After an absence of a few years owing to the political and economical unrest in Indonesia's capital city, the Jakarta Cricket Association has successfully pulled off the Jakarta International Sixes.

Amongst the many results of the weekend was the fact that Jakarta is now back on the international cricket map, and most proudly so.

The tournament was held over the weekend of September 30th and October 1st, at the Ceylon Cricket Ground at Cibubur, in the ourskirts of Jakarta. The ground itself had undergone a facelift, with new boundary markers, and a giant electronic scoreboard amongst one of the latest facilities made possible by the tremendous and tireless efforts of the boys of the Ceylon Cricket Club. This ground is definitely the mecca of Jakarta cricket at the moment. The Texmaco conglomerate were the proud sponsors of this tournament, the Texmaco Cup and Plate.

Eight teams participated in this tournament. Originally, only one team was to represent Jakarta, but the last minute pull outs of the Brunei and Hong Kong teams left organizers scrambling to put up a President's team, in addition to the sponsor's team completely the eight. Overseas guests included Malaysia's Penang Sports Club and the UWC from Singapore.

From Indonesia, the Bali Int'l Cricket Foundation fielded a unique side, a majority of whom were indigenous Indonesians, setting foot on the Jakarta pitch for the first time in history. The West Java Wanderers from Bandung were the other side invited to this event, and the Penang Sports Club combined with some local powerhouses to complete the eight-team roster.

The Saturday saw the teams playing round-robin format in two groups to decide the seeding into the Sunday's knockout format. The overseas guests showed off their predicted strength with strong wins in the opening matches, leaving the Jakarta sides soundly defeated in their wakes. The only local side to really show off their strength were the Rebels CC, winners of the Jakarta Eights tournament in August.

The biggest upset of the Saturday must have come from the "real" local boys - the Bali boys meeting UWC, who until this their last match of the day, were undeafeated and strongly favored to railroad through the Indonesians. However, some extraordinary fielding, and a determined and unbeaten batting partnership between Gus & Soni from Bali, saw the crowd on its feet as the Bali boys disposed of the Singapore folks with some awesome style. Sunday was definitely going to be a different story, as now even the teams which had lost all 3 of their Saturday matches, suddenly felt they could have a chance advancing in the knockout format the next day.

Sunday brought in more spectators to the ground. With some fantastic catering arrangement by the Sandwich Kid outfit, the local beverages vendor, and the Carlsberg beer stand, the atmosphere was gearing up to be electrifying and exciting from the first ball bowled of the day.

The standard of cricket being played on Sunday was definitely turning to be in a class of its own. As teams progressed respectively into the Cup or Plate formats from the second round matches of the day, the Bali boys saw themselves facing the run-machines of the Penange B side, after they themselves had put on a respectable total of 50 runs in their 5 overs. They had the combined team pinned to the wall till the 2nd last ball of the over, and finally lost to a clever cut, which, had it not materialized, would have seen the Bali boys in to the Plate finals.

One Cup semi-final provided the best match of the tournament, in terms of the quality played on the ground. The Rebels CC batted first, and their famoud "guns" put on a very good total of 53 runs on the board. Their opponents, the Penang Sport Club "A" side were banking a win on their main batsman, Khalid, who again proved to be the pillar of the Malaysian's batting line up, smashing 23 runs in just less than 2 overs, before being magnificently caught by Rebel's JOhn Kett - a diving effort catching the sizzling liner to the square leg boundary. The catch was enough to earn John Kett the award for the Fielder of the Tournament. Khalid's efforts over 2 days won him the Best Batsman award, and also the Player of the Tournament Award. The reliable bowling of Rebel's led by captain, Marten Eddy, the tournament's Best Bowler, was not enough to hold back the Penang side, who eventually went into the Cup Final.

The day's first Final saw the Penang "B" side facing Singapore's UWC. A tight seasaw battle especially in the battings of both teams, saw the Penang "B" side edge the Singaporeans to win the Plate.

The other and main final, the Cup Final, saw the unbeaten Penang "A" side meet surprise finalists, Texmaco - the team put together last minute by the tournament sponsors, and which had also lost all their 3 games the day before. The pressure eventually told on the sponsor's boys, and they couldn't live up to the expectations of an exciting final, easily handing the TEXMACO CUP to the most deserving team in the tournament, Penang Sports Club "A".

At the end of the weekend, the visitors all went home most happy. The Bali boys especially having proven how well local Indonesians can adapt to the game and put on a proud display of total cricket. The Singaporeans from UWC went home with the PLATE, and the Malaysians went home with the CUP.

The biggest winners of the tournament were definitely everyone who participated or helped organize the event, showing to the world outside that Jakarta was now ready to receive any visiting teams for a great time of cricket and fun.

The Singapore Cricket Club will be sending a team to Jakarta for the last weekend of October, and the Manila Nomads are expected for another exciting weekend end of November. Cricket is getting "international" here in Jakarta, and the excitement just doesn't seem to die away at all.

© CricInfo Ltd