Singapore: 2002 league season kicks off with changes in tournament format

The 2002 season that got underway on 10 February will feature innovative changes, with declaration cricket being revived to add spice to the league programme.

The Division 1 league comprises eight teams and each will play each other twice on a home-and-away basis. The first round will feature standard 50-over games, while the second round will consist of one-day declaration games with a maximum of 105 overs in a day. The team batting first will be allowed a maximum of 60 overs and bonus points will be awarded for runs scored and wickets taken. These changes were based on recommendations made by a committee which was formed to look at 'raising the standard' of cricket in Singapore.

Ceylon Sports Club (CSC) who won the league and cup double in 2001, will once again be led by Dinesh Chelvathurai and much will depend on Buddhika Mendis who has been the leading batsman in the country for the past two years. CSC has been badly depleted by the loss of key players including opening bat Johann Pieris, left arm spinner Sarika Prasad, paceman Razi Sayyed and wicket keeper Udesh Kumar and this void is going to be extremely difficult to fill. Sajith Sivanandan, T.Ravichandran, Silmi Nawaz, Hiran Cabraal and G.Anand are expected to lend support to Buddhika Mendis in the batting department while S.Sritharan will spearhead the pace attack with help from allrounders T.Ravichandran and Hiran Cabraal. The spin attack will rest in the hands of Buddhika Mendis, Dinesh Chelvathurai and Zia Azeez.

Indian Association (IA) who finished as runners-up in 2001 will have Harish Dongre as their captain and they will be going all out to go one better and break their jinx of never having won a league title. IA has a dashing array of stroke players and the batting line-up looks formidable with Harish Dongre, Kuldeep Varma and Rupesh Singh joined by the allround talents of hard hitting Sunder Mani, Sandeep Seth and Ramprasad. IA's bowling strength lies in its spin quartet which is probably the best in the country. Off spinner Sunder Mani was the leading wicket taker in 2001 and he is bound to pose problems to the opposition together with fellow offspinner K.R.Suresh, leg spinner Sandeep Seth and left arm spinner Manish Shah.

United World College (UWC) who finished third in 2001 are a team to watch and are fancied to be one of the leading title challengers this year. They will once again be led by their bustling allrounder Gary Higgie and have thrown down the gauntlet with impressive victories in their first two matches. The batting will revolve round the former New Zealand "A" player Stephen Lynch who scored heavily last year. Openers Don McGowan and Glen Gibson together with the middle order of Kevin Robertson, Gary Higgie and Sanjeev Kumar are expected to score heavily and compensate for the loss of Jason Pascoe. UWC boost a formidable pace attack comprising Brad Patterson. John McGowan, Don McGowan and Gary Higgie while spin will be provided by Wayne Derrick and Matt Cox.

Singapore Cricket Club (SCC) has had a proud record in the league and will be looking to commemorate their 150th year celebrations by winning the title. SCC will be captained by wicket-keeper batsman N.Balasubramaniam who took over from national skipper Zubin Shroff who will be playing for SCA. Skipper Balasubramaniam, Rahul Kapoor, Kiran Deshpande, the evergreen Daniel Hayward and hard hitting Jonathan Lawes are expected to form the backbone of the batting. SCC will not lack for experience in the bowling department with former county players James Bovill (Hampshire) and Alan Wilkins (Glamorgan) providing the pace to complement the left arm spin of former national coach Grant Stanley and Kiran Deshpande.

Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) is another team with title ambitions and like UWC they too have kick-started their season with two wins. Skipper Shazib Pervaiz has a team brimming with talent and SRC are strongly tipped to go all the way. Dylan Dearing, Steven Bell and Kapila Mendis form the nucleus of their batting and together with skipper Shazib Pervaiz, Anuj Behl and Sandeep Puri, SRC have one of the strongest batting line-ups in the league. The four pronged pace attack comprises Shazib Pervaiz, Pramodh, David Woolford and youngster Iftekar Haider while the spin department will be handled by the miserly R. Jayakumar and Chew Pok Cheong.

Singapore Cricket Association (SCA) will be hoping that 2002 is the year in which their youngsters come of age and prove to the cricketing fraternity that they can take on the big boys and still come out on top. The national skipper Zubin Shroff will be leading a team brimming with both talent and enthusiasm. He will provide the backbone to the batting with support from Suneth Mendis, wicket keeper batsman Zeng Renchun, Riaz Hussein, Glen Meyer and Arun Vijayan. SCA has a formidable pace attack with Shoib Razak, Rishi Kaul, Manbhir Singh and Arun Vijayan while the variety will be provided by spinners Mainuddin Shabbir, Peter Muruthi and Riaz Hussein.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will be looking to improve on last year's performances and cement their place among the elite teams in the country in this, their second season in Division 1. Being one of the few teams not boasting of big names, skipper Tinu Tom will be looking for contributions from the whole team, rather than relying on individual brilliance. Sayan Chaudhuri, Vidit Taneja, Gaurav Tholia, P.Jayakumar and Vivek Chopra will shoulder the batting responsibilities, with Tinu Tom, Vivek Vedagiri and Nimesh Dubal strengthening the lower middle order. The pace bowling options will be provided by Sayan Chaudhuri, R. Ramanan, Nimesh Dubal and Ishan Sarkar with Gaurav Tholia, Vidit Taneja, Vivek Chopra, Vivek Vedagiri and Tinu Tom providing the slow bowling variety.

National University of Singapore (NUS) is playing in Division 1 for the first time having topped Division 2 last season and gained promotion. Though NUS will be the underdogs in Division 1, this team led by G. Surya Prakash will be looking to pull off a few surprises. The batting mainstays are Kunal Sethi, Sovan Patra, Karthik, Karan Sethi and Gaurav Rekhi. The team has a number of good allrounders in skipper G. Surya Prakash, opening bowler Kanishk Bishnoi, Archit Newaskar and paceman Damitha. The rest of the pace department consists of opening bowler Prasanna and Sumit. The bowling attack is supplemented by medium pacemen Karan Sethi and Archir Newaskar and leg spinner Kingshuk Ghosh.

It all points to a closely-contested title race, and an exciting season beckons.