Complete list of Prize Winners
coming soon
Dipayan Paul signs for 2012 MCC YCs squad
18 year old Dipayan Paul has been selected to join the MCC Young Cricketers (YCs) next season after impressing MCC Head Coach, Mark Alleyne, during the Wisden City Cup (WCC) competition.
Paul, who is from Limehouse in East London and plays for Blackheath CC, is an off-break bowler, hard-hitting middle order batsman and excellent fielder. He is believed to be the first cricketer of Bangladeshi origin to become a fulltime professional in Britain.
This was the first year that MCC have worked with the WCC, and with only one contract up for grabs several youngsters were hoping they’d done enough to earn the prize, but it was Paul’s name that was announced by Alleyne on Sunday.
“I’m very excited” said the youngster upon hearing the news. “It feels very, very good to be chosen.
“I felt really tense in the morning because I knew how important a day this was but just wanted to try my best and hope something good would happen.”
“I’ve just finished college and now can’t wait to get started – I’ve dreamed of being a professional cricketer since I was a small boy and now I’ve taken the first step.”
Mark Alleyne said that Paul ticked all the right boxes:
“We thought that, not just today, but over the whole Wisden City Cup competition, he has impressed us most – and turned in the most consistent performances.
“He fits in well in terms of what we are looking for – and for the balance of our side. We haven’t got depths and depths of spin bowling talent and I like how he bowls and he’s no slouch with the bat either.
“It’s a good all-round package – he’ll fit in well. We’ll look after what he’s doing during the winter and then he’ll join us next March. We are preparing guys to go into the First Class game and he’s the perfect age to go on and do that.”
Allyene made the announcement following the conclusion of a 20-over match between the YCs and a London-Leicester Combined WCC XI at Grace Road on Sunday 11 September. In a close contest the YCs edged to victory by just eight runs, scoring 122 for 8 before restricting their opponents to 114 for 6. Dipayan Paul had been instrumental in restricting the YCs total – taking two wickets and conceding only ten runs in his four overs. Earlier in the day Leicester defeated London in the first Wisden City Cup Final by three wickets, off the last ball.
Paul, who is from Limehouse in East London and plays for Blackheath CC, is an off-break bowler, hard-hitting middle order batsman and excellent fielder. He is believed to be the first cricketer of Bangladeshi origin to become a fulltime professional in Britain.
This was the first year that MCC have worked with the WCC, and with only one contract up for grabs several youngsters were hoping they’d done enough to earn the prize, but it was Paul’s name that was announced by Alleyne on Sunday.
“I’m very excited” said the youngster upon hearing the news. “It feels very, very good to be chosen.
“I felt really tense in the morning because I knew how important a day this was but just wanted to try my best and hope something good would happen.”
“I’ve just finished college and now can’t wait to get started – I’ve dreamed of being a professional cricketer since I was a small boy and now I’ve taken the first step.”
Mark Alleyne said that Paul ticked all the right boxes:
“We thought that, not just today, but over the whole Wisden City Cup competition, he has impressed us most – and turned in the most consistent performances.
“He fits in well in terms of what we are looking for – and for the balance of our side. We haven’t got depths and depths of spin bowling talent and I like how he bowls and he’s no slouch with the bat either.
“It’s a good all-round package – he’ll fit in well. We’ll look after what he’s doing during the winter and then he’ll join us next March. We are preparing guys to go into the First Class game and he’s the perfect age to go on and do that.”
Allyene made the announcement following the conclusion of a 20-over match between the YCs and a London-Leicester Combined WCC XI at Grace Road on Sunday 11 September. In a close contest the YCs edged to victory by just eight runs, scoring 122 for 8 before restricting their opponents to 114 for 6. Dipayan Paul had been instrumental in restricting the YCs total – taking two wickets and conceding only ten runs in his four overs. Earlier in the day Leicester defeated London in the first Wisden City Cup Final by three wickets, off the last ball.
LEICESTER WIN WISDEN CITY CUP
2011
London WCC XI v Leicester WCC XI
London won the toss and elected to bat
London 121-8 (20 overs; Shaftab Khalid 39,
Avish Patel 2-20)
Leicester 122-7 (20 overs; N Savjani 29;
Amirul Islam 3-11)
Leicester won by three wickets
A grandstand finish to the concurrent Wisden City Cup tournaments of 2011 saw Leicester beat London off the final ball of the match. The winners, Leicester, took the £1,000 prize, sponsored by Barclays Legal, and the Wisden City Cup trophy.
Batting first on the spacious Grace Road ground, London lost a wicket in the first over, but sinuous innings from Waqas Hussain (26) and wicketkeeper Milo Wilkin (29) provided a platform, which London’s captain Shaftab Khalid looked ready set to capitalise upon. But the loss of Wilkin instigated a dramatic loss of 5 wickets for 11 runs, including Khalid run out for 39 off 32 balls. The visitors regrouped to reach 121 off their allocated 20 overs - disappointing given their start but also reflective of a pitch rewarding spin and the long boundaries to either side.
Leicester’s innings couldn’t have been closer in terms of the score or provided a greater contrast in how it unfolded. Sohail Pandya (1-16 off four overs) penned the home side in with a tight spell, and although Rohan Tendulkar (27) and Savjani (29) played well-paced innings, the Londoners held the initiative, especially once the left-arm-spin pairing of Amirul Islam (3-11) and Imran Qayyum (2-14) accounted for Leicester’s middle order. With 13 runs needed off the final over from Khalid, a former England A off-spinner and doosra bowler, Leicester required something special from their number eight batsman Nil Patel. He delivered in spades, a towering down-wind six off the penultimate delivery shocking the visitors and taking the scores level, before he scrambled the winning single off the last ball.
match report by Johnny Marr
WCC Leicester/London XI v MCC Young Cricketers
MCC YCs 122-8 (20 overs; C Marsh 30*)
WCC XI 114-6 (20 overs; Savjani 48*)
The WCC Leicester/London XI, belying their lack of experience and playing time together (many of the players had never even met one another before the morning’s game), troubled the MCC players in both innings without managing to land the knock-out blow on either occasion.
The combined partnership of Zain Shahzad (2-20) and DIpayan Paul (2-11) landed the opposition in early difficulties, with Paul’s penetrative offspin rewarded later by a contract as a MCC Young Cricketer in 2012 from an impressed head coach, Mark Alleyne. Somaya also picked up two top-order wickets, and when Amirul Islam claimed Clarke and Dobb in consecutive balls the MCC were floundering on 73-7. The Young Cricketers had wicketkeeper Marsh (30*) and Southgate (22) to thank for rescuing them with a mature 45-run stand for the eight wicket, allowing the MCC side to reach the par score of 122-8 off 20 overs.
After the early loss of Waqas Hussain for a duck, Rohan Tendulkar provided a bright start to the WCC’s response, reaching a confident 24 before edging Muchall behind. Then the captaincy of Alleyne, who could claim to be the most successful English one-day captain ever as he had led Gloucestershire to five limited-overs trophies in two years, made itself felt. He cut off the boundaries and tightened MCC’s grip. The WCC middle order tumbled within a few overs of one another, and 56-5 off 12.3 overs proved too great a collapse to recover from. Leicester’s Savjani managed to carry his bat, and played an impressively well-organised knock, but couldn’t provide an upset to rival the earlier game’s denouement. Nevertheless, his 48* (supported by Mahruf Chowdhury’s swashbuckling cameo of 22) was testament to a batsman, and a side, rich in promise.
match report by Johnny Marr
