2011 Championship Dates Announced

American College Cricket today announced the dates of the 2011 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship will be March 15-20, 2011. March 15 – 19 will feature the Playoffs, followed by the Semi-finals and Finals on March 20th.

Action from the 2010 American College Cricket Finals - York University vs York College. (Photo by Daniela Zaharia)

The Cricket Stadium and the side-fields at Central Broward Regional Park, Lauderhill, near Ft. Lauderdale will once again be the Championship venue. Additional fields will also be used.

The American College Cricket Championship began in 2009, with five Colleges, and quickly grew to 20 Colleges in 2010. Whilst March Madness in college basketball is considering expanding the number of teams, College Cricket is experiencing tremendous growth in a very short time. The NY Times, Washington Post, Canada’s Globe & Mail, Voice of America, NY Daily News, Good Morning Arizona, The Sun Sentinel and Sports Illustrated headline the USA and Canadian media that have taken notice of the growth.

The 2010 American College Cricket Championship was the first major live video broadcast of any cricket played in the USA, and with tremendous success, as thousands watched. The games were even carried live on the Jumbotrons at the Square One Mall in Toronto, Canada.

American College Cricket VP Nino DiLoreto said, “The live webcast of the Semis and Finals’ link was carried on our website AmericanCollegeCricket.com, as well as by the International Cricket Council (ICC ), USA Cricket, CricketCanada.org, and more. It was a huge success and we plan to broadcast more games in 2011.”

The 2010 Championship also saw innovations such as time limits that ensured games finished in 3 hours. Without altering the game itself this rendered it more broadcast-media and spectator friendly.

In 2010 the Greater Ft Lauderdale Convention & Tourism Bureau welcomed the American College Cricket Championship to the list of great American sporting events South Florida has hosted:  10 Super Bowls, NHL All Star Game, NBA All Star Game, NBA Championship Finals, NCAA Basketball & Baseball Regionals, Breeders Cup, FED EX Orange Bowl, BCS Football Championship, Sony Ericsson Tennis Championship, NASCAR Championship- and endorsed the Championship.

American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah, who was featured in Part 3 of the recently released International Cricket Council (ICC) film documentary ‘Cricket in America’ said, “York University (Canada) are eager to defend the Chanderpaul Trophy, and many new college clubs are joining American College Cricket. We are assisting in the formation of cricket clubs and developing teams at Universities all across the USA and Canada.”

Since the 2010 National Championship, American College Cricket has  named a number of accomplished professionals to its Advisory Board : John L Aaron and Krish Prasad of USA Cricket, Cricket Canada’s Ravin Moorthy, P. David Sentance, USC’s Arvin Varma and Don Gonzales; adding a wealth of knowledge and resources to the college cricket movement.

The cricket clubs that participated in the 2010 Championship were from York University (Toronto),University of Pennsylvania, Ohio State University, New York University-Polytechnic, University of Maryland (Baltimore County), York College (CUNY) ,George Washington University, Auburn University, Montgomery College, Thunderbird School, George Mason University, University of Southern California ,College of Wooster, Rutgers University, University of Miami, St. Cloud State University, University of Minnesota, University of South Florida, Boston University and the University of the West Indies as “Special Guests”.

Media of practically all of these colleges have covered their cricket clubs’ efforts in the recent 2010 Championship and will no doubt keenly follow in 2011.