Posted by: no_quiero August 13, 2007
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Timi haru ko football, baseball, ice hockey chahi sansar ma kasle hercha ni.
FUTURE BRIGHT FOR USA CRICKET : Cricinfo
As recently as five years ago, no one would have given US junior cricket a chance to exist, let alone flourish in any meaningful sense.
Active US cricketers, it was argued, were mostly ex-pats from cricket-playing countries, too busy with their own game to expend energy on junior cricket development. The few juniors who could be found playing cricket were the younger brothers or sons of adult US cricketers, playing as 12th men or extras in senior league matches with little opportunity to display their all-round skills. There were no resources, it was argued, to develop junior cricket skills; no incentives offered to cricket clubs or leagues to develop youth cricket programs, and draconian eligibility rules set by the ICC which hindered overseas cricketers from representing the USA.
How different things look in mid-2007. By Cricinfo's count, there are at least 100 US cricketers under 19 whose skills are up to the highest senior standards, and many more on the way as US cricket academies develop Under-15 and Under-11 talent.
Just how good these players are was demonstrated by USA's clean sweep of the Americas Under-19 tournament in Toronto in 2006, and their subsequent performance at the U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka where they turned in the best performance by a non-Test country and the first official victory by any USA team in a World Cup tournament. This was followed by another US sweep of the Americas U-15 tournament in Florida, and a tightly-fought series against the visiting Australian National Under-15 team at Woodley Park in California.
Remarkably, the USA juniors have yet to concede a single series. And they have lost only one match (a close one, to the Australian national team) out of 12 tournament fixtures.
FUTURE BRIGHT FOR USA CRICKET : Cricinfo
As recently as five years ago, no one would have given US junior cricket a chance to exist, let alone flourish in any meaningful sense.
Active US cricketers, it was argued, were mostly ex-pats from cricket-playing countries, too busy with their own game to expend energy on junior cricket development. The few juniors who could be found playing cricket were the younger brothers or sons of adult US cricketers, playing as 12th men or extras in senior league matches with little opportunity to display their all-round skills. There were no resources, it was argued, to develop junior cricket skills; no incentives offered to cricket clubs or leagues to develop youth cricket programs, and draconian eligibility rules set by the ICC which hindered overseas cricketers from representing the USA.
How different things look in mid-2007. By Cricinfo's count, there are at least 100 US cricketers under 19 whose skills are up to the highest senior standards, and many more on the way as US cricket academies develop Under-15 and Under-11 talent.
Just how good these players are was demonstrated by USA's clean sweep of the Americas Under-19 tournament in Toronto in 2006, and their subsequent performance at the U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka where they turned in the best performance by a non-Test country and the first official victory by any USA team in a World Cup tournament. This was followed by another US sweep of the Americas U-15 tournament in Florida, and a tightly-fought series against the visiting Australian National Under-15 team at Woodley Park in California.
Remarkably, the USA juniors have yet to concede a single series. And they have lost only one match (a close one, to the Australian national team) out of 12 tournament fixtures.