Northern California Cricket Association
The Northern California Cricket Association (NCCA) today announced a National T20 tournament to be played in the North West Region during the July 4th weekend this year. The NCCA National Men’s Open T20 Tournament has been officially sanctioned by the United States Cricket Association (USACA) and will be held across various NCCA ovals in Northern California from July 4th – 7th. The National Tournament is open to all US teams and is expected to attract international teams from Canada and Bermuda.
USACA CEO Mr. Darren Beazley with members of Northern California Cricket Association.
NCCA President Mr. Sunil Kumar made the announcement from Fremont, CA today;
“The NCCA National Men’s Open T20 Tournament is expected to attract many teams from all across the USA and possibly overseas. The prize money for the winning the tournament is $20,000 which we believe will be an excellent incentive for talented cricketers to compete in this tournament. We are confident that the well maintained infrastructure & grounds by our clubs, an Umpiring Panel with highly qualified umpires (including few certified by the WICB), a water tight governance model driven by the NCCA Board & Executives, the warmth of hospitality by NCCA volunteers coupled with the cricket friendly weather unique to this region will provide an unparallel experience to the top flight cricketers (both national and international) participating in this tournament. We are also confident of continued support by our sponsors who have been integral part of our success in implementing our vision for a 360 degree development of cricket including Youth & Women’s Cricket”.
Our hope is to stream the games online with the final on July 7th being covered live. I would like to thank USACA for sanctioning our tournament and for agreeing to support us in our efforts to bring quality cricket to the North West Region”.
USACA has recently been reviewing its sanctioning policy and this tournament is the first test of the new policy. USACA CEO Mr. Darren Beazley explained;
“USACA receives many, many approaches from groups seeking sanctioning for their tournaments or competitions each year. Very often these approaches lack the depth of preparation and planning for consideration by the peak cricket body in the country. Sanctioning has an important part to play in the new direction for cricket in the US as it addresses quality control issues such as facility assessment, player insurance, responsible financial management and so forth. Just as importantly, the official USACA sanction provides the competing players with the confidence that the organizers have successfully completed a thorough and comprehensive assessment regime by the peak cricket body in this country.”
Mr. Beazley has just returned from a trip to the South West and North West Regions of California where he met with several cricketing bodies and watched some of the local cricketers in action. He also met with the Board and the Executives of the NCCA to finalize the components of the formal USACA Sanctioning Agreement.
“What made the NCCA sanctioning application so compelling was the level of detailed planning that the NCCA has demonstrated and the fact that it is a ‘whole of cricket event’. The tournament is not a profit making exercise and will involve a junior cricket component which is mandatory for any sanction we provide. USACA is pleased that one of its member Leagues has had the vision to promote such a concept and the professionalism in their approach to provide USACA with the confidence that this tournament will be a well promoted, well managed celebration of cricket in California.
This will be an ideal method of testing our new policy and I anticipate that if the NCCA Tournament meets our expectations, this will be the first of many domestic cricket tournaments across the US that USACA will sanction”.
The USACA Sanctioning Policy is available at www.usaca.org.