ACC Archived News - June 2005

Kuwait and Thailand Become Associates

Asad Baig and Ravi Sehgal at Lord's, June 28 2005

Kuwait Cricket Association and the Cricket Association of Thailand have been awarded ICC Associate Status. Their elevation comes "as a result of the excellent progress that is being made by cricket within these countries", said Ehsan Mani the ICC President. They join Botswana, Japan and Belgium as new Associates.

Asad Baig of the KCA and Ravi Sehgal of the CAT, representing their countries at the ICC meetings in London were delighted to receive the news. "This is thanks to the hard work of many people in Kuwait and we will do our very best to be worthy of this honour", said Asad Baig. "This kind of recognition will help us to develop the game even further across Thailand," said Ravi Sehgal.

Filed June 29 2005

Inaugural Annual Report Published

The ACC have published their first Annual Report for 2004-2005. “With all our activity, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” says Chief Executive, Syed Ashraful Huq. “The Asia Cup was the fulcrum of last year, financially and symbolically, but we held four other tournaments, two major seminars and twenty-nine coaching courses with close to a thousand participants. We are busier and in the public eye more than ever before and it is fitting that we record all our activity in a Report.”

The 2004-2005 Report is available for viewing on
http://www.asiancricket.org/cnt_annual_report_0405.cfm

Filed June 23 2005

Myanmar Apply To Join ACC

The newly-formed Myanmar Cricket Federation have applied to join the ACC.

Development Officer Roger Binny made an Inspection visit to the country in May and reports back favourably on the cricket set-up there. “They have three grounds, along with a turf wicket and while I was in Yangon, the Minister for Sport promised to grant land for a new cricket ground. The people behind the game there are very enthusiastic and Myanmar does seem to fulfill all the criteria required.”

Filed June 22 2005

Landmark Meeting In China

A delegation from the ACC met with the Chinese Cricket Association in Beijing at the start of June, in what was described as "a very productive and very fruitful encounter", by Syed Ashraful Huq.

The ACC Chief Executive went on to say, "we are giving our newest member every possible support with their ambitions to become a cricketing country. We have been very impressed with their level of commitment and are confident that they will emerge as a cricketing force by the end of the decade."

Short-term, medium-term and long-term plans are being set for cricket centres in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai with the emphasis on development being the creation of an indigenous ‘Team China’.

Filed June 14 2005

U-17 Cup: Top Drawer Tournament

The draw for ACC Under-17 Cup has been held. With 14 countries confirming their participation in the tournament, the groups came together as:

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Bahrain	Saudi Arabia	Nepal	U.A.E.
Qatar	Singapore	Afghanistan	Malaysia
Hong Kong	Bhutan	Brunei	Thailand
Oman	Kuwait

The tournament will be played at six venues across three cities: Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor Bahru from Friday the 5th to Sunday the 13th of August, with the final at the Bayumas Oval.

Charlie Chelliah, Organizing Committee Chairman, says: “We all expect this to be a very competitive tournament. Judging by the performances in the recent ACC U-15 Cup, any number of teams are in with a chance of winning, not least Malaysia who have the home advantage.”

The ACC have been impressed with the standards of play amongst our developing youth sides and U-17 activity, with so many cricketers on the verge of senior representation, is a strong indicator of a country’s future cricketing strength.

With an Under-19 tournament on the horizon, ACC member countries will be able to gauge their progress relative to each other very easily in 2005-2006. Sultan Rana, ACC Development Manager, states, “All this competition and preparation can only raise playing standards and I am sure I will be impressed by the cricketers on display.”

Filed June 9 2005

Oman Squad For ICC Trophy

Oman set forth for Ireland with a seasoned squad of players, coached by Indian legend Sandeep Patil. This squad formed the nucleus of the team that reached the finals of the 2004 ACC Trophy and which won the ACC Middle East Cup.

Azhar Ali – Captain
Sultan Ahmed – Vice Captain, WKT
Ali Akbar Al Balushi
Rakesh Sharma
Jitendra Redkar
Hemal Mehta
Hemin Desai
Adnan Ilyas
Mazhar Khan
Muhammad Aslam
Tariq Hussain
Muhammad Asif
Awal Khan
Farhan Khan

Maqbool Moosa Yousuf (Manager)
Sandeep Patil (Coach)
Vaibhav Daga (Physio)

Filed June 2 2005

UAE Announce Their Strongest Squad For ICC Trophy

The UAE have submitted their squad for the ICC Trophy in Ireland this July and on paper it looks to be the strongest to ever leave their shores. Khuram Khan returns to the captaincy in a move which some observers reckon to be very positive as he is a cricketer who performs every act with victory in mind.

The squad are fit and focussed, and have formed the core of the UAE squad which has played in the Asia Cup, reached the semi-finals of the ICC Intercontinental Cup, and won the ACC Trophy along with the ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament in the past twelve months.

THE UAE TEAM

Khuram Khan - Captain 33, LHB, SLA
Mohammad Tauqir - Vice Captain – 33, RHB, OB
Ahmed Nadeem – 28, RHB, RM
Ali Asad – 28, RHB, RFM
Arshad Ali – 29, RHB, RM
Asghar Ali – 33, RHB
Asim Saeed – 25, RHB, LM
Fahad Usman – 28, LHB, LB
Javid Ismail – 20, RHB, RFM
Mohammed Nadeem – 26, RHB, WKT
Naeemuddin Aslam– 23, RHB
Rizwan Latif – 31, RHB, SLA
Sameer Zia – 23, RHB
Syed Maqsood – 30, RHB, RM

Abdul Razzak Kazim (Manager)
Syed Abid Ali (Coach)
C.Sudhaker (Physio)

Filed June 1 2005