Dear Cricketer, Do you play tennis ball cricket in Southern California and think you are good at it? Does your team have players good enough to create fear in other teams? Do you enjoy winning the friendly weekend games amongst yourselves? Do you want a chance to play among the elite tennis ball cricket players in Southern California and WIN? Do you want an opportunity to showcase your talent and be remembered for a long time? Do you enjoy remembering those winning moments? Oh well. Here is your chance to play, to shine, to win, to do what you always dreamed of - score that winning run, to take that winning catch, to bowl that magical over, to have fun, to soak in that moment that every cricketer dreams of and to talk about it ever after. We bring you the INVENGER OPEN 2009 - TENNIS BALL CRICKET TOURNAMENT, where the best of the best tennis ball cricketers from Southern California are going to be there to show everyone else how good they are. We know you want to be there too. It sure is the time to show what you got, isn t it? Read on for more details and call Sudhakar Reddy (626-376-1656) or Martin Mariadoss (318-243-5549) for additional details.
DATE: Sat, 22 nd Aug 2009 Sun, 23 rd Aug 2009 Sat, 29 th Aug 2009 VENUE: Rancho Santa Susana Community Park - 5005-C E. Los Angeles Ave, Simi Valley, CA 93063 TOURNAMENT FORMAT 18 teams will be participating in the tournament. In Round A, the teams will be grouped into 6 groups of 3 teams each. Each team will play the other team in the group once, so each team will get to play 2 games in Round A. After the Round A league games, all the teams will be ranked from 1 to 18 based on points and/or run rate as explained later. Based on the ranking, each team will play one additional game which we call as Round B. Round B will be just ONE game per team and will be played as per below format. Note: The points and run rate from Round A will be carried over to Round B. A1 below indicates the top ranked team in Round A and so on. A1 vs A10 A2 vs A11 A3 vs A12 A4 vs A13 A5 vs A14 A6 vs A15 A7 vs A16 A8 vs A17 A9 vs A18 After Round B, teams again will be ranked from 1 to 18 based on the points and/or run rate from the Round A AND Round B games. So, at the end of Round B, each team would have played 3 games each.
The top 12 of the 18 teams ONLY will qualify for the knockout round. The 6 teams ranked from 13 to 18 will be eliminated from the tournament. B1, B2, B3, B4 - qualifies directly to quarterfinals (QF) B5, B6, B7, B8, B9, B10, B11, B12 qualifies for Pre-quarterfinals (PQF) B13, B14, B15, B16, B17, B18 eliminated from the tournament. Note: B1 indicates top ranked team after Round B and so on. The 12 qualified teams will play the knockout round as shown below. Teams ranked 1 to 4 will receive a bye to the quarter final, whereas teams ranked 5 to 12 will play a pre-quarterfinal knockout game to enter the quarter finals. The knock out stage and the route to the finals is as shown below. Read the below as: Team ranked 1 after Round B gets a bye to the quarter final. Teams ranked 8 and 9 will play the pre-quarter final, the winner of which will play the team ranked 1 in quarter finals and so on. B1 QF1 B8 PQF1 B9 B2 QF2 B7 PQF2 B10 SF1 FINAL WINNER B3 SF2 QF3 B6 PQF3 B11 B4 QF4 B5 PQF4 B12
GAME FORMAT Each game will be 15 overs per innings. Each side will have 11 players on the field. A bowler can bowl a maximum of 3 overs. PRIZES Tournament Winners $500 CASH Winners trophy Tournament Runners $300 CASH Runners trophy Individual prizes: Man of the match for all matches, including league games Best Batsman of the tournament -> $25 Gift card to a sports store + Trophy Best Bowler of the tournament -> $25 Gift card to a sports store + Trophy Best Fielder of the tournament -> $20 Gift card to a sports store + Trophy Man of the Tournament -> $50 Gift card to a sports store + Trophy ENTRY FEES The entry fee per team is $300 to be paid by cash/check before August 14, 2009. Teams on standby list will be considered if entry fee is not received by due date. Organizers will only provide balls and wickets for every match and the rest of the cricket equipment should be brought by the teams. Hard tennis balls (not tape ball) will be used for the tournament. Water will be provided by the organizers.
IMPORTANT POINTS OF NOTE There will be neutral umpires for all the matches & umpire decision is final. Again, ground umpire decision is final. Anytime if the Umpires cannot make the decision, organizers will step up and make the decision. Also, the Organizers have the right to over-rule umpire s decisions on whether a match can/cannot be continued. One player can play for only one team in the tournament. If it comes to the organizer s notice that a team has a player who has played for another team in the tournament, then the team will be penalized. The penalty could range from awarding runs to the opponent, reducing overs to even disqualifying the team. This is completely the organizer s discretion. Team has to be in the ground 30 minutes before the game start time. If the team doesn t show up on time, the other team will be declared as the winner. This will be followed strictly since we are very restricted on the ground reservation and availability. Organizers have the right to cancel the match at any point of time. Also, organizers have the right to eliminate any teams from the tournament at any point depending upon the situation. Tournament fee will not be refunded at any cost. Game schedule will be sent by Aug 16 th, 2009. HOW STANDINGS ARE DECIDED? In the Round A and B matches, the winning team gets 2 points and the losing team gets 0 points. In case of a tie, each team will get 1 point (no re-match will be considered in case of a tie). If two or more teams end up with same number of points after Rounds A and/or B, their position in the table will be decided by the following precedence. This is important and very likely to happen in this tournament. Team with the BEST run-rate - The run rate of a team will be calculated using very simple math by (Number of Runs scored in both the matches) DIVIDED by
(Number of Overs faced in both the matches). It s just simple math and NO other methods or the number of wickets will come into picture for calculating a team s run-rate. Of course, when a team wins batting second, then the number of overs they batted to get their target will be used for the run-rate calculation. If any team got bowled out inside their allotted overs (15 overs), then the actual scheduled overs (i.e. 15) will be used to calculate their run-rate just like any other One-Day Cricket matches! The run-rate will be calculated to 2 decimals. It is very rare or quite impossible for two teams ending up with same run-rate. But under the very rare scenario of two teams ending up with the same run-rate, the team which had lost less number of wickets in the league matches will be placed higher than the team which had lost more wickets. INTERRUPTIONS AND UNEXPECTED STOPS If the match cannot be played under any un-avoidable conditions such as rain, bad weather/ light, or interruptions of any form, a NEW match will be played between the same two teams at a later time depending upon the ground availability. The new match will NOT be continued from the state it was halted no matter what. ONLY the Umpires of that match have the right to declare if a match cannot be continued. The batsman can only appeal if he thinks he cannot see the ball or appeal for other unplayable conditions but if the Umpire thinks otherwise and requests that play shall be continued, the match MUST be continued. If not, the team who doesn t want to play still will forfeit the match and declared to have lost the match. Also, if a team misbehaves on the field such as abuse a player/ umpire or indulge in any activities that may cause unnecessary problems, the Umpires have the right to STOP the match at any time and declare the Winners. Again, anytime if the Umpires cannot make the decision, organizers will step up and make the decision. Also, the Organizers have the right to over-rule Umpires decisions on whether a match can/cannot be continued.
SOME GAME RULES Free Hit: A Free Hit is awarded to the batting team if the bowler bowls a no-ball (over stepping only and NOT a waist high full toss no ball or over the shoulder no ball). There is run out on the free hit & the ball will be counted. Field cannot be changed unless the batsman changed ends. There are no leg byes or LBW in this tournament. There is no run out on a LEG BYE. Umpires will explain all other rules, if any, before the match starts. PARTICIPATING TEAMS (in alphabetical order) 1. 91367 2. Divine XI (Covina) 3. Glendale 4. India XI (Pasadena) 5. Los Angeles Lions 6. Pasadena Indians 7. Santa Clarita Cricketers 8. Simi Chargers 9. Simi Eagles 10. Simi Hawks 11. Simi Rebels 12. Slumdogs (Covina) 13. TCS 14. Temple City 15. Valley Vipers 16. Wilshire Cricket Club 17. Woodland Hills 18. Yahoo