Argentina: Rain ravages MCC tour; Nail-biting finish to domestic league
8 March 2001
Rain has ravaged the current MCC tour of Argentina, and thus far only 2 games have been completed, with the other four scheduled games washed out without a
ball being bowled.
The touring MCC side won their first two outings, although they encountered
spirited opposition from North and South XI's respectively.
In the first game of the tour, at Hurlingham, the MCC won by 29 runs, scoring
233 in their allotted 50 overs, to which the North XI replied with 204. The following day, at Lomas, it was even closer, the South XI compiling 213 for 6 in 50 overs, and the MCC got home by 4 wickets with 8 balls to spare.
The scheduled three-day match from 9 to 11 March has now been replaced with one-day matches, which suits the Argentine squads preparation ahead of the June ICC Trophy.
The Argentine First Division will ultimately be decided on the final day of
league fixtures, with the Lomas Eagles enjoying a 16 point advantage over second placed Belgrano Cavaliers.
However, with the local league format, and a maximum 30 points on offer in each game, the last round of fixtures, to be played on Sunday 25 March, promise to be nail-biting affairs.
Lomas travel to play the Hurlingham Hawks, while Belgrano host last years
champions, the St.Albans Sharks.
The respective Junior North v South matches ended with the North winning both
contests by 2 matches to 1.
At under 13 and under 15 level, the three-match series between the regional
representative sides provided good cricket, with a lot of optimism for the
future evident.
The 102nd contest of the annual three-day North v South match takes place at
Lomas from 16 to 18 March.
This keenly fought affair will be tinged with sadness this year, as over 100
years of cricket history will come to a close at the end of the match, as the
Lomas ground will be turned over to make way for an artificial hockey pitch.
The club's cricketers are relocating to new facilities to be built at
Longchamps.
The much-anticipated inauguration of the new cricket pitch and ground at Nahuelin Rosario was regrettably washed out.
The MCC travelled to Rosario to play an ACA Presidents XI, but rain prevented
any cricket or ceremony from taking place.
On Sunday, however, Lomas B travelled to Rosario for a Saturday Championship
fixture, and fittingly, the youngsters had the privilige of first cricket on the new artificial surface, made possible by funding assistance from ICC
Development.
Not surprisingly, with the crazy days of summer being experienced here at the
moment, the match was later anandoned after one innings due to excessively hot conditions.
Rosario cricket has come on in leaps and bounds after one year of activity, and already some of the juniors are being lined up for representative action.
Argentina's preparations for the ICC Trophy continue in earnest, and a
three-week coaching visit from former West Indian star Alvin Kallicharran was
hugely successful.
His visit was made possible thanks to the efforts of the touring Buckingham
Cavaliers team. Kallicharran, who coached Kenya at the 1999 World Cup, proved immensely popular with the players, and his wealth of knowledge and expertise, as well as his no-nonsense approach has added to the continued improvement of the team.
Although some way ahead of schedule, the national selctors have released a
provisional list of 25 players for selection for the final 14 for the ICC
Trophy.
They are: Guillermo Kirschbaum, Donny Forrester, Alejandro Ferguson, Paul
Ferguson, Gaston Arizaga, Martin Cortabarria, Andres Perez Rivero (Belgrano),
Diego Lord, Esteban MacDermott, Martin Siri, Bernardo Irigoyen, Charles Gibson, Paul Ryan, Juan Pablo Pussi, Norberto Iglesias (Lomas), Murray Davis, Gerben Zwaga, Malcolm Van Steeden, Derek Culley (Hurlingham), Christian Tuņon, Matias Paterlini, Lucas Paterlini, Tomas Francis, Agustin Casime and Hernan Pereyra (St.Albans).
The 14 players to travel to Toronto will be formally announced after the Robin Stuart Shield final, to be played on Sunday 1st April.
© 2001 CricInfo Ltd
