American College Cricket ESPN Finals Tops 2014 ! Year in Review !

ESPNACCThrough out the school year our clubs are doing things such as tables at Clubs Sports Day, internal tape ball tournaments, fundraising etc. Our Year in Review does not document all of this, just the major points along the way for American College Cricket as a whole.

Without question the biggest accomplishment for the game in America in 2014 was ESPN broadcasting the American College Cricket Finals live on March 16, along with TV Asia. The world’s largest sports channel was interested in showing American College Cricket since 2009, and ACC President Lloyd Jodah thought 2014 was the right time.

Through our Home & Away games many clubs were able to get access to on campus fields (hockey, soccer, lacrosse etc) to play, and we’re now playing on at least 13 campuses, often under lights. Practice space is now a norm.

Here are the other Highlights starting with Jan 2014 :
JAN
-ended 2013 with Harvard being the first Home & Away Champion
-Danny Yetman (Harvard) won the John Bart King Award
-Auburn Tigers lost to FSU Seminoles in the BCS Championship Game (Football)
-Amber Bhargava (Carnegie Mellon) was Newcomer of the Year (he hit a magnificent century in the 2013 North East Regionals)
– 2013 College Players of the Year were: Rohan Kanhai Award winner Hayat Khan (BU), Subas Poudel (Penn), Ibrahim Khan (Harvard), Rikin Parikh (UMBC) , Gurnish Singh (UMBC), Umer Syed (UTA), Raghav Bharadwaj (UMBC), Sai Ramesh (USF),
– ECB Umpire Billy Taylor announced to officiate at the 2014 American College Cricket Nationals, authorized by the ECB & ICC.
– new members Northern Illinois, Georgia Tech and Syracuse Universities registered for the 2014 Nationals

FEB
– American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah, TV Asia Senior VP Lal Dadlaney & ESPN Sr Director Jason Bernstein announced that the American College Cricket National Finals would be shown live on ESPN3 & TV Asia, WatchESPN.com and on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app. Additionally, it was streamed on tv’s through ESPN on Xbox LIVE by Gold members, Apple TV and Roku.
This would be the first cricket in USA ever broadcast on ESPN, and the first ever non-International cricket to be broadcast by the world’s largest sports channel, ESPN.
-College of Wooster Cricket organized a Banquet open to all students featuring food from major cricket playing countries
– Nws India Times did a feature on University at Buffalo Cricket.

MARCH
American College Cricket was featured in an article in the Economist.
– 24 teams gathered to play in the 6th American College Cricket National Championship.
– Sai Ramesh (USF),Saad Zafar (Ryerson), Syed Falah (South Alabama), Yaseen Karch (Carnegie) Sohail Chaudry (WVU) Haider Ali (Rutgers) scored centuries
– University of South Florida led by Sai Ramesh defeated Auburn to win the National Championship & the Chanderpaul Trophy on their 6th try, and was featured prominently on the Homepage of the University’s website.
– The Hit Wicket – A Cricket themed Restaurant & Bar in Cambridge, MA, USAand The Australian NYC,2 major sports bars
– the new American College Cricket Champions received recognition in major India media
– 2014 Championship MVP was USF Captain Sai Ramesh, and Karthik Venkata (USF) was the Finals MVP
– the Finals was shown in HD live on ESPN (in the US) & on TV Asia in Canada & the US and was the first ever cricket in America to be shown on ESPN. The first ever non-International cricket ever shown on ESPN.
– Commentators were Lloyd Jodah,Crichq’s John Paul Lloyd, David Sentance, Josh McLean,Vik Jayaram,Tim Shirriffs & Adrian Gordon.
– ECB Umpire officiated as well as became an Advisor to American College Cricket on Officiating & Rules. Amir Saddiqui and Max Diah were once more key part of the Management team whilst Crichq provided the scoring.

APRIL
– ESPN followed up its broadcast of the American College Cricket Finals with a similar agreement to show 9 IPL matches including the 2 Semi Finals.
– the 2014 American College Cricket Home & Away spring season began with Princeton’s Ryan Edwards scoring 101*. Then Harvard’s Vik Jayaram & Manik Kuchroo both scored centuries in the same match – a first for American College Cricket !
– Babson College became American College Cricket members and played their first Home & Away match
– Harvard University named Ibrahim Khan its Club Sport Athlete (Male) of the Year (out of 65 club sports) – the first the honor went to a cricket player!
– Dartmouth’s Shreyansh Patel (155*) and Harvard’s Manik Kuchroo (134*) scored centuries.
– MIT’s Fahad Mahmood scored 169* now American College Cricet’s highest score in all levels though Adrian Gordon’s 145* remains the highest in tournaments.
– USF Cricket team was honored by the County Commissioners at a City Hall function

MAY
Penn Cricket won the University of Pennsylvania’s Club of the Year (out of more than 35 clubs).
– MIT media “The Tech” began publishing its cricket club match reports, written by Captain Koustuban Ravi
– MIT began playing matches at home, on its Roberts Field
– N. Gopalkrishnan scored 52 and took 4 for 33 for Harvard vs MIT.
– Hayat Khan won Boston University’s “Team Advancement Award” out of over 900 student athletes.
– new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, ““I think playing cricket taught me more about working in teams and leadership that has stayed with me throughout my career,”
– MIT’s Priyank Kumar scored 99
– at Summer Break MIT led the Home & Away Standings, having played 9 matches winning 6.Bowlers Mohit Kansal & Usma Ayyaz had 10 wickets each, Fahmood Mahmood had 339 averaging 42.4

JUNE
– the 2014 All American team was named, with Sai Ramesh (USF) as Captain
http://americancollegecricket.com/2014/06/20/the-2014-all-american-1st-team/
– Shiv Chanderpaul announced the Dates for the 2015 American College Cricket National Championship.

JULY
– Jaiveer Chauhan, Champion with York University in 2010, tried out & made the team for Bond University in Australia where he went to do his Law degree.

AUGUST
– Shiv Chanderpaul announced the 2014 American College Cricket Hall of Fame Inductees : Kushroo Wadia (York University), Romel Somavat (Ohio State), Adrian Gordon (NYU-Polytechnic) and in the non-players’ category : Joshua Robinson, Nezam Hafeez,JonVigliotti,George Vecsey, Mustafa Khan, Gerald Pickens
– we commemorated the Birthday of “The Don” by beginning our Fall season with “Don Bradman Week” (the last week of August).
– Lloyd Jodah & Sakhi Muhammad, Smart Choice CEO, announced that the new cricket Stadium outside Houston, the Smart Choice Moosa Stadium, with its turf wickets, would be the site of the 2014 American College Cricket South West Championship.

SEPT
Drexel’s Maeez Veqar scored 149* – the first century of our Fall season.
-University of Texas Longhorns joined American College Cricket & played their first Home & Away match vs Texas A & M.
– Harvard defeated defending Champion University of Pennsylvania to win the 2nd Ivy League Championship & the Colin Michael Jodah Trophy
– Anja Catrine presented the Colin Michael Jodah Trophy & did interviews for TV Asia. Mark Audain provided additional video coverage, as he later did for the North East Regionals.
– Harvard Cricket graduated from playing on Harvard’s field hockey field to playing on its own on campus cricket field
– Iowa State Cyclones defeated University at Buffalo to win the Mid West Regionals & the Gordon Gee Trophy on the Ohio State campus field, out of 7 teams

OCT
– Professor Stephen Blythe, Advisor to Harvard Cricket Club, became the CEO & President of Harvard Management Company, overseeing the University’s $ 36 Billion Endowment Fund, the largest in American universities.
– American College Cricket, Crichq & Dream 11 partnered to do the first Fantasy Cricket in America. This will be repeated for the 2015 Nationals.
– UMBC defeated Drexel to win the Mid Atlantic Regionals out of 9 teams
– Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT Tigers) defeated Rutgers to win the Deryck aaron Jodah Trophy & the North East Championship out of 11 teams.
– former George Washington University Cricket Club President Hugo Schechter began working for English Premiere League club Southampton.

NOV
– National Champion USF Bulls, with 8 new player, defeated a completely new University of Flordia Gators to win the South East Regionals, out of 6 teams.
– because of heavy rain, the South West Regionals was postponed to Feb 2015
– American College Cricket made history by playing the first cricket match in Compton, and doing so in Jackie Robinson Stadium. The game was between new members UCLA & Calremont Colleges. American College Cricket Hall of Famers David Sentance, Gerald Pickens & Mustafa Khan were instrumental in organizing the event which involve Sheenaway’s kids, & baseball boys from CoachPicken’ C-Bats Academy and Compton’s Centennial High School.
– Registration for the 2015 National Championship began

DEC
– MIT led by KoustubanRavi, became the 2014 American College Cricket Home & Away Champion, playing 20 matches, winning 13.
– end of year National Rankings came out with USF & Auburn retaining the #s 1 & 2 spots, and Harvard moving up to # 3
– Smart Choice CEO Sakhi Muhammad & Lloyd Jodah, American College Cricket President announced that the Smart Choice Moosa Stadium would be an American College Cricket home Stadium – for Home & Away matches, Regional tournament and practice. American College Cricket members would have full access to the locker rooms, nets etc
– a new design for the Chanderpaul Trophy was unveiled, designed by Lloyd & made by Cricket Zone.
– voting began for the American College Cricket Players of the Year.
– USF President Judy Genshaft recognized the USF Cricket Club and American College Cricket during her official Commencement Speech at Graduation time.
– Anja Catrine confirmed for 2015 Nationals media duties, and ECB Umpire Billy Taylor confirmed for Officiating & Coaching duties.

Posted by ljodah | NEWS,Universities