Cricket: S'pore in right spirit for carnival

With these two assets, Singapore have reason to be optimistic when a cricket carnival is staged here at three venues - Kallang, Singapore Cricket Club and Indian Association - this month.

The Asian Cricket Council's (ACC) Elite League - contested by six countries - will be staged from June 7 to 13, followed by the Pepsi ICC Word Cricket League (WCL) Division from June 21 to 28.

The teams for both competitons will be captained by the evergreen Saad Khan Janjua, who has been performing well in the local league.

Saad (above), already 40, may be feeling the strain on his knees and back, but his doggedness and dedication have convinced the Singapore Cricket Association selectors to call on him to lead the team yet again.

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SCA deputy president Mahmood Gaznavi said: "His leadership qualities have to be recognised. He has a good rapport with the players, and his presence brings about 20 per cent more than their usual form from his teammates."

Saad, a good all-rounder, has vast experience, having played in England and Pakistan, and can be counted as a good opening bowler with his medium pace.

He will mainly bank on Chaminda Ruwan (two centuries in the Division 1 League), Chetan Suryawanshi, Andre De Lange (both one century) and Rezza Gaznavi (a century each in Div 1 and Div 2 League) for the runs.

Archit Goenka, who scored a century against the Marylebone Cricket Club recently, is only 18, but he is fast gaining a reputation as a batting stalwart.

And in Dharmichand Mulewa, Abhiraj Singh and Amjad Mahboob, Singapore have a strong bowling threesome.

Toss in spinner Sachin Maylavarupu, the 22-year-old student from Oxford University who has playing experience in English County Championship, and Singapore have a formidable bowling line-up.

The five other teams taking part in the ACC Elite league are Maldives, Bhutan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The tournament is a round-robin league in a 50-over format and the champion team will be promoted to the ACC Premier League. For the WCL Division 4 competition, the five other nations are Denmark, Italy, Oman, Jersey and Malaysia.

The two two teams will be promoted to Division 3 and the bottom two teams will be relegated to Division 5.

The Singapore squad for the WCL event: Saad Khan Janjua, Chetan Surywanshi, Chaminda Ruwan, Kshitij Shinde, Anish Param, Archit Goenka, Christopher Janik, Rezza Gaznavi, Amjad Mahboob, Abhiraj Singh, Dharmichand Mulewa, Sachin Maylavarupu, Suresh Appusamy, Andre De Lange.

For the ACC event, Param and Maylavarapu will be replaced by Arjun Mutreja and Narender Reddy.

godfrey@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on June 03, 2014.
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