Cricket Indonesia Bajo 20's 2008

5th Bajo International 20s 2008 playing for THE BRUCE CHRISTIE CUP at Labuan Bajo, Flores, Nusa Tenggara Timor, Indonesia The only 20 – 20 International Tournament in Indonesia 11th – 14th June 2008

Against a background of green hills and a blue sky (see photo 4), the Bajo 20s was opened by The Head of Tourism, Kabupaten Manggerai and attended by a number of local dignitaries. This tournament is unique in Indonesia as the VIPs are led onto the field by young maidens in local dress singing; then the event is blessed and consummated by drinking Arak (a lethal local brew) and by the donation of a superb white cock to the most important guest (see photo 2).

The same 20 – 20 format was used as in previous years and 8 local teams (Rajawali, Kancil, Labuan Bajo, Komodo, Bidadari, Kuda Laut, Harimau and Batu Cermin) took part. These teams are based at the two cricket clubs in the town, namely The Komodo CC based at The Bajo Komodo eco Lodge and the Labuan Bajo CC based at The School of Tourism. All teams were captained by locals. This year, a new scoreboard (donated by Jukung Dive – photo 1) added a new dimension of professionalism.

This is just a great tournament and expats and persons outside Flores are encouraged to play and assigned to local teams. The eventual aim is to draw in whole outside teams to play and this dream took a giant step forward in 2008 with the opening of The Bintang Flores, a 60 bed room four star hotel and plans for an 80 bed Jayakarta Hotel are in chain. The number of direct flights direct from Bali to Labuan Bajo from 3 airlines are now over 15 per week. Labuan Bajo is a good family destination with wonderful reefs for diving/snorkelling, the unique Komodo ragons in the Komodo National Park, some endemic bird species and beautiful scenery in the surrounding mountains. One good website organised by Swiss Contact (funded by AusAID) is www.floreskmodo.com Thus families are encouraged in 6th Bajo 20s in 2009 (dates 16th – 19th June 2009) as there is plenty of time outside the times of cricket to enjoy the area.

Local Manggrerai music, which has a Pacific flavour, was played throughout the tournament and both batsmen and fielders swung to its rhythm. During the opening, speeches were heard from the Secretary of the Tournament (Pak Sypri who also played for Kancil), The Head of Tourism who emphasised the role of cricket in future tourism, The Chairman of Cricket Flores (Moses Magong – see photo 3) who stressed the importance of the tournament in the strategy to spread cricket throughout the province of NTT and The President of Cricket Indonesia (also played for Labuan Bajo) who said what a great pleasure it was to be here and particularly praised the efforts of the local committee. The establishment of a well stocked bar was also appreciated by visiting cricketers from Australia and Holland.

Each team played once each day with those getting into the Semi Finals and Final playing extra games. Unseasonal heavy rain on day 1 washed out the fourth game of the tournament which meant very early starts on days 2 and 3. The standard of play this year had greatly improved over previous years especially in the fielding and bowling compartments of the game. Some great cricket was played and the Final was between BIDADARI – photo 6 (a team which was all locals with no expat or outside input and captained by Lambertus Teo, fast left arm swing) and KANCIL (with Tammy Norquay playing from Australia). BIDADARI batting first made 6 for 146 from 20 overs. KANCIL could only make 126 from their 20 overs. The main difference was superb catching by BIDADARI. If anyone is interested in the scores of other matches, please contact The Secretary of Cricket Flores, Ferandes Nato (Nando) on Mob 62 81 338031389 or email at lodge@ecolodgesindonesia.com

The Best Fielder of the tournament was BENI, the best batsmen GERRY and the best bowler STEPFAN (who has obtained a cricket scholarship from Ecolodgesindonesia to study cricket at The Bali Cricket Centre). Nando, who played for Indonesia in New Zealand in 2007 was the first scholar in this program.

The main lesson from this tournament is that Cricket Flores is capable of attracting enough local sponsorship to pay for the tournament and that their organisation was now ready to face the challenges of a growing tournament. The committee has grown in stature and are a credit to West Manggerai. However the outside assistance from CRICKET INDONESIA is still essential and inputs from Soni Hawoe, Tamara Norquay (see photo 5) and Putra Darmawan were greatly appreciated. All assisted in scoring, umpiring and also played for a local team. Tamara was called “The Queen of Labuan Bajo” and Putra was a big star with the local girls.

SPONSORS (see photo 7 for those who sponsored teams)

The following sponsors are acknowledged with thanks

The generosity of students of Sydney University, Australia through David Christie who donated hundreds of dollars of equipment especially bats and gloves in excellent condition. Bali International CC; Bintang Flores Hotel; Dive Komodo; Ecolodgesindonesia; Flores Trail Tours; Golo Hill Top Hotel, Labuan Bajo; Indonesia Air Transport; Indonesia Rural & Agriculture Development Foundation; Jukung Dive, Ahmed, Bali (see photo 1); Reef Seekers Dive; Swiss Contact; Restaurant Artomoro, Labuan Bajo; School of Tourism, Labuan Bajo; Udayana CC, Bali.

The following individuals gave from their private resources:

Bapaks Flory, Theodorus Jahanu, Marel Asmat, Dorteus Jamin, staff of Swiss Contact (Thomas Ulrich, John Raja, Arie Saridin, Lilibeth Coronads, Patrizia Kieliger), Haji Musa, Theo Hamun, and the staff of The Bajo Komodo eco Lodge. Some of these persons are not wealthy and their contributions are greatly appreciated.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We wish to especially acknowledge all members of the local committee who made this tournament such a local success and managed to obtain such a lot of sponsors. Due to their efforts, cricket is now a game talked about in the bars of the village of Labuan Bajo. Without support from a coach from Cricket Indonesia, they themselves have achieved the spread of the game not only in Labuan Bajo but 120 km into the mountains to Ruteng. The Tournament is now established with great government support. We now hope for support from the international community.

AGM OF CRICKET FLORES (CF) June 13th 2008
The AGM of CF was held after the Dinner hosted by The School of Tourism on the last evening of the Tournament. Chaired by Moses Magong it was also attended by The Director of the School of Tourism, Manager of Bintang Flores Hotel, Local Head of Swiss Contact, the Head of The Guides Association, Head of Tourism, many school headmasters and teachers, President of CI, the most Senior coach of CI, our AYAD scholar and around 60 players who played in he Bajo 20s.

It was a harmonious and great evening held in the true spirit of cricket and of West Manggerai. Opinions were sought on a number of topics from all members. The following important topics were discussed with relevant action taken.

Apologies were received from Mr Ian Jasper who had intended to come but had been drawn away by the visit by the Australian PM visiting his project in Aceh. There was around of warm applause for the contribution of Mr Jasper to the Association.

1. Moses Magong was popularly confirmed as Chairman of CF for another year
2. The President of The Komodo CC (Sylvester Wanggel) stood down and Bp Arie Daru was unanimously elected for 2008/09. Pak Arie is the Head of the Guides Association a very influential group in the local tourist scene.
3. It was reported that CF now had its own bank account
4. Payment of Rp 1,000,000 will be paid to CI for Affiliate Membership asap.
5. The Chairman reported on the spread of cricket by their own teachers to the town of Ruteng 120 km into the mountains of Flores. Two secondary schools are now playing the game and it is hoped they will send a team to The Bajo 20s 2009. The President CI paid tribute to CF for its pioneering role in the development game through the 10 point program without a full time CI coach.
6. The Chairman also reported the success of The Alan Wilson Cup for the Primary School league. This year it was organised by Tamara Norquay with 5 schools playing cricket over 2 days. It was a great success.
7. The Chairman also thanked Tammy for starting womens cricket in Labuan Bajo (amidst a lot of applause) and hoped that the local committee would take this on.
8. The need for a full time coach was tabled again. The President CI stated he would try and write a special proposal to the ICC for support. In the meantime, he stated that The Bajo eco Lodge could not afford the time of Nando any longer as he is a key member of staff and with business booming is needed. However he guaranteed private
funding for two local coaches – Victorianus Don (who agreed to give up his school career to become a full time coach; he has coached in his spare time) and Satwan who will receive special training in Bali. The support of The President of the BICC is also guaranteed in this program.
9. The awards for the Bajo 20s 2008 were then given out involving most of the members at the Meeting culminating in great excitement as The Bruce Christie Cup was given to the Bidadari captain Lambertus Teo.

Don’t forget The Bajo Interantional 20s 2009 – June 16th – 19th Contact for infoFernandes Nato (Nando) email lodge@ecolodgesindonesia.com Mob 62 81 338031389
Soni Hawoe (Soni) email sonihawoe@gmail.com Mob 62 81 558515669
Alan Wilson email alanwilson21@hotmail.com Mob 081 23809861