
MCC tours Japan, Giants win KCL final
At this time of the year We bring you a routine news – the Tokyo Giants have won the Kanto Cricket League trophy….again. The difference this time, however, was the margin of victory, a massive 248 runs. For the fist time ever in the history of KCL and quite possibly for Japan too, the match was broadcast live on internet by www.pakjapantv.com, the Pakistani Online TV in Japan.
Sent in to bat first by their opponents, Lalazar, the Giants scored a massive 306/6 in their allotted 35 overs, helped by skipper Mumtaz Alam’s unbeaten whirlwind 69(6×4, 5×6) off 34 balls and Hamid Saeed’s 66(7×4 5×6) off 31 deliveries. A huge chunk of the Giants’ runs came towards the end of their innings when the skipper Mumtaz led an onslaught in the last 4 overs which yielded 77 runs. Lalazar seemingly had situation under control until the 22nd over when the Giants were at 157/5. Mumtaz joined Munir Ahmed at this stage and the pair put on 77 runs for the 6th wicket. Mumtaz then put on a massive 72 runs for the unfinished 7th wicket partnership off 4 overs in the company of Ahmad Kamal.
Lalazar, who defeated Serendip in the semi-final was no match for the champions as they crumbled to a paltry 58 runs off only 12.1 overs. Giants only used the opening bowlers Ahmed Kamal and Hamid Saeed to finish off the Lalazar innings in which Kamal claimed 6/36 off 6.1 overs and Hamid Saeed 4/22. Hamid was deservedly declared the Man of the Match award, an award the allrounder has been consistently claiming in the last few years. The only Lalazar batsman who reached double digit figure was Mudassar with 11 runs and the next best was the ever reliable Extras with 10.
This is a record 10th time that the Giants won the trophy since 2000. The only year they failed was in 2005 when they even failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament. In 2006 they were declared joint winners along with the Friends XI because the final could not be held due to lack of time. The other team that played the most number of KCL finals is the Friends, who played 5 finals in the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006 and 2007.
The game was officiated by Chris Thurgate, a member of the ICC EAP Panel of Umpires, and David Lolback of Chiba Sharks.
Photos of the game is available here.
MCC tours Japan
The MCC toured Japan in October to play two T-20 matches and one ODI. The MCC team, which included former England Test player Philip Defreitas, played the first T-20 match against Sano CC and the second against Japan National team at the new cricket ground at Sano city. They had such an easy run over the Japanese teams to the extend that they reported to have reversed their batting order in the ODI (50-overs) against the Japan National team played at the Fuji cricket ground. Batting first, Japan scored 137 in 43 overs with Prashant Kale top scoring with 46 runs. Chasing a modest total, MCC almost paid the price for their decision as Japan came close to an upset win but MCC eventually won by 2 wickets thanks to some dropped catches(4 of them as report suggested) by the Japan players.
The tour also included a visit to some Universities in Tokyo and a match against the Japan Development team.
The ODI was umpired by Neil Harrison of Japan and with Barrie Leadbeater, the former first class player and umpire.
Nagoya KCL T-20
The first ever all cash prize cricket tournament in Japan, Nagoya KCL T-20, sponsored by Nagoya Cricket club and Khan Enterprises Inc. was held in Shizuoka last month. The tournament, carrying a cash award of JPY 100,000 for the winner, however, did not arouse the kind of enthusiasm it deserved, most likely due to the distance the Tokyo based teams would have had to travel to play a 20-over game. Three teams conceded a walkover in the knockout stage. The tournament also saw a major upset in which Shizuoka Kytes beat the Tokyo Giants in the Semi Finals. “We were good, bloody good”, said a beaming Kytes skipper, Neil Harrison after the win.
The effort put in by the sponsors was applauded by the participating teams. The white balls and colourful jerseys with team names printed on the back came in for extra praise. Here are the brief results:
Knockout:
Lalazar beat Al Karam by walkover
Serendib beat Nagoya by 8 runs
Shizuoka Kytes beat Indian Engineers by walkover
Tokyo Giants beat Indian Tigers by walkover
Semi Finals:
Lalazar beat Serendib by 6 wickets
Shizuoka Kytes beat Tokyo Giants by 8 wickets
The final will be played in March/April 2010.
Some photos are available here.
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.
The Fine Print
A 12-year-old boy from Springfield Rizvi school in India smashed his way into the record books when he scored 439 against a hapless Indian Education Society in the U-16 inter-school Harris Shield three-day match on Wednesday. The boy, Sarfaraz Khan faced 421 balls and hit an incredible 12 sixes and 56 fours – which tots up to a near-triple century in only fours and sixes – over two days. The Harris Shield is the same tournament that launched Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli.
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Indian cricket’s enfant terrible S Sreesanth has been given a “final warning” by the BCCI to mend his on-field behaviour, failing which he would be suspended from domestic matches. “You are hereby given a final warning to ensure that you do not violate the BCCI Code of Conduct. Any repetition of such behaviour will be dealt with severely by the BCCI including suspension from domestic cricket matches,” the letter read.
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Triple Olympic and world champion sprinter Usain Bolt returned to his first love,cricket, on Sunday and showed that he certainly knows how to handle both bat and ball. In a charity match, just down the coast from his home town of Trelawny, Bolt bowled West Indies captain Chris Gayle after earlier delighting a packed crowd by smashing his Jamaican compatriot for a straight six. Bolt, taking a long run up and bowling at a respectable pace, gave Gayle a traditional West Indian welcome with his first ball — a rising bouncer that brought the crowd to their feet. “I told Chris to watch out, I was going to give him one but he didn’t really believe it,” Bolt said.
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Pakistani Paceman Mohammed Asif will not be able to feature in Pakistan’s series against New Zealand as the PCB has not been able to facilitate his entry into Dubai due to a dope offense case. The Dubai authorities had banned his entry into United Arab Emirates last year after recovering a small quantity of hashish from Asif when he was returning from India after participating in the inaugural IPL.
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After having invested millions towards star-packed teams, owners of the three IPL outfits which eventually qualified for the CL will be feeling hard done by after watching their ‘galacticos’ eliminated early. Not only has the inability of the Deccan Chargers, RCB and Delhi Daredevils to make the semifinals adversely dented TRP ratings and gate receipts, it has raised important questions about whether the IPL model has been exposed: Does the event deserve to be a benchmark for the club-based T20 format being touted as an important part of the game’s future? “The fact is that the IPL teams failed to qualify for the semis because they played bad cricket, and that is it. Some of the teams from other countries have adjusted well to the conditions and played according to the situation,” South Africa’s legendary pacer Allan Donald told the Times Of India daily.
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A 25-minute docudrama titled, Indian Women’s Cricket team Poor Cousins of Million Dollar Babies, featuring the vast disparity existing between men and women cricketers in India has been released recently. Former Indian women’s cricket captain Anjum Chopra and current skipper Jhulan Goswami on Tuesday released the docu-feature made by Sunil Yash Kalra. Shot in the three of the most influential dressing rooms in the cricketing world – Eden Gardens,MCG and Lord’s – the docu-feature captures the high voltage drama, tension and camaraderie of the players over a period of four years. “The story ends on a high, when girls fulfill their dream of playing at the ‘Mecca of Cricket’ Lord’s Cricket Ground, alongside the men at ICC World Twenty20 early this year,” Kalra, who is a women’s cricket historian, said.
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Dismissing suggestions that umpiring in the Champions Trophy semi-final between Pakistan and New Zealand was biased, ICC elite panel umpire Aleem Dar said mistakes were bound to happen from match officials as they too are human beings.The Pakistani umpire also came in support of his colleague Simon Taufel, who was openly criticised by a senior member of the Pakistan Cricket Board and accused the Australian of favoring New Zealand in the vital match. “Umpires are human beings and can make mistakes. I don’t think Simon Taufel gave a wrong decision on purpose. Anyone can make mistakes, even I have made errors on the field,” Dar told reporters at a function organised by the PCB to felicitate him for winning the ICC Umpire of the Year award.
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Australian umpire Daryl Harper says the infamous leg-before decision he gave against Sachin Tendulkar in 1999 is the only one he wants the world to forget about but insists that he was not wrong in giving the Indian batsman out. “The one that I would like the world to forget is the Sachin (Tendulkar) one, when he ducked a (Glenn) McGrath bouncer, in Adelaide in 1999. I’ve got the video clip on my laptop still, and you can see it is still out!” Harper said.McGrath’s delivery had hit Tendulkar’s shoulder in front of the wickets and Harper ruled it out, leading to quite a furore. Harper said he has made his share of mistakes but has never said sorry to a player for that.
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Bollywood Super Star Amitabh Bachchan agreed with an interviewer that when Sachin Tendulkar is playing well, he puts a smile on a billion faces. Suddenly, people everywhere seem to be more accommodating and friendly, and even the cashier at the bank serves you with a smile. “There is an atmosphere of positivity when Sachin is doing well and, at shoots, there is a constant, uplifting buzz.” Bachchan said.
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Former England all-rounder Ian Botham has slammed Twenty20 cricket, saying that it had no place on the international stage. “I don’t want to see the best players in the world standing there and slogging,” Botham said in an interview to The Wisden Cricketer magazine. “We have just had a Twenty20 World Cup and within a year we’re going to have another in the Caribbean. It is greed, greed, greed. That is what will kill the game, the greed of the authorities.”
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Nathan Bracken, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich and Shaun Tait are set to leave women drooling after stripping off for a new calendar. The Australian cricketers posed for the 3 Mobile Men of Cricket calendar, priced at 29.95 dollars, the second installment of an idea to raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.
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Source: Various web and print media
Asia & EAP News
EAP names squad for Australian Country Cricket Championships
Japan’s Masaomi Kobayashi has been included in the ICC EAP squad for the Australian Country Cricket Championships to be held between 3-14 January, 2010 in Albury.
PNG television to broadcast live cricket
Papua New Guinea’s national television service, EMTV, has confirmed that it will broadcast all international cricket matches from Australia in the summer of 2009-10. Cricket in PNG has received a boost with the U19 squad qualifying for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in New Zealand and the senior men’s team winning the East Asia Pacific Trophy.
Historic First for Cook Islands Cricket
Cook Islands Cricket Association (CICA) is excited to announce its new, exciting and unique “88FM Cricket Show”. Perhaps the first of its kind, a Cook Islands national sporting body will have its own regular radio show featuring news, interviews and happenings from around the cricketing community of the nation. General manager for CICA, Alister Stevic, said: “We have teamed up with one of the country’s finest radio stations to produce a special piece of local media.”. General Manager of 88FM, George Williams said: “Cricket is an up and coming sport in the Cook Islands and CICA certainly has some exciting things happening within the community. We are excited to be offering this first-of-its-kind sports radio show to the public and are enthusiastic about introducing the people to some of our talented cricket players.”
Indian Engineers’ Japan Cricket Rating – New results
Results as of September 30:
Here is the list of the top 10 teams(last month’s ranking in brackets):
1 Tokyo Giants (1)
2 Tokyo Wombats (3)
3 Nagoya (2)
4 Wyverns (5)
5 Serendib (4)
6 Lalazar (7)
7 YC&AC (6)
8 MAX (11)
9 Adore (8)
9 Al karam (10)
9 Kansai Lions (8)
10 Indian Engineers (9)
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.
Readers’ Corner
Many congrats on your 100th edition. A tremendous effort and contribution to cricket, fellas.
Mark Darbyshire
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
Should the ICC Champions Trophy be scrapped?
Yes,definitely 100%
No 0%
Unlikely 0%
Take the new poll:
Do agree with the suggestion of lifting the quota for the bowlers in ODI to make it more interesting?
Best of the Web
Hitler learns of Pakistan’s loss in the CT semi-final
Lightning Bolt blows over Gayle
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.
“Tendulkar has become Sachin again.” – A Cricinfo commentator during Tendulkar’s 175 against Australia after Tendulkar hit three 6s and a 4 off seven deliveries over two overs.
Trivial facts (from our Archives)
1. There is only one instance in Tests where all 11 batsmen made single digit scores – by South Africa against England in 1924, when they were dismissed for just 30 at Edgbaston. There have been 25 instances where ten batsmen failing to reach double figures.
That’s all in this edition!