Jewish Cricketers: High hopes for Great Britain’s Maccabiah team

[Puck]

Great Britain will be represented at the Maccabiah Games this summer as some of the most talented Jewish cricketers from these shores bid to win gold.

The Games, held for the 17th time, take place in Israel in July and are now the second largest sports gathering in the world after the Olympic Games. Six thousand Jewish athletes from over 50 countries are expected to compete in 45 different sports.

Confidence is high in the Great Britain camp ahead of the events. Team manager Nigel Rothband told ecb.co.uk he was bullish about the team’s chances of success in Israel: “We’d be disappointed not to come back with medals; you don’t bother going to a tournament if you don’t think you can win it.”

Such words will undoubtedly fill the camp with belief, something not lacking anyway bearing in mind the calibre of the team’s leader on the pitch, captain Darren Gerard. Known as Dazzla, the right-arm fast bowler is an Oxford University Blue, and one of the GB team’s sources of inspiration.

According to Rothband, the team is well balanced with “a good blend of youth and experience”. This comes partly as a result of two squad members having been to a Maccabiah Games before. Opening bowler Andy Daniels and Mike Jacobs have both represented Great Britain at previous tournaments and will be hoping to do well again this time around.

A 13-man squad has been announced with Gerard captain and Jeremy Mordrick vice-captain. The team begin their quest for honours on July 10 against host nation, Israel. After this, they will pit their wits against Australia, South Africa and India.

The latter three all have strong reputations for being extremely strong cricketing nations, so Great Britain can expect a hard test in their search for honours. Rothband commented, “It will be a challenge for the boys, but we are very confident. The team have been together since last year, and are as well prepared as a Great Britain Maccabiah cricket team has ever been.”

A challenge it should prove, too, bearing in mind some of the players Great Britain are likely to come up against. Australian ex-Test player Julian Wiener, South African internationals Adam Bacher and Terrence Lazard, Derbyshire’s Jon Moss and a number of Irish internationals including current captain Jason Mollins are some of the famous names competing at the Games.

Great Britain will also be sending a squad for the junior tournament, consisting of 14 boys aged between 14 and 17 to compete against Australia, Israel and South Africa.

By Tom Littlefield

http://www.ecb.co.uk/news/features/h...m,4599,EN.html

[Fazal]

so...?

[al Furqaan]

man we should have some pan islamic games or something...maybe we do.

interesting stuff...cricket needs all the exposure it can get. good for the game.

[rah]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
man we should have some pan islamic games or something...maybe we do.

interesting stuff...cricket needs all the exposure it can get. good for the game.

exactly, i wos surprised that this is the second biggest sport gatthering after the olympics..........if their were a muslim one, then the jewish one will be like tiny to us

[Tintin]

Originally Posted by rah
exactly, i wos surprised that this is the second biggest sport gatthering after the olympics..........if their were a muslim one, then the jewish one will be like tiny to us

Anybody can claim just about anything. This is what the article says :

The Games, held for the 17th time, take place in Israel in July and are now the second largest sports gathering in the world after the Olympic Games. Six thousand Jewish athletes from over 50 countries are expected to compete in 45 different sports.

2006 Asian Games had 10,500 athletes from 45 countries.

If you are counting the countries alone, I am sure that World Railway games will probably have people from more countries Infact, the last world university games did have 10,000 sportsmen from 170 nations.

[Puck]

i don't think we ought to draw up boundaries along religious lines where sport is concerned.

cricket does need all the exposure it can get and i think sport could act as a bridge. the cmile might not be so conducive but i would love to see more middle eastern teams take an interest in cricket. sport builds unity.

[Sohel]

Reading some of the vaguely anti-semetic post in here, I've gotta say this: -

"Ha zikhron dvorim" ...

[Kabir]

Sohel bhai, please translate that to English or Bangla.

I'm surprised to see a few posts here. Enough said.

Has anyone seen Israeli cricket fields? They're without any grass. I'll try to post a picture.

[Sohel]

Originally Posted by Kabir
Sohel bhai, please translate that to English or Bangla.

I'm surprised to see a few posts here. Enough said.

Has anyone seen Israeli cricket fields? They're without any grass. I'll try to post a picture.

"The past continues" ... double-edged Hebrew phrase.

[Kabir]

Found some, here. Of course I'm generalizing, but it gave me a good laugh.

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76416.jpg

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76418.jpg

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76417.jpg

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by Kabir
Found some, here. Of course I'm generalizing, but it gave me a good laugh.

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76416.jpg

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76418.jpg

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76417.jpg

Huh, the pitch only looks green and the rest grey. Usually its goes the other way..

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by Surfer
Huh, the pitch only looks green

that's because they play on mats. i personally hate mats.

[Dhruvo]

Originally Posted by Kabir
Found some, here. Of course I'm generalizing, but it gave me a good laugh.

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76416.jpg

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76418.jpg

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76417.jpg

Those guys know nothing about cricket,the next thing you will see is them wearing helmets in their bottoms lol!!.

[rah]

Originally Posted by Dhrubo
Those guys know nothing about cricket,the next thing you will see is them wearing helmets in their bottoms lol!!.

lool i wanna see eitha iraq or palestine start playing cricket, and whipe ISREALLES a$$es

[Padosan]

Originally Posted by Kabir
Found some, here. Of course I'm generalizing, but it gave me a good laugh.

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76416.jpg

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76418.jpg

http://www.cricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/76400/76417.jpg

oooh these remind me of the days back in our local leagues and stuff, really guys some of the grounds look similar outfield. they are huge, basically undeveloped barren lands. These are express fast outfields with lots of speed breakers(just to give you a bad bounce) and pebbles along the way. If you can dive and stop the ball here, you will be fearless.

We used to call the 3rd man and fine leg guys as auto wallahs coz if the ball beats the keeper it keeps going until it stops a few kilometres down. the faster the bowler the farther it goes. the deep fielders needs a auto to go fetch them , i am not exaggerating but we used to have a guy with cycle behind the keeper just in case.

cheers !
Padosan

[Hatebreed]

I'd love to see Israel getting their a$$es handed to them. Does Iraq or Palestine play cricket?

[Tintin]

Israel took part in five ICC trophies, the latest in 2001. Didn't win anything though. Bangladesh has never played them.

Israel was involuntarily involved in a hilarious incident in the 1996/7 ICC trophy in Malaysia though. The match between Netherlands and Canada was abandoned because a crowd invaded the pitch. The reason - Israel was scheduled to play Gibralter there but that match was moved to a different venue at the last moment. The protesters didn't know that !

[al Furqaan]

last pick looks like a decent back foot off-drive...

[Murad]

i've made a post here earlier but i dont see it now.. did any mod delete it??

[Puck]

was your post antisemitic?