2009 WMCB Twenty20 Champions
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22 Yards News
Cricket in America: A Formidable Foe to Baseball
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
America has become a melting pot of cultures, races, and ethnicities. As a result, for years we have been exposed to different types of food, fashion, technology, and pastimes from countries all around the world. In particular, we have been exposed to the various sports played around the globe and in recent years the game of cricket has gained fame as it has become one of the fastest growing sports in the United States.
Cricket first originated in southern England during the 16th century and by the end of the 18th century it had developed into the national sport of England. Since then, the International Cricket Council (ICC) was formed in order to govern the 104 countries that currently play this bat-and-ball team sport. Although Americans were first exposed to cricket during the 18th century, competing with sports like baseball, early Americans did not generally play the sport in large numbers. However, cricket's popularity slowly increased towards the end of the 20th century when immigrants from south Asia and the West Indies helped to stimulate the growth of the game throughout the nation.
Since 2004, UMBC has also joined in this movement where the UMBC Cricket Club, also known as 22 Yards, was formed by a group of students.
"Our mission is to promote the game of Cricket at UMBC and develop a team that will be competitive and successful in inter-regional competitions," 22 Yards player Chintan Desai said. "We are proud to represent UMBC in the Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board (WMCB). WMCB is an organized Cricket League which follows the standards set by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)."
The fact, however, is that although cricket fans are anxious for this game to prosper and grow in the United States, we still lack the infrastructure to support such a top-flight international program, especially during these terrible economic times where there is just not enough funding, facilities or trained support to give the sport the attention and recognition that it deserves.
"The founding president, Amitkumar Mahadevan, and then captain of the team, Faisel Maniar, reached out to many students and alumnus to raise awareness of the club. With their efforts, they were able to raise funds and increase the number of participating members. The increase in funds allowed us to build the infrastructure and procure essential equipment, which in turn enabled us to make a strong statement in the 2005 season of the WMCB League," Desai said.
Since money is vital to keeping a club like 22 Yards alive, many cricket organizations have hit a speed bump when it comes to convincing sponsors to invest resources for the sport. This is the case mainly because investors are not willing to dish out money to a sport that has less than one percent of the American people as fans.
Another example is the American soccer team which took several decades to create the interest that was needed in order to maintain an international program and a possible professional league. During the 1960s and 1970s steps were taken to establish a league but the American public was not ready for such a step and the attempts were to no avail. Today, even with millions of American kids playing soccer the men's international team for the United States still struggles to gain the respect it deserves and is often defeated even by less wealthy and less populous nations.
UMBC's cricket team has also had to overcome many obstacles in order to gain the respect and admiration that is quite deserving of their achievements.
"The magnitude of this achievement is significant for a few reasons. For one, 22 Yards won this championship against their arch-rivals, the Vikings Cricket Club-based in the tri-state area and comprised of talented cricketers known for their massive hitting abilities," president of 22 Yards, Anand Patel commented about the clubs recent win in the Federal Management Systems-Board of Directors (FMS-BOD) Championship. The FMS-BOD Championship is a tournament, which is organized by the WMCB, and this is the second year in a row that 22 Yards is bringing home a victory.
"22 Yards faced the Vikings Cricket club for the third time in the final match…On both previous encounters, the Vikings kept their grip on UMBC 22 Yards. In fact, 22 Yards has not won a single match against the Vikings prior to their latest championship. None the less, in the end, although the Vikings Cricket Club gave a good fight, UMBC 22 Yards won the final match with ease."
"The UMBC Cricket Club is comprised of members with varying degrees of cricketing skills. However, there is one thing that everyone shares - love for the game, and enthusiasm to see the sport grow," Desai said. "Whether you are a newcomer to the sport, or want to play competitively, there's a place for you in our club."
While cricket leagues all over the nation continue to struggle to compete with other more recognized sports in the United States one can only hope that their efforts will not go unrecognized.
By Anne Verghese
The Retriever Weekly
Copyright: The Retriever Weekly
An Epic Triumph Against All Odds
Monday, November 9, 2009
UMBC were pumped up after the win over DCU in the semis. Everyone were excited as we reached the Final of FMS-BOD, a tournament that saw many of our players banned. No one would have expected us to reach the finals but we showed and proved to everyone why we are still the best in the league .
UMBC won the toss and with no hesitation elected to bat. UMBC opened with Eraj and Sumeet. They were cautious in the first over as the wicket was damp but the ball was still coming on to the bat. They also had to negotiate the swing. They saw the first over of "Jonty" through. Eraj who had been in excellent form all season was determined to score and prove in the finals, he started of well with an excellent flick off his pads to score the first boundary of the match. His aggressive style of batting in the initial over saw him back to the pavilion. He played across to a delivery that was drifting towards the leg stump. He was unlucky to be given out. Eraj scored 6.
Anand went in to bat next and the dynamic duo of the semi finals had a task cut out, to see off the new ball and to build a platform for the power hitters that were to follow. They started off well taking the singles and doubles with occasional boundaries. They kept the score ticking with a steady run rate of over 6. As their partnership was blossoming, Sumeet departed for a well made 18. Raghav went in next and his very first ball hit a brilliant square cut to the boundary. Anand at the other end was playing sensibly and was giving a good stand to Raghav. Both of them ran very well taking cheeky singles and Raghav scored the occasional boundary.
Anand tried to up the momentum played an uppish shot to long off and was caught. He did his job by building two crucial partnership with Sumeet and Raghav, Anand scored 18. Ranga came in next and was all pumped up. Ranga and Raghav are good friends and know their game and play well together. Ranga played the first ball over covers to get a boundary. He went on to play some wonderful shots in the cover region. Both Ranga and Raghav ran well and converted the singles to double and double to triples. They had a partnership of around 22 runs which came of 10 deliveries. Raghav on the other side was playing well and had plans to stay till the end. He knew that with wickets in hand and with Rikin, Gurnish and Faisel to follow UMBC could easily reach 150. Next over he tried to pull the ball which kept little low and was judged LBW. Raghav scored 19. Rikin went in next and with the only intention to up the scoring rate from 6 to 7 or 8. His was the most entertaining innings. He scored 16 of 4 balls which consisted of 4,6,6. Gurnish joined Ranga and played well both ran very hard. Gurnish was quick to respond to every call and converted every opportunity.
UMBC somewhat lost momentum at the end after losing Gurnish and Ranga in quick succession. Ranga top scored UMBC's innings with 26. Faisel, Chirag and Wilbur went in the middle and played their part. They ran hard and took runs with every opportunity they had. UMBC ended their 20 overs with a score of 144/9 which was a very good total at William Wirt.
Having set a target of 144 UMBC bowlers had their task cut out. They knew that Vikings would come hard at them and they would have to take all the opportunities thrown at them. Fielding and Catching would be very crucial. Sumeet and Faisel opened the bowling for UMBC and Sumeet struck in his very 1st over. He got their opening batsman out clean bowled. Faisel at the other end bowled really well, swung the ball both ways and kept the pressure on the Vikings batsmen. Vikings had a lot of power hitters who could dispatch the bad balls over the boundary. UMBC got their 2nd wicket with Faisel running out Tahir Ali. Vikings were scoring 6 runs an over easily and after 5 overs they were 30 for 2. Sumeet got his 2 best bowlers to bowl the next 5 overs. Gurnish and Raghav bowled well in tandem. Gurnish picked up wicket in his first over with Chirag taking a good catch behind the stumps. Vikings ran hard and put UMBC outfielders under pressure. They converted singles into doubles and were able to pick up the odd boundaries.
UMBC having bowled 10 overs were still not in a commanding position even though Vikings needed around 76 runs in their last 10 overs. UMBC's trump card was brought to bowl. Austin who was one of the leading wicket takers for UMBC this season knew the importance of his spell and soaked up the pressure by getting 3 very important wickets in his spell. He bowled with good control and changed his pace regularly and was very effective. Anand took a brilliant catch at long on. Wilbur too joined the party with a catch and some brilliant fielding. Wilbur had improved a lot and his commitment towards the team cannot be questioned .
Anand bowled 2 overs and kept the pressure on the Vikings batsmen but was taken to the cleaners at his last delivery of every over. Vikings needed around 42 runs in the last 5 over with 5 wickets in hand. Very gettable score with "Jonty" still to bat. UMBC's think tank pooled in their view as to who needs to bowl the 16th over.
Sumeet, Gurnish and Austin had one over left, Raghav and Faisel had 2 respectively. After a good discussion Summet decided to bowl which turned out to be the last nail in the coffin for the Wikings.
Sumeet got 3 wickets in the over: 1st a run out by Raghav with an accurate flat throw, and then Summet finishing it off with 2 bowled including getting the dangerous Jonty out. 17th over was bowled by Raghav who kept it tight. Vikings had 1 wicket and needed to score 32 runs in last 3 overs. Gunish sealed the victory with the final wicket, Raghav taking the catch.
Every one fielded well and took their catches. Chirag kept really well behind the stumps.
With this sensational win we look forward for next season and American College tournament.
- Raghav Bharadwaj
2009 Twenty20 Champions
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Awesome game guys....excellent team effort....yes, we are the 20-20 champions.....the championship win becomes even more significant considering how we were treated by the WMCB with half of our team being banned
and also considering the fact that it might be the last game guys like Sumeet, Ranga and Raghav played with us (hopefully not) since they are graduating and we don't know where they will be working.
I am sure Sumeet and other players would be posting their opinions too but I would like to especially congratulate Austin on having such a wonderful debut season. You bowled really well through out the season and you made the team proud of the jewel they got in you. Wilbur congrats to you too for all your efforts on and off the field. Sadiq, you did well in the 20-20 games so congratulations to you too. I am sure you enjoyed your first season with us. Sumeet, Raghav, Ranga, Gurnish, Eraj, Rikin, Faiselbhai and Chirag, you guys are top performers and congrats to you all for having an awesome season and keeping the 22 Yards flag flying high in the air. Chintan, thank you for all that you did for the team-members. We are still fighting for you and we are sure we will be successful with your reinstatement.
As you can see I have ended up congratulating the entire team because it has been a complete team effort. The win sums up the season in a perfect manner. We were so close in defending our Round-Robin title but we ended up with a bang by winning the FMS-BOD trophy that too by defeating a team whom we hadn't beaten ever previously.
Congrats once again to everyone on having an awesome season. You definitely made the President proud ;)
Eiskot !!!
Anand
P.S. Match details to be followed.
UMBC juggernaut marches into finals of FMS-BOD tournament
Monday, November 2, 2009
22 yards has reached the finals of the FMS-BOD tournament and will be playing their familiar arch rivals Vikings on Nov 8th at William Wirt starting at noon. UMBC Cricket club has not reached the finals of any tournament this year and are very eager and excited to win their first title of this season.
After the fiasco at semi finals of Round Robin which ended with uncontrollable circumstances, UMBC was down, disappointed and distracted by lot of off-field controversy. They tried to regroup and play the best they could in the following T20 tournament, but unfortunately UMBC didnt qualify in the final two as off field activities had plagued them badly.
UMBC team has recuperated well and has convincingly won their games in the FMS-BOD tournament so far with just one loss against DC United in their last game of the qualifying round.UMBC won against Damascus chasing 95 rather comfortably in 18 overs to get their first win of the BOD tournament. The game against Crescent followed and people like Anand and Sadiq stepped up their games to get convincing wins for UMBC taking them into the quarter finals to play against UCC. Quarter finals saw some fine bowling display from the UMBC captain Sumeet and Austin coupled with sensible batting from Raghav to get the compelling win against UCC.
UMBC played DC United in the semi-finals and won a thriller which saw UMBC chase down 140 with one ball to spare and by 7 wickets to storm into the finals. Austin again was the pick of the bowlers whereas Sumeet and Anand shined with the bat sharing a 100+ partnership.
UMBC's final frontier will be against Vikings on Sunday.These two teams have met twice so far this season, once in WMCB main league and other in the T20 tournament. In each of the encounters Vikings came out on top as the winners.
It remains to be seen if UMBC can continue their winning habit and overcome their arch rivals Vikings to end the season on a high note.
UMBC storm into quarter finals of FMS-BOD
Monday, October 12, 2009
UMBC completes its third consecutive win of the FMS-BOD tournament to reach the quarter finals. With one more game to go, which will decide whether UMBC tops the group or becomes the second team from the group to make it to the quarter finals UMBC are strong contenders for the FMS-BOD trophy.
UMBC have won all three games rather convincing as they started off defeating Damascus with 3 wickets and 2 overs to spare when they chased down 95 at William Wirt. After that game UMBC had a long break as T20 tournament was in progress. When the FMS-BOD tournament resumed, UMBC won against Crescent and MCC by 8 wickets and 7 wickets respectively thanks to good allround effort by the UMBC team.
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