Seattle Cup
 

NCCA hosts NWCL in inaugural Seattle Cup tournament

Friday, May 13, 2005


The Northern California Cricket Association and the North West Cricket League are proud to announce the Seattle Cup tournament this year. This inaugural tournament between the two North West Region leagues will be held at the gorgeous Kirigin Cellars Cricket Ground in Gilroy this weekend (May 14th and 15th, 2005). The NCCA hopes that this is the beginning of an annual tradition between these two North West Regional Associations.

The Teams
The following is the list of players representing the NWCL, along with a few details about some of their notable cricket accomplishments:
  1. Mehul Dave (Captain): USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004)
  2. Vijay Beniwal (Vice-Captain): USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004)
  3. Faisal Awan
  4. Viraj Desai
  5. Rajesh Ganesan
  6. Syed Khalid Hasan
  7. Varun Juneja
  8. Abdullah Khoajakhail: 16-year-old right-arm leg-break bowler
  9. Naveen Kumar: Double-centurion in 2004 NWCL Semi-Finals
  10. Javed Mahtab
  11. Suresh Nair
  12. Sanjay Rama: Wicket-Keeper; Man-of-the-Match in 3 consecutive NWCL Finals
  13. Bhargava Vadapalli: USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004)
The following is the list of players representing the NCCA, along with a few details about some of their notable cricket accomplishments:
  1. Ozair Nana (Captain): Right-Hand Middle-Order Batsman / Right-Arm Slow Bowler; NCCA, USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004), USA National Team, NCCA All-Time 'A' Division Batting Aggregate Rankings Leader
  2. Nauman Mustafa (Vice-Captain): Wicket-Keeper / Right-Hand Middle-Order Batsman; Karachi U-19, Pakistan Combined Universities, Patrons Trophy (First Class), NCCA, USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004)
  3. Saeed Ahmed: Right-Arm Fast Bowler / Aggressive Right-Hand Batsman; Punjab College (Lahore), NCCA, USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004)
  4. Sunil Chandrupatla: Right-Hand Middle-Order Batsman / Debut season for NCCA Representative Squad
  5. Nirosh DeSilva: Right-Hand Opening Batsman / Right-Arm Medium-Pace Bowler; NCCA, USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004), USA National Team probables
  6. Deep Singh Ghai: Right Hand Middle-Order Batsman; NCCA, USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004)
  7. Sahil Gulati: Right-Arm Spin Bowler / Right-Hand Batsman; Debut season for NCCA Representative Squad
  8. Fauad Hasan: Right-Arm Spin Bowler / Right-Hand Batsman; Debut season for NCCA Representative Squad
  9. Abdul Mujeeb Khan: Right-Arm Medium-Pace Bowler / Right-Hand Batsman; Debut season for NCCA Representative Squad
  10. Fahad Altaf Khan: Left-Hand Opening Batsman / Right-Arm Slow Bowler; NCCA, USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004)
  11. Akash Kumar: Left-Hand Middle-Order Batsman / Left-Arm Medium-Pace Bowler; Uttar Pradesh U-22, NCCA
  12. Sandeep Patel: Left-Arm Medium-Pace Bowler / Right-Hand Batsman; NCCA
  13. Carmo Rodriguez: Right-Hand Middle-Order Batsman; St. Andrews College (Bombay), NCCA, USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004)
  14. Ganesh Seetharaman: Right-Hand Middle-Order Batsman / Right-Arm Medium-Pace Bowler; Madras U-15, U-16, U-19, NCCA, USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004)
  15. Nadeem Sheikh: Right-Arm Medium-Pace Bowler / Right-Hand Middle-Order Batsman; Debut season for NCCA Representative Squad
  16. Sunny Singh: Aggressive Right-Hand Batsman / Right-Arm Medium-Pace Bowler; NCCA, USA-NW Region (US Nationals 2004)

The games will follow the ICC Standard ODI Match-Playing conditions. This tournament is intended not only to identify talented cricketers from both leagues, but also to build camaraderie between the two Associations. By conducting the tournament early in the season, it will help prepare players for future USACA inter-regional games.

We invite all cricket enthusiasts to come out this weekend to watch what should be two exciting days of competitive cricket.

For more information please contact the NCCA Executive Committee at: nccaexecs@ncalcricket.org

About NCCA
The Northern California Cricket Association (NCCA #8211; www.ncalcricket.org) was started in 1892 and has matured since then to become one of the biggest cricket leagues in the US. It currently has 36 teams and nearly a thousand members playing in four divisions. These members come from all over the Bay Area - from as far north as Davis, to Fresno in the south, and represent all cricket-playing nations of the world.

The league season consisting of typically 16 games per team, begins in April and continues into November when play-offs are held. With the help of local cities, schools, and Parks and Recreation Departments, NCCA Clubs have 20 cricket grounds in the Bay Area.

The NCCA provides the framework for cricket to be played in the Bay Area by organizing games and activities for its members. In addition, it hosts a variety of visiting teams from all over the world and sends its representative teams to play in other states and countries. It is constantly striving to promote the game at all levels, particularly in schools.

It also hosts the prestigious National Inter-League Tournament every year during the Labor Day weekend. Since 1997, each year, eight premier teams from different parts of USA have participated in the Tournament. Support from the City of Sunnyvale and the City of Santa Clara were a key ingredient to the success of each of the past tournaments, along with sponsorship from companies like Kingfisher Premium Lager, ICIM-RPG, and Challenger Systems. The tournament provides a great venue for showcasing cricket and helps popularize the game in USA.

Meanwhile, the NCCA continues to grow rapidly, adding new Clubs each year, and welcomes all aspiring cricketers in the region of Northern California to be a part of this visionary Cricket Association.

About NWCL
The Northwest Cricket League (NWCL - www.nwcl.org) was founded in 1995 through the efforts of a handful of dedicated individuals. The founding clubs were Beaverton CC, Microsoft CC, Multnomah CC (then named Lake Oswego CC), Portland (then named Star CC), Seattle CC, and WSU CC. These clubs had existed and played friendly matches against one another in years immediately preceding the formation of the league. But, the formation and existence of the NWCL gave them the structure and opportunity to enhance the amount and level of cricket played in the Pacific Northwest.

Through the years since its inception, the NWCL#8217;s existence has been punctuated by ups and down but it has survived and become stronger. The competition format has changed almost every year. The By-laws, which form the cornerstone for the administration of the league, have been over-hauled a couple or times and continue to be modified every year. Most of the teams in the league have changed the grounds that they play on over the years.

Nevertheless, the league has experienced explosive growth in the past three years by more than doubling its original club membership with the addition of many new clubs, and an increased membership roster of the veteran clubs. At the beginning of the 2005, there are 12 Full Member clubs and 1 Associate Member Club in the league, fielding a total of 17 teams, and listing over 500 individuals as members of these clubs. Also in 2005, for the first time, NWCL implemented 2-division format, with upper division consisting of top 8 teams and the bottom division consisting of the remaining 9 teams.

The standard of cricket has also improved considerably in NWCL. In the last 3 years, the NWCL Representative Team has played with representative teams from leagues within the USACA Northwest Region and held its own. Some NWCL players have gained selection into the Northwest Regional Team and played in the Regional and National USACA Cricket Tournaments.

Most of the players in the NWCL have learnt their cricket in other parts of the world. However, to lay a foundation for teaching the game to the local US born children coming of age in the Northwest, the NWCL Management is striving to conduct cricket camps in the Seattle and Portland areas.