Newsletter
February 10, 2010 Issue #104
Hello and welcome to this edition of the I.E.C.C. Newsletter.
Index
- KCL holds its AGM
- 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
KCL holds its AGM
The Kanto Cricket League held its AGM on Sunday February 7. The major decision taken at the AGM, after a lengthy debate, was to reduce the number of Committee Members to five from the present seven. The existing Committee members – Tony Fordyce, Robert-Gills Martineau, Udayaraj T.J, Mumtaz Alam and Saqib Khan – were re-elected for the current season which will be the last term for all the boys except Udayaraj. The KCL Constitution allows only four terms for a Committee member unless the AGM reelects a member whose terms had expired by a two third majority.
The Indian Engineers and Al Karam proposed the use of two new grounds at Koga and Tsukuba respectively, which they have recently got access to. The AGM decided to consider buying new Flicx pitches for these grounds after evaluating the usage of these grounds this season. The first match of the KCL is likely to be played on the 2nd weekend of March.
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
The BCCI will appeal against the Rs 1.2billion (USD 25mil) penalty it faces from the Income Tax Department for allegedly hiding its commercial activities, Board treasurer MP Pandove said. “BCCI is a registered charitable institution. I am not aware under what circumstances they (the IT Department) have made this assessment that we will have to pay Rs 120 Crore as tax. However, we are yet to receive their order and once we get it, we will appeal against it,” Pandove said.
Comment: Charitable institution? hmmmm…
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Retired Australian Adam Gilchrist on Friday said he would play in this year’s Indian Premier League even if some of his compatriots decide otherwise. “I cannot speak for other players but I am sure to tour India in March for the IPL. I am confident of Mr. Modi and the IPL organisers. I have some fine memories of India and would like to extend that,” Gilchrist said. Shiv Sena, a right wing Indian political party, had threatened not to allow any Australian play in India as long as attackes on the Indians did not stop Down Under.
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In the wake of Shiv Sena’s threat, retired opener Matthew Hayden said he is very much looking forward to be part of the third edition of the Twenty20 extravaganza. Hayden, who represents Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, said he never had problems in India and the country means a lot for him and his family. “I can say that I have been welcomed in all parts of ndia as a brother and friend of the country, which is a great privilege, and I’m humble about it. Over a long period of time, I acknowledge what India meant to me, individually and to my family as well. I’m looking forward with great confidence to playing in the IPL,” he said.
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Far from yielding to the threats of the Shiv Sena, Cricket Australia (CA) on championed the need for strong cricketing ties between the two nations. Speaking to Hindustan Times from Melbourne, CA spokesman, Peter Young, said: “If cricket can be used for improving ties between the two nations, then there should be more of it.” Young’s reactions come in the wake of the Shiv Sena threat that it would not let Australia cricketers play in India.
Comment: Lure of money is great, mate!
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New Zealand Cricket (NZC) will be holding the passports of all visiting players during the Under-19 World Cup. The exercise is understood to be a precautionary measure after there were instances of players going missing at the qualifying tournament in Toronto last September during which seven Uganda players, five Afghanistan players and their coach went missing after the tournament. An ICC spokesperson confirmed the developments and said the message had been communicated to the management of all teams prior to their departure, to which there were no objections. “They asked NZC to retain passports of players from certain countries, whom they considered to be a high-risk of overstaying,” he told Cricinfo. “We did not feel it was fair to single out a small number of teams so NZC is holding the passports of all the teams.”
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The Pakistan Cricket Board accused IPL commissioner Lalit Modi of betraying the PCB after none of the 11 Pakistani players got a buyer in the third IPL auction in Mumbai on Tuesday and said he will take up the matter with BCCI. PCB chairman Ejaz Butt told reporters at the Gaddafi stadium that he was very upset with what had transpired at the players auction.
Pakistan T20 captain Shahid Afirid termed the whole IPL auction process as a snub to Pakistan as a nation after none of the Pakistani players were picked up by any IPL team.
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West Indies fast bowler Jerome Taylor was arrested by Jamaican police in Junction, St Elizabeth on charges of improper conduct, assaulting police and resisting arrest following an altercation with a police officer at a bar in Junction. Taylor was granted bail.
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YouTube has confirmed its first live major sporting deal, announcing that it will host live Indian Premier League cricket matches in the UK, and casting into doubt the value of British TV broadcast rights. The YouTube deal involves every country outside the US – a significantly larger scope than reports had suggested. It was thought that YouTube would only stream live matches to countries that did not have TV deals with the IPL. The two-year deal gives the Google-owned YouTube the exclusive rights to stream IPL matches online, with the two companies splitting revenue from sponsorship and advertising.
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BCCI believes they have a strong legal ground to question the abandonment of the fifth ODI between India and Sri Lanka on December 27. BCCI and the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) feels that Ferozeshah Kotla ground may escape a ban on international matches despite match referee Alan Hurst describing it as “unfit” in his report.
Comment: For once the ICC found its foot and ruled against the BCCI.
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Karen Rolton, one of Australia’s most decorated female players, announced her retirement from international cricket after a recording-breaking 14-year career. Rolton played 141 One-Day Internationals, 14 Tests and 15 Twenty20 Internationals. Her ODI match tally is a record for women’s cricket, and she retires just 30 runs short of the all-time ODI scoring mark (4844) held by former team-mate Belinda Clark. With England’s Claire Taylor, Rolton shares the record for the most centuries scored by a woman (eight) in ODIs and her average of 48.14 in the 50-over format is the highest for anyone who has played more than 35 matches.
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China sent their women’s team to train in India’s to prepare them for next year’s Asian Games at home. A 15-member squad is currently learning the nuances of a sport unfamiliar in their country in the northern city of Mohali, India where they are being hosted by the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA). Team coach Mamatha Maben, a former India women’s international, said cricket was virtually unknown in China a decade ago and it was not easy to get girls to play the sport. In a Twenty20 tournament organised by the Asian Cricket Council in Malaysia last year, the Chinese team reached the semi-finals before losing to Thailand. China gained automatic qualification in both the men’s and women’s competition by virtue of being the hosts.
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Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns has lodged a libel claim with the High Court in London against IPL chairman Lalit Modi. The court confirmed that Cairns made the claim last week but said on Monday that it cannot give any more details on the case because Modi has not had time to respond. Cairns said in a newspaper interview that he was responding to comments by Modi that he had been fired from the rebel Indian Cricket League Twenty20 competition in 2008 because of match-fixing. Cairns said his exit was because of knee problems brought on by a 1,000-kilometer walk to raise funds for a charity honoring his sister. “Until he retracts what he has said, my name will always be tainted by the ‘cheat’ label,” Cairns told The Daily Telegraph.
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Source: Various web and print media
Asia & EAP News
Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 5
Nepal will host the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 5 (WCL Div. 5) from 20 to 27 February. The tournament will see six nations – Bahrain, Fiji, Jersey, Singapore, USA and hosts Nepal – vying to get into top two places which will earn entry to Division 4. The Division 4 tournament will be held in Italy in August this year. The WCL gives the ICC’s Associate and Affiliate Members a clear pathway towards
qualification of the ODI status.
Neil Harrison of Japan will be one of the umpires of this tournament. “Nepal is in the Asia region, but the EAP arm of the ICC has managed to get a provisional agreement to include one EAP umpire in any tournaments in Asia. They work really hard for us.”, said Harrison.
Indian Engineers’ Japan Cricket Rating – New results
Results as of January 31:
There are no changes in the rankings as no matches were reported in January. Here is the list of the top 10 teams(last month’s ranking in brackets):
1 Tokyo Giants (1)
2 Tokyo Wombats (2)
3 Nagoya (4)
4 Wyverns (5)
5 Serendib (6)
6 Lalazar (3)
7 YC&AC (7)
8 Indian Engineers (10)
9 MAX (8)
10 Adore (10)
10 Kansai Lions (9)
10 Al karam (9)
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
Great article about the future of cricket in Japan. Thanks for making the effort to bridge the gaps between KCL and JCA. That is the first step to anything bigger happening in Japan in the field of cricket.
Vimal Vikrant, Copenhagen
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
Do agree with the suggestion of lifting the quota for the bowlers in ODI to make it more interesting?
Here is the last poll result:
Do you think Japan will achieve the ODI status in the next 10 years?
Yes 54%
No 38%
May be 8%
Take the new poll:
Do you think the USA is ready for T-20?
Best of the Web
Ball pocketted by Jonathan Trott in a county game
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.
“If Zaheer Khan breaks down, India might just be the side to queue up to bat against.” – Harsha Bogle on India’s bowling performance in Bangladesh recently..
Trivial facts (from our Archives)
India’s M L Jaisimha, England’s Geoff Boycott, Allan Lamb and Andrew Flintoff, Australia’s Kim Hughes, India’s Ravi Shastri and West Indies’ Adrian Griffith have all batted on each day of a five-day Test.
That’s all in this edition!