Valley embraces Twenty20 CricketAuthor : Krishna & Anand
The newest form of cricket, Twenty20, caught up the imagination of every cricket fan when the first Twenty20 cricket world cup was organized in South Africa in September 2007. With two top teams, India and Pakistan, from the Asian Subcontinent playing in the mouth watering final and India winning it, it was only natural for Twenty20 to reach to the masses and then to the market through the laws of economics. For many fans, it was fast, exciting and time saving in nature and they wanted more of it. Indian Premier League launched by the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) was then inevitable. Recently IPL ruled the roost for over 2 months wherein, 8 teams participated in a professional league manner. Our own Arizona has not remain untouched by this exciting cricket phenomenon as the fever of Twenty20 seems to be catching up with all the cricket teams ready to taste the fun of Twenty20 in the valley despite the scorching heat of the AZ summer. For those who do not know, there are over 400 cricketers who play cricket throughout the year in a competitive environment in the valley. The cricketers belong to diverse ethnic and professional backgrounds. Surprised? Metrostars Cricket Club is organizing the AZ Twenty20 Summer tournament this year in the same fashion as they have been doing it for the past 6 years. This year the tournament is going to start on 28th of June and would be organized right through the scorching summer until 7th of September. Craziness? A total of 14 teams are going to participate in this summer tournament and they have been clubbed under two Groups, Blue Group and Red Group. Blue Group consists of the last year’s champions Kingfishers-A, playing as KCC KINGS this year and the semi finalists KCC-B, another team from the same club, playing as KCC NAWABS this year. Group Blue has other teams as Arizona Friends, Metro Champs, Metro Suns, Oceans Blue and Valley Eagles. Group Red consists of another last year’s semi finalists and the organizing club, Metrostars along with Cavaliers, Phoenix Cricket Club, Spartans, KCC SAMRATS and Tucson Cricket Club. It must be noted that Kingfishers Cricket club and Metrostars are one of the biggest cricket club in AZ and both these clubs are fielding three teams in the tournament for the first time. Format: In the first round, the teams within a group will play each other. So every team would play a minimum of 6 games in round robin fashion. At the end of this round, top 8 teams would be selected based on the points accumulated during the first round. Then the knockout stage of quarter, semi and finals would start. Along side the final match, an ALL STAR game has also been planned which will consist of TOP players from the tournament based on the stats. At the end of the tournament, the organizers are going to recognize the hard fought battle by means of the following exciting awards and prizes to the teams/players: 1. Winners: Trophy 2. Runners-up: Trophy 3. Best Batsman : Trophy 4. Best Bowler: Trophy 5. Man of the Series: Trophy 6. Finals Man of the Match