NCCA & Kookaburra Sign Three Year Strategic Partnership

NCCA (Northern California Cricket Association, established 1892), a 124 year old cricket league that ranks among the largest and oldest cricket leagues in USA and Kookaburra the 125 year old Victoria, Australia based world leader in Cricket equipment jointly announced that they have signed a 3 year strategic agreement.

Speaking about the agreement Sunil Kumar Kumaran the President of NCCA mentioned that “we are glad to have inked this agreement with Kookaburra. NCCA always strives to provide the best for our playing community and Kookaburra balls fits right into our strategy of delivering high caliber cricket to challenge our players. I am glad that our Ball Selection Committee comprising of Hall of Famers Ozair Nana and Sunny Singh along with Fiji National Player Mohammed Khan (Imran Khan) unanimously picked Kookaburra as our official ball. We are thankful to Kookaburra for having worked out a special deal and also for stepping up to sponsor our league for the next 3 years. This is a huge step for us in the right direction as it is going to be paradigm shift in the way our players approach the game.”

Praful Garga, the Commercial Development Manager of Kookaburra mentioned that “Kookaburra and NCCA have been working closely since later part of 2015 to finalize the right ball for the league. The Kookaburra balls were trialed in both divisions of their Premier League from the playoffs stage and had a very positive feedback from the teams and players. It was a fantastic contest between bat and ball, creating top quality cricket. Kookaburra is excited about partnering with such a prestigious association and looks further develop its links with progressive associations within the US cricket market. Kookaburra is the world leading manufacturer of cricket balls for International cricket, supplying 100% of all first class and International One Day and T20 Cricket.”

Under the terms of the three-year agreement:
• NCCA will be using the high quality white Club Match and the Special Test Kookaburra balls for its Premier League consisting of two divisions the Elite and Prestige
• Kookaburra will offer these balls at a very special price to NCCA
• Kookaburra will also sponsor NCCA throughout the 3 years under special terms

Ozair Nana, the Board of Director and member of NCCA’s Ball Selection Committee mentioned that “Our committee has been in the pursuit of a quality ball that can provide balance between the bat and ball. We tried out several different balls from across the world including UK, Australia, India and Pakistan. Of the several balls we have tested out, we found Kookaburra to be a right choice for NCCA and we have signed this agreement confident that Kookaburra will deliver results we anticipate.”

Sunny Singh, the Board of Director and member of NCCA’s Ball Selection Committee too shared similar opinion “one of the biggest challenge we were trying to overcome was to make the contest between bat and ball even. The game was too favored for the batsmen and even the best bowlers could only do so much. However, with Kookaburra we are confident that we will put the spring back on the bowlers feet to go out there and challenge the batsmen. The contest is now going to be even and only players with the right technique with the bat and ball will be able to challenge each other.”

Mohammed Khan (Imran Khan) a NCCA player who is also a Fiji National Player was delighted “finally we have a ball that each of us in the bowling community had been earning for. We needed a ball that can not only move in the air but also get us some purchase off the surface. Unlike playing in turf wickets, much of our cricket is on astro surface that gives us very little room to make errors in our line and length with the white ball as the batsmen using some of the world’s best willow will play through the line and clear boundaries. But with Kookaburra balls we now are confident of making the white cherry talk better and make the batsmen think before executing those big swing strokes, I am glad that we as a committee choose Kookaburra, it is game on from here.”

About NCCA: NCCA is a 124-year-old cricket league based in Northern California, USA and ranks among the oldest and largest of the leagues that provides a safe and secure environment for its aspirational and recreational players to play across the various formats of cricket throughout summer and winter. Several of NCCA youth, women and men have represented USA in ICC tournaments. NCCA has its Premier League with two divisions Elite and Prestige played in the 50 over and 45 over format respectively. The NCCA-T20 league plays across Summer and Winter. With an 11 member board and 6 executives supported by its various functional committees NCCA today takes pride in being among the professionally managed leagues in USA.