Hello and welcome to this edition of the I.E.C.C. Newsletter.
Kanto and Kansai cricket picks up
After a brief hiccup resulted by an election to the KCL Committee, the Kanto
Cricket League has picked up momentum with some excellent matches. In one of the
thrilling matches last month, Lalazar's 228 in 35 overs was overhauled by Al
karam in 31 overs. Lalzar was helped to the decent total by Barkat Ali(51),
Faisal(46) and skipper Gulzar(33) but Al Karam's Hanif Niazi almost single
handedly led them to victory with a magnificent century. Chule acted as a
perfect foil for Niazi with 43.
Al Karam, however, could not repeat their performance against a spirited YC&AC
the following week. They were bowled out for a paltry 105 chasing YC&AC's 218.
In Group B, Chiba Sharks has been unable to conquer any of their stronger
opponents and is languishing at the bottom of the table having lost all their
matches so far. They have a counterpart in Group A in the Indian Tigers, who
also face elimination in the first round.
In Group A, Serendib ranks top with 13 points, having lost only one match so far
with one match remaining. The Indian Engineers closely behind them with 8 points
from two matches. With one more win, the Engineers will have high chances of
qualifying for the semi-finals, after a gap of 4 years, along with the likely
topper of the group Serendib.
The Indian Engineers vs. Tokyo Predators match in May saw some records
rewritten. While scoring a massive 310/4, the Engineers' middle order batsman
Sidde Raju(169*) and Yogesh Chandwadkar(65) set up a new 4th wicket KCL record
partnership of 251 runs, eclipsing the unfinished 177 between Mayank Dabral and
Ken Wadano of Tokyo Bay against Chiba Sharks in 2003. This has also became the
highest partnership for any wicket. The previous one was 240 runs for the 6th
wicket between Aamir Ali and Shakir Khan of Friends XI against Myoden in 2006.
For all the KCL records, click here.
Meanwhile, the Kansai scene is also hotting up with matches being organised,
after a lacklustre season last year. Kansai Cricket has organised some T-20
matches and more 40-over matches are being scheduled for July and August. The
problem they face are lack of regular players and like in Kanto, unavailability
of grounds.
Indian Engineers on Twitter
Follow the Engineers at http://twitter.com/ieccjapan/ for live match updates and other cricket updates.
India's Sachin Tendulkar will be conferred Indian Air Force's honorary
rank of Group Captain and the star cricketer said he is proud to be
associated with the "dynamic" IAF. "Under the provision of grant of
honorary rank by Armed Forces to eminent personalities acknowledging
their contribution towards the nation, the President and the Supreme
Commander of the Armed Forces of India is pleased to confer Sachin
Ramesh Tendulkar the honorary rank of Group Captain of the Indian Air
Force," the IAF said in a statement. "In recognition of Sachin's
glorious achievements as a cricketer and sports icon par excellence,
IAF had mooted a proposal to confer the honorary rank of Group Captain.
###
Record-breaker Paul Collingwood is relishing England's current
"superiority" over Australia but insists he is taking nothing for
granted ahead of this year's Ashes series 'Down Under'. Ashes-holders
England are currently 3-0 up in a five-match home one-day series against
Australia - and just a month ago, a team captained by Collingwood
defeated their oldest cricket rivals in the World Twenty20 final in
Barbados. For the current one-day series, though, Australia are without
several injured first-choice quicks, as well as wicketkeeper/batsman Brad
Haddin.
###
The Indian Premier League Governing Council found that Lalit Modi, the
suspended IPL chairman, ran up taxi bills of over Rs 4 million during IPL
Season III alone. Modi’s bill has reason to be heavy. He used only
certain class of Mercedes Benz or BMW. When he travelled to venues where
it was impossible to rent these cars (Dharamsala and Nagpur), they were
sourced from elsewhere, sources said. For Nagpur, he had a car driven
down from Hyderabad. When Modi went to Dharamsala (by air), his car was
sent ahead from Delhi to meet him at Dharamsala airport. “Modi was in
Nagpur for barely an hour, and the ride from the airport to the ground
takes about 10 minutes,” said a BCCI official. “This kind of wastage of
money is completely unacceptable.” Also under a cloud - and similarly,
not passed by the Governing Council - are expenses Modi incurred at the
Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai, which he used as a base. His bills there
to the tune of Rs 4.7 million are being examined very closely by the BCCI,
as the per day rates for rooms used vary from Rs. 16,213 (in April) to Rs.
85,612 (in March).
###
Volatile Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh and his belligerent teammate Gautam
Gambhir escaped punishment after ICC Match Referee Andy Pycroft took a light
view of their on-field spats with Pakistani players during Saturday night's
Asia Cup tie. Harbhajan had a scrap with Shoaib Akhtar in the high-voltage
match, while Gambhir featured in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with
Pakistani stumper Kamran Akmal, prompting captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to
separate him and drag him away. "The ICC match referee had a chat with the
players but decided not to charge them as he felt it was a heat of the
moment incident," Indian team manager Ranjib Biswal said.
Comment: At last two sub-continent players get away without being charged.
###
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who was rather outspoken on
matters Zimbabwean during his time in office, is currently in Harare with
Cricket Australia chairman Jack Clarke, in an effort to boost support for
is bid to head up the ICC. Howard is in line to become ICC Vice-President
this year, rising to the post of President in 2012 - but his bid for the
post is under threat thanks to opposition from Zimbabwe and South Africa,
who question his suitability for the role. "If ZC served lunch during their
meetings, a large portion of humble pie may well have been consumed by
Mr Howard", the Zimbabwe Chronicle said.
##
ESPNStar.com has an article looking at the current position of the Afghan
cricket team, who have been enjoying a rapid rise up the world rankings over
the past year or so. The article makes for interesting reading in its own
right, but the interesting point from a Zimbabwean point of view comes near
the end of the article, and the following comment by Afghanistan Cricket
Board CEO Aimal Shinwari: "We have invited Zimbabwe for a friendly series
in Abu Dhabi. The idea is to play more matches and gain some more
international exposure."
Comment: Did ZC take this as an insult or a compliment is the moot question.
###
If John Howard was rejected for inexperience then even Sharad Pawar does
not qualify to be ICC President as he knows "little about cricket
administration", said former ICC CEO Malcolm Speed describing the snub to
the ex-Australian Prime Minister a "disgrace". "Rest assured, he (Howard)
was not rejected because of his lack of experience as a cricket
administrator, his strong opposition to Robert Mugabe's disastrous regime
in Zimbabwe or his outspoken views about Muttiah Muralitharan's
controversial bowling action. There is more to it than that," Speed wrote
in a column for the 'Sydney Morning Herald'. Speed said Pawar, who will
head the ICC until 2012 starting today, would not even be available
full-time as he is a serving Union Minister in the Indian government. "The
man who is to be the next ICC president, Sharad Pawar, is the Minister for
Agriculture in the Indian government - a serious full-time job, feeding
1.2 billion people. He is a good and fair man but he will be working
part-time as ICC president and, take it from me, he knows little about
cricket administration," Speed said.
Comment: Well, Howard didn't help his case while he was the Prime Minister,
did he?
###
ICC's rejection of John Howard's bid for Presidency has "gutted" Cricket
Australia, which says the snub is insulting and would affect its
relationship with the governing body. Although he refused to blame India
for Howard's rejection, CA chairman Jack Clarke said the country's
financial clout in the ICC was not ideal. "In any business model where a
company has 75 per cent of the income, it's not an ideal model," he said.
"But that is not India's fault they do that ... it's a powerful bloc but
it's a reality of life," he was quoted as saying by 'Fox Sports'. Howard's
candidacy was rejected after the powerful Afro-Asian bloc refused to
endorse him and Clarke said both Australia and New Zealand, who jointly
nominated Howard, were frustrated.
###
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corporation has appointed Sachin Tendulkar
as the new Brand Ambassador in India. Sachin is Toshiba's Brand Ambassador
across its various product categories of laptops, LCD TV and Home Appliances
and for corporate branding in India.
###
Source: Various web and print media
EAP U17 Cricket Trophy
The ICC EAP Office, in conjunction with the Vanuatu Cricket Association, have
now confirmed dates for the upcoming 2010 Pepsi ICC EAP U17 Cricket Trophy, to
be held in Port Vila, Vanuatu. The competing teams will be host Vanuatu, Papua
New Guinea, Fiji and Indonesia with a new 35 over format to be utilised by the
EAP region. The tournament will begin on Tuesday 7th September, with all teams
playing each other once, before Semi Finals on the 10th and the Finals played on
Saturday 11th September.
Beers for Books news
Announcement from B4B team:
Breaking News...On June 30th we blasted through the 70,000 book milestone with
events in 4 cities in 3 countries--Tokyo, Sydney, Los Angeles, and St. Paul, MN!
I'm not sure where the 70,000th book got created as we pretty much had something
going on over a 12 hour period and good fun was had by all. 100,000 here we
come!
Results as of June 30:
Al Karam vaulted to top 10, after defeating two high ranked teams, Lalazar and
Chiba Sharks, thus gaining a precious 3.5 bonus points pushing YC&AC to the 11th
place in that process.
Here is the latest top 10(last month's ranking in brackets):
1 Tokyo Giants (1)
3 Lalazar (2)
2 Tokyo Wombats (3)
4 Wyverns (4)
5 Serendib (5)
6 Indian Engineers (6)
7 MAX (7)
8 Al Karam (14)
9 Nagoya (11)
10 Shizuok Kytes (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.
Australia is reportedly preparing for the death of the ODI. Do you accept
this as a reality?
Yes, very soon 40%
Yes, a generation later 0%
No 60%
Take the new poll:
Do you think John Howard's failure to get elected was his own fault?
Visit our home page today to vote!
Best of the Web
No updates this 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 ZC served lunch during their meetings, a large portion of humble pie may well have been consumed by Mr Howard", the Zimbabwe Chronicle on Howard's visit to Zimbabwe seeking support for his bid to ICC Vice President's post.
IPL-III numbers: 57 matches, 171 hours of cricket on the field. Off the field: 54 parties, 270 hours of partying and close to 1,29,600 bottles of beer and 27,000 bottles of whisky consumed.
That's all in this edition ! !