Stories often start with phrases such as ‘once upon a time’, ‘a long time ago’, or something along those lines. One of the more interesting stories in the world of Cricket has been the rise of T20 cricket, which in turn has led to the rise of a number franchise based leagues across the globe. The IPL is easily one of the more such recognized leagues. However, that’s not what I will be talking about today.
Three years ago, in the latter part of summer 2009, the dearth of opportunities to play competitive cricket, coupled with the large number of players looking for such opportunities, and inspired to no smaller extent by the success the IPL, gave birth to the MPL. Over its three editions, the MPL has grown to be the premier event for our club, for our season.
The first edition of the MPL, over fall ’09, was organized in an ad-hoc manner, with ground permits coupled with fickle weather, making it a challenge to draw up a fixed schedule. We played our matches at the Mary Dennison Playground, in Framingham – a few on weekday evenings as long as daylight allowed us, and the remaining matches over weekend mornings. However, we had a lot of fun, and we knew we were part of something special.
Three teams formed through player auctions, where in three captains were hand-picked and given $100 – virtual money of course – to bid on players. The Sledgemasters won the first edition, defeating the Super Kings in a well fought final, with the JuggerNauts being the third team in the mix.
We had more luck with the ground permit in the second edition of the MPL – played at Sargent Field in Natick through the month of August, and Marry Dennison Playground in Framingham through September – but it wasn’t as easy as we would have liked. We managed to address a few logistical issues, including score keeping and scheduling. The Geek Squad and Mavericks joined the JuggerNauts in the second edition, with the JuggerNauts defeating the Geek Squad in the finals.
The third edition of the MPL, in 2011, was easily the best of the lot. With more members chipping in, we formed a group on Facebook for all sorts of banter – credit to Ankit for pushing this along. Chirag and Kunal chipped in with setting up a website and a database for tracking schedules, scores, standings and statistics. The site was setup on a free, shared web-host, making the availability of bandwith a challenge. We, a group of about 50, managed to crash the site by attempting to access it, all at the same time, as soon as the site went live. Over the duration of the third edition of the MPL, the site was a great resource, and a success story of its own.
We moved from scoring on paper to scoring using the CricMitra app, which was great in getting consistent scorecards. Chirag and Kunal put together a system to parse the scorecard at the end of the match and update player statistics and team standings, something all of us looked forward to eagerly – members of the winning team especially.
Hundred’s of photos were taken and uploaded to the Facebook group. These photos were a rage of their own, and convey a story for each match. As this site comes to life, we will need to import/upload all those photos over here. Ping one of us if you are willing to volunteer for this.
Permit for Sargent Field was available for the duration of the tournament, thus addressing the biggest road-block over the previous two editions. Just around two miles from the company, a serene sight, a beautiful ground, Sargent Field has become the home ground for us. The MPL will not be the same if it isn’t played at Sargent Field. We are grateful to the town of Natick for this amazing ground.
The Centurions defeated the Subjugators in the finals, after both edged out the Mavericks on NRR to make it to the finals. Each team played the other four times, and each team finished with 4 wins and 4 loses at the end of the round-robin stage. The chemistry between the teams matched the hype surrounding the match-ups, and the quality of cricket was top-notch.
With a significant number of people joining the company since the last edition, we are hoping to add a fourth team into the mix this year. Matches were scheduled over Tuesday’s and Thursday’s in MPL 2011. We are hopeful about scheduling matches on Wednesday’s as well. Each team played 8 matches in the round-robin stage last year. That could go up to 9 matches this year.
If all of this sounds exciting, we’d love to hear from you. We’d love to have you play with us. Characters especially are welcome to add some more color to our vibrant group.
Cricket Max could well claim to be the stepping stone towards T20 cricket, the growing success of which in turn led an idea called the MPL. The runaway success of MPL 2011 was a large step towards establishing the same as the cricket tournament for members of the MCC. As we move forward with our desire to improve further, we hope to establish something that can touch the lives of more people.
As the 2012 season draws closer, the bar for the MPL is set high. We hope to raise it higher. Bringing this site to life, a permanent home for all the ‘Buzz’ on the MPL, is the first step towards that goal.
A lot of excitement, and plenty of promise. MPL 2012, tentatively scheduled for July-August, is keenly awaited and cannot come sooner. Here’s awaiting another summer filled with memories, another story worth conveying again and again.
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