Swedish national cricket season comes to an end (3 Sep 1999)

2 September 1999

Swedish national cricket season comes to an end

The Swedish national cricket season came to an end on Saturday 21 August with the Swedish National Final. It has been a busy season for those involved - both players and administrators.

The high point was the MCC (B) tour during the end of June and early July.

The tour spanned the Central and Southern part of Sweden with eight matches being played during the 11 days that the MCC was visiting. It started badly for the MCC though as they were beaten by a Stockholm District XI in their first match. Some great individual performances from some Stockholm players, especially Harris, Shakeel and district captain Keith Armstrong laid the groundwork for the result. The MCC also got a taste of Swedish traditions as the match was played on Midsummer's Eve, an important holiday in Sweden and the brightest day of the year (even as far South as Stockholm it doesn't go really dark that time of year).

As the tour went on the story was different, the MCC actually won every game from then on, including two wins against the Swedish national team in Malmö in the South of Sweden. Along the way the MCC players had a great time and the sport got some much needed publicity in the press, both nationally and internationally.

As the MCC travelled around Sweden the league took a short break. The reigning champions, Spånga United CC were also busy elsewhere playing in the ECC Clubs Championship in Limavady, Northern Ireland. Spånga finished third in the tournament being beaten only by the two home teams, Limavady and Strabane. A very pleasant occasion for the club and for the sport in Sweden was the the fact that the price for player of the tournament in Limavady went to the Spånga captain, Lalindra Chandaratne. He received the price both because of his performance but also due to the behaviour of his team, a fact generously recognised by tournament referee Don Oslear.

In the league, the two districts competing were to finish the group stage in July. The story in the Southern district was a bit disappointing as Malmöhus CC pulled out after giving two walk-overs. This left the two remaining teams, Desi CC (Gothenburg) and Landskrona CC fighting for the top spot and a home match in the semi-finals. Desi was the stronger of the two, beating last years finalists Landskrona in both the home and away legs and thus securing top spot.

In the Stockholm district it was much tighter. The fight for the two top spots came down to the final weekend when Spånga United CC, Svea CK and Stockholm CC fought for those last few bonus points to secure one of two semi-final berths. In the end, Svea CK qualified in top spot after beating Spånga United on the final day of the season by 28 runs. At the same time Stockholm beat Jinnah CC comfortably by 5 wickets after bowling Jinnah all out for only 87 runs and thus secured the second place by a margin of only six points.

The semi-final line-up was therefore, Desi CC-Stockholm CC and Svea CC-Landskrona CC. The semis were completely different in character. At the match in Stockholm the home team Svea CC comfortably beat Landskrona CC to secure a final's appearance (Svea's first ever), but the story in Gothenburg is one of regret for Stockholm. For the second year running Stockholm have lost a semi-final by a close margin. This year having the added disadvantage of having their overs reduced due to late arrival. After Desi had put on 250 runs in their 50 overs Stockholm came incredibly close in their 35 overs. They were charging towards the target but chasing such a total in only 35 overs of course means taking some chances. As they reached 229 in the 33rd over Stockholm lost their last wicket and thus Desi CC became this years major surprise, reaching their first ever final in only the third year of existence. This is a team for the future.

The final was played last Saturday on a glorious day in Gothenburg. Desi CC won the toss and elected to field, a decision which soon looked a good one. Both opening batsman were out cheaply by the second over and in fact as the teams came for the first water break after 17 overs the Svea team looked in disarray at 85-5 following a couple of great catches in the deep by Imran Khan. By the 22 over another wicket had fallen for only 111 runs. This brought Faisal and Adnan to the crease. In a very composed partnership they exploited the small ground a put on 117 before the next wicket fell. This could have been a very different story though as Faisal was dropped after scoring only just over 10. However, as the partnership collapsed so did the Svea innings, finishing after 41.2 overs on a total of 235-ao.

After lunch Desi came in determined to put up a fight knowing the target was well within reach having got 250 in 50 overs only two weeks before on the same ground. It, however, started very badly for them as Svea's opening bowler Faisal took what can probably be described as "the catch of the year" diving low and forward on his own bowling to dismiss Desi's opening batsman Navaz for a duck. This was obviously a tough opening for Desi and spirits were certainly dampened. The batsman that followed never really seemed to settle in to their stride, except Tariq who smashed four quick fours off the bowling of the two openers only to be caught of a slight edge thanks to another incredible catch, this time by Sveas captain Shakeel. As Desi came in for water the score was 78-5, which in fact was not much worse than the total Svea had put on at the same stage. However, when the match started again it was becoming clear that none of the Desi batsman were going to start scoring freely and in the 27th over the last wicket fell with Desi on 117.

Congratulations go to Svea CK who gets their name on the Victoria Shield (championship floating trophy) and a special congratulations go to Adnan Raza who with figures of 84 runs and 1-26 received the man of the final award.

Other results this summer was Sigtuna CC winning the Jinna Cup and Spånga United CC winning the Nordic Cup which was most probably competed for for the last time this year.

Other news: - The Swedish cricket federation will soon be launching a new website, look out for details in the next update. - A number of persons have been granted their Level 1 coaching diplomas by ECC coach Richard Sullivan, who has visited Sweden several times this year. - Malmöhus CC is currently first in their division of the Danish second division east hoping for promotion to the first division next year. - A combined Helsinki team visited Stockholm in August for two friendly games against Stockholm CC and a combined Svea/Spånga United XI. They lost both matches but some good contacts where made and hopefully the visits from both sides will continue.

As the national season comes to an end there is still one big event on the international calendar, the ECC trophy in Corfu 11-19 September. The final squad has been named as follows:

Captain Eric Folker Malmöhus CC (RH Bowl/Bat) Vice-captain Wayne Scott Stockholm/Spånga Utd (RH Bat) Naeem Aslam Gothenburg CC (RH Bat/reserve wkt) Nihal Wickremasuriya Spånga United CC (RH Bat/Wkt) Rajan Sharma Malmö CC (RH Bat/Bowl) Tommy Wallgren Malmöhus CC (RH Bowl/Bat) Roger Sandén Malmöhus CC (RH Bowl/Bat) Desmond Colambega Spånga United CC (RH Bat/Bowl) Jeffrey Alexander Stockholm CC (RH Bat/Bowl) Barrington Gray Stockholm CC (RH Bowl/Bat) Claes Bertilson Spånga United CC (RH Bowl/Bat) Rauf Khan Svea CK (RH Bat/Bowl) Henrik Nilsson Malmöhus CC (RH Bat/reserve wkt)

The team includes a number of players with ECC tournament experience and one or two new names is preparing by regular practises and meetings with the recently re-appointed national team coach, Jayya Ready. Ready was national coach two years ago and returned to the fold about a month ago. The national team manager is Jeganmohan Govindarajah.