Losing our dear friend - Asif Khan (May Allah grant him Janat)

Jan 21st 2010 we suddenly and unexpectedly lost our long-time friend and great supporter & member of BayCC family - Asif Khan.

Asif was the ultimate community advocate; he was enthusiastic, creative, and fiercely loyal. Through the years, Asif was responsible for helping countless individuals and communities organizations with his tireless efforts and energy. He was dedicated to the San Ramon community, SRVIC, San Ramon School District PTA and most of all BayCC.

Anyone who has interacted with Asif knew him as an individual possessing a rare combination of kindness, intellect and ceaseless positive energy. It was far too early for him to leave this world and we already miss him dearly. It was a true honor to have Asif as part of our team and as our friend.

With a heavy heart,
The BayCC Members

By Azher Abbasi

2009 started with similar zeal and pageantry like every year, there were resolutions to be ignored, promises to be broken and new management at the club and in the country with that Black faded into history and hope was installed once again. Politics aside, cricket is on agenda. The year of the rat was surpassed by year of the cow and now we are about to meet year of the tiger. It was a cow of a year for sure, BAYCC started the year at the top of the charts, where we saw some flimsy umpiring cost blues the finals of the SRCA Winter Tournament. Still it was what it was and we carried on, but from there the only highlights were one off wins, not enough blaze or pnash (I know its urban :), the club was solid in management but was adrift in the field. Even though the members grew but the performances sulked. Injuries to key players, travel for some and just daily drag of life became too obvious. Indeed one of the highlights was the coaching camp in the summer by two very dedicated individuals Faraz and Ali who pulled it off with flying colors. Some young raw talent was discovered and I sincerely hope I see them boys waving a BAYCC flag in near future. The other worth noting highlights were the MT, which has become a premier internal tournament. Nevertheless the club enjoyed its cricket; one off wins kept the blood flowing and muscles flinching. Some memorable wins were celebrated with enough zeal that one would think that land was gained. One historic campaign that I remember was the game against Champions! one of my favorites, what we all did on that sunny day was astonishing, when you deflate a pumped up top ranked team, it has a different taste altogether. Now we stare into the eyes of the new year the year of tiger. I hope and wish the tiger within BAYCC wakes up and growls like it used to, I hope these old legs get some youthful energy and see to the year of rabbit. I wish a sporting year for BAYC; a year which brings glory and trophy!

To all my friends a very Happy New Year!

I request everyone to share at least one memory from this past year. Remember few years down the road you will be sitting in your easy chair and open these archives and I hope it brings not just memories back but also brings smiles to your faces as well.

Azher

By Latief Bazaz

Even before the game started, we knew that we were going up against a very strong opposition. To make things worse, on the morning of the game, the team got the bad news that our tiger…..and strike bowler, Saami was injured and unable to play. Not only did we lose Saami but now we were one player short. We desperately tried to call our team buddies but as expected, calls to cell phones did not get answered. Our captain did suggest that maybe we need to get the cell phone numbers of our players wives! ……..just in case we really need to get hold of our players in crunch time:)

Anyways, the game had to be played and play we did…..hard. We did come into this game with one ‘wild card’…..Showkat Jan. After ‘retiring’ from cricket for the last so many months, Showki decided to come back. We were all very skeptical, not because we doubt his bowling abilities but just because of the long break. We were expecting rustiness, wides, no balls and full tosses on the leg stump! Imran decided to open the bowling with Showkat and I was thinking….Mr. Captain, what the heck is wrong with you? But Showkat bowled as if he had never left! He was accurate from the word go….great line and length. Gave away just 1 run in his first over.

Read more…

Today,BayCC Blue & Reds came out victorious in their respective matches.
I will let Reds report their detail.

For Blues heh heh heh… :).

Loosing the toss,asked to field/bowl first…
Mostly smooth sailing but (there is always a “but.. “), some hiccups at the end..giving approximate 10 extra unwanted runs.. Last 3-4 overs allowing the opposition 22 runs..
For this, i have different words that should carry the same message - be cool/calm/collected/unfettered.. and many more… your choice.

Every bowler bowled accurately adhering to what we decided as a common goal before the start of the match and hence as a result tied the opposition to a low score.

A comeback…
Cheers for Farhan .. what a come back!!.
After a long break with nagging bowling arm injury/issues, Farhan made a come back with a bang.
Put to test right in the 2nd over bowled like he never was on a break.
As it was true to his bowling statistics, took wickets right from the first over and never gave any room for the opposition.

Also cheers for the Dustin,Guardian of the deep square leg to deep mid-wicket boundary keeping the runners in check with his sharp flat accurate throws right over the stumps. Always a plus for the fielding side to have a good arm.

Parvinder,Re-energized Farhan, Faraz the Maverick, Shakir the Magician and Anis bhai( purana chawal).. complemented each other to limit the Dublin Dynamites to 53.

Fielding was better than before, most of the catches were converted to wickets,credit to efforts made by Shakir :),room for some more.. control over throws..

Ali a temporary Wicketkeeper ?? think again.. What catches.. just awesome..keep it up.

Batting - A good start.
We tried the supersonic formula like last time, somehow did not work..needs some more brainstorming..
But the positive end result was a good base score on the board..Bilal and Asad delivered the base score..

Some hiccups ( attempting the supersonic formula ), no complains.. as in my point of view the formula is like a double edged sword ..you get the point..

Shahid bhai look comfortable at the crease. Faraz as usual - flamboyant as it looks played his natural game.
Shakir,Parvinder with Anees bhai chipped in the balance and reached the winning score.

A big room for improvement in batting especially after a fall of a wicket.Need to get out of the habit of becoming over-defensive and keep the score moving.

Thanks,
-Parvinder.

By Azher Abbasi

The unbeaten streak of Champions was broken by the men in blue thunderously. In boxing terms its called a knock out!. Blues after winning the toss elected to field as they almost always do. Azher returning to the fold after a long layoff spearheaded the dangerous bowling attack that blues are so famous for. With the first over without a score there was energy and spark on the field. You know energy is high when Anis Bhai is diving left and right Parvinder from the other end delivered a tight second over, with only couple of runs scored. The mastery of the bowling should read like this there were three bowlers under the economy rate of 2 (Azher 1.75, Shakir 1.75 and unbelievably Faraz at miserly 1) Shakir one of the best closers picked up 3 wickets. By the time 19th over came around Champions were already in the club house with 42 on the board. No doubt bowlers did their job now it was up to the batsmen.

Blues decided to go for the attack and gain as many additional points as possible. Bilal the wall and Ali the striker opened the inning and what an opening it was, Bilal took to the bowlers from the word go and cleared them for 7 runs in the first over. When Champions claimed the wicket of Bilal there were howls and screams, a loud growl came in with some comments. Unfortunately Ali heard those comments and launched into an attack that General Norman Schwartzkoff would be proud of. Ali scoring 18 runs from 16 balls with one fantastic flick that he picked off of his legs and cleared the Square Leg boundary for Six. Humza the young blood, launched into his own attack and scored 12 off of only 10 balls with the help of two 4’s. Ali and Raza cleaned up what was left at the beginning of the 7th over.

Blues left Champions in the daze and immediately sent a wire to SRCA which read, “down but not out, caution at full strength” signed Da Blues