Japan: Kanto League enters knockout stage

Kanto Cricket League

The league matches of this tournament have been completed and the KCL enters the knock-out stage from now. After having played the league matches, the big boys are entering the second stage of the tournament starting from September.

As expected, the Friends XI and the Sri Lankan Lions with 19 points apiece, having similar results (4 wins, 1 loss and 1 wash-out) have qualified for the semi-finals from Group A while the YC&AC (17 points, 4 wins, 1 loss) and the Tokyo Giants(16 points, 5 wins, -4 penalty points), who won all their league matches impressively, come from Group B.

For the statistically oriented, YC&AC from Group B have scored the most number of runs (1209) from 5 league matches with the Indian Engineers in the second place having scored 950 runs from 6 league matches. Ironically, the Engineers failed to make it to the next level having lost two of their league matches.

The KCL this year saw a few upsets in Group A, while the results from Group B were much in the expected lines with possibly, just one exception. The results that can be a called upsets were:

- Indian Engineers defeats Friends XI (Group A)
- Shizuoka Kytes defeats Sri Lankan Lions (Group A)
- MAX defeats Tokyo Bay (Group B)

The KCL this year also saw - for the first time - a few teams being penalised for various offences, which is considered as the growth pain of cricket in Japan.

The semi-final line-up is as follows:

- Friends XI Vs.YC&AC (Sept. 2)
- Tokyo Giants Vs. Sri Lankan Lions (Sept. 9)

As was reported earlier in this space early in the season, the Kanto Cricket League will become a two-division league from 2002 with the top 7 teams - the four semi-finalists and another three decided by a play off between the third and fourth placed teams of each group - of this year forming Division I and the rest Division II.

The lineup for Division I play-off:

Shizuoka Kytes Vs. British Embassy (Sept. 16)
Indian Engineers Vs. Millennium (Oct. 6)

The losers of the play-off matches will play again (date is yet to be confirmed) to determine the winner who will enter the Division I as the seventh member.

Brief results of all matches are available at http://www3.ewebcity.com/iecc/. Follow the link 'Kanto Cricket League'.

Japanese Cricketers to visit the UK

National squad and University cricketers from Japan made a visit to England from 30 August to 8 September. The touring party comprised 20 men and 12 women with each team playing four matches against various sides in and around London. Highlights of the tour included a game against the Marylebone CC and a net session at Lord's Cricket Ground.

Tidbits

New Arrival:

A new cricket club has been formed in Hiroshima city. Read report of their first game at: http://www.geocities.com/rgmjapan/JULY29th.html.

Kytes acquire a new roller:

The Shizuoka Kytes acquired a new roller for their ground paid by the KCL Committee. See the picture and a brief comment at:
http://www.geocities.com/rgmjapan/CURRENTCRICKET01.html.