The Sacramento Cricket Association (SCA) has been a part of the area South-Asian sporting scene for a number of years now. During that time it has gathered together diehard fans of the game of cricket from many countries that now live in the region, especially those originally from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
In the past year SCA has hosted a number of tournaments including a Winter/Summer/Fall T20 (20 over), a Division A (35 over) and a Division B (25 over) competition. The highly skilled players participate in the Summer League Division A (DivA) and Division B (DivB) caters to those less experienced during that time. The Fall Season starts with T20 games which are non-Division. But putting technicalities aside for a moment, all of the team players are predominantlydesis and when they hold a gathering to celebrate and give out awards as they recently did on January 31st, it is usually quite a colorful affair.
Current SCA President Khader Mohammed was our main host as close to 200 people gathered at the suburban Orangevale Community Center to celebrate local achievements in cricket playing, and there were certainly many of them if one was to go by the number of trophies handed out. But before approaching the topic of awards, this was also a display of South Asian diversity. Muslims family members in Hijab mixed with Hindus and Sikhs here as they all enjoyed food together, as well as Bollywood dancing by Balbir Singh and his partner and songs by Punam Malhotra and others. And the party going on outside the hall was just as interesting.
Fourteen or sixteen teams participated under the SCA umbrella last year from as far as Yuba City and Lodi to closer communities like Davis, Elk Grove and Folsom. And as mentioned earlier there were many awards with some individual high-achievers approaching the stage many times. To name just a few, the DivA Best Batsman recognized was Sharanjit Singh. Kulvinder Singh received the Best Bowler Award, the Best All-Rounder trophy went to Jatender Dhami, and best team award to BDSCC for DivA. For DivB the Best Batsman Sunny Dhami, Best Bowler Vamsee Mohan, Best All-Rounder award went to Rajpreet Singh and Best Team was BDSUCC. For the T20 Winter League Gurjit Singh, Rana Shail and Sunny Dhami won awards along with the Best Team trophy to BDSCC. And for the Fall T20 League Sriram Akella, Navaneeth Beeram and Kulvinder Singh were recognized as best players amongst many and the Best Team was TCC1.
The evening ended on a festive note as Bhangra ruled to DJ music and a dhol performance. And the conversation drifted to the coming cricket World Cup especially the India-Pakistan match on the 15th of February which we saw that India won handily. Pakistan has yet to break the jinx and one does not know when it will be able to beat India during any World Cup match. But more important at the moment is the question as to who will be able to beat top ranked South Africa and the hosting countries Australia and New Zealand on their home pitch? One is sure that many in attendance and our readers here will be watching.
