For the second year in a row the Chiang Mai Big Bash was a five team tournament with Washington CC from London joining regular visitors Pattaya and Patong and local sides Lanna and CMCC. Twelve 8-over matches were scheduled over two days as all five eight-man teams played four matches in the league stage with the competition concluding with a third and fourth place play-off and a grand final.
Washington’s players were rather short of match practice but tried hard in all four of their matches while Pattaya and Patong competed hard both on and off the field and enjoyed their battle for third place but the two strongest teams were Lanna and CMCC. Lanna finished top of the league table with four wins out of four, managing to beat CMCC for the first time in any form of cricket as they chased down a total of 86 with two overs to spare in the league match early on Sunday morning.
CMCC won three out of four matches with some heavy scoring with the bat and accurate bowling from Ismail while Pattaya chased down Patong’s impressive total of 117 to finish third in the league as Colin Josh and Simon all made runs.
With Washington able to relax at the bar, the weekend’s proceedings were completed with the two play-offs. The battle for third place between Pattaya and Patong was another thrilling contest but this time roles were reversed as Pattaya batted first and made 106 for 1 with Andy hitting 33 but Patong chased the runs down as Imtiaz made 34 and Justin 32.
The final between Lanna and CMCC saw exactly the same number of runs posted as CMCC bated first with Siddarth making 33 and the imperious Ismail 35. We had just seen that this total was not insurmountable but Ismail took a wicket in the first over and Asif rolled back the years with three wickets in his two overs. Although Martin Cardno finished a consistent weekend with 23 Lanna could manage only 76 for 6 and CMCC were crowned champions.
The presentations were made and Ismail was named player of the tournament and the bar profits for the weekend allowed a donation of more than 15 000 B could be made to CMSCA so that Martin and Puy Papworth could continue their program of coaching in local schools. Chiang Mai’s finest officials had a good workout on a busy weekend and the manual scoreboard was given a good test as the scoreboard console’s batteries finally gave up the ghost after 12 years.