American College Cricket » UPenn

The 2012 John Bart King Award winner is Nick Mancino (UPenn) !

ljodah — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 04:54:22 +0000

: Nick Mancino (UPenn) John Bart King Award winner & Lloyd Jodah, American College Cricket President.

The 2012 John Bart King Award winner is Nick Mancino of the University of Pennsylvania ! Nick is a Veteran, having served in the US military for nearly 7 years. He then spent over 4 years as a “private security specialist” before beginning his college, then cricket careers.

Though reticent about it, with his military background, its no surprise Nick took on the challenge of learning cricket, so we asked him; what sparked it ?

“I happened to come across a cricket match between India and Pakistan on satellite TV, and the rivalry was so intense ! I had to try to figure out what was going on, and how the game is played.“

Nick grew up and went to high school in Ohio before joining the military to serve our country, then later settling in south Florida. Enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania, he got his chance with the Cricket Club, as not only are the students passionately inclined to teach the game they love, they are encouraged to do so by American College Cricket.

Nick started out with batting and fielding – specifically wicket keeping, which he has in common with 2010 John Bart King winner Ian Carlin, who made the Jan 31 pre-Super Bowl issue of Sports Illustrated.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/scorecard/faces/2011/01/31/

Nick said, “Gavish Sharma and Jay Dave have consistently helped with my batting, and Udit Mathur is working with me on developing my wicketkeeping.”

Mancino says his on field accomplishments are modest, but he’s made the team for 6 matches fielding in different positions and taking 1 catch as a wicket keeper. His highest score is 22 in 3 at bats. He was in the University of Pennsylvania squad for the 2012 Nationals, the American College Cricket Spring Break Championship in Florida, and the 2012 Mid Atlantic regional.

The University of Pennsylvania is a key part of USA cricket history, its first cricket team was started in 1842 and was the second college sports team in the US. John Bart King played and toured with,and against many UPenn students and alumni in his career.

Who is Nick’s favorite cricketer ? “Marlon Samuels. I watched his entire at-bat when he scored 260 for West Indies against Bangladesh.”

Plans for the future ? “I’m undecided about my major, but cricket-wise my goal is to be an all rounder and hold a place in the UPenn XI. Right now I continue to work on the fundamentals and play every chance I get.

Thank you for this Award, its a testament to my teammates taking me under their wings and teaching me how to play .

American College Cricket is doing a wonderful job of developing and promoting cricket in the US. I thank you for all the hard work that goes into it, and the opportunities it gives us. American College Cricket will continue to advance the awareness and popularity of the game in the USA.”

Nick Mancino is a US military veteran, a University of Pennsylvania student and an American College Cricket player – an ideal recipient of the John Bart King Award.

About the JOHN BART KING AWARD

Born Oct 19, 1873 John Bart King is America’s greatest cricketer ever. He played First Class cricket from 1893 to 1912 (for the Philadelphians) & took 415 wickets in 65 matches at an average of 15.66. On tour, he topped the English First Class Bowling averages in 1908, taking 87 wickets at 11.01 in only 10 matches.

Bart King King bowled fast, was a pioneer of swing and is regarded as one of the best fast bowlers ever, from any country. He also scored 113* & 8 fifties in First Class cricket. In 1905 he scored the highest score ever in USA & Canada, 315 at the Germantown Cricket Club, then in 1906 he smashed 344* against Merion Cricket Club. Both Clubs still exist.

The Award winner is chosen annually from the American College Cricket players who are “not from a cricket background originally” (meaning the family is not from a major cricket-playing country), but is judged to have contributed the most on and off the field.

The 2010 winner, Ian Carlin (College of Wooster) was in Sports Illustrated’s Jan 31,2010 issue, and for 2011, Darren Stortz (University of Iowa) won.

Originally no winner was named for 2009 as we were awaiting permission to use the “John Bart King” name so later Curt Sonnet (George Washington U) was retroactively named a John Bart King winner for 2009.

PHOTOS :

1 – UPenn Cricket in 1842

2 – UPenn Cricket in Oct 2012

2 - UPenn Cricket at the Nationals in Florida

4 – UPenn Cricket in 1904

5 – John Bart King in 1904,

(support Wikipedia Commons)

https://www.facebook.com/CollegeCricket?fref=ts

Twitter : @CollegeCricketU

Wagon Wheels ! See how you scored those runs !

ljodah — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:51:55 +0000

: Adil Bhatti (Montgomery) Mid Atlantic top score 80*

All of our teams should become skilled in the usage of the CricHQ scoring app. There are lots of statistical & analytical tools you’ll love.

Here are the wagon wheels for some of the major innings at the Mid Atlantic Championship (not all of the matches were scored with CricHQ so not all of the top scores are shown).

124 years later,challenge accepted ! Harvard vs Yale !

ljodah — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 03:33:50 +0000

From the Harvard Crimson in 1887: Recently the following challenge was sent to the Yale News by the Harvard Cricket Association:-

“Gentlemen: We wish, in the name of the Harvard University Cricket Association, to challenge, through your paper, Yale University to play a match game of cricket next spring, the date and place to be arranged here-after. The challenge will remain open until Feb. 1, 1888. Hoping that we shall soon have a favorable answer, we are yours very truly,

JAMES B. MARKOE, President.

T. WILLING BALCH, Treasurer.

REYNOLDS D. BROWN, Secretary.”

The Harvard Crimson went on to say, “There is no regular cricket eleven at Yale, but there must be many men who have played the game either at St. Paul’s School or elsewhere before going to college.”

In connection with the above challenge, the New York Times said editorially:-

“The challenge of Harvard to Yale to meet her in a match at cricket would have more chance of acceptance were not this sport one of the few in which the New Haven institution as yet makes no pretensions to expertness.

The great cricketing college is the University of Pennsylvania, which is very easily first in it. The laurels of base-ball, foot-ball, boating, tennis, or field and track athletics may pass from one institution to another during successive years, but no American college meets Pennsylvania on the wicket with much prospect of coming off victor.

Haverford, Columbia and Harvard, however, often put fine elevens in the field, and it would probably give a great impulse to one of the most beneficial and least objectionable of college pastimes if Yale should now accept the Harvard challenge, pick out a team of cricketers, and with the opening of spring begin field practice in earnest.“

Though there were other challenges our Research Dept (aka Google) has found no record of Yale fielding a cricket team,against Harvard or other universities, nor did cricket historian David Sentance.

At the end of 2008 when Lloyd Jodah was beginning American College Cricket, Yale was one of the first colleges he was in contact with, a student named Varun Parundare, in attempting to start cricket clubs for the first American College Cricket Spring Break Championship.

It was Parundare who gave Jodah the link showing the Spring Break dates for US colleges. The promotional posters (scrapped) for the first American College Cricket Spring Break Championship listed Yale as one of the teams.

Ultimately Yale did not field a team, and University of Pennsylvania once again led the way to become the first Ivy League school to join American College Cricket, in 2010. However within the last month, Harvard, Cornell and Princeton have joined the national organisation, and played in the American College Cricket North East regional. Harvard defeated Princeton in their first meeting, on Oct 6.

This semester the Yale club managed to pull together a team to take on their historic rivals Harvard, in a “friendly” cricket match as reported excellently here in the Yale Daily News:

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/oct/16/yale-plays-first-ever-collegiate-cricket-match/

So 150 years after an official cricket club was first started at Harvard (1862), and 124 years after the challenge was issued, Harvard and Yale finally met in a cricket match !

Penn Cricket field in the 1800′s

Cricket TV – 5 College Players of 2011 on TV Asia !

ljodah — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:04:25 +0000

TV Asia reported on the 5 College Players of 2011. Previous winners in 2010 & 2009 were not eligible to repeat.

UPenn’s Gavish Sharma – a 2011 College Player of the Year !

ljodah — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:16:23 +0000

A cricket team was started at the University of Pennsylvania back in 1842 – one of the first college sports team of any kind in the US.

However the modern guys have not been content to rest on past glories, they joined American College Cricket and have taken part in the 2010 and 2011 national Championships.

UPenn came to the 2010 Spring Break Championship but did not do well. They returned for the 2011 Championship, played as a solid unit that surprised many, and made it to the final four, where they gave eventual Champions George Mason a tough time !

Their 2010 performance had given no indication of how well they would do in 2011. One constant for both years was Gavish Sharma – the inspirational Tim Tebow of the team !

As a Wharton Business School MBA student Gavish was the elder stateman to a bunch of undergrads. He was their prime advocate for funding and school support. On the field he motivated the team, and his play was instrumental in 3 of their 4 victories.

Against University of Iowa he took 4 wickets for 13 runs,and got a run out to bundle the Hawkeyes out for 79. Opener Sharma then helped chased the total down with a quickfire 17 and UPenn earned 3 valuable Bonus Points !

Against Texas Tech Gavish took 4 for 20, and smashed 35 before getting run out in the winning chase.

Against Thunderbird Gavish batted throughout the innings for 50*, then took 2 wickets for 7 runs as Saksham Karwal took 5 for 12 to defeat the T-Birds.

Working with others like Ali Raza Khan,Saksham Karwal and Roshan Rai, Gavish ensured that Penn Cricket is among the best funded for the national Championship each year ! He has helped smooth the transition in club leadership each year also.

The fact that the Penn Cricket team hoisted Sharma in the air when they made the Semis speaks volumes….actually they tried to, but Gavish has been to a few Indian buffets.

Gavish and the UPenn team presented American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah with a team jersey, which was in turn presented to the National Baseball Hall of Fame to commemorate the historic Cricket Exhibition, “Swinging Away – how cricket and baseball connect.”

After the 2011 Championship the UPenn team were interviewed for a significant article in the Times of India.

UPenn’s President Dr. Amy Gutmann honored the team by meeting with them, and a 12 photo tribute to them on her Office of the President web page.

After graduating, Gavish called to let me know how much he wanted to continue being a part of American College Cricket, and asked how he could remain involved – exactly the kind of alumni we want !

by Lloyd Jodah

Photos: Gavish batting vs Texas Tech at the Cricket Stadium at 2011 Nationals

2. Dr Gutmann with members of the Penn Cricket team (Courtesy UPenn)

3. UPenn’s first cricket field back in 1843 (time for a new one ?) (Courtesy UPenn Archives)

4. Gavish Sharma

Rankings ! – Where is your College ?

ljodah — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:36:38 +0000

The University of Pennsylvania leaped from # 28 to # 4 ! whilst 2 Texas teams, Texas A & M and Texas Tech came from nowhere (being new teams) into the top 10.

Likely contenders for the top 10 this college cricket season are 2010 Midwest Champion Purdue, University of Houston and Canadian Champion Ryerson University.

Despite winning non-collegiate tournaments in the DC area, UMBC have not found the same success at the College level, and dropped from # 6 to # 18.

George Washington University has shown improvement, moving up in the rankings whilst new teams, Sheridan College’s and McGill’s performances in the Canadian Championship indicate their growing strength.

2010 Northeast Champion Rutgers had a disappointing performance at the nationals but could jump back up the rankings in the upcoming Northeast and Southeast Championships respectively.

By the end of the regional Championships we may have a new # 1 as Montgomery, 2010 Southeast Champion Auburn, UPenn, USC, 2010 Mid Atlantic Champion North Carolina State and USF are poised to topple National Champion & 2011 Chanderpaul Trophy winner George Mason !

1-George Mason University – 2011 National Champions, winner of the Chanderpaul Trophy
2-Montgomery College – 2009 National Champions, winner of the Chanderpaul Trophy, 2011 Finalist
3-Auburn University
4-University of Pennsylvania
5-University of Southern Cal
6-North Carolina State
7-Texas A & M
8-York University – 2010 Champions, winner of the Chanderpaul Trophy
9-University of South Florida
10-Texas Tech
11-Rutgers University
12-NYU-Polytechnic
13-Ohio State
14-University of Florida
15-University of Iowa
16-University of Minnesota
17-Thunderbird School of Global Management
18-University of Maryland-Baltimore Cty
19-George Washington U
20-U of Central Florida
21-Florida International
22-McGill University
23-NJ Institute of Technology
24-Boston University
25-Cleveland State
26-Florida Atlantic
27-College of Wooster
28-University of Houston
29-Purdue University
30-Ryerson University
31-Sheridan College
32-York College
33-Virgina Tech

These are the Top 33 of the aproximately 50 college cricket teams that will particpate in the 2011 regional Championships of American College Cricket. If you don’t see your College’s name – its simple, you can crack the Top 33 in the regionals.

Factors for Rankings:

1.The final four at the nationals, the 2011 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship, automatically claim the top four ranks.
2.Number of games won in the National and Conference Championships
3.Participation in the national Championship. Teams in the nationals automatically rank above those that were not.
4.Promotion of American College Cricket
5.Other criteria such as quality of opponents’ record may apply.

National Champions George Mason

Top Undergrad & MBA Universities for Business & Cricket, 2011 !

ljodah — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:58:18 +0000

: UPenn President Dr. Amy Gutmann with the Penn Cricket team after their great perfomance at the 2011 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship

Increasingly, when picking a University many top students are looking for colleges with cricket teams. American College Cricket has made that an option in the past 2 1/2 years, by motivating the organization of formal clubs in schools where none existed before.

The American College Cricket National & Regional Championships give these schools high profiles in key demographics for students’ recruitment. To our knowledge, in 2011 alone at least 4 of our teams’ college Presidents have made students recruiting trips to India - now those schools have a valuable tool in their cricket team.

We looked at Bloomberg Businessweek’s recent rankings of BUSINESS SCHOOLS, at the Undergraduate and MBA levels, and highlighted the top ranked universities which are members of American College Cricket, (the numbers next to the schools’ names represent their Businessweek rank).

UNDERGRADUATE

4. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) ———————- 2011 Semi-Finalist, national Championship (American College Cricket Spring Break Championship).

8. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (Kenan Flagler)

15. New York University (Stern) (the team is from NYU- Polytechnic, and not actually from New York University as a whole)

18. Indiana University (Kelley)

21. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) ——————- 2009 American College Cricket Pioneers)

31. Boston University ——————————————-2009 American College Cricket Pioneers)

34. University of Southern Cal (Marshall) ————– 2010 American College Cricket West Champions

39. University of Maryland (Smith)

42. University of Florida ( Warrington)

44. Michigan State University (Broad)

48. Texas A & M University (Mays)

51. University of Minnesota (Carlson)

53. Ohio State University (Fisher)

59. George Washington University

61. Purdue University (Krannert)

67. Rutgers University ———————- 2010 American College Cricket Northeast Champions

81. University of Iowa (Tippie)

94. Texas Tech University (Rawls)

96. University of Houston (Bauer)

100. North Carolina State University ———– 2010 American College Cricket Mid-Atlantic Champions

MBA (Full time)

3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

15. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)

16. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (Kenan Flagler)

17. University of California LA (Anderson)

18. New York University (Stern)

19. Indiana University (Kelley)

20. Michigan State University (Broad)

26. University of Southern Cal (Marshall)

28. University of Minnesota (Carlson)

30. Texas A & M University (Mays)

32. Ohio State University (Fisher) National Baseball Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson

38. Boston University with American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah

41. Purdue University (Krannert) ————— 2010 American College Cricket Midwest Champions

42. University of Maryland (Smith)

45. Thunderbird School of Global Management

52. George Washington University

55. Rutgers University

NON USA

2. Queen’s University

9. York University – ——— – 2010 American College Cricket Champions

11. McGill University

For full rankings, criteria of rankings etc

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/special_reports/20110303best_undergrad_bschools.htm

There are also other major rankings like the US News & World Report.

University of Pennsylvania President Dr Gutmann honors Penn Cricket team !

ljodah — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:34:34 +0000

: Penn President Dr Gutmann with the 2011 Penn Cricket Team

On Thursday, April 28, 2011, University of Pennsylvania President Dr. Gutmann posed for photos with the Penn Cricket Team in College Hall. She congratulated the team on their recent success at the American College Cricket Championship last month in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

President Gutmann was also presented with a Penn Cricket shirt bearing her name.

Eduardo Glandt, Dean of SEAS also met witth the team.

The 8 photos were featured on the Penn “Office of the President ” website with an article

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS :

http://www.upenn.edu/president/meet-president/penn-cricket-club#

“Thanks for pushing us to do all this” Gavish Sharma UPenn. More Photos !

ljodah — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:56:21 +0000

Lloyd,

We had an interview with BBC Worldwide radio yesterday during the India vs Pakistan game.

Also, this morning, the team is in the headlines on the Engineering School website.

There is the interview which Mayur and I had after the Texas game and our article on Daily Pennsylvanian which has made the headlines.

Thanks for pushing us to do all this, we are indebted to you.

Regards,

Gavish Sharma

University of Pennsylvania Cricket

Cricket TV – UPENN Cricket goes Back to the Future,gets to the Final 4 !

ljodah — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 03:48:50 +0000

UPenn’s Gavish Sharma and Saksham Karwal (captain) speak with Carl Bennett