Conference titles: It is more than just bragging rights
September 6, 2010 by Peter Simunovich
Filed under USA News
The United States of America Cricket Association conference championship matches are more than just bragging rights and the battle for the game’s supremacy between the East and the West.
This is for the national championship, the highest award in US cricket. It is also a chance for the senior men’s selectors and coaches to look at the country’s best players competing at a high level and then name a squad for the International Cricket Conference Division Three Championship in Hong Kong.
It is also an opportunity for the younger players to get a taste of senior level cricket in one day competition and see what it takes to make the next step — the senior men’s team and play on the international stage.
The Eastern Conference games will be decided in Atlanta and the Western Conference in Los Angeles. Both will be played from September 17 to 19. The top two teams from each conference will then meet in the Super League to decide the national champion in either Florida or California in October.
Ashok Patel, the manager of the Atlantic Region, described the coming matches as “very important for selectors to see the players and name a team for the next tournament in Hong Kong.”
He said: “I look forward to the tournament because it will decide the national championship and to see the top players in action and the upcoming players.”
US senior men’s coach Clayton Lambert said coaches and selectors “had very little scope to identify talent at the same time and the Eastern and Western Conference matches formed a better grade of competition. The higher form of competition allows everyone to look at the players at this level. “
Lambert said that he would like to see three teams chosen after the championship has been decided — one from the Eastern Conference, one from the Western Conference and the third made up of players who missed out in their conferences. The three teams, he said, could play a round robin tournament at an even higher plane.
This would be the highest level of competition in the US and it would be a test for players and give the selectors and coaches an opportunity look at them under pressure conditions.
US senior team batsman Aditya Thyagarajan, who will play with the South West Region and has been named vice captain in the Western Conference, said the conference games were “very important for me. I want to do well, like I do in all games, against the top players in the country and be selected for the US.
“It is also important for the US senior team prospects to lay their claims.”
The Eastern Conference is made up of the Atlantic, New York, North East and South East regions while Central West, Central East, South West and North West regions make up the Western Conference.
Each conference will decide the top two teams in a round robin tournament. The four teams will then play in the Super League.
Then the top team from the Eastern Conference will meet the second placed team in the Western Conference and the top team in the Western Conference will meet the second team in the Eastern Conference. The winners will then meet for the title.
