Ten teams from eight cricket regions nationally participated in the 4-day, 23-game tournament played at Stanford, Santa Clara, Cupertino and San Jose.

Hosts California Cricket Academy (CCA) won the Under-11, Under-13 championship while North West Centurions won Under-15.

“As organizers, CCA had dedicated this tournament to parent volunteers without whose support we would not have taken up this monumental task”, says Hemant Buch, Founder and President of the California Cricket Academy. “Our players recognized this dedication and won all three championships and made them proud. Our sponsors are also extremely happy with the organization of the tournament” continued Hemant.

On the eve of the tournament, captains of every participating team announced their intention to win the National Championship. And win they did...every kid who participated walked away with a memorable experience, new friendships, and significant education about the game, about fair play and about team spirit. A few outstanding children also took away individual trophies. CCAs Hersh Solanki (8), Arsh Buch (11, CCA) and Pranay Suri (12, CCA) and North West regions Akash Jagannathan (13) and Central Region’s Abhijit Joshi (14 ) won Man of the Tournament awards for U-11, U-13 and U-15 categories.

“Our kids were very happy with the food and hotel arrangement. We were very well taken care off”, says Mr. Ramachandran and Mr. Chidambar Joshi, Managers of the Central East. “Ground conditions were good and our kids gained valuable experience. We will come back”.

“This was extremely well organized event. G1G would always sponsor  such events organized by CCA as they have done tremendous job in organizing first ever National cricket tournament”, says Zain Jeewanji of g1g insurance, one of the sponsor of the event.

Game rules were clearly laid out well in advance, neutral umpires officiated the games, extensive use of technology helped teams get ball-by-ball statistics at any point in time, and grounds teams ensured that games started and ended on time. California Cricket Academy gave out a total of 75 individual performance awards, apart from the winners and runners-up trophies. Every participant also went home with a tournament memorabilia and every coach & manager a gift basket.  Visitors and players enjoyed the hospitality.

CCA is will soon commence evaluating the possibility of hosting an international tournament in 2007. While CCA believes that it has the organization muscle to pull such a mega event, its biggest challenge is to find a cricket ground in the bay area that pass the International Cricket Council’s strict inspection. CCA hopes to work with the City of Cupertino and Santa Clara & San Jose counties to get past this hurdle in its quest to bring cricket to the mainstream.