The Rankings are primarily based on performances at the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship for the Chanderpaul Trophy,and the 2010 Midwest, Northeast & MidAtlantic regional Championships, as well as the Canadian Universities Championship for the Ramnaresh Sarwan Trophy. Upcoming games are the Southeast Championship (Nov 5,6 & &) and West Coast Championship (Thanksgiving Weekend).

As more colleges join American College Cricket, all teams have a chance to improve their Rankings.The more American College Cricket recognized games you play, and your promotion of the game, the better for your ranking.

National rankings can be used in your discussions with your College Admins about more support for Cricket.
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1. North Carolina State (MidAtlantic Champions)
2- Purdue University (Midwest Champions, E Gordon Gee Trophy winners)
3- Rutgers (Northeast Champions)
4- Ohio State
5- University of Maryland (Baltimore County), UMBC
6- York University-Toronto (2010 American College Cricket Champions)
7- Montgomery College – (2009 National Champions)
8- New York University Polytechnic (NYU-Poly)
9- University of Southern California (USC)
10-York College (2010 national finalist)
11-University of South Florida (2009 national finalist)
12-George Mason
13-Auburn
14-University of Iowa
15-St Cloud State University
16-Thunderbird School of Global Management (T-Birds)
17-Penn State
18-Virginia Tech
19-Michigan State
20-City College
21-Carnegie Mellon
22-College of Wooster
23-Boston University
24-George Washington University
25-UPenn
26-University of Minnesota (UMN)
27-University of Miami (UM)
28-Indiana University
29-McGill University
Queens University

McGill University & Queens University performances at the Canadian Universities Championship were not definitive enough to rank one over the other.

New teams such as the University of Florida, Florida International University,University of Central Florida,University of Tampa will play their first American College Cricket games at the Southeast Championship, after which they will be ranked. Similarly for new teams such as UC Davis at the West Coast Championship.

Other schools such as Texas Tech,Texas A & M, Minnesota State University, Cleveland State University,Vaughn College, Northwestern, Brooklyn College, NJIT have yet to play American College Cricket games. There are also many others where American College Cricket is assisting the formation of cricket clubs.
Contact Lloyd Jodah, Dogevpr2@aim.com for assistance in forming a team, getting uniforms etc and joining American College Cricket.

NCSU Wolfpack with Lloyd Jodah, American College Cricket President

Wolpack Uniforms designed & facilitated by American College Cricket & BIG League USA.

 
MVP Hiren Patel NCSU with Shanae


The North Carolina State University (NCSU) cricket team was tall and extremely athletic-looking. They seemed to be models for their new uniforms, and onlookers were eager to see them in action. NCSU batted first, and the tight Montgomery bowling kept the scoring down. The NCSU batsmen showed occasional shots of quality but the bowling of Adil Bhatti, Adil Latiwala and Wali Syed in particular kept the NCSU batting from really taking off. Swapnil Gupta, a Phd candidate,scored 32, with 3 fours.Sethu Gopal,contributed 20 (1 six,1 four) runs.

NCSU took the field, and shocked the Montgomery batting. Perfect line and length,with pace and movement,made the MC batsmen return to the stands as though they were merely out to inspect the pitch ! At 3 runs for the loss of 4 wickets Montgomery was rocked ! and reeling, when Bhatti walked purposefully to the wicket. Two pulls off the backfoot for 2’s,an ondrive for 4 and a glorious off-drive along the ground for 2 and Bhatti was making the bowlers look different! A miscued pull however off a short ball, and Bhatti was walking back to the stands,MC on the ropes at 25 for 5 ! Who would have thought ?

The North Carolina State bowling of Sethu Gopal, Hiren Patel, Suhas Ramesh, Sami Syed and Ankit Mehta was keeping even the big hitting Ankit Sehgal playing defensively. Eventually however Sehgal extended his left leg, and drove over mid-off for 6! Sehgal struck a 4 to give MC hope before he too went. MC freshman Ijaz Khan made a well-played 16 but MC’s hopes of winning was like the fading light….almost gone as Hiren Patel kept getting wickets. The game MVP, Patel took 5 wickets for 8 runs !

Mid Atlantic Champions ! North Carolina State University !

Early Sunday outside the nation’s capital, as the rising sun burned golden in the morning sky, UMBC in their blues, and North Carolina State in red took to the field, NCSU batting first. Runs were hard to come by, as all of Maryland’s bowlers, Sumeet Chordiya, Raghav Bharadwarj, Austin Aluvathingal,Gurnish Singh and Faisal Maniar  kept it tight. Only Nikhil Talpallikar got the ball away, driving over midwicket for 4, and off driving for 6. Talipallikar scored 28 before being bowled by Aluvathingal. A middle order flurry by Ankit Mehta 18* and Sethu Gopal 16* took the Wolfpack to 113 for 7 at the end of their 20 overs. Watching, Shanae Strachan (Ms Teen Bhamas 2008) was thrilled,”This is exciting ! These 2 teams are great !”

UMBC smelled blood and closed in for the kill sending 2 of their best batsmen out to open Raghav Bharadwarj and Eraj Abidi. But Gopal swung one in from leg, and surprised Abidi by bowling him for a first ball duck ! Bharadwarj had flown in from Portland,Oregon for the Championship, having just graduated and moved to the West Coast (the eligibilty rules allow 2010 grads to play).

Gopal took 2 more quick wickets, Malegonkar 1, and UMBC was 26 for 4. Anand Patel 30 and Gurnish Singh 14 stopped the batting slide and for a while it looked as if UMBC would pull off the win ! Bhavani Hegde and Suhas Kumar struck back though with 2 wickets each to finish off UMBC for 99 runs in 19.2 overs ! Hiren Patel NCSU was game MVP.

TAKING ON MASON DOMINATION

An hour later North Carolina State batted first against George Mason University in the Finals of the 2010 American College Cricket Mid Atlantic Championship, Swapnil Gupta  and Talpallikar opened the batting for North Carolina and Gupta 15 played a glorious flick, and Talpallidar ,11 got a life on the long off boundary before driving beautifully through midwicket for 4. Gopal made 16 including a 6 over midwicket and a cover drive for 4.

Then Hashim Khan and Hamaad struck back for George Mason, each taking 2 wickets and NCSU was 58 for 5 after 12 overs ! 100 seemed an illusive target ! Brilliant fielding and accurate throws by GMU resulted in 2 run outs, and the batsmen had to be cautious in attempting runs. Nikhil Rao 7, Ankit Mehta 15 and Hiren Patel 17 batted intelligently though, taking singles to move the score along and North Carolina State was able to reach 115 off their 20 overs.

MAYBE IT WAS THE FULL MOON

The NCSU bowling attack had shown their depth and strength so whilst George Mason began confidently, they were soon losing wickets ! Hashim Khan,14 looked dangerous before Ankit Mehta clean bowled him. Anoop Nair came in at # 7 but batted like a specialist batsman, and looked as though he was going to win it for Mason. Newcomer Kaliyan 7 cracked a 6 and though it was by no means Mason domination, the George Mason team was getting happy. Then Mehta struck, bowling Nair ! a run out helped NCSU wrap up Mason for 97 runs and the North Carolina State University Wolfpack were the first Champions of the the Mid Atlantic Conference !

Shanae Strachan (Ms Teen Bahamas 2008) presented the Trophy (a special design with Cricketzone) to the Champions North Carolina State University as College and USA star Adrian Gordon looked on. American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah praised the Champions and the participating teams, saying,
“It’s great to have all the teams that participated as partners in the college cricket movement, bringing cricket-the original American and Canadian sport, back into the mainstream, together with our strategic partners, BIG League USA. Let’s keep it up – the innings has only just begun !
Purdue University won the E Gordon Gee Trophy at the Midwest Championship, Rutgers won the Northeast Championship now, congratulations to North Carolina State for winning the Mid Atlantic Championship!”

Adrian Gordon,Lloyd Jodah and Nino DiLoreto selected Ankit Mehta as the Finals MVP. Mehta took 3 wickets and top scored for the Champions.

Sheldon Ellis, President of the Washington Cricket League (one of the oldest and largest leagues in the USA) had heart surgery a couple of days before, but called America College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah to say “I wish I could have been there….what American College Cricket is doing is extremely important, its really great for USA cricket. On behalf of the WCL, keep up the great work.”

Article & Photos may be used by College Cricketers for personal use, or Cricket Club promotion. College Media may also use article & photos. All others contact Lloyd Jodah.



2009 national champion Montgomery College,former Sunday Washington Post coverboys, is looking for a return to glory, whilst George Mason U, Virginia Tech,North Carolina State U,Penn State, George Washington U,and University of Maryland (Baltimore County) are intent on winning the Mid Atlantic Championship !

Purdue University took home the E Gordon Gee Trophy for the Midwest Championship, whilst Rutgers University won the Trophy for the Northeast – now its time for Colleges in the Mid Atlantic conference to do battle in cricket ! The Mid Atlantic Championship takes place Oct 23 & 24th starting at 8.30 am Saturday.

The County issued a Proclamation honoring the MC cricket team,here with Council President Nancy Floreen & Faculty Advisor David Lott.

Penn State includes tall all rounder Rahul Sarnobat who played for Karnatka at the Under 19 level in India. Sarnobat has pace and bounce and is a very good batsman. He excelled in games in NY in 2009. Penn State missed the chance to take on their Big 10 Rivals in the Midwest, and so are playing in this conference en route they hope to the nationals. Fresh from their intramural league Penn State is practiced, and led by captain Vikram Kumar and club president Vikram Ravi.

George Mason is led by All American Hashim Khan. The South Beach playboy opens the batting and bowling, and has scored against top speedsters like Imran Awan (who was clocked at 94 mph). Mason and Montgomery are strong rivals, and MC lost to Mason at the 2010 national Championship in Ft Lauderdale. Sunil Pathak has been making runs like his great namesake Gavaskar, whilst Ammar Khan,right arm fast, will be looking to rattle the MC batsmen again, as he did in March !

Some of George Washington U’s  veterans like All American Amr Hassan, Curt Sonnet, Ankit Sheth have graduated but they still have Ishaan Prakash who showed his batting prowess at the 2010 National Championship and pace bowler Shaan Mehta, who was in Australia and missed the Spring Break Championship. Now with a smoother runup, Mehta excelled in NY league cricket this past season.

Former GWU Cricket Club president Hugo Scheckter has shown a Forest Gump-like ability to show up at events like 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship, the 2010 he Indianapolis 500,and the soccer World Cup so its possible he may also be present !

University of Maryland (BC) has been the Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board Twenty20 Champions 2 years running, with stars like Eraj Abidi, Gurnish Singh,Anand Patel,Sumeet Chordiya, Austin Aluvathingal & more.They have played a tremendous amount as a team. They reached the Semis of the 2010 national Championship, narrowly losing to eventual Champions York University.  The UMBC cricket team was even a main story on the Homepage of the UMBC website !

Coming in with a big reputation are the Hokies…they too play league cricket and reached the Semis in NON-collegiate leagues, but more importantly they have their own pitch and cricket field ! The practice opportunities this presents for Virginia Tech players means that they can field 3 XI’s according to the club president Rajaram Bhagavathula !

Sathees Kesavan and Anirudh Roy in batting and Hameed Khan, Yash Patel and Swapnil Seth in bowling are some of VT’s top players. Nagendra Krishnamurthy was Sports Club Officer of the month in August at Virgina Tech (out of 29 clubs) !

The team from North Carolina State University also has its own field, and a 12 year history ! Led by Hardik Parekh it plays in a non-collegiate league and is highly experienced playing together as a team. Setu Raman,an opening batsman and fast bowler played Ranji Trophy cricket for Tamil Nadu and a new addition,Nikhil Talpallikar ,a wicketkeeper/batsman slammed 90 runs in 39 balls recently !

MONTGOMERY COLLEGE – Exemplary Champions

Montgomery still has some veterans from its Championship team, like Sadiq Naseer, Suchit Laheri, Danish Ashgar, Wali Syed, Ankit Sehgal and Wali Syed,but will be without 2009 Finals MVP Mohammed Kamran. MC has shown exceptional fielding skills in the past which can give them the edge on any team. Last March against the University of the West Indies they batted incredibly and they are still the team to beat under the skilful leadership of Adil Bhatti.

As the first American College Cricket Champions MC took home the Chanderpaul Trophy,was featured in the New York Times, received an Award and Proclamation from the County Council President Nancy Floreen, had a front page cover story in the Sunday Washington Post,did interviews for Voice of America News and Pakistan and Afghanistan TV, was in Florida’s Sun Sentinel and their story was covered in countless Indian media.

Media-wise Montgomery is the most well-known cricket team in the USA, and quite possibly the most well-known US college in India ! Still they took time to visit St Patrick’s Episcopal Day elementary school to teach cricket, and led by Bhatti they organized a fund raising drive for the Pakistan Flood victims. They,MC cricketers, have been exemplary champions.

Games will take place at the Metro and Hyatsville cricket fields,thanks to Washington Cricket League President Sheldon Ellis,beginning at 8.30 am on Saturday Oct 23 . The Finals will be at 2 pm Sunday Oct 24th. Each team will play 2 games, and the Finalists will be decided based on a points system, with points being awarded for wins, run rate etc.

Reporting and post match interviews will be done by Shanae Strachan, Ms Teen Bahamas 2008.American College Cricket star and USA fast bowler Adrian Gordon (NYU-Poly) will attend the games as will Lloyd Jodah and Nino DiLoreto.

SCHEDULE
SATURDAY – Oct 23
METRO Field
8.30 am – UMBC vs Penn State
11.45 am – Penn State vs Virginia Tech
3.00 pm – George Mason vs Virginia Tech

HYATSVILLE Field
8.30 am – GWU vs Mason
11.45 am – Montgomery vs GWU
3.00 pm – Montgomery vs NCSU

SUNDAY – Oct 24
Field to be announced
9.00 am – NCSU vs UMBC

1.00 pm – FINALS
All teams must be at the Fields 1 hour before Start times.
Because of time constraints, if a game finishes early, we will start the next early too.

Address & Directions:
METRO Adelphi Manor Park
7601 West Park Drive
Adelphi MD 20873

From 495 take exit 28B (Takoma) onto New Hampshire Avenue, Rte 650 South.
Make left on to University Blvd., Rte 193 East Proceed for about 3 to 5 miles Turn left on West Park Drive, immediately after Shoppers Food Warehouse Store
Field is on right. ————————————————————————HYATSVILLE 5701, 16th Ave
Hyattsville MD 20782

(Inside the Beltway):
From 495 take exit 28B (Takoma) onto New Hampshire Avenue, Rte. 650 South
Make left on to University Blvd, Rte 193 East
Turn right onto Riggs Road to left on Sargent Road
Turn left onto Ray Road after about 1,000 feet.
Proceed to the field on the left after about 1/3 of a mile.