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Volume 1 March 01, 2011 Issue 19

Robin Singh appointed as the Coach of the USA U-19 Team

Editorial Singh is King

SCCA League update

All-rounders Game

Blunders galore in Bengaluru

USA ICC Americas U-19 Champions

Winter League

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EDITORIAL Editor: K.C.S. Rao

SINGH IS KINGSINGH IS KINGSINGH IS KINGSINGH IS KING !!!!

The appointment of the West Indian born former Indian All-rounderRabindra Ramnarayan Singh aka Robin Singh as the Coach of the USAUnder-19 team, is the only positive move made by the USACA in thepast several months.

With the CEO position of USACA yet to be filled up, I am surprised that PresidentDainty found time to finalize a coach for the Under-19 side. Dainty may have justpulled a rabbit out of his hat.

Robin Singh has got lot of experience as a coach and an ideal person to coach theyoung Under-19 side. Robin has coached the Indian Juniors and India A squads inthe past. He also served as the Fielding Coach for the Indian side for 2 years and iscurrently the Coach of the Sachin Tendulkar led Mumbai Indians side in the IndianPremier League (IPL).

He has got a lot to offer as an experienced coach and as a former InternationaCricketer. His links with the West Indies and India will surely help him in

understanding the minds of Cricketers who have migrated into USA from thesecountries.

Having experienced himself, Robin knows how one can perform in the top level byunderstanding ones limitations. Robin, as we all know, is not of the flamboyant allrounder category. He was a fighter and work horse who kept on doing the job forIndia, as a cricketer, by fully understanding his limitations and playing to hisstrengths.

Under his guidance as a coach the Indian Under-19 side and the A side performedextremely well in the International cricket. The Mumbai Indians have beenconsistent under his coaching in the IPL and had reached the Finals, last year.

Robin believes in hard work and is surely going to push our Cricketers a lot. He hasexperience in identifying players and bringing out the best in them. The decision tosend Cameron Mirza as opener in the first game is an example to this.

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There is a talk that Robin might also be assigned the job of coaching the USA team.For now, Dainty seems to be obsessed with his new staff and his willing to supportwhatever additional role Robin might be interested in taking up for the cause ofUSA Cricket.

Luck always plays a major role in any field for any assignment. It seems the LadyLuck has embraced Robin in his very first assignment. Within days afterappointment as the coach for the USA Under-19 Team, the Robin coached USAUnder-19 Team came victorious in the ICC Americas U-19 Championship with a 5-0win record.

A Positive move by the Board and a positive performance by the Team. Robin has

started with a winning note and we wish him the very best and hope he Coacheseven our senior side and help USA Cricket perform consistently in the Internationaarena.

SCCA League Update Staff Reporter

SCCA is scheduled to start the League Season in March, subject to weather conditions. SCCA is moving

forward in improving the facilities for the Players to practice by installing new practice nets. Hopefully, this

would help the Batsmen polish their skills and bring in much needed relief to the Bowlers in reducing wides and

no balls. The last season saw quite a few innings where the wides accounted for more than 5-6 extra overs.

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ALL-ROUNDERS GAME Dr. V.V. Giri

The World Cup started in grand style with India scoring a thundering and convincing victory over Bangladesh.This was a revenge for the Indians who had a humiliating defeat in the last WC at West Indies resulting in

rolling of many heads.

This time, India gave no chance to Bangladesh with Sehwag literally destroying the Bangladesh bowling with asuperb 175. Virat Kohli also chipped in a century thus ensuring that the fight will be between Raina and Yuvraj

for the lone batting vacant slot.

Other countries also recorded their victory as expected, though there were some tense moments for England

against Holland, Bangladesh against Ireland and SA against WI. If you call an upset, it was for the SL team

which lost to Pakistan.

But I wont consider Pakistan as underdogs and in this World Cup they have a good side with many genuineallrounders. True, their batting is slightly vulnerable, not as strong as their bowling, but their fielding and

catching are still atrocious which makes me feel them not the favorites for the Cup.

In this WC, the strengths and weaknesses for each team is going to be different. Since the tournament is played

in the sub-continent, batting and bowling will be difficult for the regulars especially for the South Africans andthe Aussies.

The ball is not going to come on to the bat and hence the stroke making is going to be difficult. Since thewickets are very slow with low bounce, the real fast bowlers are going to suffer. I can name the bowlers - Dale

Stein, Morkel, Tait, and Lee will have a tough time in this Cup.

Spin and slow bowling are going to be the order of the day and as such you see the spinners opening the

bowling for South Africa, West Indies and for India too I expect Dhoni to open the bowling with spinner. Even

the military medium pacers will have a role to play.

When the wicket is slow and not for stroke making, it is ideal to have gentle medium pacers like our former

champion cricketer, Jimmy Amarnath who could frustrate the batsmen. Many teams will change their strategy

this time and they will not go for genuine pacers. They would pump the side with many all rounders and usethem at a suitable time.

This WC will see each side using more than six bowlers, unlike the regular five with ten overs each. The

captains nowadays do not give a bowler a long spell and uses him in 3 or 4 spells. This is to avoid the batsmenfrom settling or getting used to the bowler.

Gone are the days when the batting sides slog during the initial power plays like Jayasurya and Kaluwitharanaand go for higher run rate during the first ten or fifteen overs. They would like to have a good start, meaning -

without losing wickets. They want to keep enough wickets till the end and go all out during the last ten overs .

They want as many batsmen in the side as possible which means they would prefer allrounders.

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If you notice one good point in the present WC, all the wicket keepers are genuinely good bats - Sangakarra

Dhoni, Kamran Akmal, McCullum, Prior, Haddin and the greatest of them all - A.B.deVilliers. They all bat

within first five batting order and are number one keepers of their respective countries.

Allrounders is a tricky word. There are batsmen who could bowl a bit and bowlers who could bat decently. I

call them useful cricketers. My allrounders should be able to bat within first seven position and bowl regularly

ten overs. These types of allrounders are very few in todays cricket. We dont have Sobers, Devs, Bothams,Imrans, Hadlees or Procters.

In this WC, we have very few genuine players and J. Kallis is the best among them. Each country has tried theirbest to select as many allrounders as possible.

India has Yusuf Pathan, Raina and Yuvraj. Perera, Mathews, and Dilshan are for SL. Aussies have Shane

Watson, David Hussey and Johnson. Gayle, Bravo and Pollard are terrific allrounders for WI. NZ have Vettori

and Styris. Pakistan have, in my opinion, the best all rounders in Hafeez, Afridi and Abdul Razzaq.

With the wicket keepers becoming main batsmen of each team, they are also considered as allrounders. So inthis World Cup I guess allrounders will play a leading role and the captains will use more bowlers (even part

timers).

India won the cup in 1983 through allrounders in England where the wickets were slow in nature. We had Kapil

Dev, Sandeep Patil, Yashpal Sharma, Madan lal, Binny, Shastri, Kirti Azad and the great Amarnath who got the

Player of the World Cup award. I guess the side with more allrounders will win the cup this time.

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BLUNDERS GALORE AT BENGALURU Dr. V.V. Giri

The Indian team seems to have a 'hearing problem' in addition to its bowling and fielding woes which led to itsfailure to defend a strong score of 338 in the World Cup match against England here last night.

The on field umpire Billy Bowden with the Australian third umpire, made a mockery and added more fuel to the

fire when he ruled Ian Bell - not out after reviewing the LBW DRS appeal. His interpretation was the leg was2.5 meters in front of the stumps, which the English commentators themselves would not agree.

Replays showed three things working in favor of the appeal --- there was no no-ball, the ball hit in line, andHawkeye said the ball was hitting the middle stump. Seeing the replay on the giant screen, Bell started walking

back when the umpires decided to stay the not-out decision.

Hawkeye said the ball was hitting the stumps and there was no reason to not give it out, even though Bell was

out of his crease. There were many instances in which batsmen walked down the pitch, hit on the shin and weregiven out LBW. So if that can be out, so should be this.

This is a clear example of adulteration of technology with human intervention.

The World Cup match between India and England at Bangaluru, which ended in a thrilling tie, has sparked anew life into the tournament and sent a strong message to the critics who believe that one-day cricket is nearing

its moribund stage, British media reported on Monday.

In a nerve-wracking World Cup group-B league match at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium last night, England tied

the scores after being set an imposing target of 339 by the Indians.

I really thought the game would be over by the 48th over the way Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell were batting, so

I am quite happy with the result.

Dhoni, covering one of his many faults of not retaining Zaheer for the 49th over said he was at peace havinggiven Munaf Patel the final over in which England needed 14 to win. Rookie pacer Azmal Shahzad hit a first-

ball six to put England back in the game. But Munaf did a good job. He was bowling in the right areas, but

Shahzad played a good shot. It happens.

No need to discuss about how poor bowling and fielding in addition to a late batting collapse that resulted in the

fall of India's last seven wickets for 33 runs and nearly enabled England to win.

Strauss benefits as Team India turns deaf: England skipper Andrew Strauss, who was the architect of India's

agony by hitting his highest ODI score of 158, should have been out when he has scored a mere 13 if wicket-

keeper Dhoni, Zaheer or close-in fielders had appealed for a caught behind at that point. Strauss clearly nicked aZaheer delivery but there was no appeal by the Indians.

98 runs later, the England skipper had another stroke of luck when he again edged Zaheer to Dhoni with hisscore at 111 but none of the Indians on the field appealed.

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Some of the television commentators, who heard the clear nicks in the replays, thought that the Indian players

probably did not hear the edges because of the crowd noise -- an unconvincing argument given the fact that

Indian cricketers are used to noisy, boisterous crowds everytime they set foot on the field. No cricket ground in

the world has as vocal spectators as Kolkata's Eden Gardens where over one lakh fans turn out for big matches.Petersen also nicked a Munaf Patel delivery early in his inning as well (players never appealed)

Now each and every Indian cricket lovers are so worried and scared about this WC. How can a team listed asfavorites to win the World Cup concede 621 runs in their first two matches? That is the worrying thought as the

Indian campaign continues on its roller coaster ride, the ups being provided by the batting and the downs by the

bowling and fielding.

The words Shahid Afridi has used in lambasting his own team could well be used for the Indians too. "If we

field like this we will return home long before we have planned" said the Pakistan captain mincing no words in

describing the abysmal fielding standards.

But by going with what we have seen so far the Indian cricketers are no better. For at least a couple of players it

is going back to the bad old days when the fielders used to "escort the ball to the boundary."

One wonders as to how a team can hope to win the World Cup with thin bowling resources and sub-standard

fielding and faulty catching. The latter has always been a sadly neglected aspect of Indian cricket and whilethere has been some improvement in recent years the Indians are still some way behind most other countries

whose players leap, dive and slide while making saves or completing catches. Indian teams fielding appears to

be far below the standards displayed by some of the teams like Kenya, Zimbabwe and Netherland.

In a closely fought match between teams evenly balanced in batting and bowling - and from the quarter-finals

every match is going to be frightfully close - it is the 20 odd runs conceded in the field or a dropped catch thatcan make the decisive difference between winning and losing.

The point is that MS Dhoni seems resigned to the ineptitude in the field. After Sunday's game the Indian captain

remarked that "we could have defended this total if we had a better fielding side but we have to make do withwhat we have got." Therein lies the problems for the Indians. It is customary for any team's think tank to discuss

shortcomings after a match and come up with solutions.

The disturbing aspect is that there seems to be no practical solution for these twin problems. The fielding will

continue to be sub-standard while the bowling will continue to be hit all over the park whether the team

management goes in for three seamers and a spinner or two seamers and two spinners.

A lot has made about the Indians having many part time spin options but on current evidence their bowling does

not provide a comforting thought. On the contrary it is alarming to think that the team will have to soldier along

on these lines with the Indian team management not inclined to shift from the seven batsmen four bowlerpolicy.

Time and again the Indian batting has come to the rescue of the team. But it appears that the most illustriousbatting line-up in the game will have to perform superlatively even by its own Himalayan standards in the

World Cup. If the bowling and the fielding cannot defend a total of 338, what can be done? A lot may be made

of the fact that the Indians slid sharply from 305 for three to 338 all out. It is asheer display of reckless battingat the end.

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I am sure the bookies have already made some changes and installed Pakistan, South Africa or Australia as the

new favorites. Going by what one has seen during the first ten days of the competition these three teams have

been particularly impressive but of course it is still a long way to April 2 and anything can happen. Whoexpected Pakistan down and almost out midway through their campaign in 1992 to emerge World Cup winners?

Plenty of fuss was also raised over the India and England match after former Australian leg-spinner ShaneWarne correctly tweeted seven hours before the start of the match that it would be a tie.

England skipper Andrew Strauss claimed that Warne had shown he was a cricket genius with his correctprediction but others also observed that it was strange how one could predict a tie so early before a match.

Yes, on summarizing, the main reasons for not winning this match:

1. Poor fielding - only one or two fast movers in the eleven. Others are anchored, flat footed fielders.- SachinSehwag, Gambir, Yuvraj, Bhajji, Zac, Munaf, Chawla - no where near international standard.2. Poor bowling ability, except for Zac, others have - no speed, no variation, no talent, no ideas. No one is

available in India, Can't help.

3. Blunders by umpires, blunders by bowlers in not appealing (thrice).4. Clueless lower batting order - 7 wickets given for 30 runs.5. Very poor captaincy- in field placing, bowling changes.6. Above all, team has a terrible coach- who doesn't do home work at all. No bowling strategies, No batting

strategy towards the end, Unable to read the opponents and perform the SWOT analysis, Not working inrepairing our batsmen's weakness against short pitch balls, slog over bowling, catching and fielding. Simply

hangs around, never troubles the players to work hard, pats all the players all the time, keep their belongings

(mob ph, wallet etc) and be a nice guy. Only one solution - We need Greg Chappell maan !!!

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USA ICC AMERICAS U-19 CHAMPIONS Prakash Krishnagiri

Standout performances by Cameron Mirza and Gurpreet Sandhu helped USAwin the ICC Americas Under-19 Championships recently held in Florida.

The USA team won all their 5 matches to seal the Championship. It is their

second championship title in the last 6 years. They won the Championshipearlier in 2005.

Cameron Mirza was named the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament forleading the runs chart for the USA with 193 including a magnificent 118 not out

against Argentina in the opening game, where he carried the bat through the

innings.

Gurpreet Sandhu was the joint leading wicket taker in the Tournament with 12 wickets, including amesmerizing spell of 5 wickets for 7 runs against Bermuda.

The USA team was a dominant force throughout the Tournament and it was evident when their bowlers

bowled out their opposition for totals of 54, 40, and 50 whenever they bowled first.

Though credit of the success goes to the coach, in this case, Robin Singh, the USA coach hardly had 3 days to

workout with the boys before the first game. A good talk, few tips, self-confidence is all that could have been

possible for him to provide for the first game. From there on his presence has made a huge difference to theteam in the way they conducted themselves on the field and performed consistently without any

complacency.

It is good to see that the new coach starting with a

bang. The Players too seem to enjoy his rigorous

sessions. The USA team along with runner-up Canada

join, Afghanistan, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Kenya,Namibia, Scotland, Vanuatu and Ireland in the 2012

Under-19 World Cup Qualifiers to be held from July

28 to August 9 in Ireland. The top six teams willqualify for the ICC Under-19 World Cup.

The Team has got great talent and with a proper coach

in Robin, taking charge of the Team, USA will behoping to qualify for the ICC U-19 world cup for the

second time in a row.

Weekend Cricket Management and Readers congratulate the USA U-19 team and wish them good luck for their

World Cup qualifiers.

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SO. CALIFORNIA WINTER CRICKET LEAGUE Staff Reporter

Torrance Beat USCby 11 Runs

Torrance 128 for 8 in 20 Overs (Saravanan K 27, Sunil Jain 20, Dushyant Sharma 3 for 10, Tarun Sandhu 2 for

26, Jeet Poonater 2 for 28)

USC117 for 8 in 20 Overs (Tarun Tyagi 20, Rishab Nanda 20, Pranav Dua 20, Maduka De Silva 3 for 27,

Karthick RP 2 for 14, Saravanan K 2 for 9)

Friends Beat Transformers by 6 Wickets

Transformers 74 for 8 in 19.1 Overs (Asad Khan 27, Ajit Sonawane 20, Asif Idrees 3 for 10, Fahmeed Khan 2

for 8)

Friends 75 for 5 in 15 Overs (Asif Abba Ali 31, Rashid Zia 21, Ashish Lone 3 for 8)

LA Slammers Beat HollywoodAS by 1 Wicket

Hollywood AS 95 in 17.4 Overs (Delan Bastian 43, Rafiq Mohammad 4 for 4, Vishal Dhiman 5 for 16)

LA Slammers 96 for 9 in 20 Overs (Pranav Kumar Sinha 25 not out, Venkat Mayreddy 3 for 31, Delan Bastian 3

for 27, Kiran Challa 2 for 9)

CSUF Titans Beat Transformers by 24 Runs

CSUF Titans 105 for 9 in 20 Overs (Nitesh Anandan 20, Adheesh Bhate 22, Inderbir Singh 2 for 12, Asad Khan2 for 28)

Transformers 81 for 8 in 17.4 Overs (Inderbir Singh 34, Kanwarajit Singh 3 for 24, Muhammad Sadiq 2 for 10)

IE Beat Culver City by 52 Runs

IE179 for 5 in 20 Overs (Nandish Patel 84, Dhaval Desai 21, Priyank Patel 21, Ishan Patel 24, Muffidkhan

Pathan 3 for 31)

Culver City 127 for 9 in 20 Overs (Wahab Daud 59, Saad Yusuf 21, Muffidkhan Pathan 21, Janek Patel 5 for

16, Nandish Patel 2 for 19)

CSULB-Deccan Beat CSUF Titans by 3 Wickets

CSUF Titans 90 in 17.3 Overs (Muhammad Sadiq 34, Nishant Patel 5 for 20, Babar Hashim 2 for 14) CSULB-Deccan 91 for 7 in 19.2 Overs (Nishant Patel 32, Ravi Singh 4 for 19)

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Warriors Beat Kings11 by 7 Wickets

Kings11 83 for 9 in 18 Overs (Pawan Daruri 5 for 12)

Warriors 87 for 3 in 14.3 Overs (Nick Kapadia 34 not out)

Friends Beat USCby 9 Wickets

USC61 All Out in 15.2 Overs (Rishabh Nanda 23, Rashid Zia 3 for 8, Shahzad Memon 4 for 1, Fahmeed Khan

2 for 12)

Friends 62 for 1 in 9.2 Overs (Rashid Ramzan 23 not out, Asif Abba Ali 25)

Warriors Beat Culver City by 4 Wickets

Culver City 110 all out in 20 Overs (Andy Kapadia 2 for 14, Kartik Nuggehalli 2 for 21, Aditya Kuchibhatla 2

for 11)

Warriors 112 for 6 in 18.2 Overs (Kartik Nuggehalli 23, Nick Kapadia 26, Avez Shaikh 3 for 7)

Transformers Beat CSULB-Deccan by 21 Runs

Transformers 64 for 9 in 16.4 Overs (Nishant Patel 3 for 8, Babar Hashim 4 for 6)

CSULB-Deccan 43 all out in 16.4 Overs (Chirayu Sapre 3 for 10, Colin Cox 3 for 7, Abhimanyu Rajp 2 for 8)

Hollywood AS Beat Star by 17 Runs

Hollywood AS 127 for 6 in 20 Overs (Delan Bastian 27, Satvinder Singh 3 for 11)

Star110 all out in 19.1 Overs (Venkat Mayreddy 2 for 35, Kiran Challa 3 for 9, Satish Balu 2 for 9, DelanBastian 2 for 12)

LA Slammers Beat Kings11 by 5 Runs

LA Slammers 117 all out in 20 Overs (Srini Kancharla 32, Lokesh Dhar 27, Jay Patel 2 for 23, Nandakishore

Krishna 3 for 18)Kings11 112 all out in 20 Overs (Harry Zalim 42 not out, Ajay Ahir 21, Pritesh Patel 25, Nafi Newaj 2 for 14,

Rafiq Mohammad 2 for 22)

IE Beat Dolphins by 73 Runs

IE117 for 9 in 19.1 Overs (Priyank Patel 79, Pardha Manyala 2 for 9, Praveenkumar Devarajan 2 for 7)

Dolphins 44 all out in 13.5 Overs (Janek Patel 3 for 11, Ritesh Patel 3 for 4)

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Torrance Beat CSUF Titans by 6 Wickets

CSUF Titans 120 for 6 in 20 Overs (Ravi Singh 25, Adheesh Bhate 25, Charan Raj 3 for 20)

Torrance 126 for 4 in 18 Overs (Hari Srinivas 31, Ajay Garyali 36)

IE Beat Kings11 by 7 Wickets

Kings11 44 for 7 in 11 Overs (Dhaval Desai 2 for 12, Ishan Patel 2 for 8, Janek Patel 2 for 2)

IE46 for 3 in 10 Overs (Priyank Patel 24 not out, Hitendra Patel 3 for 10)

Culver City Beat Hollywood AS by 1 Wicket

Hollywood AS 80 all out in 15.5 Overs (Zair Daud 2 for 17, Muffidkhan Pathan 2 for 8, Faisal Mohammed 2 for4)

Culver City 81 for 9 in 19.5 Overs (Kiran Challa 2 for 10)

IE Beat LA Slammers by 6 Runs

IE122 for 5 in 20 Overs (Dhaval Desai 62, Kazi Ahmed 3 for 26)

LA Slammers 116 for 8 in 20 Overs (Srini Kancharla 44, Vishal Dhiman 25 not out, Dhaval Desai 4 for 19,Janek Patel 3 for 28)

Kings11 Beat Hollywood AS by 6 Wickets

Hollywood AS 103 for 8 in 20 Overs (Ankur Patel 30, Satish Balu 26, Hitendra Patel 3 for 18, Mahesh Ahir 2

for 18)

Kings11 104 for 4 in 18.3 Overs (Nikesh Ahir 25, Gunjan Patel 45 not out, Delan Bastian 3 for 13)

Global Warming has not spared Southern California region and its cricket. It has not only been raining for a

longer duration this year but has snowed in Southern California a rare event. Southern California Winter

League was badly affected by these rains and a few games have to be postponed. This league has now reached

the play-off stages and should be completed within the next few weeks provided the rains show mercy!