Hello and welcome to this edition of the I.E.C.C. Newsletter.
The Kanto Cricket League launched a full fledged cricket website late last
month. The site is dynamic with a backend database that gives the administrator
complete freedom to manage the site without requiring him to know any html
programming. Different administrative modules help the administrator to update
the schedules, results, points, news etc. In addition, the site can support
multiple tournaments. Visit the new site at
http://www.cricketjapan.org.
In the tournament, the YC&AC is continuing its dream run with 3 wins out of the
4 matches and leading the table in Group A with an almost unassailable 14
points. While many teams in Group A are close to finish all their league
matches, some teams in Group B are yet to start their KCL season(something for
the scheduler!). Favourites Al Karam has the maximum number of points in Group
B, having won both their matches.
For Latest results are available here.
Indian pacer Praveen Kumar landed up in police custody after a
drunken brawl with a doctor. The doctor claimed that Praveen
also abused him and was drunk at the time of the incident.
The matter was settled later with Kumar apologising for his
behaviour.
###
Umpire Simon Taufel has joined a growing list of umpires
complaining the constant travel and being away from the family.
He is said to be negotiating with the ICC about his new
contract. "I am always looking for new opportunities, not
necessarily umpiring", said Taufel.
###
A day after Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was barred
entry to his team's dressing room by the ICC's Anti-corruption
Unit, the Indian Premier League authorities decided to issue
an all-area accreditation badge to one member of each of the
eight team franchisees.
Comment: Money talks!
###
The media has been reporting that all is not well between
the Kolkata Knight Riders owner and Bollywood superstar
Shah Rukh Khan and KKR's skipper Sourav Ganguly. One of the
things that reportedly angered Ganguly was that coach John
Buchanan was given more powers than the captain himself and
then Shah Rukh announced that the coach will take all the
decisions for the team next year onwards.
Comment: Ah, it is Ganguly again..
###
Snap polls suggest that over 24 million watched the nail-
biting final, though industry experts say that this is a
conservative estimate and the numbers could be much higher.
Over 20 million people watched the Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi
Daredevils while the second semi-final between Chennai Super
Kings and Kings XI Punjab drew an audience of 19 million.
Compare this with the World Cup cricket ODI final which was
simulcast on SAB, Set Max and DoorDarshan of India and drew
in 32.8 million people while the T20 final-in which India
played and won-attracted an audience reach of 48 million.
###
Following a series of betting and fixing scandals and
investigations in various professional sports, including
cricket, soccer and tennis the IOC is setting up a special
unit to check for suspicious betting patterns during the
Beijing Games.
###
Source: Various web and print media.
After taking advantage of the most talented cricket tournament in Japan to
get their own competition running and then deciding that they have nothing to do
with it, after being instigated by a few misguided individuals, the JCA's
cricket team continues to struggle in the international arena with performances
that have nothing to write home about.
In the ICC World Cricket League being held in Jersey, Japan is placed 2nd from
bottom on the points table in Group B with just 2 points from 4 matches (2 loss,
1 tie, 1 washout). Even Botswana in the same group and Mozambique in Group A,
with probably having less infrastructure and support structure than Japan has,
have managed to eke out a win each. In the league stage, where it all mattered,
only once Japan managed to go past 100 runs, a match they managed tie with
Bahamas. Japan, however, can take heart in Takuro Hagihara's individual
brilliance against Afghanistan(5/25) in a losing cause(87 all out in 40.2 overs)
and a consolation win against Vanuatu for the 9th place play-off semi-final(a
series of matches held for classification purpose and has no bearing on the
outcome of the
tournament).
In the final, Afghanistan(81/8) clinched the title by defeating the hosts,
Jersey(80) in a low scoring match. Score card: http://content-eap.cricinfo.com/wcl/engine/match/349864.html.
The World Cricket League is 5-division designed to provide a qualification route
into the ICC World Cup Qualifier matches. The competition has a promotion and
relegation system between them. Japan is currently placed at the bottom
league(Division 5) along with Afghanistan, Bahamas, Botswana, Germany, Jersey,
Mozambique, Nepal, Norway, Singapore, USA.
With the JCA's intriguing selection criteria for the national team, which
ignores a sizably large and talented pool of cricketers resulting in undeserving
individuals being selected in the national team, and a criminal wastage of
already paltry ground resources, the results of this kind come as no surprise.
What the JCA doesn't realise, perhaps, is that these policies will only continue
to alienate them more and more from the rest of the cricketing community and
make them look like they are out of touch with the reality. Consider this for
e.g., JCA's ground usage fees rules require a team to cough up to 30,000 yen per
match (60,000yen in total) to use their ground in the Fuji city, about 100km
away from Tokyo. This is in addition to the gas and toll charges a team has to
spend to travel from Tokyo. While it is right to charge the money required for
the maintenance of the ground, an undesired, but not unexpected, result of this
high charges is that the ground lies unused on many weekends, the latest
instance being June 7-8 weekend. Another example is that when a newly formed
team approached the JCA early this year to join in their competition, they were
refused entry for no apparent reason. The KCL, on the other hand, accepted the
new team with open arms, reflecting a fundamentally different attitudes by the
game's governing body in Japan towards the development of the game in the
country. This reflects poorly on the management of the JCA and raises questions
on the effectiveness of their policies and their insistence to interact with
only a select group of individuals and players, which directly translates to
poor results for the national team. May be the JCA is waiting for a Japanese
Allen Stanford.
+ New Zealand Provincial Associations to assist Samoa and Tonga +
Two EAP Samoa and Tonga, have entered into partnership with two Provincial
Associations of New Zealand, Auckland Cricket Association and Canterbury Cricket
Association. Through the partnership program, Provincial Associations provide
cricket development expertise to EAP countries across a range of levels from
community participation to high performance. The partnership program was
established in 2002 and continues to highlight the role of New Zealand cricket
in the development of the sport globally, and in particular, within the emerging
countries of the EAP region.
+ Philippine 6’s +
The inaugural Philippine 6’s tournament held in March this year saw thirteen
teams from across the EAP region participating. The event was put together
through a partnership between Nomads Cricket (chaired by William Bailey) and the
Asian Cricket Sixes Tour (chaired by Michael “Cat” Maher) and was the result of
more than a year of planning. The big story of the tournament was the appearance
of the Korean Crusaders, a side consisting entirely of Korean Nationals. The
organisers believe that this was the first ever all-Korean side to play
international cricket. In the final, Shanghai Dragons beat Manila Nomads by 12
runs.
Results as of May 31:
There were a few changes in the ranking last month based on the few friendly
matches played in March.
Here is the list of the top 10 teams(last month's ranking in brackets):
1 Tokyo Giants (1)
2 Osaka Tigers (2)
3 Tokyo Wombats (8)
4 Serendip (5)
5 Kansai Fighters (7)
6 YC&AC (3)
7 KRAC (9)
8 Al Karam (8)
9 Wyverns (4)
10 MAX (6)
See the full list here.
Here is the last poll result:
Judging by the media coverage IPL receives, do you think IPL has long term
prospects or will it be short-lived?
Long term prospects - 67%
Short life - 33%
Can't say - 0%
Take the new poll:
Do you support Stanford's winner takes all and loser gets nothing approach in
Stanford 20/20?
Visit our home page today to vote!
Washington Post's take on Redskins Cheerleaders for the IPL
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 Warne was Napoleon, India was his Waterloo" - a columnist in the Indian Express.
1. Former India opener Raman Lamba died during a cricket match. During a club
match in Bangladesh, Lamba was hit on the temple
fielding at short leg. He walked off the field, spat blood, suffered concussion
and died later on the same day.
2. In ODIs, Sachin Tendulkar has earned the maximum no. of Man of the Match
awards(56) and in Tests Jacques Kallis(19).
That's all in this edition!