Plenty stars in the making

In the sporting world, the end of June is traditionally associated with Wimbledon, and this year with the World Cup as well. For hundreds of budding young cricketers across the USA however, it was the inaugural US National Junior Cricket Tournament (U-15, U-13 and U-11) that was foremost in their minds.

Or at least that's the way it should and could have been, and hopefully in the future will be. The tournament itself was an operational success, and a credit to the hospitality and organizational skills of the hosts, the California Cricket Academy. However, it was impossible not to reflect on what might have been, had the political machinations of has-beens and never-weres around the country not prevented hundreds of youngsters from enjoying the opportunity of a lifetime.

Politics notwithstanding, this being cricket in the USA after all, there was some top quality youth cricket on display, with the North-West Centurions capturing the U-15 title, and the Academy's own teams sweeping the U-13 and U-11 competitions.

The flagship U-15 category brought together teams from the South-West (primarily Los Angeles), Central-East (primarily Chicago), New Jersey and two from the host region, the North-West Centurions, and the North-West Gold.

On the opening day, NW Gold made the early running, cruising past the Centurions in the morning game, and then crushing the Piscataway Chiefs from New Jersey by nine wickets in the afternoon.

The Centurions put things in perspective on the second day, scoring 159 before dismissing the Chiefs for just 47, but it was the Central East who really caught the eye, playing very positive cricket at the picturesque Stanford University ground to notch up victories against the South-West Cougars and the overmatched Chiefs.

With Central East beating Gold on the third morning, and the Centurions marching past the Cougars on the back of a mesmerizing spell of leg-spin from 14-year-old Navneet Waraich, the stage was set for what turned out to be the game of the tournament, between Central-East and the Centurions.

The Centurions needed a win to book a place in the final, and failing that, the equation would come down to NRR between them and the Gold team. CE won the toss, and after some discussion, elected to bat.

Opener Ronnie Rathod and skipper Abhijit Joshi led the way, both scoring aggressive twenties at the top of the order, and setting up a great platform for the middle-order. Just when it looked as if CE were heading for a score of around 150, Centurions 14-year old captain Akash Jagannathan brought himself on to bowl. An off-spinner with remarkable mastery of flight for his age, Jagannathan struck twice in his first over, and took four wickets in total to rip the heart out of the CE batting.

Disaster appeared to be on the cards for CE, but they were saved by a top-class rearguard action from as contrasting a pair of batsmen as one could ever hope to see. At one end, the burly Jason Fox swung for the fences with gusto, and with no small amount of skill. At the other end, the diminutive Mohammad Shehzar evoked memories of Douglas Marillier, with his cheeky reverse-sweeps and paddles over the keeper's head fetching him 17 very entertaining runs, taking his team to a final score of 118 for 8.

The Centurions came out with a surprisingly cautious approach, Jagannathan looking impeccable in defence, and his opening partner, Balaji Giridharan content to let the extras do the bulk of the scoring. The strategy of saving your wickets for the slog overs is a great one in a 50-over contest, but it proved to be somewhat risky in this 25-over bat-a-thon. After reaching the drinks break without losing a wicket, the Centurions looked to step up a gear, but instead found themselves playing and missing as the pressure built up. Thirteen-year-old Mihir Deo unleashed a few stunning lofted straight drives off the medium pacers in his little cameo, but threw his wicket away trying for one too many.

It came down to just nine runs required, with six wickets in hand and three overs remaining. Ordinarily, a straightforward chase, but with the field brought in close, and Joshi bowling with pace and accuracy, Jagannathan struggled to find the gaps, and a couple of desperate run-outs later, it had boiled down to 2 to win, 1 to tie, with Jagannathan on strike and one delivery remaining.

The ball was pitched just short of a length on off stump, and all Jagannathan, batting on 46, could do was to push it out to what can only be described as a Very Short Extra Cover. The batsmen went for the run as the fielder flicked the ball back to Joshi, the bowler. However, with Jagganathan well out of his ground, Joshi inexplicably knocked the bails off before collecting the ball. That looked to have forced the tie, which would have been an appropriate result, but the batsman was stunned to see the umpire raising his finger, which meant CE emerged victorious by the narrowest of margins, one run. Despite the protestations of coaches and spectators alike, the umpire stood by his decision, insisting that he had not seen what had actually transpired, and therefore could not change his mind.

Fortunately, the Centurions had done enough to get through to the final on net run-rate, and the stage was set for what would undoubtedly be a grudge match.

The final itself was a very different affair, with ball dominating the bat. CE elected to bat once again, but only Joshi was able to get going and reach double figures, and his 29 was the cornerstone of the final score of 80. For the Centurions, Ameya Savale bowled a tight opening spell, conceding just 7 in his five overs, and Jagannathan was once again among the wickets. In fact, the Centurions leader stunned much of the crowd by showing that, in addition to being a quality batsman and bowler, he could take the gloves as well. It took just five deliveries behind the wickets for him to effect the two impeccable stumpings that wrapped up the innings.

The target looked to be a straightforward one, but when Jagannathan, Giridharan and Deo all fell early, the pressure was suddenly on a middle order that had not been required to do much thus far in the tournament. A hostile spell from Joshi, and some tidy leg-spin from Fox, conceding just 15 runs between them in nine overs, kept things in check. Without ever quite getting on top, CE maintained an interest in the game throughout, and it took an explosive cameo from perhaps the smallest man on the field, Gaurav Ambekar, and an uncharacteristically painstaking innings by 15-year-old Varun Valluri, to guide the Centurions to victory by five wickets, avenging the painful defeat of the previous evening.

Valluri was justly named the MAGMA Man of the Match, with Ambekar, Joshi and Jagannathan claiming the batting, bowling and fielding awards respectively.

The AztecSoft Player of the Tournament award was shared by Jagannathan (96 runs, 2 catches, 3 stumpings, 9 wickets) and Joshi (73 runs, 3 catches, 2 direct hit run outs, 8 wickets). These two showed themselves to be as talented as any 14 year-old all round cricketer could hope to be, and one can only hope that US cricket will sort itself out quickly enough in order to give players like this an avenue in which to express their skills.

Several other players, including the Nana brothers, Deo, Shezar and Ambekar looked to be genuine cricketers in the making - playing the game the right way, and with the right temperamental approach. Time will of course tell, and the onus is now firmly on administrators to provide the opportunities.

The U-13 competition was played out between just three teams - the California Cricket Academy Pros, the California Cricket League U-13, and the South-West Mustangs. As it transpired, the Pros were a class above the other two teams, sweeping all four of their round robin games, three of them by margins in excess of 80 runs.

The Final, played between the CCL and the Pros was different only because the Pros lost the toss and were forced to field first. They duly bowled CCL out for just 45, and cruised home for the loss of two wickets, both given up in a hurry to complete the formalities.

Despite the one-sided nature of the competition, there were a few genuine highlights, and a couple of youngsters emerged with immense credit as ones to watch for the future.

Aditi Krishnapriyan, who won the Best Fielder award in the tournament final, was the solitary female player in the entire tournament, and in fact was arguably the outstanding athlete across the U-13 teams.

Pros captain Pranay Suri topped every conceivable statistic, taking eight wickets with his teasing unorthodox off-spin, and adding to that four catches, and 133 runs. He would frankly not have looked out of place had he played a level higher. Hot on his heels was the equally talented Arsh Buch, who contributed 131 runs, six wickets, and two catches. Buch models himself on Irfan Pathan, bowling tidy left-arm swing, and unleashing a pull shot that was a delight to behold whenever the bowlers pitched short to him.

While those two were the stars, there were others who impressed as well, several of the youngsters displaying technique and cricketing acumen that their seniors in US cricket would do well to learn from. Vikram Valluri, Adhiraj Watave, Zackary Zadoo and Roshan Varadarajan are all names to watch out for over the coming years, the lattermost displaying a particularly precocious ability to read and understand the nuances of the game.

With only two teams participating, both from the host Academy, the Under-11 tournament was played as a one-off final, in which the Tigers batted first, scoring a mammoth 151 for 9 on the back of 38 extras and a fine 24 by Man of the Match Harsh Solanki. In reply, the Sixers failed to live up to their name, all-rounder Pranav SujitKumar following up his four-wicket haul with the solitary boundary as the innings folded for 49, with just 11 of those coming off the bat.