South West Championship at Smart Choice Moosa Stadium this weekend in Houston !
What a weekend this will be : Valentine’s Day ! For many of these students they will be spending it with their love, cricket at the American College Cricket South West Championship ! American College Cricket and Smart Choice Moosa Stadium coming together will send waves around the cricket world. This is the first private facility in the USA being built to ICC specifications for top International cricket, and it has been designated as a American College Cricket Home field, and the site of the 2015 ACC World Cup later in the year. American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah and Smart Choice CEO Sakhi Muhammed will be present.
Saturday night is also the Super Bowl of cricket matches India vs Pakistan ! Accordingly plans are being made to have an outdoor screening of the match,under the stars, with BBQ ,at the Smart Choice Moosa Stadium ! This is still to be confirmed but if it happens it will be a unique and wonderful event !
Texas A & M burst into American College Cricket in 2011, going undefeated for 12 matches, before losing to York College in the Final 4 in 2012, York College went on to win the National Championship in 2012. Players like Anurag Verma, Venkatesh Raqvishankar, Hamza Mohammed, Ockert Greyvenstein, Pradeep Gudlur, Ram Shankar, and others graduated and the Aggies have struggled to return to top play. Nevertheless they have accomplished a lot, moving from their temporary on campus cricket field which we played the first South West Regional on, to a permanent location.
Texas Tech too had recent changes of their cricket field, moving to a different location, with lights. As with the Aggies the Raiders Cricket Club worked hard to get the new location, building on the work of graduates like Baiju Shah, Rahul Chadha, Amit & Vishu Chaudhary, Nihal Shah and more. Last South West Regionals Texas Tech got to the Finals before losing to a strong UT Arlington.
University of South Alabama Jaguars rides on the bat of College Player of the Year Falah Syed, one of the best batsmen currently in the USA. Last Nationals Syed scored a century & 99. He has been a strong leader since succeeding Neel Patel and could motivate the other young players as he did when the Jaguars made the Quarter Finals at the 2014 Nationals.
Former Houston Cougars Captain & fast bowler Shuja Naqvi is spending a month in Australia at the Darren Lehman Cricket Academy but the team hopes to make their impact this time, with the Regionals being literally in their backyard.They might also have a strong cheering section to help them get home field advantage.
The Houston Hawks (Clearlake) will rely on veterans like Prashante Manne and Winn Aung to give them their best chance, and Prashante has already promised to have lots of supporters motivating the Hawks, putting out flyers. Club founder Vivek will be following the club’s performance from Virginia where he now lives.
Defending South West Champion UT Arlington will be without their first leader Umer Syed, who not only led them abley from the front, but also was the man on ground in Dallas, organizing the previous South West Regionals. The new players will be looking to build on the sterling performances of the UTA Mavericks reaching the Final 4 at the Nationals and winning the 2013 South West Regionals. They also did a great job hosting the South West Regionals in Dallas in the Fall of 2013.
UT Dallas is the unknown quantity, as they are a newly formed American College Cricket club by Sharath Raam.However,we’ve seen new teams have talented players who play with passion to win.
With Nationals less than 1 month away, this Regionals will also be a valuable lead up to the Nationals for these teams. Amir Saddiqui will be Tournament Manager, and Curator Sam Plummer will ensure the turf pitches at the Stadium are first class.
Click on the Crichq tab on our website for the updated schedule.
