WHERE & WHEN : Ft Lauderdale, Florida…….March 14 – 18, 2012. March 13 is available for practice.

FIELDS : As in the past 3 Championships we will use the CBRP (Central Broward Regional Park) Cricket Stadium (ICC-Certified for ODIs) & its satellite fields, as well as Brian Piccolo fields in Ft Lauderdale Flordia.
http://www.broward.org/Parks/CentralBrowardRegionalPark/Pages/Default.aspx

The Stadium’s wicket is TURF. The satellite fields are ARTIFICIAL (not matting or carpet) that drain well and play fast and bouncy. Brian Piccolo wickets are TURF .

The outfields are the best in the USA. The grass is cut low.

HOTEL : We have used Quality Inn Sawgrass Conference Center .They have provided us with a good rate & facilities, allowing 4 to a room. Free hot breakfast. Free transportation to & from the Stadium fields. Free Wi Fi (improved).
http://www.qualityinn.com/hotel-plantation-florida-FL798?promo=pmfgqifl798&chain=Q&seg=stAFYfl8i|pmt|b&aid=10327316233&pkw=quality%20inn%20sawgrass%20conference%20center&tid=1547ere10489

You can start booking at this hotel, tell them your College name &  you’re with “American College Cricket” for the rate of $ 79 per night – 4 to a room. Teams staying anywhere else are responsible for their own transportation to & from the fields.

NEARBY BEACHES etc – The beaches and attractions of Ft Lauderdale, South Beach and Miami are all close by.

UNIFORMS : WILL BE PROVIDED FREE TO ALL TEAMS REGISTERED BY JAN 31 st.

All uniforms must have your school and American College Cricket logos ONLY. No exceptions.Teams not adhering to this will NOT play. Going forward new uniforms will have “American College Cricket” written across the torso (see 2011 York College photo) – before ordering uniforms contact Lloyd.
HATS : must be school or American College Cricket caps or hats or plain.

Colored uniforms (school colors) & white balls.

EXCLUSIVE MEDIA PARTNER : In USA & Canada, TV Asia will televise the Semis & Finals of the Spring Break Championship (nationals), and the Semis & Finals at least 6 of our Regionals in 2012. International options are being explored.
http://tvasiausa.com/images/pdf/acc.pdf

Additionally highlights will be shown from the regionals & nationals other matches and reports on American College Cricket clubs throughout the year.

TV Asia will host a Bollywood concert in the break between the Semis & finals on March 18

FLIGHTS : the nationals is March 13 -18 – a fun time to be in Florida so millions of college kids will be going there. The earlier you can book your flights the better. March 13 is for practice.

TEAM COMPOSITION : Undergrads, Grads, MD & Phd students, & up to 2 alumni in the playing XI (if your school rules allow) . A minimum of 2 Undergrads. The touring squad may be as large as you wish.

As in all our tournaments, ROSTERS are verified by the school. Teams must be picked regardless of nationality.

DOWN THE LEGSIDE : this is not baseball,with a known strike zone. Balls deemed playable on the legside (within about 3 inches of the leg stump) will NOT be called a wide – so practice your leg-side shots !

FACEBOOK : Every player must “like” the Facebook Fanpage of our website: “AmericanCollegeCricket.com”.

SCORING : Each team will provide a scorer for each game. The games at the Stadium will be computer-scored.

MEDIA INTERVIEWS : Many of our players have been interviewed by their college & other media such as New York Times, Washington Post, NY Daily News, India Times, etc. TV Asia will also be interviewing you so be prepared to speak in front of a camera, as a representative of your College team, and American College Cricket.

Do NOT refer to cricket as a “gentleman’s game” !

CLUBS ON THE WEB: I suggest every club have a Facebook group or Fanpage (you figure out which is better), and a page on your College’s website. You can also send major info to AmericanCollegeCricket.com.
I DON”T recommend you have your own website – its too much work, & often difficult to get someone to maintain it.

CONFERENCES : Last year we webcast the drawing of the groups. This year we will either televise on TV Asia or webcast the drawing. This year the Top 8 seeds will be separated, so we don’t have the “Group of Death” like last year.

Therefore your Ranking going into the Championship is important – how can you help your ranking outside of tournaments ? Post AmericanCollegeCricket.com articles on Facebook & other Social Media.

Do other off the field activities – get an article in your college media ! This will also help your team earn Bonus Points going into the Championship.

UMPIRES, FIELDS, BALLS,STUMPS : are provided by American College Cricket.

HELMETS : mandatory against all medium & fast bowlers. Mandatory for in close fielders & wicketkeeper standing up.

TIME LIMITS : Each game will finish in 3 hours or less – we have done this for the past 3 years, & it works well.
We’re adding penalties for delays by batting or fielding side.

NUMBER OF GAMES :  In 2010 we played 47 games, in 2011 over 65 in 5 days. In 2012 each team will play a minmum of 3 or 4 matches, plus the playoffs & Finals if you make it.

REGISTER for the American College Cricket Spring Break Championship : Contact Lloyd Jodah,President. Dogevpr2@aim.com , 646 515 0712

SPONSORS: do NOT sign an agreement with a sponsor without contacting Lloyd. We can provide advertising for your sponsors.

EQUIPMENT : our preferred vender is CricketzoneUSA.com, contact Ravi 347 387 2381.

American College Cricket GEAR : is now available for purchasing through CricketzoneUSA – check our website.

COLLEGE SOCCER FIELDS: Thanks to Arvin Varma & the Trojans Cricket Club, we used the USC soccer field for the West Coast Championship – using a matting pitch. It was incredible ! The outfield was the best we have played on anywhere – resulting in REAL batting – not “bush” cricket !

Work with your college admin to get access to school soccer fields to play ! Contact Lloyd for more info.

QUESTIONS or to start a club in your college , contact Lloyd Jodah by phone, email or Facebook.

by Lloyd Jodah

In 3 years American College Cricket has put the game on TV in USA and Canada, and developed clubs in about 50 Colleges. It has motivated colleges to invest in cricket, in $$$,and in the form of media and even in cricket fields.

With its exclusive Media Partner, TV Asia, American College Cricket has begun a College Cricket season on TV ! Broadcasting 6 or more matches on TV, every Saturday all across USA & Canada. Games began on Oct 29, with Rutgers University vs NYU-Polytechnic.

For the national championship taking place March 14 – 18, 2012, TV Asia will televise possibly 6 matches, including definitely the Semis and the Finals from the American College Cricket Spring Break Championship. Additionally TV coverage and reporting will be done by TV Asia of all of the other 60 plus games.

There will also be other TV Asia programming about American College Cricket, leading up to the Spring Break Championship for which teams can now begin registering.

Register before DEC 10, and pay a lower registration. Teams entering between Dec 10 and final deadline Jan 31 will pay a higher registration fee.

CONTACT Lloyd Jodah to register. EMAIL : Dogevpr2@aim.com, Phone # 646 515 0712

If you’d like to establish a club in your school, contact Lloyd Jodah, President of American College Cricket.

As it has for the past 3 times, the national Championship will take place in, and around the Cricket Stadium in Ft Lauderdale at Central Broward Regional Park – the only ICC ODI Certified arena in USA and Canada.

Top mainstream media such as the New York Times, Washington Post, New York Daily News, Canada’s Globe & Mail, Voice of America, Sun Sentinel and college media have all now done stories on American College Cricket.

American College Cricket was also the first to webcast domestic cricket in USA and Canada, setting a standard for others to follow, in bringing the game out of the deep shadows.

The legendary Shiv Chanderpaul endorses and is the Patron of American College Cricket. The American College Cricket Spring Break Championship is played for the Shiv Chanderpaul Trophy.

Towards the end of only its 2nd year American College Cricket organized 5 regional College Championships around the USA. 30 Universities particpated.Most of the teams were created or motivated by American College Cricket working with a highly motivated student leader. 14 teams played their first American College Cricket games during these regional Championships.

The strategic partnership with BIG League USA was a key factor in ensuring the successful implementation of this next step in USA cricket. 

The top performers in the 5 Championships ; Midwest, Northeast, Mid Atlantic, Southeast & West Coast, were : 

MVP – on & off the field – Romel Somavat, Ohio State University 

HAT TRICK – Bilal Shahid

 

OTHER NOTABLE BOWLING

  

Abhijeet Deshmuk (Purdue ) - 4 wickets in Finals vs OSU

Raghav Bharadvarj (UMBC) – 4 wickets against Penn State

Bilal Shahid (York College) – 4 wickets against NYU-Poly

Prasanna Venkatesh (Auburn)- 3 w for 4 runs

Shabir Adrali (George Mason) - 3 w for 5 

Alok Prabhu NYU-Ploy - 3 wickets for 9 runs  vs Rutgers

Vijay Pappu - UF 3 for 10  and 2 for 10 in Finals

Harsh Boddepalli USF - 3 wickets for 12 runs

Ahmed Faraz (Auburn) – 3 for 12

Yasneen Khan (York College) - 3 w for 16 runs

Melan Jancz UCF - 3 for 21

-

WICKETKEEPER -  Ian Carlin (Wooster)

                                          Along with Ian, there were many superb ‘keepers – but in addition to his ‘keeping skills, Ian’s role in making the Homecoming Game happen distinguished him.

 

CENTURY - Faraz Arif  116*  Purdue

 

Other 50′s

 

Romel Somavat        97  OSU

Harshad Sowani        95   USC

Madhur Kaushik       76   Carnegie Mellon

Faraz Arif                    67   Purdue

Dushyant Sharma   65   USC

Raghav Bharadvarj  63*  UMBC

Ricky Nayyar         63   UF

Romel Somavat      55*  OSU

Srikar                    55*  Purdue

Mihir                     54*  Purdue

Vihesh Vikas         51*  UF

Hammad Rafique    51   George Mason

 

Romel Somavat (Ohio State U) & Tarun Sandhu (USC) were outstanding in assisting in organizing and hosting the Midwest & West Coast Championships respectively. Through the efforts of Romel Somavat OSU President E Gordon Gee came to the Midwest Finals. Gordon Gee is now on the Advisory Board of American College Cricket. 

 

Adrian Gordon (NYU-Poly) and USA star, played huge roles at the Northeast and MidAtlantic Championships, supporting American College in every way he could. 

North Carolina State bowling of Ankit Mehta ,Sethu Gopal, Hiren Patel, Suhas Ramesh,and Sami Syed was outstanding but reflected the tight bowling that was generally found in all the regional Championships. 

 

Rutgers was remarkable in that they really had no outstanding individual performance -but as a team won the Northeast Championship with tight bowling and great fielding.

 

Though Cal State Long Beach had no 50′s they had consistent scoring, with 3 scores in the 40′s.  

 

In the featured rivalry game of tapeball, USC vs UCLA, Abhimanyu of USC smashed 65, whilst Junayd Badaya of UCLA countered with a ferocious 79 to announce his arrival on the American College Cricket stage.

 

As a completely new team, the UF Gators performed remarkably well led by Captain Sandeep Pillarsetty and powered by the talented batting of Ricky Nayyar.

 

A number of teams drove long distances to play in the regional Championships, particularly the University of Iowa, Thunderbird School of Global Management,Penn State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State, and was expression of their dedication to the American College Cricket movement,but Auburn’s 14 hour drive to the Southeast Championship was the ultimate.

 

Just after the Midwest Championship in Big 10 country the College of Wooster had one of the great moments in USA cricket history when they played a cricket game for Homecoming in the football stadium, and as icing on the cake, drew a college cricket record crowd of 967 spectators.

 

The Trophy presented to the Champions of each region, was specially designed in conjunction with Ravi Etwaroo of Cricketzone. Ravi Etwaroo played cricket with Errol Jodah ( brother of Lloyd ) years ago at the Under 19 level in the West Indies.

 

The notes here reflect mainly scores, a lot of other talent was on display such as Kislaya Kanan OSU, Shaan Mehta GWU, Sai Ramesh UCF,Mishal Patel USC, Az Cheema NYU-Poly, Rahul Potghun Auburn, and more was on display. 

 

The fielding was generally of a high standard, with diving and athletic saves, and many direct hits to the stumps.

 

TOP ALL ROUNDER – Romel Somavat  (Ohio State Buckeyes) 

TOP BATSMAN – Faraz Arif Iyoub  (Purdue Boilermakers)

TOP BOWLER  – Hiren Patel   (North Carolina State Wolfpack)

TOP FIELDER – Vibudh Mishka  (UF Gators)

Ian Carlin (Wooster) -Wicketkeeper/batsman

Faraz Arif in white pads

Hiren Patel NCSU with Shanae Strachan,Ms Teen Bahamas 2008

Vijay Pappu UF Gators

Harshad Sowani USC 95 runs

Bilal Shahid (York College) hattrick

Ricky Nayyar UF Gators

MVP Romel Somavat OSU, performances on & off the field

CLICK ON PHOTO TO SEE FULL SIZE. College media may use without further authorisation. College cricket players may use to promote their teams & for personal use.

The Cal State Long Beach cricket team is new to American College Cricket, and played their first ACC games in the West Coast Championship at Woodley Fields. Under Captain Kiran Patil they performed well and look to be a fierce competitor in the 2011 nationals,the American College Cricket Spring Break Championship set for March at the “American College Cricket” Stadiium in Ft Lauderdale.

The team included a Doctor, named Healthy ! Dr Healthy Desai is actually the doctor for several of the Cal State Long Beach sports teams. As he is also doing a Fellowship at the University, he was also eligible to play (as a student) on the cricket team.

Unlike other sports the unique educational demographics of cricket demand unique eligibilty rules, hence undergrads, grads, Phd & post-doctoral students can play on their college teams.

Amanda speaks with Kiran, Captain of Cal State Long Beach cricket

Amanda & Jay Varma, MVP