Welcome to the home of softball cricket league in New Jersey. The “Incorporated” organization NJSBCL, established in 2008, is a ‘Not For Profit’ corporate social entity. NJSBCL’s vision is to promote and establish, the sport of softball cricket as a minority sport in the state of New Jersey. It also aims to bring together the sport and its players, participants, families, spectators, local and county officials and administrators.

Board of Directors of NJSBCL

The following people were elected as the Board of Directors for 2009 by the Executive Committee.

Avinash Gaje	732-619-9266	agaje@yahoo.com	President
Mahendra Dhamdhere	201-679-7783	mahendrad@hotmail.com	Treasurer
Amin O Khatri	732-766-6181	aminkhatri@gmail.com	Vice-President (Marketing)
Vipin Bhardwaj	917 861 2786	vipibh@yahoo.com	Secretary
Sachin Sinha	848-248-1303	sachin@orioninc.com	Vice-President (IT)
Vivek Nair	908-917-6691	vivs28@yahoo.com	Vice-President (Operations & Communications)
Ranjith Rajan	201-396-6231	ranjithrajan@hotmail.com	Vice-President (Public Relations)

A democratic process of election by all participating team captains elect nominated officials to the office of Executive Committee, which oversees the setup, regulation and management of the league and the scheduled games for the entire season. In addition to the Board of Directors the following people will function as the members of the Executive Committee Additional Executive Committee Members for 2009

Srivatsan Rajagopalan	Josh CC	609-553-5900	srivatz@yahoo.com
Vipul Kothari	Summerfield XI	908-420-7846	Vipul_kothari@yahoo.com
Tarun Bedi	Tiranga CC	--	Tarun_bedi@yahoo.com
Manikandan	The Elites	609-213-2719	manikanda@hotmail.com
Abhy Majumdar	Sreeshti	732-619-3648	abhy_m@hotmail.com
Jaideep	Mavericks	732-543-4998	jaidpr@hotmail.com
Bala Vennalaganti	NJ Blues CC	732-259-8795	bvennelaganti@yahoo.com

The Executive Committee would consist of the following groups based on functional responsibilities.

Group A: Schedule: (Vivek, Sri and Abhy)
. Create the schedule for the entire tournament.
. Create a sustainable tournament format to use for the coming years
. Finalize travel teams/umpiring schedule

Group B: Rules (Ranjith, Mani and Mahendra)
. Publish the rule book prior to start of first round.
. Update the Umpiring Guidelines as necessary.
. Resolve any conflicts arising during the season due to interpretation of rule book.

Group C: Dispute Resolution, Umpiring & Discipline (Amin, Vipul and Tarun)
. Resolve all disputes, co-coordinating with other groups as needed.

Group D: Record Keeping and Grounds (Sachin, Bala and Jaideep)
. Ensure teams upload and broadcast scores in timely fashion.
. Follow up with teams that do not.
. Check for availability for grounds.
. Resolve conflicts between teams for start time and ground availability.


Format for 2009

The NJSBCL has 52 teams registered for this year. Considering the growth of the league every year, the EC deliberated over the last so many days on how to make the league more manageable and in line with ICC and other league formats internationally. As a result, the following changes are being implemented this year –

1. The 52 teams for the season will be divided into TWO DIVISIONS of 26 teams each – Division 1 & Division 2.
   
2. Based on last year’s performance, old teams would be split into the two divisions. New teams will be starting off in Division 2.
   
3. Division 1 will have 24 teams who went to round 2 of Main league last year plus Platers finalists or semi / quarter finalists from last year
   
4. Division 2 will have the balance teams from last year’s Main league & Platers, plus nine new teams
   
5. Both divisions will start simultaneously on April 18, 2009 and follow the same format through the season.
   
6. As a result there will be no Platers this season but all 52 teams will get to play a minimum of 18 games which will run till September middle.
   
7. Since this is the first season NJSBCL is using this format, to allow teams that perform extremely well in Division 2 to compete for the Division 1 cup this year, top four teams from Division 2 will move into Division 1 play-offs as the wild cards. Simultaneously, bottom four teams from Division 1 will move to Division 2 during the play offs.
   
8. This also sets the bench mark for next few years as bottom 6 teams from Division 1 will move to Division 2 at the end of the season and top 6 will move to Division 1 at the end of this season, for next year.
   
9. Another important change that is being made as a result of this format is that from this season onwards, there would be NO RESCHEDULING of matches due to weather related incidents. Points will be split for all those matches. (Details on the criteria for splitting of points, start time of matches on grounds with permit that ends before 11AM are all posted in the rule book which would be published this week)
   

The advantages of these changes are -

1. This format sets the tone for the season right at the start of the year
   
2. It gives a chance to all teams to play an extended season
   
3. It makes the season more competitive and challenging for all teams and gives an equal chance for all teams to win either Division 1 OR Division 2 Championship.
   
4. This format mirrors all major International tournaments with more than 40 teams.
   
5. It helps the avoid creating new schedules every year, as this becomes a benchmark
   
6. By increasing number of matches, and avoiding re-scheduling of rained out games, the long weekend breaks will be actual breaks to be spent with family!
   
7. Avoid re-scheduling issues, conflicts of neutral umpires, paying for neutral umpires on re-scheduled days – a lot of contentious issues are eliminated with this format.

We have dwelled on this format from all possible angles and fine tuned it and it was felt that this format will help NJSBCL establish and grow further and ensure a smooth & seamless 2009 Season. The schedule is posted as an excel file in the NJleague yahoogroups and will be posted in the website.


Round 1:
In each Division, there are two phases to round 1.
In Division 1, the 26 teams are divided into two pools A & B of 13 teams each & in Division 2, teams are divided into two pools C & D of 13 teams each.

Round 1 – Phase 1:
In the first phase of round 1, each participating team will play 12 games within their pool as per the schedule. At the end of the phase 1, all 26 teams will be ranked based on their performance of the first phase of round 1. No team will go out of the tournament at this stage.

Round 1 – Phase 2:
All 13 teams of pool A will play against 6 teams of pool B and vice versa as per schedule. At the end of these six games, round 1 will finish. Division 1 teams will be ranked from 1 to 26 based on the total round 1 performance.


Pre-Quarter Finals:
The teams ranked 1 to 12 from combined AB at the end of round 1, will move into the Pre-Quarter Finals. They will be joined by four wild card teams from Division 2 who had followed the same format till then. These four teams from Division 2, will be the teams that are ranked 1 to 4 at the end of round 1 in Division 2.
At the same time, teams ranked 23 to 26 in Division 1 will move to Division 2 to play the pre-Quarter Finals along with teams ranked 5 to 16 in Division 2.
These 16 teams will play the pre-Quarter Finals in both Divisions.


Quarter Finals, Semi Finals & Finals:
In both Division 1 & Division 2, top 8 teams who are the winners of the pre-Quarter Finals knock out round will move to the Quarter Finals play offs. Winners qualify for the Semi Finals - Knockout round, winners qualify to Finals.

Division 2 will follow the exact same format through out the season as Division 1. They will start with pools C & D in round 1 and will end with Division 2 Championship Finals.


Grounds:
Due to the increase of the number of teams participating, the numbers of ground available are less than last year, hence the league management expects co-operation and flexibility from the participating teams on this issue. On the issue of multiple teams playing on the same ground, we expect the concerned teams to work out amicable solution based on the published schedule. The EC will not be arbitrator for those situations. The team which has a permit from the local government body will be considered as Home team by the EC. Since this season we have more teams participating in the league from North Jersey, we found it advantageous to utilize the grounds available in North Jersey as well. This year EC has determined only the teams that are outside of New Jersey would be considered as travel teams. All teams based in New Jersey will be considered a regular team – even if they are based in North Jersey or South Jersey. The following are the travel teams for this season. These teams will not be awarded any home games, these teams have to travel to opposing teams ground for playing matches. To compensate, these teams will not have any umpiring duties.
The Legends, Stumperz


Rescheduling, Rained out games & Delayed Start:
There will NOre-scheduling of games that are disrupted due to rains, wet ground conditions or due to eviction. In all grounds with a permit, games should be started at least 3 hours before the permitted time ends. The earliest start time is 7.30AM and latest is 8.45AM. For details on points awarded on disrupted games, please refer the 2009 Rule Book.
Another important update for this season is that once the start time is decided before the weekend of the match, if one of the team is arriving late, that team will lose 1 over (this is applicable for home team and away team) for every 5 minutes of delayed start while batting This is to ensure that on all grounds with permitted times of play, matches get underway and get completed on time without disruption. The decision to deduct overs will be taken by the neutral umpires.


Neutral Umpires:
Each assigned participating team has to provide 2 volunteer umpires for assigned games for round 1 – both phase 1 and phase 2; the league will maintain a pool of paid umpires if the umpiring team wants to hire someone from that pool. Failure to provide umpires will result in deduction of 5 points and penalty of 40 dollars per umpire. It is mandatory for umpires to be conversant with the rule book and carry a copy of the rule book with them for the match.


Non Participation in scheduled Game:
It was observed last year that some teams had not shown any interest in executing the scheduled games due to non qualification to next round. Forfeiture of scheduled games will be viewed seriously this year and may result in expulsion of the team from the league and/or Ban for next 2 years.


Player restrictions:
A player can play only from 1 team for the season 2009 – including both Division 1 & Division 2; each team must maintain this discipline for successful completion of games this year.


Website:
Our league has a new home on the internet http://www.njsbcl.com, which should work as our communication channel for the year 2009. Please use this website for communications, score sheet updates and all other information purpose. The FAQ section offers the complete functionality of the website with training documents. This should be used as the point of communication. Any queries to the EC should be send to ec@njsbcl.com


Registration & Waiver Form:
All players including captain, vice captain and manager of all teams should complete the Registration & Waiver form and submit to the EC as a mandatory legal requirement. It is the captain’s responsibility to ensure that all the players of the team registered before the first match is played. A new player has to register and accept waiver first before he plays. The original or faxed signed copy document should be submitted if the team is not able to complete the electronic form available in the website www.njsbcl.com . All the teams must provide at least 2 contact #s on the website. To ensure security, only logged in NJSBCL members would be able to view the contact details of any team.


Distribution of cricket balls & meeting @ 6.30 PM on April 10, 2009:
Distribution of balls will be done at the
Wal-Mart parking lot on 979 US 1,
North Brunswick NJ 08902

We should assemble on Parking Lot between 6.30PM – 7.00PM on April 10, 2009
We will distribute the tennis balls & introduce the NEW teams and answer any questions that you may have. If a team can’t make it, they should contact their first opponent to collect and notify Mahendra on 201-679-7783 to handover balls to them. No exceptions will be considered

Regards
Vivek Nair
On behalf of EC, NJSBCL

Match Report by Ranjith Rajan (EC Member)
October 10, 2009
Culver Road Ground, Dayton, NJ

Finally after 23 weekends long season with 52 teams competing, we got to the finals to decide the 2009 NJSBCL Champions.

This year the Division I finals had the best of different styles in the finalists.

Piscattaway CC - the most consistent team in the league having already made it to 2 earlier finals and Jersey Jaguars a much improved team from their last years showing of a semi-final loss. Both these teams had interesting paths getting to the finals - Piscattaway CC was just consistent throughout losing only 2 matches getting to the finals. On the other hand Jersey Jaguars was coming into the finals brimming with confidence of winning 12 matches in a row. So we had the perfect mix of confidence and experience going into this match.

Vipul (Summerfield) and Dev (Blue Aces) were the designated umpire for this match.

The weather forecast was a concern and did delay the start of the match. The match had to be started with light showers still drizzling.

Jersey Jaguars won the toss and decided to give their bowlers the advantage and put Piscattaway in to bat first. Krishna and Vivek (the most successful bowler in the league) were spot on target right from the first over. They bowled a tight line outside the off stump making it difficult for Piscattaway batsmen to get any runs. In trying to sneak a quick single Harry was run out in the very first over. After this Piscattaway batsmen got more cautious and with Jersey Jaguars bowler continuing their steady bowling the run rate was moving very slow. To add to Piscattaway troubles they kept losing wickets at regular intervals too. At the half way point, Piscattaway was only 17 for the loss of 4 prime wickets of Harry, Vrajesh, Nirav and Devang. At this stage Jigar and Mittal were at the crease and working to rebuild their inning. Jigar played well to stop the fall of wickets and looked to be getting comfortable to accelerate the run rate later. But post break, things fell apart once again with quick fall of Jigar and Mittal's wickets. With all their better batsmen back in the pavilion, the later batsmen did well to keep the score board ticking and got to a not so bad total of 55.

55 is not a bad score to defend; especially with Piscattaway's excellent fielding. Their close in fielders expecially Vrajesh (Jonty Patel) can make it very difficult for batsmen to score. So Piscattaway had their work cut out for themselves - bowlers maintain a steady line and fielders close out the gaps to force batsmen to try harder to score - in turn make mistakes to get some quick wickets. Also, Pradeep the top scoring batsmen in the league had to leave the field to attend to a personal matter at home. This made things look a bit shaky for Jersey Jaguars.

Jersey Jaguars batsmen seemed to come in with a wait-and-let-PCC-work plan. Nirav and Chirag played exactly as was needed from them to chase a modest score and ensure they make no mistake. Piscattaway bowlers though just lost their way - they kept bowling wides at regular intervals. So that relaxed JJ batsmen even more; they were happy to just stay at the crease and have the score board ticking with these gift wides. Nirav showed great intelligence to get singles and further demoralize the Piscattaway bowlers. Mittal finally got a break for PCC getting Jigar bowled. After this Vrajesh showed his athletism proving why he is known as one of the best fielders in the league getting Dhruv run out. But runs still kept coming for Jersey Jaguars, they were 29 at the end of 8 overs and seemed to be moving along just fine. After the break, Nirav continued his steady inning and Kush seemed to get too excited and wanted to get the celebration going sooner. He started attacking and got a huge six followed by another boundary getting the crowd cheering for more. Now with the Jersey Jaguars players lining up the boundary lines ready to charge into the field Nirav and Kush got the winning runs effortlessly to make Jersey Jaguars a very deserving 2009 NJSBCL Champions.

In the end Jersey Jaguars with the top bowler and top batsmen added being the top team award also to their tally for 2009 NJSBCL Championship.

Congratulations to Jersey Jaguars for winning the trophy and would like to also congratulate Piscattaway for another great season and wish them the very best to go one better the next season.

Thanks for the supporters who came out to cheer the teams and make it a fun event.

We look forward to your support for 2010!

Click here for the Finals Event report...

Day's Report by Vivek Nair (EC Member)
October 10, 2009
Culver Road Ground, Dayton, NJ

In the Division 1 Championship Finals, Jersey Jaguars came out on top as the deserving winners handing out Piscataway CC their 3rd defeat in as many final appearances. While applauding the NJSBCL Division 1 Champions of 2009, Jersey Jaguars, your heart goes out to the runner-up Piscataway CC who had an unblemished run all the way to the Finals by losing just one game on the way. But then that is how things panned out on October 10, 2009 at the Culver Road ground

The day started with the rain gods threatening to play spoil sport. Thanks to DJ Brian and Kishore for keeping the 100 odd crowd entertained while the arrangements were being made by the organizers while praying for the rain to keep away. Wives, kids and in-laws of the players kept their spirits up while the DJ played out their favorite songs.
The Finals was sponsored by Paradise Biriyani. Mahendra (Blue Aces) an EC member of the league managed the overall arrangements at the Finals venue supported by the rest of the EC team - Mani (The Elites), Abhy (Sreeshti), Vipul (Summerfield), Ranjith (AdroIT), Sachin (Woodlot), Avinash (PCC), Vipin (Invincibles) and Bala (NJ Blues) & Vivek (FriendsXI) who also managed the flow of crowd and parking at the venue.

The Division 1 Finals finally got underway after the introductions of both teams, umpires for the Finals - Vipul (Summerfield) and Dev (Blue Aces) - and the Executive Committee of NJSBCL around 10.45AM. Sri (Josh), Sachin (Woodlot) and Vipin (Invincibles) – all EC members, provided the inside scoops on the players in between the running commentary of the match. Ranjith from AdroIT, another EC member, was as usual the scorer and statistician for the Finals. While the Division 1 Finals got underway news was received that in Division 2 Finals played at Stelton Road ground, Juggernaut comfortably beat Devils11 to become the first, Division 2 Champions of NJSBCL. Like every year, this year’s Finals was no exception and there was a carnival atmosphere at the Culver road ground in Dayton inspite of the cloudy morning. With Piscataway batting and Jersey Jaguars bowling, the audience soon got in to the act by cheering every good shot / wickets that tumbled / fielding

The special invitees / chief guests arrived in batches. Mr. Amit Godbole, Radio 89.3 FM DJ and Mr. Amarnath, who host the cricket show in Radio 89.3 Dhoom FM, were the first to arrive. Avinash Gaje, President and founding member of NJSBCL, took the opportunity during the drinks break of the first innings to elicit few expert comments from Mr. Amarnath of 89.3 Dhoom FM on the way the game is progressing. His insights into what both teams should be doing at that point to gain the upper hand on the game was very thoughtful and am sure both captains – Jatin of Jersey Jaguars and Tejas of Piscataway CC – would have tried to implement those suggestions.

Next to arrive were councilmen Mac Shah and Joe Camarota. During the break between innings, both the South Brunswick councilmen applauded the efforts of NJSBCL in organizing this wonderful event in New Jersey bringing together south asian and west Indian players and families together. They also expressed their solidarity with the cause of starting a women’s cricket league in New Jersey that was put forth by Avinash. Councilmen went to mention that South Brunswick supports the game of cricket and already work has started on building additional two new cricket grounds in the township which would be thrown open to the cricket loving public very soon. The crowd greeted this announcement with cheer. Mac Shah who was running for council encouraged everyone who had registered to vote to come out and vote in favor of him so that he can continue supporting the cricket loving people from the public office. Joe Camarota wanted to spend more time watching the exciting game that was progressing but other commitments prevented him from spending more time there. He wished the league and all the players a wonderful game and day ahead before departing with Mac Shah.

Towards the end of the game, Councilman Rajiv Prasad and Ted Chase of Franklin Township arrived. They were very curious to learn more about the functioning of the league from NJSBCL’s President, Avinash and Secretary, Vipin Bharadwaj. Once the game was over, Rajiv Prasad and Ted Chase as the chief guests distributed the prizes to the winners. The prize distribution ceremony was choreographed by Vipin and had both Vipin and Amit Godbole as the two masters of the ceremony. Vipin started off introducing the chief guests to the crowd that had build up to 250 odd people by that time. Vipin thanked the players, their supporting families and the executive committee members of the league for completing another wonderful season which saw nearly 500 plus games played over 6 months by 52 teams. Avinash, in his address mentioned how the league which started off with 6 teams in 2001, grew to 16 teams in 2003 and 52 teams in 2009 has now been admitted as a potential USACA member, a wing of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
He also mentioned how the league strives to keep its operations simple and maintain itself as a platform for cricket lovers to come together and enjoy a game of cricket and camaraderie even though there is fierce competition between teams in winning the championships.

The awards ceremony started with Devils11, the Division 2 runner-up captain Jaymin receiving the prizes for the team along with the individual team medals from the chief guests. Division 2’s star players of the season were announced next – Best Batsman - Ather Khan (NJ Braves), Best Bowler – Atul Patel (Devils11), Man of the series – Ali Javed ( NJ Braves) collected the coveted trophies. Juggernaut was announced as the first ever Division 2 Champions of NJSBCL and their captain, Deepti Ranjan and his team mates received the 2009 NJSBCL Division 2 Championship trophy from Mr. Ted Chase and Rajiv Prasad.

Then the ceremony moved on to the much awaited Division 1 Championship awards next. Piscataway captain Tejas collected the runner up trophy from Mr. Ted Chase. This was followed by outstanding performer awards in Division 1. Best batsman award went to Pradeep Jeyapaul (Jersey Jaguars), Best bowler award went to Vivek Pandey (Jersey Jaguars) and the Man of the series for 2009 award went to Mital Patel (Piscataway) for his booming batting and sharp bowling through out the tournament.
The man of the match for the Finals, Kush Choksi (Jersey Jaguars) collected his trophy next from the chief guest. This was followed by individual trophies to all the team members of the Champions, Jersey Jaguars.

League had started awarding a Fair Play trophy every year for the past two years and this year that award went to one of the founding teams of the league – Plainsboro Cricket Club (PCC). Vijay Luthra, proud captain of PCC accepted the award on behalf of his team for the sportsman spirit, friendly atmosphere and right attitude displayed through out the season. This year’s semi-finalists, TomsRiver (captain - Ketan Mehta) and MahaCC (captain – Aseem Narula) received the awards for the outstanding performance of their teams this season which saw both of them reaching the semi-finals of an extremely competitive season. Each of the 14 voluntary EC members of the league who spent nights and days over the last 6 – 7 months ensuring the smooth operations of the league were recognized at the prize distribution and presented with thank you awards by the league - Mani (The Elites), Abhy (Sreeshti), Vipul (Summerfield), Ranjith (AdroIT), Sachin (Woodlot), Avinash (PCC), Vipin (Invincibles), Sri (Josh), Bala (NJ Blues), Vivek (FriendsXI), Tarun (Tiranga), Amin (MahaCC) and Jaideep (Mavericks)

The 2009 NJSBCL Division 1 Championship trophy was received from Mr. Ted Chase & Mr.Rajiv Prasad by a beaming Jatin Mehta, captain of Jersey Jaguars whose team even though had some initial hiccups, picked up steam and was rewarded for all their hard work & preparation by the beautiful 2009 NJSBCL Championship trophy.

The awards ceremony concluded after a vote of thanks by Vipin. The awards ceremony was followed by a sumptuous lunch for everyone courtesy of our sponsor Paradise Biriyani Pointe and its owner Guna

The lunch was followed by a friendly 8 over game between the EC members and the Champions, Jersey Jaguars where the Champions beat the EC team in a close game. This brought us to the conclusion of the day's events. League announced a two week 8x8 carnival cricket tournament which will be played on the weekends of Oct 17-18 and Oct 24-25. Thirty teams divided into ten groups will be participating in this 8 –a side, 8 – over tournament over the next couple of weeks

Click here for the Finals Match report...

The Division 2 final was scheduled at 8am on 10 October 2009 at Stelton Road ground, Edison, NJ. The first ever division 2 finals of NJSBCL was played between two finalists – Juggernaut and Devils11. The weather was cloudy with a chance of mild showers.

Devils11 won the toss and elected to bat.

Batting first Devils11 scored 59/10 in 16 overs. Jaimin Patel - Devils11 captain hit glorious 17 runs. Raj, Deepti Ranjan and Abhishek from Juggernaut took 3, 2 and 2 wickets respectively.

In reply, Juggernaut scored 60/2 in 12 overs – with Abhishek Kumar top scoring with 32 unbeaten runs.  Prasanna scored unbeaten 10 runs and Asis scored 6.

Abhishek Kumar from Juggernaut was the man of the finals.

Juggernaut CC are the NJSBCL Division 2 Champions for 2009  

Juggernaut and Devils11 Players after the finals.

Juggernaut Players after the finals match.

Jaimin Patel, Devils11 Captain – receiving the runners up trophy.

Abhishek Kumar from Juggernaut – receiving the man of the finals trophy.

Deepti Ranjan, Juggernaut Captain – receiving the division 2 championship trophy.

Juggernaut Players after the presentation ceremony.

Juggernaut Players after the presentation ceremony.

Devils11 Team supporter.

Please use the button below to pay the Carnival fee ($50) for 2009. Please mention the Team name and the Contact Info in the fields provided.

Match Report by Vijay Agnihotri
October 7, 2006
Culver Road Ground, Dayton, NJ

NJSBC League's Final turned out to be everything what a cricket final should be and more. Towards the end of the match, it was a nail biting, nerve racking finish which left everyone on the ground on their toes and hands folded in prayer for their favorite team. When the last ball of the match was bowled, it carried all three possible results with it. Yes, it could have been a win for Maxnet B (now adroIT), a win for Piscataway or a tie. What an end to a very long, grueling and well fought cricket season for NJSBCL.

Avinash, The founder with driving force and all the EC members ( Mahendra, Amin, Anand, Ashok, Riyaz, Vivek along with Prasanna, Balan and Milind) must be congratulated for another extremely successful year when things ran smoothly. This year the league swelled to very healthy 28 teams and all of us can be sure that next year will bring more of good things to the league.

There was a big crowd to enjoy the finals between the two well deserving teams. In order to reach this stage, both Maxnet B (now adroIT) and Piscataway had to knock out some extra ordinary, very talented and deserving teams from their path. Well done Maxnet B (now adroIT) and Piscataway.

Those who could not come or did not come to the final missed the opportunity to watch a great match between two teams of equal strength. Match took place on Culver Road ground. The pitch, the ground and the surroundings are the best that I have seen Besides the good cricket, atmosphere was electric with live DJ's music, live cricket commentary, and yes, catered food for all (players and the audience). Thanks again to the league management.



Maxnet B (now adroIT) Innings :

After the delay caused by the rain and subsequent pitch repair, the match finally started at 11:30 AM. Maxnet B (now adroIT) won the toss and decided to bat. Vishnu and Kalyan opened the batting for Maxnet B (now adroIT). Devang and Pragnesh opened the bowling for Piscataway. Maxnet B (now adroIT) had a disastrous start as they lost Kalyan in the first over with only 1 run on the board. It got worse soon as they lost Vishnu in the third over with the score at 7. Both wickets went to Devang who bowled exceedingly well. At this point Devang's analysis read, two overs, two runs and two wickets. Ranjith and and Anand were at the crease and they had the job of rebuilding the innings and put some runs on the board without loosing any more wicket. And that's exactly what they did. At the end of 8 overs Maxnet B (now adroIT) had 25 runs for the loss of two wickets. Both batsman looked very assured and run started to come slowly. Ranjith showed his array of shots all rounds the wicket and he had good support from Anand. Just when things started to look good, Anand was run out. After this Ranjith did not get much support from the other batsman and had to do a one man show. The score was 50 runs at the end of 12 overs for the loss of three wickets. Ranjith finally fell with an airy shot as he was trying to push the score. Maxnet B (now adroIT) made 66 runs from 7 wickets at the end of 16 overs.



Piscataway Innings:

Sixty six is just a very average score and can be defended only with some good bowling and fielding. I am sure that Piscataway fancied their chances chasing 66 runs. Purvang and Brijesh opened the batting for Piscataway. Maxnet B (now adroIT) bowling started with Gopal and Kalyan. Piscataway got off to a very good start with 6 runs coming in the first over and 6 runs coming in the second over but they also lost Purvang in a run out situation. Runs kept coming away at a good pace as Piscataway were in a very good position at the end of 6 overs with 28 runs and for the loss of only 2 wickets. Brijesh batted exceedingly well till he was caught by wick keeper off Gopal's bowling. Maxnet B (now adroIT) fielders also helped Piscataway's cause by dropping all the catches which came their way so for. Next four overs showed that neither team was really interested in winning. It was a case where one gets the feeling that both teams wanted loose. Piscataway gave more catches and Maxnet dropped more catches in next 4 overs. But Piscataway kept on giving ctaches. Finally, Maxnet's catching ability improved drastically and they took some wonderful and delightful catches. Maxnet's Vishnu kept his team in the running by taking 4 wickets at regular interwal i.e. one in his each over. The score was 54 runs at the end of 12 overs for the loss 8 wickets. Match was evenly poised now and both teams finally started to play with the purpose of winning the championship. Spectators were treated to some excellent bowling and hustling for the last few runs. Piscataway crawled to 61 at the end 14th over for the loss of 9 wickets. Piscataway's all hopes were hanging on Harry for quite some time and there was general feeling that somehow he will pull it out to win the championship for his team.

Last over was bowled by Ranjith and with the last pair Piscataway needed only 4 runs to win and 3 runs to tie and Harry was playing cool with a purpose. It all came down to a show down between Harry and Ranjith. First ball produced one run and that put Harry at the strikers end. Hopes were really high as only one swing can win the championship. But, Ranjith had some different ideas and he produced 4 unplayable balls. Last ball was bowled with all the three results possible and ended in an anticlimax as Harry missed it altogether. It took some great bowling from Gopal and Ranjith and Vishnu and some great catching specially from two Kalyann's to pull things back just when Piscataway were running away with it. At one point winning looked like easy pickings for Piscataway. All they had to do is stay at the wicket, don't do anything foolish. But cricket is funny game. Batsman after batsman came and went trying to clear the fence for no reason.

Ranjith Rajan was Man of the Match for his superb batting and just as superb bowling.

Maxnet B (now adroIT) is 2006 NJSBCL champions.

Click here for more photos from the 2006 finals.

But the real winner is our NJSBC League and its 28 teams with hundreds of players and league's management

Next year expect some more and better firework so be ready for it

Even though in the middle of a colder than usual winter, we would like to commence the pre-season activities of the 2009 season for the NJSBCL Main League Championship and Platers Trophy, earlier than usual.

The 2008 season saw the league grow to 54 teams that competed ferociously in the two flagship tournaments of the league. The season ended with another thrilling & hard hitting 8x8 cricket carnival that saw mammoth scores being posted by some of the top stars of our league.

With the league growing by leaps and bounds every season, in 2008, NJSBCL registered as a "not for profit" organization.

To manage the functioning of the league better, the following changes will be made this season –

1. All teams should register their teams and their individual players at the www.njsbcl.com website by March 6, 2009. Each team to register a minimum of 14 players in their league roster.
2. The team manager / players should register at the website with their email & phone number before they can play in the league tournaments. Once registered, each player will be given a unique user id and password to login and update his profile.
3. Team captain/managers will have the eligibility to login and update team's and players scores for their teams at the end of each game.
4. All teams will have the facility to pay the league fees at the www.njsbcl.com website using paypal. The 2009 league season fees is $150. Registration of a team can be considered complete only after the team manager / captain completes the registration at the website, accepts the liability waiver form, registers a minimum of 14 players at the website and pays the registration fees of $150 by paypal. Paypal payment can be made after the Registration request has been tendered at the website and a minimum of 14 players have been registered.
5. Along with registering at the website, any team, if interested, should send in their nominations for the League Executive Committee (EC) of the 2009 season by March 6, 2009. Teams should send the names of their EC nominee by email to ec@njsbcl.com . Following a voting process where each team will have one vote, 13 members will be elected as league office bearers. The person nominated should be someone, who is conversant with our League rules (www.njsbcl.com), have good general knowledge of cricket rules, is an impartial mature person & most importantly someone who can devote significant time on an ongoing basis to work for the betterment of our league and address any issues. Note: - An elected officer cannot be a spokesperson for their team or promote their team's interests in the governing body's decisions. To ensure impartiality, he will be kept aside from any decision that may involve his team. The nominated person should send a brief (3-4 sentences) write-up about his experience in handling similar organizational responsibilities to support his nomination to the email ec@njsbcl.com by March 6, 2009.
6. These 13 elected officers will vote internally among them to select the league Board of Directors - President, Secretary, Vice President (Marketing & PR), Treasurer& Vice – President (Operations). The league EC will then form 3 member sub committees that will handle all operational activities of the league including but not limited to scheduling, rules & playing conditions update, umpiring coordination, dispute resolution etc. We hope new members who are interested in actively participating in managing its affairs would come forward to participate in the EC this season.

Team registration process:--

A) New teams should use following registration link and follow the step by step process for registering their team and its players. http://www.njsbcl.com/teamregister.aspx

• 1. Follow the link above and Register your Team online
  
  
• 2. The Captain/Manager will receive the login and pwd in their email after Registration
  
  
• 3. Login at NJSBCL.com using the credentials received and accepts the Individual
  
  Player Waiver. This is mandatory for every member of NJSBCL Teams.
  
  
• 4. Once the Player Waiver Form is accepted, the Captain/Manager will be able to "add new members" by following the link - Manage Team from the Left Hand Admin Menu
  
  
• 5. Follow link to the NJSBCL yahoo groups and register there as well.
  
  

B) TEAMS FROM 2008 should follow the below process for registration -

• 1. Team manager / captain should Login at njsbcl.com using Login Id.
  
  
• 2. If Users do not remember their passwords they can use the "Forgot Password" link from the Login box. An email with your user id and new pwd will be sent to the registered email id
  
  
• 3. When the designated captain/manager logs in, first he will need to confirm the Team Participation for 2009. After he has done that in the affirmative, he will be required to accept the Individual Player Waiver before proceeding being able to use the online admin site.
  
  
• 4. Team captain/manager can then add the individual player names, email and phone using the "manage team" link.
  
  
• 5. Every newly registered player will received their login/pwd in email.
  
  

The schedule for the 2009 season kick off is as follows -

• - 2009 season Team & Player Registration – March 6, 2009
  
• - Nomination of EC members from teams – March 6, 2009
  
• - EC election complete– March 10, 2009
  
• - 2009 Officers election – March 15, 2009
  
• - Finalize the format/rules based on number of registered teams – March 25, 2009
  
• - Announcement of league schedule - First week of April 2009
  
• - Tentative league games start date – Mid to Last week of April 2009
  

Looking forward to another thrilling season of cricket!!!

Regards

On behalf of NJSBCL

Vivek Nair

A bird's eye view
October 11, 2008
Culver Road Ground, Dayton, NJ

After the thrilling final between Maha CC and The Legends when passions ran high inside and outside the field, The Legends came out as the deserved winner of the tournament since they played better in all aspects of the game on the given day.

Families of both Main league and Platers trophy finalists were present in full strength to support their champion husbands and fathers. There was a carnival atmosphere through out the day which reminded one of the recent

20-20 IPL tournaments what with DJ playing songs and music to the requests from the audience and cheering every good shot / wicket / fielding. The running commentary provided by Gopal of adroIT CC and Vipin of Invincible XI added flavor to the exciting game. We would like to extend thanks to Mukul from MahaCC for helping Ranjith with scoring and giving excellent real time stats as the match progressed.

All the guests – Chief Guest NJ Assemblymen Upendra Chivukula & South Brunswick Council members Charlie Carley, Carol, Joseph J. Camarota Jr, & Mr Patel from Finance dept arrived at the ground towards the end of the game. After the game the special guests were invited for a friendly practice session of batting and bowling by the league. Looking at the way Mr. Chivukula batted against Avinash's bowling it was hard to believe that he had given up playing years back! All the guests had a fun time hitting some balls.

This was followed by the awards presentation with Vipin as the master of the ceremony. Vipin started off introducing the chief guest Mr. Chivukula thanking him for coming to the ceremony and introducing the concept of NJSBCL for the benefit of all the special guests. Vipin went on to introduce all the special invitees to the over 200 strong crowd of players their families and the sponsors. Vipin's shared with the crowd that the four invitees had mentioned that they would be supporting building two more cricket grounds in South Brunswick to add to the four grounds which is already present in that township. This was greeted with all round cheer from the crowd. Avinash, founder member of NJSBCL spoke a few words about the progress the league had made this year incorporating into a not for profit entity and also about his vision for NJSBCL to own a stadium in NJ where the next generation of cricketers from the cricket crazy South Asian countries will learn to play. Mr. Chivikula when invited to say a few words reminisced in his speech about his stint in playing cricket when he came to US initially in 1974. Assemblyman Chivikula called upon NJSBCL to promote the game of cricket in NJ in the same style as junior soccer leagues formats.

Vipin went on to introduce the members of the Executive Committee of the league – Avinash, Amin, Mahendra, Sri, Vipul, Ranjith, Tarun, Vivek, Vipin and Sachin - and the new org structure of the league's governing body of permanent trustee members and elected EC. He called upon the league member teams to take more interest in managing the affairs of the league by volunteering to join the governing body since the league is growing by leaps and bounds every year – the league which started off with 6 teams in 2001 has grown to 53 teams by 2008.

The award ceremony started with awards for Platers winners Shailesh, captain of NJ-XI who received the first award of the afternoon for runner-up in Platers Championships from the Chief Guest. This was followed by the winner of Platers Championship – Dosti CC captain Srinivas Darbha receiving award on behalf of his team from the Chief Guest. The man of the match award for the finals was collected by Pradeep Karki for his outstanding wicket keeping performance in the finals when he snapped up 6 catches of the ten NJ-XI wickets. All the team members of the winning team and runner up of Platers were given gold and silver medals by the league.

This was followed by the awards for both the losing semi-finalists – Krishna collecting the award for Jersey Jaguars and Abbas collecting the award for NJ Stars. Both teams displayed consistent performance and it was sad they they were not in the finals since only the two best teams could be in the finals.

Then the ceremony moved on to the much awaited NJSBCL 2008 Championship awards. Maha CC's captain Nikhil collected the award for the Finals runner up. All the team members of Maha CC collected the gold statue for their outstanding performance through the 2008 season which saw them compete in the finals of the season. This was followed by the man of the match and the man of the series award. Nilesh of The Legends was adjudged the man of the match for the Finals for his outstanding batting performance of 32 which steadied The Legends and put them within touching distance of the Championship. Aseem of Maha CC was the deserving winner of the Players of the series award for the 2008 season for his stupendous and consistent exploits with both bat and ball in the last 7 months.

The beautiful 2008 NJSBCL Championship trophy was received from Mr. Chivukula by The Legends captain Jignesh Patel. His team members received gold statues for their outstanding performance this season even though they were the youngest team in the league (with average age of 22 years) and a new entrant to the league this season.

This season's Fairplay award went to Toms River team for their good behavior in the field in various games. This season there was a new award which was instituted by NJSBCL sponsored by Tom of Maha CC – Award for an extraordinary achievement – this award went to Sandeep Jain of Blue Aces who even after been diagnosed by cancer last season, underwent chemotherapy and came back to play during the first round and scored 147 runs. His passion for cricket in spite of having to face such a serious illness is a true statement of courage and valor. There is a message for everyone in this that whatever difficult situation you face in life, if you set your mind to overcome it, you will succeed. The league wishes all the very best to Sandeep.

The awards ceremony concluded after a vote of thanks to the sponsors by Amin, one of the founding EC members of the league. Sponsors of the Finals Award ceremony included

Let's Go Dubai,

Paradise Biriyani Pointe - www.njbiryani.com,

NJ Group Services - www.njgroups.com,

Tom (MahaCC),

DJ Brian,

St. John's music team

The awards ceremony was followed by a sumptuous lunch for everyone courtesy of one of our sponsors Paradise Biriyani Pointe and its owner Guna.

We take this opportunity to thank a few Volunteers, who helped us in the Final Ceremony

1. Tom - Maha cc for Sposoring an award
2. Guna- Woodlot for food arrangement
3. Kishore - Woodlot for the jingles and music arrangement
4. Susi - InvinciblesFor helping the setup and other arrangements
5. Sriram- Wooldot- Ground arrangements and other help
6. Sachin/Ravi - Woodlot for Permit
7. Gopal - Adroit - For his exciting running Commentary

This brought us to the conclusion of the day's events. Considering the unusual warm weather at this of the year, NJSBCL announced a two week carnival cricket tournament which will be played on the weekends of Oct 18-19 and Oct 25-26. 27 teams divided into nine groups will be participating in this 8 –a side, 8 – over tournament over the next couple of weeks.

For more photos, please click here... 

Dear All,

First of all Apologies on behalf of EC for the delayed Communication on this issue, ideally we would have liked to send this' Rule Book' before start of the season. But sheer number of teams and scheduling issues, non availability of grounds and problems therein ,and our desire to kick off league 'on time' lead to this delay.

We are ready to share a Comprehensive updated Rule Book  for NJSBCL for the year 2007 .  We request and expect all existing and New members to go over it.  The RULE BOOK is attached with this email and uploaded in the Files section. Since file section is limited to representatives of Teams, we recommend you to please upload in your Team's yahoo groups, to let your teammates also go over it, as we want all our extended team members to have an access and understanding of this Document and our playing rules.

I will like to thank our EC members, Avinash,Vivek,Ranjit,Mahendra,Amin and Bodhayan for taking out their time and putting this together.

This all encompassing document covers: NJSBCL Main and Platers League info, the participation process, fee, playing rules, pitch length, website details, insurance reqs, All rules which affect a match , Format, points , rounds,score reporting /Umpiring and eventually covers the Trophies and Rewards for 2007.

Please spend some time  to go over the whole document but especially on some very important rulings , shared earlier this year, and the one like TIE BREAK rules, which will impact a few teams starting  this coming weekend!

Section

• 2.7              FORMAT-   Points and NRR carryover , Round 1 and 2.
• 5                 REPORTING of SCORE-SHEETS and their                                              timelines/penalties.
• 5.2              TIE BREAKER RULES -
• 12               Interrupted/Rained out matches
• 15               Umpiring Duty  Obligations
• 22               Awards and Get Together.

Sachin will be putting the RULE BOOK up on the league website , www.njsbcl.com . We will also like to thank Avinash /Sachin for conceiving the website and Sachin for doing the legwork, creating such a nice interface and logging in our team information and scores on a weekly basis. It is a big leap for our league over last year and a great facility to have all information on a common platform.

Thanks to all Teams for making this all work , whether it is Scoresheet, Umpiring or other issues and maintaining the spirit of this Game! Let us carry on the good work!

If you have any questions /clarifications , please feel free to email them to us at ec@njsbcl.com.

Good luck to all Teams and their Team Members on behalf of EC for next round of Matches.

Vipin
On Behalf of EC (NJSBCL)

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For the finals report and other details, please click here... 

Following will be the EC members for 2007

Avinash Gaje
Mahendra Dhamdhere
Vivek Nair
Amin Khatri
Vipin Bhardwaj
Bodhayan Sharma
Ranjit Rajan

Backup Members:
Purvang Patel
Praveen Guduru
Sree

For any issues, please write to : ec@njsbcl.com