Defending champions Nashua Nukes won the 2007 New England Cricket League (NECL) Invitation Tournament for the second consecutive year. They beat Nashua Spearheads by 6 wickets and maintained their dominance in the Nashua area.

In the semi finals the two Nashua teams Nashua Nukes and Nashua Spearheads withstood the challenge of Baba Lowell and UML-Seniors to reach the finals.

Spearheads won the toss and elected to bat first, in the allocated 16 overs they score 52 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Nukes batting second easily overtook the score and retained the Trophy for the second consecutive year. For Spearheads Sarju  shined with the bat scoring 14 runs. Nukes bowlers Prashant, Kalidas, Parag and Deven dominated with their bowling and had a stranglehold on the Spearheads batting right from the start of the Spearheads innings. The opening batsmen of Nukes, Jay Agasthi and Narasimha then dominated the bowling of Spearheads and built a steady partnership of 39 runs in 8 overs with each hitting a scintillating six before they separated. With only 14 runs to get it became a formality for the rest of the Nukes batsmen to complete the win.

The MVP for Finals was presented to Prashant Darisi of Nukes for his outstanding all round display in batting, bowling (4 wickets) and fielding (4 catches), the best batsman of the finals was bagged by Jay Agasthi of Nukes for his enterprising 18 runs and the best bowler of the finals was Kalidas Surapaneni of Nukes for his spell of 4 overs-7 runs-1 wicket. The MVP of the Tournament  was Parag Shastri of Nukes who scored with the bat frequently with his highest score being an unbeaten 49 runs which helped Nukes enter the semi-finals and struck with the ball as well with 13 wickets. The MVPs for the semi finals were presented to Narasimha of Nashua Nukes (38 runs) and Sarju of Nashua Spearheads for his performance with both the bat and the ball. Outstanding performance awards were presented to Shashank Prabhu of Nukes, Mikunj Joshi of Spearheads, Kiran of Cric Freaks, Sabeeh Ehsan from UML – Seniors, Chetan Patel of Phillips and Rohan of Baba Lowell. Special recognition awards were presented to Vrushi of Cric Freaks and Hitesh of Phillips.

Nashua Nukes started Cricket in Nashua in 1998. With more Indians joining the Nashua cricket became a popular sport and today Nashua boasts of 6 cricket teams.
With the popularity it gained, three individuals (Lalit Shinda – Nashua Nukes, Renuka Prasad – Cric Freaks and Saqib Ali – Nashua Spearheads) formulated a invitation Cricket league in August 2006 and The New England Cricket League (NECL) came into existence.

Unlike last year where the league was limited to Nashua Teams, this year’s the league expanded to include teams from Merrimack and Massachusetts and was conducted over the last 3 months. The participating teams included Nashua Nukes, Nashua Spearheads, CricFreaks, UML Seniors, Baba Lowell, Phillips and Infosys.

Prasad of Cric Freaks and Lalit Shinde of Nashua Nukes introduced Newly elected Nashua Aldermen, Mr. Mike Tabacsko and Mr Jeff Cox as the Chief Guests. They  distributed the awards to all the outstanding performers in the Tournament.

Kalidas who started cricket in Nashua talked about the importance of playing cricket which is a big part of our culture and how it is a good outlet for creating a good work-life balance. He also talked about the efforts of organizations like IDRF which uses cricket as a platform for raising funds for various philanthropic activities.

Speaking on the occasion Chief Guest, Mike Tabascko, Nashua Alderman talked about the Diversity of the ethnic groups in Nashua and how the city of Nashua has been the most comfortable place to live for various ethnic communities. He encouraged the Indian community to participate in developing Nashua and make it even a better place to live.

Chief Guest, Jeff Cox, Nashua Alderman, mentioned that sports unite people and how important it is to encourage sports to eradicate other ills of the society. He added that he was thrilled that Nashua added a new sport in Cricket to the already popular American sports that are played here.

Jay Agasthi, captain of Nashua Nukes mentioned that Nukes is the most successful team in the area and has won or have been the finalists in many tournaments in the New England area. He mentioned that Nukes set an example with their discipline, playing fair & hard and most importantly they enjoy the game and it was a pleasure for him to lead the team.

Saqib Ali the Captain of Nashua Spearheads showed tremendous competitive spirit and mentioned that his team will work hard and get back to the finals next year and give a much improved competition to Nukes … he compared Nukes to the Yankees and his team to that of the Red Sox. He added that Spearheads is not far behind in winning the next tournament.

Today Nashua has over 120 cricketers and this year NECL an Invitation tournament attracted teams from University of Mass, Corporations like Phillips & Infosys, Local Mass Teams in addition to the three Nashua Teams etc.

Cricket in New England has contributed quite significantly to Philanthropic causes and every year it contributes $15000-$18000 to various charities. IDRF a major philanthropic organization sponsors an annual cricket tournament where 60-80 teams from all over New England participate for various social causes which include local soup kitchens, education in 3rd world countries, Katrina Relief, Supporting the Homeless etc.

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