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Akram, Afridi win double-wkt tourneyMohandas Menon The first ever ZEE International double wicket cricket championship was held at Lincoln Park West, in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, on the weekend of July 13, 14, 15. Sixteen players from six countries -- India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England and the West Indies -- participated in the three-day tournament.
Pakistan's Rashid Latif and a local player kept wickets during the tournament. Former West Indian left-handed batsman Larry Gomes was the tournament referee, who also acted as the TV umpire. India's SK Bansal and Pakistan's Mian Muhammad Aslam officiated as umpires. Local players, led by Derek Kallicharran, younger brother of former West Indian captain and batsman Alvin, did the honours of fielding for the various teams during the tournament.
Pakistan Blues represented by Wasim Akram and Shahid Afridi won the competition, defeating the Bangladeshi pair of Akram Khan and Aminul Islam in the final. India Blues and the West Indies were losing semi-finalists. The winners took US$ 20,000, while the runner-up half the amount. Afridi won US$ 1000 for hitting the maximum sixes, while Derek Kalllicharran was adjudged the best fielder with maximum catches. The mayor of Jersey City gave away the prizes. Brief scores of the tournament:
on July 13, 2001
on July 14, 2001
on July 15, 2001
Points table:
Semi-finals results:
Final results:
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© 2001 rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved. |
India and Pakistan fielded two teams - India Reds (Robin Singh and Vinod Kambli) and Indian Blues (Sunil Joshi and Hrishikesh Kanitkar) and Pakistan Blues (Wasim Akram and Shahid Afridi) and Pakistan Greens (Saeed Anwar and Azhar Mahmood). Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda deSilva (Sri Lanka); Aminul Islam and Akram Khan (Bangladesh); Jimmy Adams and Phil Simmons (West Indies); Chris Lewis and David Capel (England) were the other participants.
The tournament was played at a baseball park. A synthetic wicket, which was imported from South Africa, was laid out for the event. Since the wicket had unpredictable bounce and pace, the bowlers used shorter run-ups and bowled slow stuff. All matches were televised live on Zee UK, Zee Africa and Zee USA. Pakistan TV also took live feed. Although the crowd was disappointing on the first day, the last two days saw a fairly decent flag-waving crowd, mostly from the subcontinent.