2013 Matrix Intero Cal Coast NCCA T20
The USACA sanctioned Matrix Intero Cal Coast NCCA T20 Tournament, pictured on cloud by Pulsate was held during the July 4th weekend. The bay area witnessed some of the best cricketing talents in the country along with some international stars slug it out in the middle for the prize money of $20,000.
The tournament was inaugurated by Honorable Mayor of Santa Clara Mr. Jamie L. Matthews. Speaking at the Opening Ceremony Honorable Matthews mentioned that he was so proud that the City that is the new home to 49ers is now the home of cricket. He thanked NCCA for having chosen Santa Clara for such action filled tournament with local, national and international players. He urged NCCA to continue to bringing top flight cricket to Santa Clara, which he believes will help take this game to the local community. The tournament had a great build up with the leading newspaper San Jose Mercury News carrying an exclusive on this tournament.
The victorious Fooglies pose with winning prize.
There were 12 teams participating in this tournament. The first two days of the tournament was the round-robin league with the top 8 going through to the quarter finals. The final four teams were Blasters, Fooglies, LA Cavaliers and US Tigers. Of this Fooglies and US Tigers made it to the final. Both these teams had international players in their ranks. Fooglies had Neil McGarrell the West Indian and the US player along with NC Aiyappa from the IPL, they also had former US Stars Aditya Thiyagarajan and Aditya Mishra playing with some of the best NCCA talents including Pranay Suri (US 19 star), Mahesh Krishnamurthi, Shantanu Divekar and their brilliant wicket keeper batsman Ritesh Kadu . US Tigers had the services of West Indian international cricketers including Ricardo Powell, Riyadh Emrit, Adrian Ali along with a galaxy of US Cricket stars (former and present) including Ravi Timbawala, Japan Patel, Hammad, Saurabh Varma and quite a few.
The final game went to wire with Fooglies needing 20 of the last 20 balls. At a crucial stage Neil McGarrell got out leaving the two NCCA batsmen to try and finish the game. Shantanu Divekar sent the first ball he faced of Saurabh Varma to the fence with a power filled reverse pull that shocked the bowler and took the fielders by surprise. With 6 needed of the last two balls, Mahesh Krishnamurthi, sent the ball from Riyadh Emrit to the sweeper boundary for a four, this was followed by a classic lofted shot towards the long off from a full ball from Emrit which beat the fielders to the boundary. The
Fooglies camp erupted in joy as they have won against one of the best teams in the circuit and it was a hard fought victory. US Tigers stood tall in their defeat, led by their gentleman cricketer Captain Sunju Patel. The fans, families and spectators witnessed one of the most intense and competitive cricket ever played in the Bay Area. The final day also witnessed a demonstration of cricket by junior kids.
Some of the top performers from this tournament included the Fooglies wicket keeper, batsman who won the MVP, Best Batsman, Best Wicket Keeper awards. The Best Bowler Award and the Most Promising Youth – Bowler went to Pranay Suri of Fooglies. The Most Promising Youth Batsman went to Ravi Timbawala of US Tigers. The Most Promising Youth Wicket Keeper went to Saami Siddiqui.
Congratulating Fooglies, the US Tiger Captains Sunju Patel was all appreciation for the tournament and generous in his compliments, he said “CONGRATULATIONS Sunil Kumar Kumaran for a fantastic effort in organizing NCCA T20 tournament. It was truly an experience to be there and we will certainly support you in whatever you do in the future. Congratulations to FOOGLIES who played outstanding cricket in the finals”.
Aditya Thyagarajan the Captain of Fooglies too was effusive in his praise for the tournament. Accepting the winner’s check for $20,000 Aditya mentioned that “the way the tournament has been organized and conducted coupled with the ambience provided we get a feeling of having played in an ICC organized tournament”. He went to say “Sunil – Great job! One of the best organized domestic tournaments we have ever played in. Look forward to next year.”
Ricardo Powell, the West Indian International Player too echoed similar sentiments. Receiving the Man of the Finals award he said “Congratulations to Fooglies on the win. I enjoyed playing in this well organized tournament and I look forward to coming back again.”
Speaking from the commentary box NC Aiyappa, the IPL player from Royal Challengers Bangalore said that “This is a well organized tournament and I am glad that I am playing in such a competitive environment. I look forward to coming back to play more here”.
Former Indian Test Cricketer MSK Prasad was full of praise for the tournament. He even compared the uniforms being provided by NCCA and mentioned that it is comparable and better than what we see being given in international events.
The social media was abuzz with appreciation of this USACA sanctioned event hosted by NCCA. NCCA saw a severe surge in its fan base and also very positive, encouraging and appreciative comments shared by participants, and other fans who followed the fortune of the teams.
Presiding over the event as the Chief Guest Honorable Ms. Teresa Cox, (Trade Advisor to Obama Administration and Oholone College Trustee) mentioned that she was pleased to be part of this wonderful event but also looking forward to continue to supporting the development of this sport. She congratulated both the finalists and other teams who participated and wished that they continue to participate in such tournaments and promote cricket in the Bay Area.
Speaking to the media, Mr. Sunil Kumar President of NCCA thanked all the Teams and its national and international players who participated in this tournament and took this tournament to a totally new level. He profusely thanked all his sponsors Mr. Sunny Sethi – Matrix Insurance Agency, Mr. Roger Bakshi – Cal Coast Financial Corp, Mr. Rishi Bakshi – Intero Real Estate Services, Mr. Anandan Jayaraman – Pulsate, Ms. Kokila Shah – Kinjni Skin Care (skin care for men) and other sponsors including ProCricshop, The Singh Law Firm, Birbals. He specifically mentioned his thanks and high appreciation to two of his partners who also sponsored the event, firstly TVU Networks for providing high quality streaming throughout the 4 days that enabled fans across the globe to view the game in a HD quality, secondly to CricHQ who partnered with NCCA in providing live score updates through their CricHQ portal. The pictures in the tournament were streamed through NCCA’s mobile app partner Pulsate – a state of the art and modern mobile application (on IPhone and iPad) that is fast changing the face of social conversation.
CricHQ also gave away Samsung Mobile Devices to the MVP, Best Batsman and Best Bowler. Sunil further thanked Jagat Singh, CEO of Smart Converged Solutions who gave the MVP a special award, an Android TV Dongle.
Sunil also thanked his Board, Executives, the Tournament Organizing Committee (including Srikanth Varma, Chairman of the NCCA Board, Sunny Singh and Abbas Rizvi BoD), The Umpiring Panel, Volunteers, the spectators at the venue and the online viewers for their generous and sporting support. He specifically thanked the two clubs and their leadership (Sujesh Pulikkal, Santa Clara Cricket Club and Hasu Patel, Spartans Cricket Club) for having provided world class venue for this tournament.
He expressed his sincere thanks to USACA and said that the sanctioning process lay down by Mr. Darren Beazley CEO of USACA helped him focus on ensuring that the key aspects of the tournament are well covered.
“Working with USACA was easily my best part of the overall experience of this tournament” said Sunil Kumar.
“It helped us ensure that there are clear check list of activities and compliance matters that we need to be aware of and we complied on all aspects. This gave the participating teams the comfort that the entire tournament was being governed by a framework and they could expect promises and commitments to be delivered.”
Speaking to the media Mr. Darren Beazley responded; “As the governing body for cricket in this country, USACA is pleased that the Tournament was a well-organized, well promoted and professional event. Our Sanctioning Policy is designed to act as a quality control mechanism and it appears that this worked well for all concerned. Congratulations to Mr. Kumar and the NCCA for a job well done!”
