Bay Blazers

The East Bay Blazers (more commonly known as the Bay Blazers) are an American professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that compete in Minor League Cricket (MiLC). The team is based in San Jose, California. It was formed in 2020 as part of 24 original teams to compete in Minor League Cricket.[1] The franchise is owned by Premkumar Suri and Vivek Tummalapalli.[2]

Golden State Grizzlies
LeagueMinor League Cricket
ConferenceWestern Division (Pacific Conference)
Personnel
CaptainDavid White
OwnerPremkumar Suri and Partners
Team information
CitySan Jose, California
Colours  Dark Blue, and   Yellow.
Founded2020 (2020)
Home groundSanta Clara Cricket Field
History
Notable players
Official websiteeastbayblazers.com

T20 kit

The team's home ground is Santa Clara Cricket Field, located in Santa Clara, California.[3] David White currently helms captaincy duties, with Rusty Theron standing by as vice-captain.[4]

American cricketer Sujith Gowda and Australian cricketer Josh Dascombe currently lead the batting and bowling leaderboards with 481 runs and 17 wickets respectively.[5][6]

Franchise history

Background

Talks of an American Twenty20 league started in November 2018 just before USA Cricket became the new governing body of cricket in the United States.[7][8] In May 2021, USA Cricket announced they had accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a US$1 billion investment covering the league and other investments benefitting the U.S. national teams.[9]

In an Annual General Meeting on February 21, 2020, it was announced that USA Cricket was planning to launch Major League Cricket in 2021 and Minor League Cricket that summer,[10] but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic[11] and due to the lack of high-quality cricket stadiums in the USA.[12] Major League Cricket was pushed to a summer-2023 launch[13] and Minor League Cricket was pushed back to July 31, 2021.[14]

USA Cricket CEO Iain Higgins also pointed out cities such as New York City, Houston and Los Angeles with a large cricket fanbase, and targeted them among others as launch cities for Minor League Cricket.[15]

Exhibition league

In July 2020, the player registration for the Minor League Cricket exhibition league began.[16] On August 15, 2020, USA Cricket announced the teams participating in the exhibition league matches, also listing the owners for each team.[17] The draft for the exhibition league began on August 22, 2020,[18] with the Bay Blazers releasing their squad on August 24.[19] Rusty Theron was later named as captain for the Bay Blazers for the exhibition league.[19]

2021 season
See also: 2021 Minor League Cricket season § Pacific Conference

After the conclusion of the exhibition league, USA Cricket announced that they were planning to launch the inaugural season of Minor League Cricket in spring 2021.[20] Ahead of the official season, which was announced to kick off on July 31,[21] the Grizzlies announced David White as captain with Rusty Theron helming vice-captain duties.[4]

Throughout the group stage, the Blazers lost to the Strikers, the Grizzlies twice, and the Stars once,[22][23] but won against the Catchers once, and the Blasters, the Lashings, the Surf Riders, and the Seattle Thunderbolts twice.[24] The Blazers finished 3rd at the end of the group stage, thus not qualifying for the finals.

Current squad
  • Players with international caps are listed in bold.
  •  *  denotes a player who is currently unavailable for selection.
  •  *  denotes a player who is unavailable for rest of the season
Name Nat. Birth date Batting style Bowling style Signed year Notes
Batsmen
Arshdeep Singh (1993-12-27) 27 December 1993Right-handedRight-arm off break2021Overseas
David Bunn (1992-04-09) 9 April 1992Left-handedSlow left-arm orthodox bowling2021Overseas
David White (1991-05-22) 22 May 1991Right-handedRight-arm medium fast2021Overseas captain
Nawaz Khan (1995-10-29) 29 October 1995Right-handedRight-arm fast medium2021Overseas
Nihal Desai (2004-05-16) 16 May 2004Right-handedRight-arm medium2021
Ruchir Joshi (1999-04-04) 4 April 1999Right-handedRight-arm medium fast2021Overseas
Rusty Theron (1985-07-24) 24 July 1985Right-handedRight-arm medium fast2021Vice-captain
Sujith Gowda (1995-03-17) 17 March 1995Right-handedRight-arm off break2021Overseas
All-rounders
Josh Dascombe (1993-05-29) 29 May 1993Left-handedSlow left-arm orthodox bowling2021Overseas
Kuldeep Singh (1978-10-26) 26 October 1978Left-handedSlow left-arm orthodox bowling2021Overseas
Mario Rampersaud (1992-11-24) 24 November 1992Left-handedLeft-arm medium fast2021Overseas
Rohan Posanipally (1993-03-14) 14 March 1993Right-handedRight-arm medium fast2021
Chad Bowes (1992-10-19) 19 October 1992Right-handedRight-arm medium2021Overseas
Srinivas Mohan (2001-07-17) 17 July 2001Right-handedRight-arm fast medium2021
Sanjay Krishnamurthi (2003-06-02) 2 June 2003Right-handedSlow left-arm orthodox bowling2021
Wicket-keepers
Rohit Sharma (2003-05-21) 21 May 2003Right-handedRight-arm leg break googly2021

Statistics

Most runs
Nat. Player Span Matches Innings Runs Average HS 100 50
Sujith Gowda 2021–present 14 14 481 37.00 93 0 4
David White 2021–present 14 14 394 30.31 76 0 3
Chad Bowes 2021–present 10 9 217 36.17 53 0 1
Sanjay Krishnamurthi 2021–present 10 9 215 43.00 63 0 2
David Bunn 2021–present 12 9 157 17.44 49 0 0

Source: CricClubs, Last updated: 29 April 2022

Most wickets
Nat. Player Span Matches Wickets Avg BBI Econ SR 4w 5w
Josh Dascombe 2021–present 14 17 18.82 3/15 6.04 18.7 0 0
Sanjay Krishnamurthi 2021–present 10 16 11.75 4/12 5.37 13.1 1 0
Rusty Theron 2021–present 12 15 14.60 3/13 5.24 16.7 0 0
Nawaz Khan 2021–present 12 12 22.33 3/10 6.67 20.1 0 0
Sujith Gowda 2021–present 14 8 28.75 2/7 7.42 23.2 0 0

Source: CricClubs, Last updated: 29 April 2022

See also

References
  1. "Minor League Cricket Announces Franchise Owners and Draft Owners". USA Cricket. August 15, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  2. Hays, Nate (August 18, 2020). "Minor League Cricket announces teams and owners list, draft on August 22, exhibition games tentative". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  3. "Minor League Division Preview Series - Western". Minor League Cricket. Major League Cricket. August 1, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  4. Sawkar, Abhai (February 1, 2021). "Red, White and Blue: David's American journey". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  5. "East Bay Blazers - Batting". CricClubs.com. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  6. "East Bay Blazers - Bowling". CricClubs.com. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  7. Penna, Peter Della (January 8, 2019). "USA formally approved to rejoin ICC as Associate Member under USA Cricket". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  8. Penna, Peter Della (November 27, 2018). "USA plan to launch their T20 League in 2021". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  9. "USA Cricket Chooses Partner to Fund and Develop U.S.-Based Professional T20 Cricket League". USA Cricket. May 23, 2019. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  10. "USA Cricket Board Meeting February 2020". USA Cricket. February 27, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  11. "USA Cricket re-evaluating Major League Cricket debut timing due to Covid-19 concerns". SportBusiness. August 2, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  12. "American Major League Cricket tournament launch pushed to 2023 at Annual General Meeting". Inside the Games. May 24, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  13. Penna, Peter Della (May 21, 2021). "USA's MLC T20 tournament pushed back to 2023 at AGM". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  14. Penna, Peter Della (July 30, 2021). "Minor League Cricket: T20 league in USA kicks off with Sami Aslam, Corey Anderson in the mix". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  15. Penna, Peter Della (February 27, 2020). "New York, Boston, Chicago, LA among 22 targeted launch cities for USA T20 competition". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  16. "Minor League Cricket Announces Player Registration Opening". USA Cricket. July 7, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  17. "Minor League Cricket Announces Franchise Owners and Draft Update". USA Cricket. August 15, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  18. "Inaugural Minor League Cricket Draft to Take Place Today". USA Cricket. August 22, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  19. "Minor League Cricket Draft results with 15 Squads Selected". USA Cricket. August 24, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  20. "USA Cricket Launches Foundational Plan". USA Cricket. October 15, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  21. "American Cricket History to be Made on Minor League Cricket Opening Weekend". Major League Cricket. USA Cricket. July 29, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  22. Patel, Smit (September 23, 2021). "Minor League Cricket Week 8: Rovman Powell hits 38-ball 71". CricBuzz. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  23. Hays, Nate (November 7, 2021). "Ali Khan returns; USA Men head to Antigua qualifiers for first T20I action in two years". Emerging Cricket. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  24. "Santa Clara County Fairgrounds could get a cricket stadium by 2024". The Mercury News. January 20, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
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