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Shivnarine Chanderpaul Plays at Sarasota -- Twice
Leading West Indies batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a friend of past Sarasota club captain, Kris Persaud, attended the 11th Thanksgiving Six-a-Side festival on November 28. Shiv met many of the players and spectators and played with the Florida Under 19 team in a demonstration match, delighting everyone with an exhibition of power hitting to all corners of the field.
Shortly afterwards Shiv graciously accepted the club’s invitation to become an honorary member but with his hectic schedule, which included a grueling two-week training camp for the West Indies team in Barbados, we thought it might be some time before we had the pleasure of another visit. However, December 18, the day after his return from Barbados, he played for Sarasota in a 35 over match against Port St. Lucie.
Shiv was an inspiration for Sarasota and our visitors. His love and enthusiasm for the game is immediately apparent. As is his commitment to being a team player. He bowled and fielded with energy and commitment making two spectacular catches in the deep look easy, which they were not. With the bat, he contributed an invaluable 45 to our successful chase of the visitors’ 241. And he ran for two Sarasota batsmen who fell victim to cramp and a twisted knee, providing a textbook lesson on how good running between the wickets can pressure the fielding side into mistakes.
Shiv has promised to visit and play again as soon as he is able.

11th Annual Thanksgiving-Six-a-Side Festival, November 25-28, 2004
Undefeated Ashwell Crusaders Beat Memorial C.C. In Close Final
Ashwell Crusaders from Cambridgeshire, England won the Sarasota Festival Shield for the third time by six runs in a 10-over final. Ashwell batted first and , after the loss of an early wicket, accelerated to 66 on the strength of some powerful hitting by Jonathon Trott (Warwickshire) and Kenny Jackson (Western Province) before Trott was run out by a fine throw from the boundary. Runs and wickets flowed freely in the last four overs and Ashwell finished on 113 for 5. Memorial with two wickets down in the first two overs fought back with fine innings from Abid, Davis and Levine. The result was in doubt down to the last ball but Ashwell held on to win by six.
Ten teams, including three first time visitors, started in the Festival Shield round-robin competition:
Memorial (Houston), Surrey Vagrants (UK), Nashville, MAQ Sports (Palm Beach), Sarasota Dolphins in one division; Ashwell Crusaders (UK), ANZACs, North Carolina, Bermuda Leg Trappers, Florida Under-19s and Sarasota Marlins in the other.
Ashwell Crusaders and Memorial topped their respective divisions, both with unbeaten records. Memorial beat Florida Under-19s in the first knock-out semi-final and Ashwell overcame Sarasota Dolphins in the second semi-final.
The Fun Shield winners were Nomads, Houston who beat Old Cranleighans (UK).Old Cranleighans went to the final with an unbeaten record in the round-robin which included a last ball win over Nomads. But they were unable to repeat the feat in the 7-over final. Chasing Nomads’ 73-2, Old Cranleighans finished 8 runs short on 65 all out.
Esher (UK) and Sarasota Sharks were the other teams competing in the Fun Shield.

MCC Visit
The late summer MCC tour of the Eastern United States concluded with a visit to Sarasota. After games with representative teams in New York, Washington and Philadelphia, the plan was to play a Florida Under-19 XI and a Sarasota President’s XI preceded by a day of coaching and nets. The tour was part of a program of tours the MCC undertakes each year, in coordination with the ICC, which is aimed at broadening the exposure to cricket in ICC associate member countries.
As it turned out, the timing of the tour, from the point of view of the weather in Florida could hardly have been worse. The coaching day had to be cancelled in advance of the MCC’s arrival in Sarasota because the youngsters scheduled to attend had missed two weeks school out of five in the new academic year on account of hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan. Then, the day before the MCC flew in from New York, Sarasota was lashed by 65 m.p.h. winds and six inches of rain in 12 hours, as the center of hurricane Jeanne passed 50 miles to the north . Our field flooded and the scoreboard and two sun canopies were blown down.
Assured that conditions were safe, but with no guarantee of being able to play cricket by Thursday, the MCC arrived in clearing weather on Monday afternoon, September 27. Hardly confident about the outcome, but determined not to miss the once in a lifetime opportunity of a visit by the gentlemen from Lord’s without at least giving it our best shot, we rented pumps and began a round the clock operation to accelerate the draining of the field.
By Thursday, the pumping aided by sunshine and breezy conditions, had removed all the standing water and, despite some greasy spots, the field was judged fit for play. The MCC won the toss and batted first in a 40 overs match against a Florida Under-19 XI drawn from the southeast and central parts of the state.
Headed by a fine innings of 81 by Nick Swetman and 39 from Simon Kellet, the MCC scored 231 for 8.
The youngsters performed well in the field. Deopersad, bowling leg breaks, led with a highly creditable two wickets for 12 runs off eight overs. But MCC were able to accelerate at the end of their innings , adding 106 in the last 11 overs.
The Under-19s found batting difficult against pacy, accurate bowling by MCC and they looked out of it at 66 for 6 after 20 overs. But J. Evans and Haidaz came together and made a fight of it, the latter batting tenth in the order, making the top score of 24. Florida batted through 38 overs before being all out for 129, leaving MCC the winners by 102 runs.
MCC: Guy Home (Shropshire), Martin Callaway (Hampshire, Somerset 2nd XIs), Simon Kellet (England “A”, Yorkshire), Derek Lane (Hampshire, Surrey 2nd XIs), Richard McCarthy (Victoria), Ed McKenna (Sheffield Collegiate CC), Colin Metson [c] [w] (Middlesex, Glamorgan), Nigel Moorhead (Toft CC), Alex Richards (Essex 2nd XI, England Under-19), Steven Snell (Gloucestershire), Nick Swetman (Wales, Glamorgan 2nd XI)
Florida Under-19 XI: S. Ahmed, A. Deopersaud, S. Deopersaud, J. Evans, M. Evans, H.Haidaz, S. Kogahakotunase [w], J. McFarlane, D. Nathaniel, K. Patel, J. Wiggill [c]
Umpires: John Reed (MCC), Peter Street (Sarasota) Scorers: Brian Mullholland ( MCC), Richard Lawrence (Sarasota)
Our thanks to Paul Ramkissoon and the Evans family for organizing the Under-19s and for their dedication to youth cricket in Florida.
The following day, Friday, a Sarasota President’s XI, all regular SICC club players, took the field against the MCC squad, which included three personnel changes from the previous day. The MCC won the toss and batted first. Despite the early loss of one of their openers, MCC cruised to 76 in 14 overs before the second wicket fell. Another four wickets fell cheaply in the next 10 overs as several batsmen went to poor shot selection. However, Livermore, coming in at number six played himself in and was able to anchor the rest of the innings and accelerate the score in the last 10 overs. He finished undefeated at 78 and the MCC were 217 for 9 after 40 overs. Heyat was the most economical bowler for Sarasota with eight overs , two maidens and two wickets for 27 runs. Gossai and Prasad opened steadily for Sarasota but accurate bowling and excellent field placing made scoring difficult. When Gossai went at 47 in the 16th over, Sarasota were well behind the required run rate. Srinivasan, batting three, played himself in and eventually began to score more freely. Mcgregor and Persaud offered support for a time but were out trying to force the pace. When Srinivasan was out caught in the deep for an impressive 66, chances were slim that new batsmen could come in and score the 10 runs per over required for the last six overs. And that was to be the case.
Sarasota ended 33 runs short on 184 for 9 in 40 overs.
All in all a creditable performance by Sarasota, especially given our total lack of match practice. MCC controlled the game and any doubts they had about their ability to win evaporated with the departure of Srinivasan.
MCC: Martin Callaway (Hampshire & Surrey), Simon Kellet (England “A” & Yorkshire),Derek Lane (Hamshire & Surrey 2nd XIs), Steven Livermore (Norfolk), Richard McCarthy ((Victoria), Ed McKenna (Sheffield Collegiate CC), Colin Metson [c] [w] (Middlesex & Glamorgan), Nigel Moorhead (Toft CC), David Pashley (Staffordshire), Adnan Saleem (Surrey, Buckinghamshire), Steven Snell (Gloucestershire)

Sarasota President’s XI: Don Bacchus, Sagar Dastidar, Martin Finn, Virgil Gossai, Ian Greenway [w], Ram Guruswamy, Kashif Heyat, Richard Lawrence [c], Warren McGregor, Lomesh Prasad, Chris Persaud, Om Sharma, Sunil Srinivasan.
Umpires: John Reed (MCC), Peter Street (Sarasota) Scorers: Brian Mullholland (MCC), Yvonne Malone (Sarasota)
Our thanks to the MCC tour committee for making this visit possible. And a big thank you to Colin Metson and his touring party for being delightful guests and playing the game with skill and sportsmanship.