Bay Blazers

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East Bay Blazers
File:Bay Blazers Logo.png
LeagueMinor League Cricket
ConferenceWestern Division (Pacific Conference)
Personnel
CaptainDavid White
OwnerPremkumar Suri
Chief executiveVivek Tummalapalli
Team information
CitySan Jose, California
Colours  Dark Blue, and   Yellow.
Founded2020; 4 years ago (2020)
Home groundSanta Clara Cricket Field
History
Notable players
Official websitebayblazers.us
Kit left arm yellowborder.png
Kit right arm yellowborder.png

T20 kit

The East Bay Blazers (more commonly known as the Bay Blazers) are an American professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that compete in Minor League Cricket (MiLC). The team is based in San Jose, California. It was formed in 2020 as part of 24 original teams to compete in Minor League Cricket.[1] The franchise is owned by Premkumar Suri and Vivek Tummalapalli.[2]

The team's home ground is Santa Clara Cricket Field, located in Santa Clara, California.[3] David White currently helms captaincy duties, with Rusty Theron standing by as vice-captain.[4]

American cricketer Sujith Gowda and Australian cricketer Josh Dascombe currently lead the batting and bowling leaderboards with 481 runs and 17 wickets respectively.[5][6]

Franchise history

Background

Talks of an American Twenty20 league started in November 2018 just before USA Cricket became the new governing body of cricket in the United States.[7][8] In May 2021, USA Cricket announced they had accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a US$1 billion investment covering the league and other investments benefitting the U.S. national teams.[9]

In an Annual General Meeting on February 21, 2020, it was announced that USA Cricket was planning to launch Major League Cricket in 2021 and Minor League Cricket that summer,[10] but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic[11] and due to the lack of high-quality cricket stadiums in the USA.[12] Major League Cricket was pushed to a summer-2023 launch[13] and Minor League Cricket was pushed back to July 31, 2021.[14]

USA Cricket CEO Iain Higgins also pointed out cities such as New York City, Houston and Los Angeles with a large cricket fanbase, and targeted them among others as launch cities for Minor League Cricket.[15]

Exhibition league

In July 2020, the player registration for the Minor League Cricket exhibition league began.[16] On August 15, 2020, USA Cricket announced the teams participating in the exhibition league matches, also listing the owners for each team.[17] The draft for the exhibition league began on August 22, 2020,[18] with the Bay Blazers releasing their squad on August 24.[19] Rusty Theron was later named as captain for the Bay Blazers for the exhibition league.[19]

2021 season

See also: 2021 Minor League Cricket season § Pacific Conference

After the conclusion of the exhibition league, USA Cricket announced that they were planning to launch the inaugural season of Minor League Cricket in spring 2021.[20] Ahead of the official season, which was announced to kick off on July 31,[21] the Grizzlies announced David White as captain with Rusty Theron helming vice-captain duties.[4]

Throughout the group stage, the Blazers lost to the Strikers, the Grizzlies twice, and the Stars once,[22][23] but won against the Catchers once, and the Blasters, the Lashings, the Surf Riders, and the Seattle Thunderbolts twice.[24] The Blazers finished 3rd at the end of the group stage, thus not qualifying for the finals.

2022 season

Ahead of the 2022 season, Major League Cricket announced that the draft for that season would take place on May 12.[25]

Current squad

  • Players with international caps are listed in bold.
  •  *  denotes a player who is currently unavailable for selection.
  •  *  denotes a player who is unavailable for rest of the season
Name Nat. Birth date Batting style Bowling style Signed year Notes
Batsmen
Arshdeep Singh India (1993-12-27) 27 December 1993 (age 30) Right-handed Right-arm off break 2021 Overseas
David Bunn South Africa (1992-04-09) 9 April 1992 (age 32) Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox bowling 2021 Overseas
David White South Africa (1991-05-22) 22 May 1991 (age 33) Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2021 Overseas captain
Nawaz Khan Afghanistan (1995-10-29) 29 October 1995 (age 28) Right-handed Right-arm fast medium 2021 Overseas
Nihal Desai United States (2004-05-16) 16 May 2004 (age 20) Right-handed Right-arm medium 2021
Ruchir Joshi India (1999-04-04) 4 April 1999 (age 25) Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2021 Overseas
Rusty Theron United States (1985-07-24) 24 July 1985 (age 39) Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2021 Vice-captain
Sujith Gowda India (1995-03-17) 17 March 1995 (age 29) Right-handed Right-arm off break 2021 Overseas
All-rounders
Josh Dascombe Australia (1993-05-29) 29 May 1993 (age 31) Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox bowling 2021 Overseas
Kuldeep Singh India (1978-10-26) 26 October 1978 (age 45) Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox bowling 2021 Overseas
Mario Rampersaud Barbados (1992-11-24) 24 November 1992 (age 31) Left-handed Left-arm medium fast 2021 Overseas
Rohan Posanipally United States (1993-03-14) 14 March 1993 (age 31) Right-handed Right-arm medium fast 2021
Chad Bowes South Africa (1992-10-19) 19 October 1992 (age 31) Right-handed Right-arm medium 2021 Overseas
Srinivas Mohan United States (2001-07-17) 17 July 2001 (age 23) Right-handed Right-arm fast medium 2021
Sanjay Krishnamurthi United States (2003-06-02) 2 June 2003 (age 21) Right-handed Slow left-arm orthodox bowling 2021
Wicket-keepers
Rohit Sharma United States (2003-05-21) 21 May 2003 (age 21) Right-handed Right-arm leg break googly 2021

Statistics

Most runs

Nat. Player Span Matches Innings Runs Average HS 100 50
United States Sujith Gowda 2021–present 14 14 481 37.00 93 0 4
South Africa David White 2021–present 14 14 394 30.31 76 0 3
South Africa Chad Bowes 2021–present 10 9 217 36.17 53 0 1
United States Sanjay Krishnamurthi 2021–present 10 9 215 43.00 63 0 2
South Africa David Bunn 2021–present 12 9 157 17.44 49 0 0

Source: CricClubs, Last updated: 29 April 2022

Most wickets

Nat. Player Span Matches Wickets Avg BBI Econ SR 4w 5w
Australia Josh Dascombe 2021–present 14 17 18.82 3/15 6.04 18.7 0 0
United States Sanjay Krishnamurthi 2021–present 10 16 11.75 4/12 5.37 13.1 1 0
United States Rusty Theron 2021–present 12 15 14.60 3/13 5.24 16.7 0 0
Afghanistan Nawaz Khan 2021–present 12 12 22.33 3/10 6.67 20.1 0 0
United States Sujith Gowda 2021–present 14 8 28.75 2/7 7.42 23.2 0 0

Source: CricClubs, Last updated: 29 April 2022

See also

References

  1. ^ "Minor League Cricket Announces Franchise Owners and Draft Owners". USA Cricket. August 15, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  2. ^ Hays, Nate (August 18, 2020). "Minor League Cricket announces teams and owners list, draft on August 22, exhibition games tentative". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  3. ^ "Minor League Division Preview Series - Western". Minor League Cricket. Major League Cricket. August 1, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  4. ^ a b Sawkar, Abhai (February 1, 2021). "Red, White and Blue: David's American journey". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  5. ^ "East Bay Blazers - Batting". CricClubs.com. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  6. ^ "East Bay Blazers - Bowling". CricClubs.com. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  7. ^ Penna, Peter Della (January 8, 2019). "USA formally approved to rejoin ICC as Associate Member under USA Cricket". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  8. ^ Penna, Peter Della (November 27, 2018). "USA plan to launch their T20 League in 2021". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  9. ^ "USA Cricket Chooses Partner to Fund and Develop U.S.-Based Professional T20 Cricket League". USA Cricket. May 23, 2019. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  10. ^ "USA Cricket Board Meeting February 2020". USA Cricket. February 27, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  11. ^ "USA Cricket re-evaluating Major League Cricket debut timing due to Covid-19 concerns". SportBusiness. August 2, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  12. ^ "American Major League Cricket tournament launch pushed to 2023 at Annual General Meeting". Inside the Games. May 24, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  13. ^ Penna, Peter Della (May 21, 2021). "USA's MLC T20 tournament pushed back to 2023 at AGM". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  14. ^ Penna, Peter Della (July 30, 2021). "Minor League Cricket: T20 league in USA kicks off with Sami Aslam, Corey Anderson in the mix". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  15. ^ Penna, Peter Della (February 27, 2020). "New York, Boston, Chicago, LA among 22 targeted launch cities for USA T20 competition". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  16. ^ "Minor League Cricket Announces Player Registration Opening". USA Cricket. July 7, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  17. ^ "Minor League Cricket Announces Franchise Owners and Draft Update". USA Cricket. August 15, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  18. ^ "Inaugural Minor League Cricket Draft to Take Place Today". USA Cricket. August 22, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  19. ^ a b "Minor League Cricket Draft results with 15 Squads Selected". USA Cricket. August 24, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  20. ^ "USA Cricket Launches Foundational Plan". USA Cricket. October 15, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  21. ^ "American Cricket History to be Made on Minor League Cricket Opening Weekend". Major League Cricket. USA Cricket. July 29, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  22. ^ Patel, Smit (September 23, 2021). "Minor League Cricket Week 8: Rovman Powell hits 38-ball 71". CricBuzz. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  23. ^ Hays, Nate (November 7, 2021). "Ali Khan returns; USA Men head to Antigua qualifiers for first T20I action in two years". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  24. ^ "Santa Clara County Fairgrounds could get a cricket stadium by 2024". The Mercury News. January 20, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  25. ^ "Title and Presenting Partners Announced for 2022 Minor League Cricket Championship". Minor League Cricket. Major League Cricket. May 5, 2022. Retrieved May 9, 2022.
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