American College Cricket Players Of The Year Announced

American College Cricket Players Of The Year Announced

Mohammad Suleman presenting the award to Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh, Clive Lloyd and Lloyd Jodah in the background

©AmericanCollegeCricket.com

American College Cricket Players Of The Year Announced

Abdullah Sheikh with Shivnarine Chanderpaul

©AmericanCollegeCricket.com

Here are the American College Cricketers of the Year 2012, the new, plus two repeat winners, in a year sponsored by Coca Cola.
 
Abdullah Ashgar Sheikh (USF) - Sheikh had a near- MVP performance in the 2012 Nationals. Bowling fast, he took 9 wickets for 115 runs. He scored 268 runs @ 47 runs average, with 3 fifties and a highest score of 88. He also took 5 catches. At the 2012 South East Regionals his top performances were 21*, 38* & 3 for 9, & 2 for 24.
 
The Top College Player of the Year among the outstanding young athletes, over Christmas Sheikh got the privilege of playing with Shiv Chanderpaul, putting on a 80 run partnership in a friendly match.

Haider Ali (Rutgers) became the first cricket player to hit a century on TV in the US & Canada smashing 119 in 47 balls at a strike rate of 253.19, hitting 11 sixes & 9 fours against Boston University ! He followed it up with 53 in 36 balls vs York College in the Finals – both innings shown on TV Asia in all their splendor ! Ali made 0 & 71 in the preliminary matches.
 
At the American College Cricket Spring Break Championship he scored 58, 54, 35 and 40 ! In 8 innings in 2012 he scored 430 runs, average 53.75, making  Haider the  top scorer in college cricket in 2012.
 
Divya Patel (ASU Red Wolves) - as an all rounder and Captain, Divya shouldered the heavy responsibilities of developing his new team, and getting them to the 2012 Nationals. Then he worked hard to organize the first South Central Regional for American College Cricket.
 
Under Divya’s leadership, Arkansas State won the South Central Regional. Patel’s on field performances included 70* vs Memphis, and 2 for 27. He is also a candidate for Top Newcomer, Top Club President, & Arkansas State Cricket is a nominee for Top New Club !

Ricky Nayar (UF) averaged 114.5 in 7 innings in 2012, with highest scores of 68* and 88* ! (Ricky is one of American College Cricket's 10 Centurions, scoring 101* at the 2011 Nationals). He took 8 wickets at 7.34 runs & a best of 3 for 16. He also wicket-keeps.
 
Nayar & the Gator club has been featured in Gators media a number of times, and they are currently ranked # 2 once again in USA & Canada. Nayar, together with Sai Ramesh, Adil Bhatti and Adrian Gordon are 2-time College Players of the Year !
 
Sai Ramesh (USF) was the MVP at the 2012 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship. Here are his stats from March – he was not able to play in November because of his MBA dissertation:

45 & 2 for 12, 64* & 3 for 23, 46 & 4 for 9, 20 & 0 for 9, 42 & 0 for 21, 42 &  2 for 34 !              
 
Bowling off spin, took 11 wickets for 108 runs. He scored 259 runs @ 51.8 runs average. Sai took 7 catches in front of and behind the wicket, and had 2 run outs.

Mohammad Suleman (York College) - Here are his astonishing bowling stats in 2012 :
 
Nationals – 4 for 18 vs Houston Cougars, 3 for 12 vs Auburn, 2 for 26 vs NYU-Poly, 3 for 16 vs Cleveland State, 2 for 10 vs Texas A & M, 2 for 23 vs USF. North East Regionals -  2 for 21 vs Princeton, 4 for 14 vs Cornell, 4 for 7 vs Harvard, 1 for 23 vs Rutgers. His 2 wickets in the Finals, including  that of Championship MVP Sai Ramesh, effectively put the brakes on what seemed like a certain win for USF, earning Suleman the Finals MVP Award.
 
Suleman's efforts earned him the opportunity to meet Shiv Chanderpaul, Brian Lara, Clive Lloyd,Courtney Walsh and Jimmy Adams in NYC and he presented the American College Cricket/TV Asia Award to Brian Lara !
 
Anurag Verma (Texas A & M) broke onto the scene at the 2012 South West Championship as an exciting left handed stroke player who made 44, 67 & 54 with glorious strokes and was a big contributor to Texas A & M winning the first South West Championship. His Texas A & M club hosted the South West Regional, on their recently acquired cricket field.
 
At the 2012 Nationals, Texas A & M extended their unbeaten streak to 11 matches as Verma helped his team even when he did not score big (e.g a 60 run opening partnership of which he scored 20).  He also bowled and had 2 for 25 as his best. In the Semis against York College he was run out for 12 as the Aggies lost.
 
Kartik Radhakrishnan (Virginia Tech) is a batsman,&  off spinner of the Virginia Tech team that participated in their first National Championship in March. Kartik had a number of key all round performances for the team in 2012: 2 for 19 vs Texas Tech, 21 and 2 for 13 vs Penn State and 50* and 2 for 19 vs UMBC.
 
Most importantly the work of Kartik and the Club enabled Kartik to break new ground for cricket by being selected as Virginia Tech Male Athlete of the Year 2011 (out of 31 VT Sports Clubs). The VT Cricket Club also is one of the few college clubs with its own cricket field.
 
Harsh Desai (Ryerson University) - the Ryerson team included a 6’5 (Warren Rajroop) and a 6’3 (Rayyan Pathan) fast bowlers but it was Harsh Desai, at around 5’9 who bowled some superb bouncers, that resulted in wickets ! Not pitched that short, & moving into the chest, they were very difficult to play & Desai was the MVP of that North East tournament, taking 10 wickets, plus the crucial run out of Adrian Gordon (NYU-Ploy) !
 
At the 2012 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship Harsh took 2 wickets for 7 runs, 3 for 6 runs and 2 for 10. In the Quarter Finals when he did not get wickets, Ryerson lost.
 
All American College Cricket matches are 20 overs but balls within about 6 inches of the leg-stump are NOT wides, & a maximum of 6 fielders are allowed on one side of the pitch.

Lloyd Jodah