Member of the
USACA
Minutes of the Annual
General Meeting
Royal Hall,
Officials In
Attendance
Tony Best, President, CUCC
Phil Trayner, Vice-President, MCC
Zahid Naseem, Secretary, ACC
Danish Rizvi, Webmaster, HCSC
Excuse
was delivered for Dhanesh Bhatia of HCC.
Shahzad Khan, EECC
Osama Khan, EECC
Owais Ghori, EECC
Omeir Haider, EECC
Amir Khan, EECC
Salman Khan, RCC
Abhinav Prashar, RCC
Shakeeb Muhajir, RCC
Aubrey Davis, CUCC
Steve Forrest, CUCC
Kiran Bhakta, BICC
Dharmesh Bhakta, BICC
Mayur ‘Mike’ Bhakta, BICC
Kamlesh Bhakta, BICC
Anwar Khusro, ACC
Vasant Patel, HICC
Fayyaz Sarwar, GHCC
Vivek Ayepalayam, CCC
Cameron Best, CICC
Sanjit Tayi, HTCC
Jam Niaz
Ali, HCSC
Sameer Mehta, HPCC
Navdeep Singh, HPCC
Manas Dasaraju, HPCC
Errol .A. Eccles, HWISC
Noel Jhagroo,
HWISC
Absent Clubs were HBCC, ISCH, GTCC
There was a quorum with
representatives from 12 of 16 member clubs being present at the meeting.
1.
EECC
2.
RCC
3.
CUCC
4.
BICC
5.
ACC
6.
HCSC
7.
HTCC
8.
MCC
9.
HICC
10.
GHCC
11.
CCC
12.
CICC
Member Clubs absent (GTCC,
ISCH, HCC, HBCC)
The meeting was called to
order by the President at
The President welcomed the
representatives of all the above member clubs and also the 2 new clubs Houston
Pacers Cricket Club(HPCC) and Houston West Indies
Sports Club(HWISC).
The President read out the
President’s Report for 2002 (Appendix I).
The President’s Report also
included the History of the Houston Cricket League. (Appendix II).
The Directors Report was
unanimously approved by voice vote.
In the absence of the Nadir
Shah, Treasurer, Tony Best presented the Receipts and Payments Information for
the Year 2002 (Appendix IV).This report however did not include the balances
and adjustments from the report presented by Nadir Shah at the 2002 AGM.
The Treasurer’s Report was
discussed and corrections were made.
The corrections included:
1)
Dues from clubs
for balls (Page 2) Total number of balls – 94 instead of 58 balls.
Vivek (CCC) confirmed that his
club had paid for the 6 balls ($60) shown as due on the Treasurer’s Report.
Houston Cougars (HCSC) Ball Dues was increased to 24 balls ($240) from 18 balls
($180).
Shahzad (EECC) confirmed that
they had paid Secretary, Zahid for 6 balls ($ 60).
Zahid dues to HCL were
increased to $ 685 from $ 625.
Salman Khan (RCC) stated that
they have no ball dues. Danish agreed to discuss with RCC and resolve this
matter.
2) USACA dues (Page 3) were
reduced from $75 to $60 and the fines were waived. The total fees owed by the
member clubs towards USACA fees was revised to $ 570 from $750
Phil Trayner (MCC) proposed a
motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report and Sanjit Tayi (HTCC) seconded the
motion.
The Treasurer’s Report was
then unanimously approved by voice vote.
The Vice-President displayed a
PowerPoint presentation using a projector on the status of HCL Activities for
the 2002 season (Appendix V).
The President and the
Vice-President proposed the following candidates for election to the Executive
Committee for the 2003 season:
Tony Best – President
Phil Trayner – Vice President
Sanjit Tayi – Secretary
Cameron Best – Treasurer
Danish Rizvi – Statistician /
Webmaster
The President invited other
nominations for Treasurer. There were no other nominations from the floor.
Cameron Best was elected
unanimously as Treasurer by Voice Vote
The President invited other
nominations for Statistician / Webmaster. There were no other nominations from
the floor.
Danish Rizvi was elected
unanimously as Statistician/Web Master by Voice Vote.
Danish requested all the Clubs
to submit the list of all the players to him at the earliest. He then
distributed the blank lists to all the clubs.
The President invited other
nominations for Secretary. There were no other nominations from the floor.
Sanjit Tayi was elected
unanimously as Secretary by Voice Vote.
The President invited other
nominations for Vice-President. There were no other nominations from the floor.
Phil Trayner was elected
unanimously as Vice-President by Voice Vote.
The Vice-President invited
other nominations for President. There were no other nominations from the
floor.
Tony Best was elected
unanimously as President by Voice Vote.
A Tea Break was taken.
Refreshments were provided for all the attendees.
HCL CONSTITUTION
The Vice-President presented
the amended HCL constitution.(Appendix III)
The changes incorporated 3
basic principles:
(i)
Simplicity and
Clarity
(ii)
Practical
(iii)
Accountable.
Empowering
the 8 member Executive committee (including the ex-officio) members to run the
day-to-day activities of the league.
Errol (HWISC) said that the 3
Ex-Officio members must ideally be from other clubs other than the clubs to
which the 5 elected committee members belong, in order to get a wider
representation. Omeir (EECC) said that there should be representation in the
Executive Committee from Division III clubs also.
The Vice-President informed
the gathering that if the elected officials do not perform their duties, the
members could call for an EGM to remove the elected members and elect new
members. He also explained that the ex-officio members would take on additional
responsibility in such an event and move on.
Osama (EECC) proposed a change
to the games started but not finished due to inclement weather rule. He
proposed that in case of rain delay the Average Run Rate must be considered to
decide the winner.
The Vice-President explained
that there was a lengthy discussion during the finalization of the amended draft
and several examples were considered and all the different rules had its pros
and cons. The existing method was considered more practical.
After deliberating on this
issue, the relevant clause was amended to read
“If the second batting side
does not complete 20 complete overs, the match will be considered a draw
with 3 points awarded to each side”
Vivek (CCC) proposed a change to the “Tie in League
placings” rule to include the Net Run Rate Differential instead of the Total
Runs divided by Total Wickets Rule. This motion was seconded by the
Statistician Danish Rizvi, who agreed to collect the required match results
information from all the teams during the 2003 season.
This clause was suitably
amended.
Vivek (CCC) had a concern on
the Drink Interval clause.
“At the discretion of both
captains, the water break may be foregone and the game shall be allowed to
continue without a drink interval”
The Vice-President explained
that if any one captain wanted to take the scheduled water break, the other captain
couldn’t refuse.
Salman (RCC) wanted some
explanation on the role and powers of the Executive Committee members.
The Vice-President replied to
this question.
Danish (HCSC) explained to the
members about the new grounds being available from the City of
Errol (HWISC) raised some
concerns on the game start time clause.
The Vice-President clarified
that if both the captains agree, the game start time can be changed, but the
games cannot be rescheduled without prior authorization of the President or the
Vice-President.
Danish (HCSC) suggested the
need for the President’s casting vote.
The Vice President agreed to
incorporate this clause as the Executive Committee would consist of 8 members and
there is a high possibility of a tie.
Vivek (CCC) requested a
clarification on the Wides rule. Is the ball wide when it passes outside the
off stump or a wide when it passes the batsman.
The Vice-President agreed to
add wording “when standing in normal position at the crease” to facilitate
easier decisions by the umpire.
The Vice-President also
mentioned about the World Cup 2007 and the possibilities of the games being
held in
The motion to approve the
Amended HCL Constitution was proposed by Omeir (EECC) and seconded by Mike
(BICC).
The Amended HCL Constitution
was then unanimously approved by voice vote.
Elections for the position of
Ex-Officio members were held by Secret Ballot.
The President invited
nominations from the floor. There were a total of 5 nominations for 3
positions. Voting Paper was issued to each club by the newly elected Secretary.
There were representatives from 11 clubs during the voting process and each
club was given 3 votes.
The Secretary counted the
Total Votes:
|
Nominee |
Votes |
|
Mike Bhakta |
10 |
|
Kuldeep Patel |
9 |
|
Salman Khan |
7 |
|
Omeir Haider |
5 |
|
Anwar Khusro |
2 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
33 |
Mike Bhakta, Kuldeep Patel and
Salman Khan were elected as the 3 Ex-Officio members of the Houston Cricket
League for the 2003 season
The President mentioned that
the 3 elected members will have voting rights in the executive committee
meetings and the remaining 2 members will be invited and can participate in the
proceedings but with no voting rights.
4 new teams / clubs submitted
their applications to join the Houston Cricket League for the 2003 season
Elite Eleven Cricket Club II
(EECC2) –
Navdeep of HPCC introduced his
club. He informed the meeting that one of the players in his club, Manas was
nominated for the U-19 USACA team.
The motion to accept the new
teams into the league was proposed by Phil Trayner (MCC) and seconded by Danish
(HCSC). The 4 new teams were accepted and welcomed into the Houston Cricket
League.
Cameron (CICC) proposed to
start HWISC in the 2nd Division instead of the 3rd
Division as they have been playing in the league for many years. The President
replied that the Executive Committee would decide on the format and the
division placings, promotions and relegations on a later date.
No change was proposed to the
2003 HCL Fees.
$75 New
team joining fees
$175 Annual dues
$30 USACA dues.
The Vice-President invited
proposals for the Summer League Structure for the 2003 season. Al the member
clubs were requested to email the Executive Committee of their proposals
Vice-President proposed the
following Season Start Dates
Feedback from member clubs was
requested.
There was a general discussion
on the following issues:
·
The President
mentioned about the pitches and conditions and to maintain consistency the
teams have to buy plastic in order to protect the wicket (if it’s a turf
wicket) from rain. He also requested clubs to play on Matting if there was heavy
rain prior to the game day.
·
Point deductions
for not sending umpires to be continued.
·
Payment to Neutral
umpires for Rain Out games. The Vice-President clarified that if the umpire
comes to the ground he has to be paid, even if the game has been rained out.
But if the teams have communicated to the umpire prior to coming to the ground,
then the umpire fees need not be paid.
·
Disciplinary
Actions to be further enforced.
·
Penalty for Forfeiting the games at the end of the season. Member clubs
requested that this clause needs to be enforced strictly.
·
Protected Players
List was clarified.
The meeting closed at
PRESIDENT’S REPORT FOR 2002
HCL Members, Friends and Supporters,
Thank you the members of Houston Cricket League for
giving me the opportunity to be president of the league for 2002. Let me wish
everyone continued good health and success during the coming season.
We were able to implement a structure which included
three divisions in which Division 2 served as a pivotal division. From all
indications this worked well and with a little refinement can work even better
this coming season.
Congratulations to all of the Divisional Winners,
Houston India Cricket Club (HICC) - Div 1, Houston Cricket Club (HCC) - Div 2,
and Houston Tigers Cricket Club (HTCC) - Div 3.
I would also like to take the opportunity to
congratulate the members of Houston India Cricket Club (HICC) on winning the
HCL Championship for the second year in a row. What a "Jolly" feat.
The HCL Final was a keenly contested game between HICC
and MCC, the two top teams in Division I and HICC won by four wickets. We wish
MCC better luck next year. I am sure that they will be working towards winning
the championship again.
In 2002 we saw great improvement in nearly all areas of
cricket. We had better behavior and tolerance during cricket game despite the
competition. In many cases, we saw almost professional umpiring by a lot of the
players who represented their teams as neutral umpires. These along with individual and team
performances on the field with bat and ball helped to make the game better in
A concerted effort was made to modify the HCL
Constitution and By-Laws as promised and will be presented today for review and
approval. This effort will be lead by the HCL's vice-president Phil Trayner.
Many of the members pointed out areas that needed to be modified or improved.
We thank you for your submitting suggestions and ideas for these modifications.
We had a wonderful season of cricket in
Everyone should proud of the friendliness exhibited on
and off the field this year. We encourage the clubs to try to use this as a
mean of getting more spectators t o the games and sponsorship for the teams.
HCL will continue to promote our sponsorship by
Hopefully further efforts will be made to attract more
businesses to sponsor the league in order for us to improve grounds and
facilities. We hope that further attempt will also be made to get some
assistance from the city of
We thank you and your families and friends who attended
the Annual Banquet. We had a wonderful time and look forward our next one.
It seemed that most of the league's general business is
transacted on e-mail in lieu of many meetings as long as we meet our minimum
quota as stated in the constitution. We hope to improve on this process and
keep everyone informed of what’s going on in the league. Please make sure that
you as the teams’ contacts pass on the information to all players.
We look forward to expanding the league with the
addition of several new teams which have played in the winter league
competition. As we do this let us all attempt to play our best and friendliest
cricket.
The HCL will also try to have some our players included
in the USACA teams at all levels from U-13, u-15, U-19, U-25 to the ICC Trophy
team.
We will also try to get our best players recognized for
their performances and achievements by both regional,
national and international bodies. The new USACA Regional Director Syed
Shanawaz has indicated that he will assist us as well as all leagues and
associations in the Central Zone-West in this venture.
Please submit the statistics for your best players to
webmaster Danish, the secretary or the statistician if you feel that they
deserve to be in contention for an award or recognized for their performances
during the 2002 cricket season.
Thanks to every one for your support and a great HCL
season. May God bless you and keep you safe from injury during the coming
season.
tony best
The History of the
by Tony
Best – president of HCL
Houston
Cricket League (HCL) was formed over twenty years ago when several guys felt
the need to have cricket as part of a more formalized recreation. At that time
it was known as the Houston Cricket Association (HCA). There were five teams
including MCC, HWICC, HCC, CCC and NCC. Players from
Permission
to use the playing fields was granted by several area schools under the certain
conditions. Teams were not allowed to make pitches on the fields. However, jute
mattings provided a great alternative and were laid
on the closely cut grass. Sometime even on uncut grass but who would complain
when the novelty and nostalgia raise their “heads”?
During
the mid to late 80’s HCL experienced great expansion as more potential players
arrive from the Asian sub-continent and the
CCC
became the first club to start playing on a field county park. This was located
in the I59 North and Little York area. The choice fields to play on during this
period were UCC’s at South Post Oak with its turf
wicket and MCC’s at Bellaire near Gessner
because of its medium size. Each of these fields provides a great atmosphere
for very nostalgic and competitive, though sometime high scoring games.
Under the leadership of such notables as Mike
McKenzie, Ed Giblin, Baskar
Patel, David Francis, Desmond Cowdrey and Peter
Hinds, HCA saw the addition of clubs such as Houston India Cricket Club form
expansion teams and new team such as Islamic Society of Greater Houston, Unique
and Trident became part of the league. The HCA provided good competition when
as part of the USACA Central Zone under “Chic” Masood
it played against teams from
Not
only did this expansion take place but some prolific and high scoring batsmen
such as Ahzar, Vijahad and Rafey from ISCH, Shawn from MCC, to name a few, came into
the league. Things got better and better as the years roll on to the nineties
when more expansion took place again under the leader ship of Mike Greathead both as President and team captain.
Teams
from
Though
the
Many
young and exciting players came to HCL. The likes of Roshan,
Kuldeep, Digesh, Amir, Jamms, Abed, Mike Bhakta, Saif, Joti,
Sharaz, Javed Momin and Javed Ali are proving
to be good players. Playing fields were
acquired in county parks, like Tom Bass, El Franco Lee, Stafford City Park, to
name a few. Some clubs continue to play on school fields during this transition
period, as others began to build concrete pitches on the new park fields.
Over
the year several players including Shawn from MCC, Kuldeep
from HICC, Jhagroo from HWISC, Carl and Courtney from
DCCC have been selected to the the USACA teams for tournaments played in Canada and the West
Indies. We expect more to follow as the years go by and good batsmen and
bowlers join HCL.
HCL
continues to make progress and provide a source of exercise and camaraderie for
players. Good cricket is played each Sunday of the year except for rain or some
other unforeseen circumstance. This year saw the first double century of the
history of HCL by Arun Douglas. This was followed by
one from Digesh Patel.
Leadership
continues to be consistence as volunteers try to maintain a high quality of cricket
in
Currently,
HCL has nineteen teams divided into three divisions. The schedule is structured
such that the top eight teams go to the play-off to compete for the
championships that are currently held by HICC for Division One and Houston Bengals for the 2001 season.
Exposure
this year has been great for the HCL. It was featured on two television
stations. An international double-wicket tournament sponsored by Ajit Patel and his counterparts Sports World Wide was held
in the Astrodome. The Houston Golden Oldies toured attended the Golden Oldies
Festival in
The
current HCL officers Tony, Phil., Zahid, Nadir and Mizu along with Danish and the contacts and captains for
each of the sixteen clubs. Danish continue to keep the league functioning as a
great place to play cricket, meet friend and enjoy Sundays.
(This has been posted separately
on the website)
DATA OF HCL TRANSACTION FOR 2001 AND
2002 AS RECORDED FROM FEBRUARY 2002 BY N.S & T.B
HCL Balance per from 2001
3588.00
2002 Season Deposits:
From Date Annual
Dues Joining Fee Balls ( # ) 2002 Banquet ( # ) USACA 2001 2002 Total
CICC 2/9 175
175
HCC 2/9 175
175
ECC 3/2 175 20 (2) 195
BICC 1&2 2/9 250
250
GTCC 2/9
175 75
250
MCC 1&2 3/2 250
150 (10 ) 400
HBCC 3/2 175
175
CUCC 3/2 175 175
CCC
3/2 175
175
GHCC 5/23 175
175
HCSC
5/23 175 180 (18)
355
MCC 5/23
30 30 60
HTCC
6/4 175
175
ISCH 7/4 175
175
RCC 8/19 175
30
205
GTCC 8/19
120 (12)
30 150
CUCC
8/19 30 30
Total Deposits =
3365.00
WUGS 9/17 1850
CUCC 10/09
30 30
HTCC
10/01
30 30 60
ACC 11/08 175
30 30 235
HCC 11/10 15
30 30 75
Total Deposits = 2250.00