What's New - Season 2004


2003 Archive
Previous years

Mark McTamney resigns as the national coach

The Japan Cricket Association today announced the resignation of Mark McTamney, the Head Coach of the national cricket team for the past three years. With the pending arrival of his second child early next year in addition to other duties entailed with running his own business, time commitments required to continue coaching the National Side were the main factors cited for Mr. McTamney's decision.

In its press release, JCA listed out major achievements by McTamney as the coach including the first international victory during the Perth 8's tournament in February 2002, Japan being named as East Asia Champions due to results from the Perth 8's, first international limited overs victory against Indonesia during the ICC East Asia Pacific tournament in Fuji in May 2004 and lifting the Japan Friendship Cup against the Bangladesh Academy, KCL All-Stars and JCA Board XI at the Fuji Grounds in August 2004.
Date stamped: December 15, 2004

Tokyo Wombats take charge of the Pacific Cup

Tokyo Wombats, who were invited as the fourth team this year according to the changed rule of the tournament, defeated the defending champions and title holders since 2000 when the tournament was first conceived and held. More details available here.
Date stamped: November 23, 2004

Tokyo Giants lift the KCL trophy...again!

Tokyo Giants, the defending champions, maintained their vice-like grip on the coveted trophy by defeating the YC&AC in an almost one-sided match. The champions played like one as they took only 15.1 overs to overcome YC&AC's meager total of 128 made in 36.4 overs. This is the fourth straight year the Giants have been crowned as the KCL champions. The only defeat, in an otherwise unblemished record of no losses in any league match, came this year when YC&AC defeated them in a rain curtailed match of 20 overs a side.
Date stamped: November 1, 2004

Japan to participate in EAP 2005 Cup in Vanuatu

The International Cricket Council (ICC) East Asia – Pacific (EAP) Region announced Vanuatu as the host country for the EAP Cricket Cup 2005 which will be held over a 9 day period in late September/early October next year. This event will be jointly conducted by the ICC Development Program's East Asia – Pacific Office and the Vanuatu Cricket Association. The EAP Cricket Cup Vanuatu 2005 will act as a ranking event for the EAP's Affiliate Member countries and will form part of the ICC's World Cup Qualifying Series. Six countries will compete for the prize of advancing their chances to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup. These countries include Japan, Tonga, Indonesia Samoa, Cook Islands and Vanuatu. This will be the first time Japan and Indonesia have participated in a regional cricket tournament in the Pacific Islands.
Date stamped: November 1, 2004

Engineers make it to the KCL Semi-final for second straight year

In a thrilling league match, the Indian Engineers defeated Millennium, last year's runner up, by one wicket with only 3 balls to spare. Batting first, Millennium scored 249/6 in the allotted 40 overs, riding on some great batting by Munir Ahmed(65) and their skipper, Tetsuo Fuji(70). The Engineers successfully chased the target in 39.3 overs, with some fireworks by Sriram Sampath and Nari Ram. Read the report here.
Date stamped: September 19, 2004

All Japan 8's Tournament

The Japan Cricket Association is pleased to announce the establishment of the All Japan 8's Tournament (AJ8's) as an expansion of the National Team format begun by the All Japan 6's tournament the last 3 years. An invitation for the All Japan 8's has been sent by the JCA to all regions playing cricket in Japan, and so far tremendous interest in the tournament has been shown. The tournament will be held from October 9-11, 2004 at the Fuji Rokoji and Fuju South grounds (4 grounds) on a combination of concrete and flex pitches. The competing teams will be from Kanto (3), Kansai (2), Kyushu/ West Japan (1), Shikoku/Chubu (1), Hokkaido/ Northern Japan (1) to make up an 8 team round robin tournament. The teams will be split into 2 pools of 4, with the first place teams from each pool playing off for 1st place in the final. The other teams will play for the respective positions 3 thru 8 based on their pool positions. Further details on the tournament can be obtained by contacting Robb McKenna of the JCA Development Department at robbmckenna@hotmail.com
Date stamped: September 10, 2004

Japan National team lifts the first Japan Friendship Cup

The Japan National team was declared winners of the recently concluded Japan Friendship Cup on the Net Run Rate basis. The tournament, conducted at the Fuji grounds between August 20 and 22 to raise the awareness and profile of cricket in Japan as well as to establish a friendly relationship with other countries in the region, was competed by the visitng Bangladesh Discovery Cricket Academy, KCL All-Star Selection, Japan Selection and JCA Board Presidents Eleven.

Although the visiting Bangladeshis lost all their matches, the budding cricketers and the talents available to that country were on display during the tournament. With all the local teams securing equal number of victories(2 each), the National team was declared winners on a superior NRR.
Date stamped: September 1, 2004

JCA launches Japan Friendship Cup

In yet another initiative to raise the profile of cricket in Japan, the Japan Cricket Association is organising what it named as Japan Friendship Cup on August 20, 21 and 22, over 3 days in a round robin format between 4 teams at the Fuji ground. JCA is planning to make this an annual event starting from this year. For the inaugural event, they have secured the participation of the Bangladesh Cricket Academy team. The Bangladeshi side will be playing Japan National team, KCL All Star team, made up of mostly foreign players from the premier cricket league in Japan, and JCA Board Eleven which will be a selection of other eligible players with an international mix. JCA is working to rope in more foreign teams into this tournament in future.
Date stamped: August 11, 2004

Fiji wins the EAP Challenge; Japan comes third

Fiji overwhelmed Tonga in the final to win the inaugural ICC EAP Challenge tournament, the first ever international tournament to be held in Japan, while Japan registered its first ever international victory against Indonesia on the final day to claim the third spot. More details are at the EAP Challenge page.
Date stamped: May 31, 2004

Japan squad announced for EAP Challenge

The Japan national squad for the ICC EAP Challenge tournament has been announced. The final squad consists of 5 batsman, 6 bowlers, 2 all-rounders, and a wicketkeeper which is a combination designed to meet any challenge likely to be met during the tournament. The team will be led by Tetsuo Fuji with new vice-captain Jummei Hanada selected with a view to the future. Both Tetsuo and Jummei are competent players and have previous experience in international cricket tournaments.

Four foreign-born players will adorn Japan colours for the first time in Japanese cricket history in this country and their performances against Fiji, Tonga and Indonesia will be watched with interest. The coaches have implemented a system in which a maximum of 3 foreign players are eligible to play in any game throughout the tournament. Click here for the full squad.
Date stamped: April 11, 2004

JCA AGM elects new Board members

The JCA AGM 2003 held at the Shinjuku Sports Centre on March 27 elected new 3 new Board members. Jummei Hanada, Naoki Miyaji and Naoya Miyaji were elected to join Takao Ito and Kei Imamura to form a 5 member Board. The term of the new Board will be from April 1, 2004 to December 31, 2005. Earlier, the AGM had approved a proposal to change their fiscal year from April-March to January-December, which will effectively make the next fiscal year a 9-month period from April 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004. The new fiscal year will come into effect after the JCA obtains the necessary approval from the Tokyo local government.

The AGM also approved the budget submitted by Kei Imamura, the Executive Director of the Board. The budget envisages an income of ¥17,456,983 for the new fiscal year of 9 months while the expenses are expected to be ¥14,360,000 thus giving JCA a balance of ¥3,096,983.
Date stamped: March 29, 2004

EAP Challenge Fundraising dinner party on April 24

The EAP Challenge Tournament Committee will hold a Fundraising dinner party on April 24 at the "Kodomo no Shiro", Shibuya. The purpose of the party is to raise fund for the the EAP Challenge tournament scheduled to be held in Japan from May 25 - 29. The event will see a Cricket Memorabilia Auction and a Cricket Quiz competition besides other items. The organisers are hoping to attract at least 200 people for the event. More details here.
Date stamped: March 29, 2004

KCL Schedule announced

The KCL Schedule has been released by the KCL Organising Committee. The 2004 schedule announced by Robert-Giles Martineau, the KCL Scheduler, stands out by the fact that, unlike the previous years, this year's tournament is schedule to conclude by mid-October. The KCL Schedule this year is part of a Master Schedule for the 2004 Japanese Cricket season, a new initiative by the JCA to streamline the various JCA recognised competitions. This is expected help avoid scheduling conflicts as was the case until last year.
Date stamped: March 15, 2004

JCA AGM to be held on March 27

The Japan Cricket Association will hold its Annual General Meeting on Saturday, March 27 from 9:30 a.m to 12:30. Only club representatives(or deputies) are allowed to participate in the AGM. A presentation party will be held in the afternoon for which all cricketers are welcome.

Venue: Shinjuku Sports Center
(about 10 minutes walk from JR Takadanobaba station)
3-5-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-3232-7701

[JCA Presentation Party]
Time : 14:00 - 17:00
Venue: Tokyo Sports Cafe (1 minutes walk from Roppongi station)
7-15-31 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Tel. 03-3404-3675
URL: http://www.tokyo-sportscafe.com/
Fee : ¥2000
Date stamped: March 1, 2004

The Kanto Cricket League AGM held at YC&AC

The Kanto Cricket League Annual General Meeting was held on Sunday, January 25 at YC&AC. Biju Paul, the outgoing secretary of the KCL 2003, read report of the previous season and Kei Imamura, the outgoing treasurer presented financial accounts of the season. The highlights of the meeting are:
As of the beginning of this year KCL has a balance of JPY 962,505 in its kitty.
KCL will continue to be under the auspices of the JCA.
KCL Committee will request to JCA that they allow each KCL club a vote at the 2004 JCA AGM regardless of individual JCA membership by the members of the club.
KCL Committee will request to JCA to reconsider and vote on its visa policy at its 2004 AGM.
Ratified the decision of the winner and runner up of the KCL 2003 to donate the amount, JPY 200,000, that would have been spent on trophies and presentation ceremony, towards the conduct of the EAP Challenge tournament to be held in Japan in May 2004.
The new Committee was authorised to allocate an amount up to JPY 350,000 of the KCL funds for the development of the 2nd pitch in Fuji.
A new Committee was elected with the following members:.
    Aqeel ur Rehman (Lalazar)
    Biju Paul (Indian Engineers)
    Jarrad Shearer (Aussie Wombats)
    Kamran Ali (YC&AC)
    Kei Imamura (Fuji Far East)
    Robert-Gills Martineau (Shizuoka Kytes)
    Sachin Chowdhery(Tokyo Bay)
Date stamped: February 1, 2004