FCL - Frisco Cricket League |
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| Venkata Nagendra Kumar Akula (nag.akula@yahoo.com) | |
| 10/07/2021 | |
FCL aka “Frisco Cricket League” (also called as Fearless Cricket League, well I made that up 😊 ) was incepted in 2019 Spring time. There were and are, already pretty established cricket leagues in and around Dallas with multiple teams participating. However, FCL was started with motto of highest transparency with respect to how the league is conducted and anything and everything would be communicated to the captains of participating teams. One thing, so very unique about this league is this league is conducted by City of Frisco and Cricket is very new with lot of Americans, so “I truly appreciate and admire City of Frisco for embracing this international sport into American life”. For lot of people from Cricket loving nations, this is absolutely amazing platform to have a social life as well as some active life.With that brief introduction of FCL inception, let me get into some nitty gritties of the league. First of all let me reiterate the fact that “these are purely my feelings as a player, captain and lovely Frisco City resident”. Frisco League was started with soft ball (also called tape ball, which is very popular in Dallas area. You wrap tape around heavy hard tennis ball, so the ball doesn’t get wet, and you give good 5 to 6 rounds of seam to have the seam for bowlers. Believe me taping these balls is art and you really must love to do this 😊). However, it was quickly changed to Yellow soft core semi hard ball (well it’s so unique, you really must experience to describe the same). Ever since the yellow ball was introduced this league has become extremely popular that people from Houston, Austin area are flying over weekends and playing the league. Stay with me, I will elaborate on why this is such a mega hit. Before I get into details of euphoric league, I really have to mention one person with all these innovative ideas and with so much transparency along with fun. Mr. Rajan Dwivedi, also affectionately called Rajan Bhai is the master architect of this league. I know, I know….., some of you might want to share more names and contributing aspects, but as I mentioned these are my personal views and so I am taking liberty to speak my heart. One thing is for sure, Rajan loves this game, and he is social animal. He is so passionate and talented leader that he takes time to think through the shenanigans of starting another league as well as challenges to make the league transparent and enjoyable to most of the folks. What makes FCL so euphoric or lovable? As any cricket lover understands Cricket has transformed from great old test matches played for 4 / 5 days with 2 innings each, later came the one day cricket with more focus on results and finishing game on same day (well yes, my American friends might be thinking what kind of sport is played for one whole day !!!, well the test match mentioned earlier is played for 5 days and there is possibility of no result. Believe me that’s one of my favorite formats of cricket, you just have to be more involved). And one day cricket has been played with colored uniforms and with world cup involving all recognized test playing nations competing for this Kohinoor of all jewels. Finally, much shorter version of cricket “T-20”, has evolved for last decade or so. In all these formats one thing has emerged as super success formula. Make this game more “batsman friendly” as most of the spectators would want to see the ball being sent over park more often than wickets flying (with exception of old-fashioned folks like me, anyways). That’s the key my friends, make this game more “batsman friendly. With FCL, this is taken to next level. With this yellow ball, ball flies much farther than traditional cricket ball and even compared to this soft ball / tape ball. And you don’t have LBW (leg before wicket), yes that’s true. Those of you, who are familiar with tape ball, you understand this concept. With this combination and the fact, the straighter boundaries are much shorter, rest is all bang bang play. Some of you might even say, well this is not cricket then. You see, you need to embrace change and change that pleases more people will definitely be a success formula for sure. I cannot conclude my write-up on FCL without mentioning the initial Stallworth teams that have joined in the first season, for they are advocates of change, and innovation. “Dallas Drones” (Spearheaded by Rajan himself), “BCA” (lead by Rajendra Perni, also called Raja), “Frisco Rebal Risers” (lead by Rakesh Bhai), “Stars" (lead by Maheedhar Reddy, also called Mahi)”. “GNG” (lead by Ashok Ramada), Liberty Kings (lead by Anil Shaw) in Group A. And in Group B we had “Rockers CC” (lead by Senthil Mohan), “Lonestar Warriors” (lead by Pankaj Pathania), “Mavericks Super Starts” (lead by Balaji Veeramani), “Check De India” (lead by Nagaraj Hiremath), Frisco Gladiators CC (lead by Bodhayan Sharma), and “Belmont Panther” (lead by Srinivasan Rayaprolu). Some of you might not realize the importance of naming these great teams and their captains who actually took initiative and joined this league. This is actually big deal because as a leader you need to embrace change, be very passionate, convince people to march along with you and enjoy the same (I might write a separate article about Club Cricket Captains as that’s pretty interesting and loaded topic all together, believe me that’s much tougher job than leading ICC 😊 😊) From there FCL, just like other leagues have had some transformations, more teams joining hands, day league and night league (to encourage teams to be more competitive), and most important aspect I noticed is, the square boundaries were increased quite a bit to give some room to bowler, otherwise with yellow ball, bowlers were becoming extinct species 😊. With the longer boundaries, spinners have come into picture (So much so, for back-to-back seasons leg-spinners were leading wicket takers, and I selfishly hope that continues). All in all, I will say that FCL is really dream come true for lot of folks from cricket playing nations in and around Frisco City and “I sincerely thank Frisco City, as well as all my beloved captains, players, from bottom of my heart” for embracing this world sport and providing such wonderful facilities. Well at least for me, its really dream coming true. I grew up watching international players playing in such sophisticated and world class facilities and the very fact that I am able to do the same now is really euphoric feeling indeed. Thank you, --- Nag Akula. |
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