Hello and welcome to this edition of the I.E.C.C. Newsletter.
Bobby Philips reports:
In the most unfortunate development ever in Japanese cricket, the Kanto Cricket League, Japan's premier cricket tournament, collapsed on June 4, the day an unprecedented EGM was called on to discuss a spate of issues - including a no-confidence motion against a depleted KCL Committee - that had been plaguing the KCL for the last few months. The EGM was necessitated when three of the seven KCL Committee members resigned accusing two other Committee members of ungentlemanly behaviour, including name calling, one-upmanship and many other reasons. The resignation had provoked a massive exchange of emails by other member clubs, most of them demanding the resignation of the remaining members and election of a new Committee.
Sometimes people wonder what was so wrong about the KCL all these years! Didn’t KCL function meticulously for close to 10 years without any issues? Anyway, the EGM decided to dissolve the KCL as it stands. Verdict was out with consensus (15 members supporting) that all pending KCL amount shall be donated to disaster relief work in Indonesia and Pakistan.
During EGM, Ichihara Sharks took the bold decision of distancing itself from KCL by putting in their resignation in advance, which automatically brought down total strength of active committee members from 4 to 3 as one member was a part of Sharks. Mr. Hasib Ur Rheman of the Sharks stated that Ichihara Sharks were immediately withdrawing from KCL because the JCA had pulled out of support for the KCL. He offered financial help to JCA.
A motion of no-confidence was moved on the floor by the Indian Engineers, seconded by Tokyo Bay after a fiery speech of 10 minutes persuading members to look into the true reasons behind the call for the EGM. Unfortunately, it was not as scintillating enough for many and the house voted against the motion 11 to 9. Prima facie evidence suggests that the proposal to dissolve the KCL had the tacit support of the JCA, a body entrusted to develop and improve cricket in Japan. The next point raised as per agenda was for dissolving of KCL and surprisingly it won 20:1 in favour.
However, all is not lost for the cricket lovers in Japan. Eleven clubs of the former tournament have since decided to restart the KCL from July and the first match will be played on July 2. Thus, the 'original' teams have come together with the agenda of bringing KCL back to its old glory. It may be recalled that the Kanto Cup, the former name of the KCL, was started and built by pretty much the same teams with even less number of teams and grounds. The success of the Kanto Cup attracted more teams into it and finally the JCA became its official supporter in 2001. The new tournament, that consists of 5 out of the of the 8 D-I teams, will be played at the YC&AC, Ageo, Gunma and Shizuoka grounds.
The JCA, meanwhile, started a new tournament named Japan 1-day Competition(J1C), in which the remaining teams of the former KCL are playing.
The dissolution of the KCL represents a new challenge for the JCA. The J1C will not be complete without the participation of some of the strongest teams in Japan, who are now part of the KCL. The standard, obviously, will be much lower and the quality of the cricket the players would enjoy will be less than satisfactory. The KCL, on the other hand, will lose some of its sheen without the participation of the Japanese teams such as the Millennium and Wyverns. Who will be the bigger loser - the JCA or the KCL - in the long run, only time will tell but at the moment, the loser is the common player.
After the official dissolution of the KCL, the major teams of the former league resolved to restart the KCL. The new KCL will consist of the following teams in two groups:
Group A
Friends XI
CC of Nagoya
Myoden CC
Shizuoka Kytes
Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Giants
Group B
Al Karam
Dragons
Gunma XI Star
Indian Engineers
Shizuoka Kytes 2nd XI
YC&AC
The tournament envisages a two-division structure next year with Top 8 teams of this year moving to D-I next year and the remaining teams and any new teams(you will be surprised to see who they are!) forming D-II. The new Committee is also in the process of writing a proper constitution for the league, which is likely to be adopted from next year. A lack of proper constitution had created some fuss during the recent controversy that surrounded the KCL. The new league and its Committee is currently said to be working on plans to make the KCL a wider league panning Kansai and other regions of Japan.
The Tyler Foundation, a Japan-based nonprofit organization supporting children with cancer and their families in Japan, announced a sporting extravaganza in autumn this year. The events, which include a sports dinner, golf day and celebrity cricket match at the YC&AC are to be attended by former English captain Mike Gating, former Indian captain Kapil Dev, former New Zealand all rounder Chris Cairns and many others. Here are the dates:
September 29 -- sports dinner at the Grand Hyatt, Roppongi Hills.
September 30 -- golf day with the sporting stars.
October 1 -- celebrity cricket match at Yokohama Country and Athletic Club.
More information is available at http://www.tylershineon.org/index.php/events.
The Tyler foundation was inspired by Tyler Ferris' - son of Kim and Mark Ferris, who is one of the best all rounders in Japan currently - two-year battle with infant leukemia. He lost the battle when he was two years old.
Visit their home page at: http://www.tylershineon.org/
The new ranking as of April 30 shows a few teams have come to the top 10 on the basis of some strong performance in April. The top 10 teams are:
1. Gunma Eleven Star
2. Al Karam
3. Wyverns
4. Tokyo Wombats
5. Shizuoka Kytes
6. Millennium
7. Friends XI
8. YC&AC
9. Tokyo Dragons
10. Tokyo Bay
See the full list here.
As always, you are also welcome to write to us with your views/suggestions/feedback/criticism on the Rating system.
Robert-Gilles Martineau reports:
On the 30th of May 2006 I conducted the first session of the new Shizuhata Naka
Primary School Cricket Club. The session had previously been scheduled for June
6th, but had to be brought forward to accommodate other activities. I left the
office at 12:40 and managed to cycle to the school in 40 (instead of 75 last
time) minutes, giving myself plenty of time for preparations. The school had
already done some good propaganda, as a welcome sign both in English and
Japanese was waiting for me at the entrance. Today was to be a shortened session
(60 minutes compared to 90 from next time) held indoors.
18 kids from 4th, 5th and 6th grade took part. Although a bit disorderly at
times, they were really keen and enthusiastic. Some of them had already been
playing early with me before the actual start of the session as they could not
wait. I started with different throws (direct, one-bound, round arm and real
bowling action). As they had picked up the mechanics quite easily I proceeded at
once to bowling to a batsman. I had to point out a few times that batsmen can
hit anywhere they please and demonstrated the advantages of pulling, cutting and
sweeping. They seemed to enjoy themselves, one batsman even hitting Mrs.
Jitsuishi in the process!
I concluded the session with basic fielding practice, putting special emphasis on bringing body and legs down to block ground balls. Before finishing the session, each kid was handed a personal copy introducing the game and its rules in Japanese with illustrations and graphics to study until the next session. They were told that on June the 13th, they would have more practice before real game practice outside. The kids who have opted for the course, which is not only a school club but also part of their curriculum as an international studies class, have shown a great willingness to learn the game and take advantage of the extra exposure to the English language and a new culture. On Tuesday June 6th, another member of the Shizuoka Kytes CC, namely Lalith Prelis (call him “Larry”) will join me for the first cricket practice at Miwa Primary School, where he will coach in my place in the future when sessions coincide at different venues!
On June 6th, 2006, it was back to Miwa Primary School Cricket Club and their leader Mrs. Kazuko NISHIDA. But with a little difference from last year: Another Member of the Shizuoka Kytes Cricket Club, namely Lalith “Larry” Prelis had joined his teammate Robert-Gilles Martineau in this first session of the 2006~7 scholar year. 20 children have entered the official School Cricket Club (out of a total of 100 pupils) hailing from the 4th, 5th, and 6th Grades. The 6th Grades were all Members last year, which came very handy when demonstrating for younger kids. As Larry will take over in future sessions when R-G. is busy with another school, he had come to learn for himself how to deal with Japanese kids. He confided later it was quite a job as everything had to be taught from basics, whereas in his native Sri Lanka, coaches only had to check and correct kids’ technique already acquired in a Cricket culture. But he thought it was good fun and good learning at the same time. For this first session we went through throwing and fielding basics before ending up with some batting the kids were obviously waiting for. Larry will do the same next week, and from the third session we shall start mini games.
The Headmaster and new Vice-Headmaster made a point to visit the Club to encourage their kids. Most of the coaching was conducted in English with occasional help from Mrs. Nishida. After the practice, both coaches went to the ground for a couple of hours mowing the grass for the next week end game.
Japan will play Fiji on Tuesday, June 26 in the opener of the ICC Cricket World Cup qualifying series. Full schedule below:
Tues 27-June Fiji v Japan
Wed 28-June Fiji v Cook Islands
Thu 29-June Japan v Cook Islands
Fri 30-June Japan v Fiji
Sat 01-July Cook Islands v Fiji
Sun 02-July Cook Islands v Japan
Is there excessive international cricket being played?
Yes - 80%
No - 20%
Is India's M S Dhoni the next Adam Gilchrist?
In response to our article titled "KCL in Chaos" last month, Sheikh Nissar disagrees with some part of the article where we mentioned that Robert-Gills Martineau was responsible for registering the Japan Cricket Association as an Affiliate member of the ICC - Editor.
This is the history of Japan cricket. There must be a good part of Robert & Yamada Makoto but Edogawa Falcons and my self have a big part in Japan cricket, we where the only team in Japan in 1984/85 and start playing at Edogawa then in 1987 we come to know about the foundation of the JCA and Pakistan Eaglets team, we start playing each other then we have 3 Japanese members in each foreigner team and we (others too) teach cricket to them. Personally I did lots of work with Chuo University both boys and girls, and taught more and batter(better) cricket to them by me, after having dispute with JCA (I don't want to discuses it here) then I formed Kanto Cricket Association in 1989 and organized first Japan Gold Cup tournament, and still I am organizing with my single hand sometime. Japan became Affiliate member not because of Shizuoka and Kobe, because of Edogawa Ground and Edogawa Falcons and Pakistan Eaglets then Tokyo Indian Club(no longer existing) too. Well, I have helped many teams at Edogawa and now in Japan there are so many club are playing cricket, just because of Edogawa ground. If you need more information ask me again.
Sheikh Nissar Ahmed
I am a reader of the IECC newsletter and it really keeps me updated with the happenings of Japan cricket and your Trivial facts column is very interesting.
Mayank Dabral
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. We will publish them verbatim as long as a decent language is used.
Do players have right to sex during World Cup?
This is nothing to do with cricket but we thought the cricket world cup next year, this piece might be worth to read. Full article here.
Cricket comedy show
We bring yet another video clipping. This a small clip from from an Indian TV show.
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.
"By 2009, we envision there will be 720 teams and by 2015, 20,000 players and 2,000 coaches across the country" - Cui Weihong of the Chinese Cricket Association lays out his plan for the game in his country.
Note: Beginning Issue #56, we bring you some KCL picks. These are either the comments heard on the ground or nick names of certain players. These comments are reported to us by our readers at various times and are intended only to bring some fun for the readers. It is not our intention to offend any player or club.
Nick name:
Robb McKenna (Kytes): "Bigamist"
1. New Zealand's Beige Brigade named Mick Lewis their "Player of the year" for his extraordinary effort(113 off 10 overs) against South Africa.
2. Jason Gillespie has a batting average of 247 against Bangladesh. Damien Martyn has an average of 5.5 against the same team.
That's all in this edition!