American Challenge begins in LA
Forget the "International All-Star" shambles from last month
Rick Eyre
15-Sep-1999
Forget the "International All-Star" shambles from last month. Today, in
California, the most serious and most credible attempt so far to take
big-time cricket to the United States gets under way. The five-match AXN
America Challenge starts today at Woodley Cricket Field, Van Nuys, in
suburban Los Angeles, between Australia 'A' and India 'A'. The tournament
is being conducted with the co-operation of the USACA, ACB and the BCCI.
WorldTel are promoting the tournament which will be telecast live into India
by Sony TV's AXN channel.
Though for both countries the main cricketing focus is currently in other
parts of the world - India, with the role in the Toronto series just ended,
and with Australia, the tour of Sri Lanka under way - but the success or
otherwise of this series will be watched closely as future plans to take
international cricket to the USA are formulised, with hopefully the flow-on
effect of fostering interest in the game locally. The USACA have already
expressed their intention to make the series an annual event, with full
national teams playing in official one-day internationals in future. Plans
to make this inaugural series a three-way event including West Indies 'A'
fell through after the WI were invited at short notice to take part in what
is now the Toronto Cricket Festival.
Both Australia and India have sent strong sides to Los Angeles. Australia
'A' includes six players with ODI experience (Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn,
Shane Lee, Brad Young, Andrew Symonds, Michael Di Venuto), with captain
Gilchrist having been a member of the victorious World Cup side on final day
in June. India 'A', led by VVS Laxman, includes four players with full Test
or ODI experience, the others being Rahul Sanghvi, Harbhajan Singh, and
Dodda Ganesh.
Unlike some past exhibition cricket events in the US, this series will be
played on a genuine cricket ground, Woodley Park Cricket Fields being in
continuous use throughout the summer by the Southern California Cricket
Association.
Matches will be played on Wednesday 15, Thursday 16, Saturday 18, Sunday 19
and Tuesday 21 September. An extra challenge as part of the America
Challenge comes with the start time each day - play due to begin at 8am
Pacific Daylight Time. This may well have been dictated by the Indian
television market, this being 8.30pm IST. (Sunrise today in Van Nuys, Ca.
is 6.34am local.) The tournament is not being televised live into
Australia.
Squads:
Australia A: Adam Gilchrist (capt), Damien Martyn, Ryan Campbell, Brad
Creevey, Gerard Denton, Michael Di Venuto, Lea Hansen, Brad Hodge, Brett
Lee, Shane Lee, Corey Richards, Andrew Symonds, Brad Young. Coach: Allan
Border.
India A: VVS Laxman (capt), Sameer Dighe (vc), Vijay Bharadwaj, Dodda
Ganesh, Devendra Bundela, Mohammad Kaif, Devangh Gandhi, Harbhajan Singh,
Virendra Shewag, Rahul Sanghvi, Jai Prakash Yadav, Ashish Nehra, S Sriram
and SS Das.