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The Kings of the City Cup
'THE Kings' from Manchester are
the County winners of the ECB T20 City Cup in Lancashire for 2016 having fought
off competition from cities and towns across the County through July and August.
The City Cup in Lancashire is made up of teams formed on the back of the
Lancashire Cricket Board (LCB)
South Asian Talent Search and is a T20 Competition played on Friday nights
through July and August.
The South Asian Talent Search aimed at youngsters, aged 16 to 23, of South Asian
heritage, had trial venues taking place across Greater Manchester and Lancashire
respectively. Over 100 players attended these trials which led to the formation
of 5 teams; Kings, Royals, Panthers, Daredevils and All Stars made up players
from East & West Manchester, Preston, Blackburn / Burnley and Ashton / Oldham.
The results of the Lancashire round of the City Cup Competition can be found
online along with
information around what is happening in other parts of the Country on this ECB
programme.
The Lancashire Competition was a tight affair with anyone of four teams having a
chance of winning going into the final round of fixtures. Despite a narrow
defeat the Kings pipped the Panthers to the title by virtue of having a better
net run rate, reflecting their fine performance over the entire competition.
Abid Hussain, coach for Kings, said:- "This has been a fantastic
experience for all the lads being involved from start to finish. Everyone
contributed one way or the other and they have been a credit to the Lancashire
Cricket Board, and represented themselves very well. On behalf of myself and the
players I would like to thank LCB and James Cutt for organising this
competition."
The completion of this competition will now see 'Team Manchester'
compete in the ECB National City Cup which started on Bank Holiday Monday, 29
August 2016, against Wolverhampton. If successful the team will go onto Semi
Finals and Finals Day, which is scheduled for the 18 September 2016, at Grace
Road, Leicester. There will be an opportunity for players to be skill tested by
Performance Mangers from the ECB with a view to identifying talent from these
groups of players who haven't necessarily come from traditional club cricket
backgrounds.
Prior to this 'Team Manchester' took part in a fixture, on 26 August 2016,
against the Lancashire County Cricket Club Academy at Stretford CC highlighting
the commitment of the County Club to work with the LCB, around developing
talented players.
James Cutt, Clubs and League Officer for the Lancashire Cricket Board, said:-
"This programme is fortunate to have coaching support from Qasim Ali of
Lancashire CCC along with local coaches Farouk Hussain, Raj Arora, Abid Hussain
and Mo Patel who take a lead on teams that enter. My thanks go to the ECB, our
coaches, umpires, host clubs, volunteers and players who have all contributed to
our local City Cup and we now look forward to our involvement in the ECB City
Cup nationally. I hope the players enjoy this experience and have some success
from a team and individual point of view. We also hope to link players to local
clubs where those relationships don't currently exist."
This programme is looking to expand in 2017 to other parts of the County,
specifically into Liverpool. For more information please contact James Cutt on:-
07595 520536 or by email:-
jcutt@lccc.co.uk. |
