The six month long regular cricket season of Arizona Cricket Association came to an end with Cavaliers claiming the Division A championship and the new AZ Lions claiming the Division B championship. Kings and Metro Suns ended up with Runner ups for the respective divisions. Last year’s Division A champions Taverners ended up at number 3 in Division A. Last years Division B champion team Arizona Cricket Club (ACC) and runner up Jaguars Cricket Club, who moved to Division A this season as per the promotion rules of the league, ended up at the bottom of the A division at number 8 and 10 respectively.

The regular season of Arizona league comprises of one day games (40-40 overs) where every team plays the other team within the same division twice in home and away manner. The season starts in October when the scorching heat has just cooled down, goes through the chili winter and ends up by the time heat starts picking up again in April. Add to this, the merciless occasional rain god, and the league becomes absolutely interesting. It never remains just only about cricket but also at times about planning and adapting to different weather conditions over a period of six months. This makes AZ league unique and even more challenging for the players in particular and the teams in general.

This year, there were 10 teams in Division A and 11 in Division B of AZ League. While Cavaliers stamped its authority by claiming the Division A once again after ending up as runners last season, AZ Lions, a totally new team coming into the league, was a surprise package topping the B division.

At the end of the regular season, top 8 from Division A and top 8 from Division B move into playoffs which will end by the May 24^th along with 2 all star games. Top 30 cricketers from A division and Top 30 from B division would be split into 4 balanced teams and would play 2 all star games. The all star games would mark the end of the season with the distribution of seasonal awards and trophies to teams and deserving cricketers of both divisions.

This year Arizona Cricket Association also witnessed a marked improvement in terms of the league management. The chairman of the association, Krishna Perna, who also captained the Kingfishers Nawabs in A division, along with other elected members of ACA, worked together with the www.dreamcricket.com to come up with a nice and organized cricket website for Arizona cricket association ( http://www.azcricket.com ) through which the management of the teams and the scheduling of the games have become much easier. The website also maintains the scorecards of all the games played during the season and the statistics of the individual players. Getting a cricket ground (at Snedigar Sports Complex) from the city of Chandler was another big achievement as most of the teams relied upon school grounds, but Snedigar Ground would be dedicated to cricket and regularly maintained by the city.

The AZ League has grown over the past 3-4 years in terms of quality of cricket played in the valley and also in terms of number of teams participating and with more teams expected next year, Arizona is set to witness some exciting cricket in the time to come..

Important Statistics (Both Divisions Inclusive):

·         As many as 20 centuries were hit which included 2 double centuries as well. 211* from Atul Ranjan Prasad of Valley Eagles and 207 from Ketan Panchal of Cavaliers have been a record in the history of AZ cricket.

·         Total number of half centuries = 165

·         Total number of 5 wicket hauls = 36

·         Total number of Games played = 200 (90 in Division A and 110 in Division B)