Expect great things from CCUSA in New Year

BOCA RATON/FL – USA: The year 2020 was a very challenging one for everyone around the globe but 2021 will be a great year for cricketers and cricket in the United States according to chairman and CEO of Cricket Council USA (CCUSA) Mahammad Qureshi.

Plans were afoot for the staging of a Women’s Maq Cricket59 tournament under CCUSA in March when the Covid 19 Pandemic started to ravish the world and cricket was put on hold.

CCUSA had to shelve all plans for that tournament and also had to put on the back burner the preparations for the USA National MaqT10 tournament, an annual affair.

After a couple of months, the Qureshi called in his troops and started to look for safe ways to get players back on the park. After receiving many calls from frustrated cricketers he opened up his Maq Cricket Stadium and outfitted it with all that was necessary to stage cricket safely in the pandemic.

CCUSA started to host weekend matches and players were driving from as far away as Orlando to be part of the action. Qureshi then staged the coup de gras when he successfully hosted the 12th edition of the US Open T20 tournament in December with a number of world stars in attendance. The title was won by Atlanta Param Veers with Chris Gayle on board.

Now looking ahead to the new year Qureshi is optimistic that better times are in the making. “We had a tough year in 2020 and although we fought gallantly at CCUSA to bring cricket, it came at great sacrifice. The legacy of this is that our administration at CCUSA learned a lot by having to dig deep to make things happen. So in the new year, we will be able to easily roll out our tournaments and programs to the great benefit of all in America.

“The Corona vaccine is here and this gives us great hope. The cricket vaccine was always there because we developed that many years ago to rescue cricket in this country.

“In the new year, we hope to stage our USA Nationals MaqT10 tournament and then of course the 13th edition of the US Open T20 from December 14 to 19. We want to resume our work in schools in terms of introducing the game to the young ones and we also want to push ahead with a lot of work at the CCUSA Academy where kids and adults can come and improve their game.

“We will also look to push a lot of work in terms of developing women’s cricket as we see this as critical moving forward. In addition to all of this, we have joined hands with the US Cricket Hall of Fame and will be hosting a week of Veteran World Cup cricket leading to the awards in October.”