Photo © ECC

The perfect autumnal weather brought Baku Cricket Club members out in force ñ sufficient to play a five-team six-a-side tournament, sponsored by Lufthansa, despite the absence of some leading players (notably Pakistan A), presumably striking against the poor pay and lousy conditions, viz. early start-time on a Sunday morning.

The day began with the season's champions, India, playing Pakistan B. India made a respectable 51 runs off their allotted 8 overs, thanks largely to Chetan Bapna who, having struck two beautiful sixes, was run out for 24. For Pakistan, both Naveed Khan and Sajjid Ali bowled well, with Naveed being the luckier of the two, bagging two wickets in his second over.

Photo © ECC

The Pakistan side on paper looked the weaker batting side but were given a tremendous start by Jemal (17) and Ali (8) before Ali was nicely stumped by Girish off the bowling of Rajesh. At one stage Pakistan seemed as if they would fall behind the required run rate but Shehzad hit two towering sixes to give Pakistan victory by 3 wickets.

The next game was between Azerbaijan and McDermott (otherwise known as McIndia). Talegh Bagirov and Shehzad-II opened the batting. Scoring was slow but Talegh played a good defensive role for 2 overs before being bowled by Sachin Hardikar. Samira, Azerbaijan's first lady cricketer, joined Shehzad-II but, weighed down by bad, pads, and helmet found herself standed in no-man's land as Shehzad-II set off for a quick single. Thanks to some well hit blows by Balaji, Azerbaijan reached a respectable 43, with Akhilesh Sukumaran and Sachin, with two wickets a-piece, being the pick of the bowlers. Akhilesh (25) was also top-scorer for the McDermott side as they polished off the runs without loss of wickets.

India against the Rest of the World seemed to be a rather tame affair, with India winning by 4 wickets and reaching the required target of 49 in only 4.3 overs. Chetan Bapna top-scored with 31, hitting Bob Lambert for four sixes in one over.

Photo © ECC

The day was rounded off by Pakistan B playing Roger Nunn's Rest of the World side. Pakistan batted first, scoring 52, with Kasim and Shehzad each scoring 13. The score was good but certainly not unassailable. Sean Barry and Bob Lambert opened well. Barry looked comfortable against the bowling but could not pierce Rajesh Chawla's well-placed field. Lambert lost his wicket trying to hit out, as the team realized that winning the match was not enough ñ the run rate demands meant that they had 7, not 8, overs to make the required runs if they were to get through to the semi-finals. Alas, it was not to be but the Rest of the World made a valiant effort all the same.

The final results were:

Group-I
India v. Pakistan-B
Pakistan-B won by 3 wickets.
Rest of the World v. India
India won by 4 wickets 
Pakistan-B v. Rest of the World
Pakistan-B won by 2 runs.

Group-II
Azerbaijan v. McDermott
McDermott won by 6 wickets.

Due to the absence of the Pakistan-A team from Group-II, the other two teams (Azerbaijan and McDermott) automatically advance to the next stage. The semi finals, (Pakistan B v. Azerbaijan and McDermott v. India) will be played at TISA on 13 October.

By then, however, Azerbaijan will have said its farewells to the European Development Programme, as the long-discussed move to the Asia region has finally become reality. Alum Bati is optimistic about the move, and is keen to look to the future:

"The European Development Programme has been terrific. It helped when we needed it both in getting the Baku Cricket Club international attention and in getting a Flicx pitch to us - we used to get about 15 players per match before the pitch arrived and now we get about 30 wanting a game. On the one hand, we shall be sorry to be transferring from the EDP but we are enthusiastically looking forward to working with the ADP. We have already been in touch and are hoping to have a visit from the development officer later this year in order to discuss our needs. Ultimately, our aim is to have a thriving Azerbaijan Cricket Federation which can sustain itself."

Anyone wanting to know more about the Baku Cricket Club or sponsorship opportunities should contact Alum Bati at abati@salans.com