South California retain their title

Although the expected test of the MLC teams did not materialize at the California Cup, the tournament itself provided some enjoyable cricket after an unseasonably rainy start. Southern California easily retained the Cup with decisive victories over the North Texas and Northern California Cricket Associations (NTCA and NCCA).

As it turned out, the MLC Texas team did not make an appearance at the Cup, although its appearance had been widely anticipated. The majority of the MLC Texas team were from Houston, and prior commitments kept them from participating in the tournament as a team. Instead, the North Texas Cricket Association (NTCA) ended up representing Texas--in itself, it was a strong league but only three of its players had participated in the MLC Interstate tournament. The Northwest Cricket League (NWCL) had played in the MLC Interstate tournament, but the California Cup was California's show and remained that way.

Because the first day of the tournament had been a washout, the remaining two days saw SCCA take on NWCL, while NCCA squared off against NTCA. Both California teams won on the second day, SCCA by a decisive margin and NCCA also with a decisive victory. This set things up for the final day as a match-up between the two California teams for the top spots, while the non-California teams fought it out for the third and fourth spots. Once again, the host team re-asserted its superiority with an emphatic victory, but the non-California joust was a squeaker with the fewest of runs separating the two teams. It was perhaps the most exciting match of the tournament, even though it did not count towards the final standings.

The California Cup proved that Southern California remains the stronghold of cricket in Western USA, although other Western leagues are mounting good challenges to its predominance. If a full schedule of matches had been played, this might have been more evident; as it was, there were good performances by players from all the other teams, and they have nothing to be ashamed of.

According to the reports published on the SCCA Web site, the batting of Captain Aditya Thyagarajan and the bowling of former West Indian International Franklyn Rose proved too strong for the competition. Aditya scored two impressive knocks of 95 and 62, while Rose blew away the opposition with some hostile pace bowling capturing six wickets at an average of less than 9.

Former Pakistan captain and wicketkeeper Rashid Latif, who is on a month-long fund-raising trip on behalf of Islamic Relief for earthquake victims in South Asia, visited Woodley to watch the SCCA stars in action. SCCA President, Mr. Veman Reddy presented Rashid with a plaque commemorating his first visit to Woodley, and also presented the SCCA team the winners trophy. Aditya Thyagarajan was declared man of the tournament for his outstanding performance with the bat.