The cricket oval. The mown down green square turf in the middle. The sets of stumps at the two ends of the cricket pitch, with white lines marking out the popping, the return and the bowling creases. The lush green field, gently sloping down from the center square with the boundary marked out by a rope going round in an oval. The sound of the red cherry striking against the willow.

These are all dream-like in the land of the rising sun! Still dream-like, but quite soon, one hopes, will be a reality in this land of sumo wrestlers.

Perhaps, with these dreams and visions the organizers of Japan Cricket Association organized the first ever all-Japan cricket tournament that brought foreign and native cricket lovers from all over Japan. The setting was as idyllic as you can get.

Set in Chiba, in the midst of a resort run by the Nihon Aerobic Center, the field looked big and green. And, the participants, all very enthusiastic. Some had flown in from as far as Kyushu! With such enthusiasm, it was Just ideal for cricket!

Match 1 (Nov. 23rd)
As with any event in Japan, the six-a-side tournament started off bang on time. The inaugural match was played between Minami Kanto A and Minami Kanto B. The former managed 43 runs in their allotted 5 overs. Minami Kanto B, led by "Junior," had no trouble knocking off 45 runs with 4 balls to spare.

Match 2 (Nov. 23rd)
Tokai, led by Kamran, won the toss and elected to bat. In the allotted 5 overs the team piled up 73 with Munir and Mahen remaining unbeaten with 32 and 16 respectively. Chasing such a formidable target Tohoku & Kita Kanto succumbed but managed a very creditable 57.

Match 3 (Nov. 23rd)
Minami Kanto B, choosing to bat first ran up a fairly big score of 66 with some good batting performance from everyone. Kansai, in reply, could not go beyond 36 because of some great bowling efforts by "junior" who bagged 3 for 8.

Match 4 (Nov. 23rd)
Electing to bat first, Tohoku & Kita Kanto managed just 39 in the allotted 5 overs. Kyushu brought about a pulsating one-run victory off the last ball due to some fielding panic displayed by their opponents.

Match 5 (Nov. 23rd)
Last match of the day, Tokai went into and equaled their previous score of 73. This time the two contributors were Viswa (24 not out) and Kamran (15 not out). In reply, Kansai could manage only 34, with Shahed returning wonderful figures of 2 for 4.

End of Day One.

Time for fun and ohuro! The JCA, assisted by some sponsorship from Nihon Aerobics Center, organized a great evening full of fun, frolic and feasting. As a result, many players ended up going to bed late, but that did not prevent the organizers, ably supported by the umpires, from starting the next morning's proceedings promptly at 8:30.

Match 6 (Nov. 24th)
Another nail-biting finish under a bright blue sky! Kyushu batted first and managed 56 in 5 overs. Their opponents, Minami Kanto A, was able to score the winning run off the last ball thanks to some great batting display earlier by Yato, who retired after having scored a quick fire 32.

Match 7 (Nov. 24th)
Third nail-biting finish of the tournament! Kansai batting first scored 57 in the allotted 5 overs. Tohoku & Kita Kanto managed the winning run off the last ball, thanks to some great team effort.

Match 8 (Nov. 24th)
Batting first, Kyushu managed just 45 in 5 overs. In reply, Minami Kanto B scored 49 with one ball to spare. Banjyo of the winning side made a wonderful contribution of 30 not out.

Match 9 (Nov. 24th)
Tokai, by now rated as the tournament favorites, batted first and managed a paltry 39 in the allotted 5 overs. However, the match turned out to be hard fought due to some wonderful bowling by Kamran and Mahen. Nonetheless, Minami Kanto A won the match with 3 balls to spare. Tokai learnt a good lesson: NEVER TAKE THINGS EASY IN CRICKET!

By now, the lineups for the Bowl Final, the Plate Final, and the Cup Final had been decided.

Bowl Final:     Tohoku & Kita Kanto     vs.     Kansai
Plate Final:    Minami Kanto A          vs.     Kyushu
Cup Final:      Minami Kanto B          vs.     Tokai

Match 10 (Bowl Final - Nov. 24th)
Kansai was restricted to 49 off 5 overs due to some good bowling by Orita (2 for 6) and Yano (1 for 3). In reply, Tohoku & Kita Kanto scored 50 in 4.4 overs. Miyazawa scored an impressive 22 not out for the winning side.

Match 11 (Plate Final - Nov. 24th)
Kyushu batted first and managed 43 in 5 overs. Minami Kanto A ended the game earlier than was necessary by scoring 45 in just 2.4 overs. Some fine batting by Yoshioka who remained not out with 21.

Match 12 (Cup Final - Nov. 24th)
Unfortunately, the Cup Final turned out to be more of an anti-climax. Batting first and having learnt some lessons from their previous outing, Tokai piled up 72 runs in the allotted 5 overs. Everyone contributed to the score, with Munir and Robert remaining not out with well made 21 and 19 respectively. In reply, Minami Kanto B could manage just 43 in their 5 overs.

So, Tokai took the cup home. But, thanks to some great organizing efforts by the JCA, the umpires, the players and the spectators CRICKET won that day. Everyone departed from the event with great hopes for the future of CRICKET in Japan. Perhaps, we all saw history in the making! We all look forward to bigger things, some CRICKET EXTRAVAGANZA in the near future in Japan.

Tokyo Giants win the KCL Cup Biju Paul

Underdogs Tokyo Giants won the prestigious Kanto Cricket League Cup after defeating the mighty Friends, who were the favourites till the other day. The final was played at the Fujinomiya Green Park supervised by two neutral umpires and a neutral scorer.

Electing to bat first, the Giants scored 167/8 off 30 overs, Wasim Qasir top scoring with 48*. The match was reduced to 30 overs each due to shorter days in autumn. For Giants, Jamshed Ali bowled impressively to return figures of 2/15 of 6 overs.

Chasing 168 for a victory and the coveted Cup, Friends kept up with the required run-rate but Giants inflicted telling blows when they claimed Friends' captain Amir Ali, Munir Ahmed and hard hitting Farhan. It was Tauseef Azhar, who upset Friends' apple cart when they were riding smoothly by claiming the crucial wickets of Amir and Farhan.

Friends required only 35 runs off 4 overs when he came to bowl his slow left arm turners on the Flicx pitch. With Amir (35 off 28 balls) and Farhan (28 off 10 balls) at the crease, it looked like the game and the Cup belonged to the Friends. Tauseef had other plans, however. He clean bowled both batsmen, had Kasha LBW and had Jamshed Ali caught and his figures looked 1.3-0-3-4. Mumtaz Alam with figures of 3/22 did no good to the Friends cause either.

This was Giants' first major victory in the two years of their existence after splitting away from the Edogawa Falcons. The dinner-cum-prize distribution ceremony was held on December 29th.

Play-off matches

In the second play-off for Division I, Millennium inflicted a shock defeat on the Indian Engineers in an absorbing match to become the first Japanese club to qualify for the D-I.

Having sent to bat first, Millennium was bowled out for 103. The Engineers then started disastrously with five wickets down for seven runs in three3 overs but some middle order hitting by Dinesh Tashildar and Rahul Kumar and a last wicket partnership of 25 runs between Rahul Kumar and Ashok Sharma brought the Engineers within one run of victory.

Just when things were looking bright for the Engineers, Andrew Ker had Ashok caught at backward square leg to win what was a gripping match. Read the report about this exciting match at http://www3.ewebcity.com/iecc/reports.htm.

In the third play-off, which was between the losers of the first and second play-off, the Indian Engineers defeated the British Embassy by a whopping margin of 224 runs. Powered by a strokeful century by Viswa Ghosh (147 n.o/16x4, 8x6) and a 29 ball 79 (5x4, 8x6) by Dinesh Tashildar, the Engineers scored 322/5 in the allotted 35 overs and then bowled out the Embassy for 98 in 20.3 overs. The 4th wicket partnership between these two was worth 154 runs in 14 overs. Denis Perry of the Embassy suffered the ignominy of having the most expensive bowling spell in the KCL with the figures of 6-0-105-1.

The following teams have been qualified for the Division I for 2002: Tokyo Giants, Friends, YC&AC and Sri Lankan Lions (all semi-finalists) and Shizuoka Kytes (winner of the first play-off) Millennium (winner of the second play-off) Indian Engineers

The rest of the 8 teams who participated in KCL this year will form Division II next year, when the Kanto Cricket League will come under the auspices of Japan Cricket Association. In the following years, the top and bottom two teams of Division II and Division I will swap their positions.

Brief results of all matches are available at http://www3.ewebcity.com/iecc/. Follow the link 'Kanto Cricket League'.

Viswa Ghosh reports again:

The Japan Cricket Association (JCA) has drawn up plans to introduce an inter-region competition, which has been a major hurdle for integrating the cricket in various regions of the country, from 2002 season. The division of the just concluded Kanto cricket League (KCL) into two groups was part of this initiative.

© ICC 2002