Pro Cricket Hits The United States

[SumoNYR88]

The BBC

Pro cricket hits the USA

Plans have been revealed for a professional cricket league in the USA.
Pro Cricket will feature eight teams based in New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Florida, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Texas.

They will play 20-overs a side matches and each side can include up to five overseas players.

The organisers claim they have a number of international players from India, Pakistan, West Indies, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya already signed up.

Until now, cricket in the USA has been played on a regional basis.

Cricketers taking part in the new competition will benefit from lucrative contracts with salaries of up to $60,000 available for those playing an entire season.

The eight teams will be divided into two leagues, with the first match between NY Storm and Florida Thunder set to be played on 18 June.

The top two teams in each league will go forward to the next phase, with the final scheduled for the Commerce Bank Park in Bridgewater, New Jersey on 4 September.

The level of interest in cricket is increasing in the USA after the International Cricket Council identified North America as one of its prime expansion areas.

The national side won the ICC Six Nations Challenge in the United Arab Emirates earlier this year and will compete in the Champions Trophy in England in September.

And the USA is also bidding to stage matches during the 2007 World Cup, which will primarily be based in the Caribbean.

Broward County officials last week approved the design for a new stadium to be built at Lauderhill in Florida.

This sounds fantastic to me. It is a major step foward in terms of cricket getting a jump-start in the United States, and with stadiums and such all ready for this it should be a blast.........

 

[SumoNYR88]

Also, here is the official site of the American Cricket League (or whatever it will be called).....


http://www.procricket.com/

Here are some of the claimed signings so far.....quite a few surprises and shocks.....

New York Storm
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Nikhil Chopra
Franklin Rose
Sairaj Bahutule
Iqbal Siddiqui


D.C. Foward
Amir Sohail
Sanjay Bangar
Ajay Ratra
Amit Bhandari
Akash Chopra


Florida Thunder
Lance Klusener
Jermain Lawson
Neil Johnson
Cameron Cuffy
Marlon Black


New Jersey Fire
Parthiv Patel
Mohammed Sami
Dinesh Mongia
Sunil Joshi
Gautham Gambir


San Fransisco Freedom
Vinod Kambli
Reon King
Steve Tikolo
Daryll Cullinan
Rahul Sanghvi


Texas Arrow Heads
Hemang Badani
Imran Farhat
Shabir Ahmed
Thomas Odoyo
Justin Kemp


Chicago Tornadoes
Salim Malik
Imaran Nazir
Venkatapathy Raaju
Munaf Patel
Sanjeev Sharma


Los Angeles Unity
Rohan Gavaskar
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Darren Powell
Hrishikesh Kanitkar
Amit Mishra


The only thing that concerns me is that will all these players play the whole season or just drop out midway because of international duty? At the same time, I feel that even players like Sami and Patel are taking time, off, haven't been selected to play for their respective nations, or faking some injury to play in the US to see what its like........:

 

[pal]

Wow, most of these players are asians, this is going to block the way for actual US players, because they don't have the capabilities of matching these players...

 

[andrew_nixon]

Each team will only be allowed 5 overseas players in any one match from what I've read.

 

[ricky123]

80% of the players r from india ,

who will play for india then , cuz our backup players r in usa <_<

 

[nik]

yeah but there are only a few full time indian international players!

 

[SumoNYR88]

I checked out the roster in detail, and found that quite a few of the teams have more than 5 internationals.....here's three of the teams for example........

New York has
HD Ackerman (South Africa)
Derek Crookes (South Africa)
Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies)
Nikhil Chopra (India)
Franklin Rose (West Indies)
Sairaj Bahutule (India)
Colin Stuart (West Indies)


New Jersey has
Rupert Bailey (South Africa)
Mohammed Sami (Pakistan)
Parthiv Patel (India)
Dinesh Mongia (India)
Sunil Joshi (India)
Gautham Gambir (India)


Florida has
Mark Atkinson (Australia)
Lance Klusener (South Africa)
Albie Morkel (Souht Africa)
Neil Johnson (Zimbabwe)
Ian Tittle (West Indies)
David Williams (West Indies)


D.C. has
Amir Sohail (Pakistan)
Sanjay Bangar (India)
Ajay Ratra (India)
Amit Bhandari (India)
Akash Chopra (India)
Ashish Kapoor (India)
Johannes Myburgh (South Africa)


Chicago has
Salim Malik (Pakistan)
Imaran Nazir (Pakistan)
Salman Butt (Pakistan)
Venkatapathy Raju (India)
Andrew Puttick (South Africa)
Doug Watson (South Africa)
Devon Smith (West Indies)

Now is the rule 5 players that have represented their country on a regular basis or five players outside the US?? This can get tricky :wacko:

 

[andrew_nixon]

I'd guess that it is 5 overseas players in the team for a match, not in the squad.

 

[nik]

yeah that's probably why! who are the local players?

 

[andrew_nixon]

I would assume some of the current USA national team would be in the teams, although as the l;eague is sanctioned by the USACA, they may not be allowed to take part.

 

[nik]

Originally posted by andrew_nixon79@Jun 3 2004, 08:47 AM
I would assume some of the current USA national team would be in the teams, although as the l;eague is sanctioned by the USACA, they may not be allowed to take part.

why not?!

 

[andrew_nixon]

Originally posted by nik+Jun 5 2004, 09:16 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nik @ Jun 5 2004, 09:16 AM)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-andrew_nixon79

@Jun 3 2004, 08:47 AM
I would assume some of the current USA national team would be in the teams, although as the l;eague is sanctioned by the USACA, they may not be allowed to take part.

why not?! [/b]

The USACA were never even asked to sanction the league. There could be another problem as the ICC recognise the USACA as the governing body of cricket in the USA, and so any players who play in this league, could face punishment from the ICC.

 

[nik]

oh right that's why!