Dear NCCA Cricketers,
I am publicly announcing my candidacy for the Presidency of the Northern California Cricket Association (NCCA). The Presidency of the NCCA is the most effective office in our local and national cricket community. Through the leadership of the NCCA a more vital pathway for our cricketers can emerge. Within such a pathway is centered the hopes of the local, regional and national cricketing community.
Anuj Patel is vying for the presidency of the Northern California Cricket Association.
It is within the Executive branch of the NCCA where the most crucial decisions for cricket must be made in the next two years. Among the real issues of 2016 are the following:
• How to improve our relations with all Californian and national cricket leagues
• How to provide as much playing opportunity to our seniors and youth cricketers
• How to maintain the freedom and independence of our umpiring panel so they can serve our cricketers even better
• How to rebuild the stature of the once mighty NCCA youth cricket program
• How to improve the infrastructure of our NCCA grounds and the quality of cricket played
• How to conduct high quality local as well as representative cricket tournaments
• How to bring back and give direction to our long lost droves of cricket volunteers
I have spoken to many cricketers and volunteers in our community, and all have encouraged me to take this leadership role. My candidacy is therefore based on the conviction that I can win the election based on my past record as an active cricketer, contributing Board member, decorated regional umpire, active youth cricket proponent, and last but not least a successful professional and entrepreneur, with a young family.
For 16 years I have been in the service of the NCCA and the local and regional cricket community as a confident, courageous and persevering volunteer.
It is with this image that I begin this campaign.
Yours sincerely,
Anuj Patel
How will you improve the relationships between California and other national cricket leagues?
Northern California Cricket Association is one of the oldest cricket leagues in the country and has always had its cricketers participate in cricket competitions at the highest levels. In recent times, the focus has been totally lost by its current leadership in search of personal glory. First and foremost, i want to meet with all the league leaders of the NWR and work with them to provide a common platform to all deserving cricketers of NCCA and the immediate surroundings. NCCA’s objective is the promotion, advancement and protection of the interests of cricket, and that is what I want to achieve.
How do you plan to provide more playing opportunities for our senior and youth cricketers?
Apart from the local 50 overs and T20 league cricket, NCCA used to have regular annual cricket tournaments with its bigger sister body SCCA, until four years back. I want to bring that level of competition back. A lot of players bemoan the fact that we haven’t had good cricket competitions in a while and all I want to do is give our cricketers what they really deserve, and that is as much cricket as possible. At the same time I want to separate the casual recreational cricketers from those players yearning for higher levels of cricket. One of my main goals is to establish a Top 8-top-team league that will allow those cricketers the highest levels of competition. With ICC taking serious interest in our cricket, it is imperative that we prepare our boys in such a way that they represent themselves well at the next level.
How will you maintain the freedom and independence of umpiring panels so they can serve the cricketers even better?
I spent years building the independent NWR/NCCA umpiring panel and everyone here knows how and why it was dismantled by the current administrators. Without going into further details, I know that I can revive that independent umpiring panel again with a big focus on quality of umpiring while adding more umpires.
What are your plans to rebuild the stature of the once mighty NCCA youth cricket program?
We all know how the NCCA & NWR Youth have performed at the national level in the past. In recent times the youth cricket scene here has been fragmented, resulting in a few new youth cricket academies taking roots. NCCA clearly dropped the ball in the past 4-5 years and I want to work together with all the local youth academies to provide all of our youth players an opportunity to play year-round cricket. I have specific plans that I will unveil when the time comes, if given the opportunity.
How will you improve the infrastructure of grounds and the quality of cricket being played?
I was one of the NCCA Board members instrumental in establishing the infrastructure of NCCA cricket grounds, and just before the 2008 cricket season for the NCCA youth team. I’ve seen the current condition of the NCCA container and the field in general, and all I can say is it needs a lot of fixing with a lot of help from our volunteers.
How will you conduct high quality local as well as representative cricket tournaments?
In recent times I lead the highly successful Owen Graham T20 Tournaments in 2014 and 2015, as well as the 2015 Owen Graham Youth Cricket Tournament which had out of town teams from L.A. and Dallas. I was able to rally a lot of members from the community to step forward to help. As stated above, I want to restart the cricket competition with Southern California.
The best way to improve the quality and quantity of local cricket is for the leagues to not overlap into each other’s cricket tournament schedules. I want to work with other cricket leagues in the area as soon as possible to establish a cricket calendar so that as many cricketers here can participate in as much cricket as possible. Let’s be honest, the future of USA at the international level is only in T20 cricket, so we want to provide our best cricketers as much T20 competition as possible.
How do you plan to bring back and give direction to our long lost droves of cricket volunteers?
NCCA has always been a community run cricket organization and it needs effective leadership that will motivate volunteers to step forward to help. There are a lot of people who love the game more than anything and will step forward to help.
The last president is thought to have helped improve the visibility of the league within the community as a whole. What are your plans on the community front, so, that the community feels that they have access to cricket socially, and cricket can engage with them as it expands in Northern California?
I would not like to comment on what the immediate past leadership have done or have not done, the local cricketers know better. I want to separate the casual weekend cricketers who come to play on the weekends to relieve themselves from the day-to-day stress, from those who want to play highly competitive cricket. I want to start a Masters Cricket League, as a lot of cricketers have been asking for one. I want to promote women’s cricket to the best of our ability. San Francisco Bay Area is a very diverse area and each community organization has its set of goals. NCCA’s goal is to promote cricket first, with Facebook and other social media marketing coming in a distant second.
During the last administration, there was an increase in sponsorship, what are your plans?
Once again, I would not like to comment on what the immediate past leadership have done or have not done. However, it was not very transparent how much sponsorship was obtained in relation to that which was promised. NCCA lost its Non-Profit status under this current regime and my priority will be to re-instate it, subject to IRS guidelines.
I want to establish a list of volunteers who will serve on various committees that have been not so optimally functional in recent times. In the past it was a community effort to raise funds for tournaments, youth coaching or even for distressed members’ personal expenses, and I want to rebuild that community again. For the 2015 OG Youth tournament, we were able to raise significant funds from sponsorship.