US Cricket Open T20 Will Get Bigger And Better…..VP Jeff Miller

By Orin Davidson
Dec. 2nd, 2009
Cricket Council USA is aiming to take Twenty/20 cricket to another level in the United States with a series of high profile competitions beginning this weekend with the first staging the of U.S. Cricket Open.

“We want to bring out the best in United States Twenty/20 cricket, so we are investing heavily in it,” said Miller, vice president Operations of the company.

Cricket Council USA is a sports and entertainment company based in Florida where the action will get cracking this weekend involving 10 of the United States best T20 teams.

Miller pointed out that the company is a private entity and not a part of the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) , the national governing body or any of its regional affiliates.

“All of the best players will be on show, including the ones preparing to represent the U.S.A in the T20 World Cup (preliminaries),“ added Miller, Carl Wright, Steve Massiah, Kevin Darlington, Orlando Baker, Ryan Corns – the national junior MVP …. they will be there”.

The company staged the TAQ T20 series last year when a number of past Pakistani international players and some active ones along with a few ex West Indian Test stars, christened the Broward County stadium.

Miller explained that the plan was to stage a bigger $100,000 competition this year, but teams were affected by the nationwide recession which resulted in the shelving of the event.

“But we intend to have it next year with about 14 teams including two international ones from one of the Test playing countries,” said Miller. “We have many other teams from Jamaica and other parts of the region wanting to get involved”.

But for the time being, Cricket Council USA is putting its resources into this weekend’s event which will have $10,000 at stake for the winning team and involves the champion teams from five competitions staged nationwide by CCUSA and specially invited ones.

Although New York was not the beneficiary of any of the preliminary competitions, Miller said Bedessee Destroyers was chosen based on its outstanding performance in winning the Dream Cricket20/20 Cup that involved a number of top teams from the Tri State area.

Destroyers, has a collection of players from around the city at the time, and not registered to any of the New York leagues, is among a number of teams invited to the U.S. Open Cup. “We welcome these teams even though they are not official part of a league, because it is our intention to have the best players on show,” explained Miller. “We want to expose any player who is good enough to bring value to any team”.

United Chargers which won the New York T20 Cup this year and comprises a number was unavailable but a number of its players will show up in the Washington Tigers lineup.

Next year, the series of countrywide competitions will be expanded from which the U.S. teams will be selected for the $100,000 grand finale. “This will be a continuous annual event, which we expect to grow bigger over the years,” Miller said.

He added that the Cricket Council USA will not earn anything in terms of revenue from this year’s series as it is being used to promote the company’s brand. “All the matches will be free to the public and there will be musical entertainment,” the VP added.

The 10 competing teams are grouped in the American and National Leagues where a round robin format of three matches per team will determine the two finalists.

Matches are set in three sessions on Friday and Saturday beginning from 9 am, 1pm and 4.30 pm while the final is slated for 12 noon on Sunday following the semi-finals from 9 am.

Bedessee Destroyers is grouped in the American League with Miami Thunder, Washington CC Redskins, US Tigers and US All Stars. Destroyers will oppose Tigers, Redskins and Caribbean stars in the round robin phase. The National League comprises Washington Tigers, Atlanta Eagles, Connecticut Tigers, SGCC Blues and Caribbean Stars.


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