Eight teams of under-23 players took full advantage of the short summer months in New York City by participating in the first ever NY Cricket Academy U23 T/20 Tournament. The tournament was organised by Mr. Ricky Kissoon with special assistant from Mr. Patrick Sutherland. The championship match will take place at 3pm on Friday, August 26th, 2011 at Marine Park in Brooklyn.
The tournament was not meant to prepare players for a national tournament, but it provided opportunities for players to showcase their Twenty/20 skills in a competitive and friendly atmosphere. Sources stated that some of the former U19 players felt deprived, because of the limited cricketing schedule in the New York Region. For example, with the lack of inter-league cricket in 2011 many players were restricted in playing only club cricket in their respective leagues.
Furthermore, the “Masters” is a well established and organised league that competes on Saturdays. The organizers, teams, and players must be commended for their outstanding effort in bringing fruition to this successful league. The New York Cricket Academy welcomes any U23 teams that may have an interest in playing Twenty/20 cricket during the 2012 cricket year.
The following four teams meet in the semis on Friday, August 19th:
(1) #1 NYCA vs. #4 Brooklyn Knights @ Baisley South
(2) #2 Brooklyn Finest vs. #3 MMZ Superstars @ Marine Park
At Baisley South, a very strong NYCA squad went undefeated throughout the tournament, but couldn’t hold off Akeem Dodson’s and Brooklyn Knights in a close encounter with little assistant coming from “mother nature”. At Marine Park, Imran Mahzar and Brooklyn Finest defeated Andy Mohammed’s MMZ Superstars’ in a low scoring encounter.