ME On-line - Colts/Dragons 1999-2000 Season

The 1999 / 2000 season was a bellwether one for the KCC as it marked year the Colts were formed from the remnants of the groundbreaking Dragons Team.

At the commencement of the season there was a considerable amount of uncertainty within the cricket section as to whether or not it would be viable to continue with a youth development team along the lines of the Dragons. Key Dragons players Eddie Tse, Bharat Gohel, Ravi Sujanani and Sher Lama had moved onto other KCC teams or taken a spell from the Sunday league and this had eroded the core of the team. However, thankfully two KCC veterans, Tony Lethbridge and Anthony Correa, stood up and volunteered their services to take on the considerable task of developing a new youth side within the KCC. They were fully supported in these efforts by the cricket section committee, the Hong Kong Cricket Association and Lal Jayasinghe in particular, who was looking for an opportunity to blood a number of his junior players in the Sunday league.

The core of the Colts was initially formed by drawing on the more senior players of the Hong Kong U19 squad. These players included a number of promising youngsters such as Dyutish Chaudhuri, Danish Qureshi, Dinesh Uyangoda, Zubair Nizami, and Ritesh Jhaveri. Maurice Ling also returned to the KCC to become an important member of the team. These 6 players in addition to the 2 senior KCC pros and Lal constituted the core of the team for the season. For a few of the weeks over Christmas and New Year, we were fortunate to have the services of Michael Wong and Grayson Tyndale who were on Australian school holidays and they proved to be handy additions in the field and with the bat.

Our initial results were mixed. The season commenced with a washout against the HKCC Optimists, and our first game was against the Infidels at the KCC. The game set the trend for the following 6 weeks, whereby the Colts were unable to post a score that would prove to be competitive against any of the established Sunday league sides. Our inability to score above 150 runs led to losses against the Infidels, Friends XI, Templars, Little Sai Wan and the Pakistan Association. The primary reason for the inability to score runs, was a lack of discipline amongst our batsman. On far too many occasions we threw our wickets away and paid the price for rash shot making. Our bowlers were also erred by bowling far too short and wide against some very good batting in the Sunday league. This inability to tie teams down in the field resulted in a large number of our bowlers being hit for more than 6 runs per over making it difficult for our batsmen to chase scores of 250-300 runs.

The turning point came against the Vagabonds when we recorded our first win of the season. This game was different from the others because it was the first game when the Colts bowled and batted sensibly. In particular an improved bowling effort by Dinesh, Danish and Lal resulted in the Vagabonds being dismissed for under 200 and importantly for the first time in 7 weeks, the Colts started to take their catches and started to do justice to their fielding. The resulting chase also proved to be decisive, with Dyuts and Maurice providing leadership with the bat. The resulting win was a highpoint for the season and showed that we were capable of winning in the Sunday league.

In subsequent games the Colts proved to be far more competitive notwithstanding the fact that we recorded losses against the Scorpions, Optimists, Infidels, and Little Sai Wan . However the difference in these losses was that the Colts were able to post competitive scores of 200 plus, take wickets and become competitive with its fielding and catching. The improvement by some of the key players including Dyutish, Dinesh and Danish was clear for all to see, including many of the opposition were surprised by a rapid improvement amongst the Colts players.

The longer the season progressed, the more it became clear that there were a number of other Colts players were able to perform at the Sunday league level. These players included Rohan Boghani, Nazan Mohammed, Yogesh Muthani, Neeraj Savalani, and Tommy Yau . These players showed much potential over several games and demonstrated that there was a considerable degree of depth in the Colts squad. There was also an improved performance on the part of team vets who got into their stride the longer the season progressed with Lal and Lethers taking crucial wickets and Tony Correa reeling off several 50’s after Chinese New Year.

The Cup Competition provided us with an opportunity to improve on our regular season performances. The first game against the Infidels was a poor one for the Colts and we went down convincingly. However, in the second game against the Fleet CC the Colts proved to be too strong defeating the wildcard entrants convincingly with our wily leg spinner Yorgi taking 5 wickets for 31 and Tony Correa and Maurice scoring 75 and 36 respectively in a run chase of 153.

The second game of the plate competition saw the Colts against the HKCC Optimists and this proved to be the outstanding game of the season. Chasing a formidable 268 the Colts managed to beat the more fancied Optimists at the DBS Ground. This win marked the emergence of Neeraj, who scored 86 and took 5 for 51 to finally demonstrate his all round ability with the bat and ball. Neeraj had been unable to play for much of the season but showed much improvement with the ball in the Cup games and against the Optimists he also showed that he could score runs in pressure situations. Dyutish also pitched in with his customary 50 and in an all round team effort both Maurice with 41 and Zubbie with 34 made significant contributions. Danish also returned to some of his early season form with 3 for 20.

In the final of the Plate the unfancied Colts went down fighting to the Friends XI. In a match, which could have been won, our inexperience let us down and by dropping too many catches the Friends were able to score 195, Lethers took 5 wickets. In reply the Colts just fell short by 11 runs with Dyutish making a patient 75 while batting with a runner and Sean Brierly notching up 32. Once again the encouraging part of the chase was that the younger players took the lead chasing a difficult total in the final.

Overall an encouraging season for the Colts. Making the Plate final in our first season was a fine achievement and we look forward to better results in the Sunday league next year. Our best batsman of the season was Dyuts with 357 runs at 24 and he showed he can now take the next step to scoring 500 runs next season if he applies himself. Our best bowler was Dinesh who took 14 wickets at 32, and showed that he can be a quality strike bowler if he works on his line and length next year.

We look for more consistency from our core players next year, and more commitment to the team from emerging players Rohan, Keiran, Raj, Tommy, Vickram and Yorgi who for various reasons could not play as many games as they would have liked.

Many thanks to skip Lethers who laboured many an afternoon and evening trying to put together the side, and we hope next year that there will be more reports of Colts wins in the Members End.

Batting	Innings	Not Outs	Runs	50’s	Average
Dyutish Chauduri Maurice Ling Anthony Correa Lal Jayasinghe Tony Lethbridge Michael Wong Rohan Boghani Danish Qureshi Ritesh Jharvei	15 9 11 7 12 5 6 13 11	- 1 - 1 3 - - - 1	357 188 253 133 174 56 64 99 75	3 1 3 - - - - - -	23.80 23.50 23.00 22.17 19.33 11.20 10.67 7.62 7.50
Bowling	Overs	Wickets	Runs	Economy	Average
Lal Jayasinghe Dyutish Chaudhuri Dinesh Uyangoda Anthony Correa Tony Lethbridge Danish Qureshi	59 59.3 93 92.5 64 87	11 12 14 12 9 10	257 327 446 475 430 480	4.36 5.51 4.80 5.14 6.72 5.52	23.36 27.25 31.86 39.58 47.78 48.00