MARGATE/ USA: The popular Maq Cricket59 comes to America on Sunday with an exhibition match to be held at the MAQ Cricket Stadium in Boca Raton.
The Maq Cricket59 made its debut in November 2019 at the Carib Lumber Ball Park in St. Maarten. The tournament was a success with Pelicans winning the first title.
The Maq Cricket59 an idea conceptualized by cricket administrator Mahammad Qureshi is a 59-ball match with the first ball being a ‘free hit’. In the inaugural tournament, this created tremendous excitement as batsmen took a liking to the short format. Out of the eight matches and 16 innings, seven sixes were struck off the first ball due to the ‘free hit’ idea.
On Sunday there will be an exhibition Maq Cricket59 match that takes place in Boca Raton and Qureshi has been able to get several cricketers from the South Florida area to come in and play the match as it will be used to launch the format in America.
Qureshi explained: “We are going to bring Maq Cricket 59 to America. We are initially going to form four teams in South Florida, the Reds, Greens, Blues, and Yellows and have a tournament. We are then going to record all the performances so players can track their play and have their statistics and other details readily available.
“Our aim is to build a strong league in a professional manner to take the game to the next level. This is sadly missing at the moment and we want to put this right. After this tournament, we will be taking the game across the country because we have already gotten a number of calls for us to make a presence in different states.
“Just last week we signed a contract with the Canadian Cricket Board for the league to go there and we intend to take it to many other countries thereafter.”