Newsletter
May 10, 2010 Issue #107
Hello and welcome to this edition of the I.E.C.C. Newsletter.
Index
- KCL and Women’s cricket get the season moving
- The fine print
- Asia & EAP news –
- Beers for Books 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 and Women’s cricket get the season moving
The Kanto Cricket League and Pepsi ICC EAP Women’s Cricket Trophy 2010 got the season moving with KCL and JCA organising the respective tournaments under their wings. The latest news is that Japanese team won the tournament today(May 7) held in Sano, Japan. Detailed reports are available under the EAP Section of this Newsletter.
Although KCL started its season, it was marred by an unsavoury incident occurred during the match between Tokyo Predators and Nagoya. The incident occurred when Predators were awarded 5 penalty runs by the umpire for Nagoya bowling a practice ball on the live pitch during a mid-innings break. An argument about the technicality of this decision (it is pointed out that the decision to penalise Nagoya was correct but the penalty was wrong) led the match being halted and the matter is reportedly being discussed by the KCL Committee.
+ Lalazar claim the T-20 championship +
Lalazar claimed Japan’s first ever all cash prize KCL T-20 Championship defeating the Shizuoka Kytes. The tournament was held last year but the final was held in April this year at Shizuoka. The tournament, a brain child of Saqib Khan of Nagoya C.C, offered a cash prize of JPY100,000 for the winner. The tournament featured coloured clothing and balls, all sponsored by the Khan Enterprises. “I have big plans for the future,” said a smiling Khan after the final.
Shizuoka Kytes C.C.: 126/8 (20 overs) (Ashley Harvey 37, Abid Hussain 4/24)
Lalazar C.C.: 127/8 (19.3 overs)
Full score card: http://rgmjapan.tripod.com/
+ Chiba Sharks introduce cricket to Elementary School in Chiba +
The Chiba Sharks spent a day at the Inihano Elementary School to take 20 odd boys and girls through some rudimentary cricketing skills through which cricket was introduced to the them. Read full report at: http://www.chibasharks.com/
Indian Engineers on Twitter
Follow the Engineers at http://twitter.com/ieccjapan/ for live match updates and other cricket updates.
The Fine Print
After some outstanding catches on the boundary ropes, both by Australian players, in the IPL that turned the fate of the matches, some IPL teams were seen to be coaching the players on how to take such catches, notably Jonty Rhodes was seen giving tips to the Mumbai Indians.
Comment: We had published the video footage of two of those catches in our last issue
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Fear and Waqar were synonyms for most batsmen once, but now he has wrecked his own team. PCB sources said that it was Waqar’s feedback which convinced the inquiry committee and the Board that time had come to take strict action against the erring players. “The manager Abdul Raquib or the coach Intikhab Alam didn’t give the sort of reports that would lead to the board imposing severe penalties
on seven players,” one source said. “But Waqar’s report and remarks by captain Muhammad Yousuf called for immediate measures to halt the culture of infighting and ego problems in the team,” the source said. Sources said that Waqar before accepting the Coach offer had made it clear to the PCB Chairman that he needed total authority and backing if he decides to take action against a player (s) or in other matters. “Even the manager, Yawar Saeed has been instructed to show no leniency when it comes to enforcing discipline in the team,” one source said.
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Hindustan Times daily put the IPL number game of the party scene. About 500 people at every party and close to 15 security personnel. When Bollywood personnel are in attendance, of course, it was much more. At the post-IPL fashion show 16 models showcased 32 garments every night. That is over 1,728 garments by 58 designers were showcased, 39.7444 kms covered by models on the ramp. 9,450 songs played at post match parties, 1,29,600 bottles of beer and 27,000 bottles of whisky consumed, 432 dishes served in the buffet spreads.
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Four days after she tied the knot with Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik(28) Indian tennis star Sania Mirza said that she married an individual, not a Pakistani, scorning suggestions that her actions were unpatriotic because of questions such as which country she would support when India plays Pakistan. “It didn’t matter if he(Shoaib) was from Timbuktu. He could have been from anywhere,” Sania(23) said. For them it was love at third sight. Mirza said she had met Shoaib for the first time in 2004, but the meeting lasted for only two minutes at a restaurant in Hobartin Australia. The very next day Shoaib along with former fast bowler Waqar Younis came to watch her match where she found the all-rounder Malik very simple and attractive. They said they met again in Dubai. Shoaib said, “When I met Sania in Dubai almost five years back, my father told me to get married to her then.”
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The proposal to make former Australian Prime Minister John Howard International Cricket Council (ICC) vice-president was not taken up by the board of directors at their Dubai meeting in the face of an overwhelming opposition to it. Howard, who was to succeed India’s Sharad Pawar and a serving minister in the Federal Cabinet as ICC president in 2012, was the candidate of the boards of Australia and New Zealand. Most directors felt that the ICC post should not become a haven for powerful politicians and that cricket cannot be allowed to be hijacked by them. An ICC source in Dubai said that Howard’s candidature was not acceptable to ten of the 13 directors on the grounds that he lacked the experience of cricket administration. The ICC presidency goes to countries by rotation and the incumbent David Morgan of the England and Wales Cricket Board, will hand over the reins to Pawar in June and the new incumbent will act as vice-president before taking over in 2012.
Comment: One has to imagine that the outgoing president had loads of cricket experience..
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Afghanistan, who have honed their cricket skills in a warzone, may pose more of a threat to South Africa’s hopes of winning the Twenty20 World Cup than the leading nations, captain Graeme Smith said. “I read their opener (Karim Sadiq) said he was not scared of facing Dale Steyn and I wouldn’t be either if I grew up in a war zone. That’s the thing, they have no fear and they have nothing to lose, which makes them dangerous.”
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Chinese cricketers are training hard in Pakistan ahead of this year’s Asian Games, where they hope to raise the profile of the sport in their home country, their coach said on Tuesday. Cricket will make its first appearance at the Asian Games in November in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, and the home side has been preparing with help from Pakistan’s former captain and batting master Javed Miandad. Teams from Test-playing nations Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are expected to take part in the games, competing against hosts China and five other sides in Twenty20 format matches. President Asif Ali Zardari, who is patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), appointed Miandad as cricket ambassador to China last year. The ICC sees China as the next big market for cricket and regularly sends coaches and officials there to promote the sport.
Comment: China is only an Affiliate member of the ICC and their achievement in a short time span is commendable.
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The conflict between Pakistan fast bowler Mohammed Asif and his estranged girlfriend Veena Malik seems to be over with both of them reaching an out of court settlement over all issues between them. Earlier, Malik had asked the concerned authorities to register a case against Asif for giving her ‘fake’ cheques. In her plea, Malik claimed that she had given 10 million rupees to Asif, and the cheque that the fast bowler had given her to return the money had bounced. Malik claimed that she had supported Asif both ’emotionally’ and ‘financially’ during his bad days, and now she ‘at least’ wants her money back. Asif was romantically linked to Malik, and there were rumours last year that both got secretly married in London, which has been denied by both of them.
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Legendary West Indian all-rounder Sir Garry Sobers will be felicitated on the 35th anniversary of his knighthood and some of the game’s biggest icons will be in attendance at the May 15 function. The gala ‘Knight to Remember’ dinner, tickets for which are priced at $180, will have many legends of the game in attendance. The function will be held just a day ahead of the Twenty20 World Championship final to be held in Caribbean. The legendary players will speak about the 73-year-old Sobers’ influence on the game in the event to be hosted by Tony Cozier, according to a statement issued by the organisers.
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Cricket could be facing a world shortage of bats as a result of a European Union decision to outlaw before export the chemical methyl bromide, which is an insecticide used to treat the wood in bats, because it is said to damage the ozone layer. Each year around 100,000 raw blades made of willow, known as clefts, are exported from England to India and Pakistan where they are made into the finished product. But the wood cannot leave the country without a fumigation certificate and India and Pakistan do not accept any alternative treatment for the wood apart from methyl bromide. It is feared the £10 million a year industry could go bust within three months unless a solution is found â۠potentially plunging cricket into chaos.
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YouTube streamed IPL semi-finals and finals matches live to the U.S. Previously they were time-delayed, starting 15 minutes after the game ended. YouTube said the IPL channel on the video-sharing site has received more than 40 million views, with the United States second only to India in total views.
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Source: Various web and print media
Asia & EAP News
Japanese Women progress to pre-qualifier round
In a major boost to Japanese Women’s cricket, the Women’s national team defeated the favourites PNG to qualify for the final qualifying round to the Women’s World Cup. The tournament – Pepsi ICC EAP Women’s Cricket Trophy 2010 – featuring Samoa, apart from PNG and hosts Japan was played in Sano, Japan and the final was held today (May 7). Batting batting first, Japan scored 125/5 in 42.0 Overs and then bowled PNG out for 123 runs.
It was reported that close to 300 people turned out to watch the match during the Golden Week holidays.
Indian Engineers’ Japan Cricket Rating – New results
Results as of April 30:
Here is the latest top 10(last month’s ranking in brackets):
1 Tokyo Giants (1)
2 Tokyo Wombats (2)
3 Lalazar (3)
4 Wyverns (4)
5 Serendib (5)
6 MAX (6)
7 Indian Engineers (7)
8 Shizuoka Kytes (8)
9 Adore (9)
9 Nagoya (9)
10 Paddy Foleys (10)
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
IECC Poll results
Here is the last poll result:
Do you think the the holding the T-20 World Cup immediately after IPL is a good idea?
Yes 100%
No 0%
Can’t say 0%
Take the new poll:
Was Afghanistan’s performance during the T-20 WC was at the expected level?
Visit our home page today to vote!
Best of the Web
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.
“It didn’t matter if he was from Timbuktu. He could have been from anywhere, even Mars.”, Indian tennis star Sania Mirza on her controversial marriage with Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.
Trivial facts (from our Archives)
India’s Sachin Tendulkar has bagged most man of the match awards in ODIs – 60.
That’s all in this edition ! !