Only started for the Southeast Championship, the cricket club at the University of Tampa, led by Kaushall Vaddiraj has already garnered attention in the school media. The team is eager to make an impact in the nationals, and go further than their cross town rivals the USF Bulls. The team has had valuable playing time on the Stadium pitches in recent months, and will feel at home.

The guys at University of Maryland Baltimore County return with a very strong record. Apart from reaching the Semi Finals of last year’s American College Cricket Championship, UMBC also won the WMCB league T20 tournament in Maryland, and performed well in the local 40 overs league as well. Stars like Raghav Bharadwarj and Eraj Abidi, under Sumeet Chordiya’s captaincy and Anand Patel’s Club Presidency, give UMBC a good chance at taking the Chanderpaul Trophy back to its original home state of Maryland.

Pioneering Boston University Cricket Club is a cornerstone of American College Cricket and in 2010 they were given the honor of playing the first college cricket match at the Cricket Stadium. In recognition of their role in bringing positive attention to their school, the team has received very generous funding from their administration. The team’s President and Captain is Ankush Chandra, and includes talented Hayat Khan, who is representative of a new breed of American cricket player, having played in the NYC high school (PSAL) and the NYPD United Cricket Leagues.

USC Trojans took the West Coast Championship, with a top score of 95 from Harsh Sowani and good batting by Duhyant Sharma.Tarun Sandhu, their Vice captain & Club President is also a 6’6 fast bowler, whose fluid runup and height can cause some nightmares for batsmen. The Trojans and Thunderbird School of Global Management will get the chance to renew their rivalry, as both teams are in the same group.

UMBC Roster for 2011 Nationals:

Sumeet Chordiya (c)
Rikin Parikh (vc)
Faisel Maniar
Ananth Ranga
Eraj Abidi
Anand Patel
Chirag Vani (w/k)
Raghav Bharadwaj
Gurnish Singh
Austin Aluvathingal
Dhaval Vaghasia
Naga Perni
Abhishek Pandey
Amarvir Brar
Viswanath Mulukuthla

BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Ankush Chandra-Captain
Salil Nanda- Vice captain
Hayat Khan
Shayaan MehdI
Tejas Atawane
Rohan Roy
Siddharth Kothari
Vidit Munshi
Abhishek Kanapuraju
Sathvik Seshadri
Muzammil Muhammad
Rajasekhar Vamaraju
Mandela Kiran

UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA

Kaushal Vaddiraj
Vatsal Vora
Nishchay Batra
Ali Azam
Ammad Hakim
Adithya Vuppala
Prakash V
Roshane Hewitt
Kunal Desai
Kushal Desai
Sahil Sheth
Naushad Ninzer
Abraham Azan
Sanket Gandhi
Ishan Patel

USC TROJANS Cricket team

1. Mishal Patel
2. Tarun Tyagi (C)
3. Srinivas Mohan
4. Harshad Sowani
5. Rishabh Nanda
6. Dushyant Sharma
7. Jeet Poonater
8. Tarun Sandhu
9. Thimmiah BS (WK)
10. Vikram Saini (WK)
11. Pranay Dua
12. Ketan Phaye
13. Arvin Varma – Manager

USC President Max Nikkias presenting a USC Trojans Cricket jersey to Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Group

Friday Night Lights usually means high school football,but this past Friday it was College Cricket as the Southeast Championship began at the “American College Cricket” Stadium in Ft Lauderdale. American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah batted the first ball and the game was underway !

The outfield looked immaculate and the pitch,prepared by international Curator Sam Plummer,brought in by BIG League USA, looked as desirable as……well let’s just say few things could give a man more pleasure. It was a bowler’s wicket, and with the evening winds and moistness the bowlers would get a lot of help so it was no surprise when Tampa won the toss and chose to field.

The University of Tampa Cricket Captain Kaushall Vadirraj said that when he made a presentation to his school, informing them that his team was going to compete against their crosstown “rival” the University of South Florida, as well as other Florida schools like the UF Gators, UCF,FIU,UMiami, and Auburn it was no problem getting support.Resplendent in their school’s red and gold colors the Tampa team took the field in their first American College Cricket game.USF was looking to confirm their standing as the top college in the Southeast, and move back up in the national ranking.

The USF Captain Sri Boddepalli and Ben Leo David steadied the USF batting and with a couple of lofted drives,a sweep and a cut for boundaries Boddeppali was rolling along as he had done many times before in American College Cricket and stroked a beautifull off-drive along the billiard-like surface for 4. Joined by David who made room & cut past square for 4, clipped one off the pads then took a fulltoss & hooked it for 6 over square.

Boddepalli got on his knee and played his favorite again, a sweep then a beautiful ondrive for 4′s as USF got to 132 for 2 wickets off their 20 overs. Boddepali made 47* and David 37*.

The winds were heavy as the U of Tampa began their inning. Vijay Sukhlani leaned back & placed one through the gap at backward point, then played a splendid cover dirve for 4,But even Ishan Patel,17 and Ammad Hakim,15 found it tough to get the USF Bulls’ bowlers away.

Nevertheless the Tampa Spartans were never out of it when Mittul Patel smashed 2 might sixes there was hope in the Tampa campa.However USF restricted UT to 110 for 5 off their 20 overs and took the win. Boddepalli took 3 wickets for 12 runs to clinch the Game MVP

So good,UT only needs 7 players in their XI !

Kaushal Vaddiraj UT cricket captain, speaking with Nino DiLoreto

The University of Tampa was established by Frederic Spaulding in 1931.Current enrollment is about 6,500 on a 100 acres campus in the city of Tampa. Annual budget: $160 million.

UT is in the top tier of U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2011-Graduate” and the Princeton Review has named UT’s John H. Sykes College of Business an outstanding business school — and one of the 301 best business schools in the world. UT has Army, Air Force, and Navy ROTC programs on campus.

UT’s student newspaper, the Minaret, was named best college newspaper in the Florida College Press Association’s (FCPA) Better Newspaper Contest in 2007 and 2008. The online edition won the USA’s best small school website award by the Associated Collegiate Press in 2010.

According to US News & World Report “Over $200 million has been invested in new facilities since 1998 including a new student center, College of Business building, Marine Science Field Station, art galleries, a theatre, and modern computer, digital arts, language and science labs. All of UT’s ten residence halls are new or have been renovated since 1998.”
The school is noted for its small class sizes and some of the best residence halls in the region.

UT has been certified by the National Weather Service as a StormReady community.

The University of Tampa no longer has a football program. It ended in 1974 because of low attendance and losing money, so UT does not have the traditional football rivalry of most schools, though it defeated the Miami Hurricanes in 1970 and 1972 The cricket players now hope to create one with cross town USF Bulls,the Miami Hurricanes,as well as the Gators,UCF Knights and FIU Panthers.

Legend goes that Babe Ruth hit his longest home run (630 feet) at the former Florida State Fair grounds,which is now within the UT campus. UT has also won 4 NCAA Div II baseball titles, and Div II titles in soccer,volleyball & golf. It’s basketball team has also had 10 consecutive winning seasons, and UT is considered a Div.II sports powerhouse.

President Barack Obama visited the University of Tampa on January 28, 2010.

Famous alumni include the Yankees Lou Piniella and Tino Martinez, and John Matzusek who played for the Oakland Raiders and was a “World Strongest Man” competitor. He also acted in the 1985 film,the Goonies.

The cricket players at UT are currently working towards getting Club Sports status,with Kaushal Vaddiraj as
President and Captain,Ishan Patel as Vice President, and Hemant Rustogi as Faculty Advisor. Kaushal has been a Presenter at the Florida Collegiate Honors Conference and Southern Regional Honors Conference.

The UT guys are practicing hard to make a strong showing, and possibly win the American College Cricket Southeast Championship, being played Nov 5,6 & 7 at the Cricket Stadium in Central Broward Regional Park.

Next March the UT players hope to compete in the 2011 American College Cricket Championship for the national title and the Chanderpaul Trophy.