JEDDAH, 3 May 2005 — Sheikh Zainal Alireza, a pioneer and patron of Jeddah Cricket League (JCL), will lead the Zainal XI and British Consul General Carma Elliot is to captain the Cricket Playing Countries CGs-XI when the two teams meet in a festival match set for May 19 at the JCL grounds here.
This was announced yesterday by Central Cricket Control Board (CCCB) and JCL President Shahid Amin who described Carma as a keen cricketer and was a ladies team member in England. Last week, she played for 1395-H team against Pak Saudi, the oldest team formed in 1966.
The 1395-H was put together in 1395 Hijra year (1975) by Sheikh Zainal Alireza, and includes the likes of Sir Ian Haig, the then Australian ambassador who played for Western Australia, Tony Hall, chief geologist of Saudi Arabia, and Shahid Amin, a chartered engineer who played in league matches in the UK, and Ron Foster, the first president of 1395 who served for two years. 1395 was one of the two teams that launched organized cricket here in the 1970s.
After Foster’s term, the current CCCB and JCL head honcho took over in 1978 and has since been in the saddle for 27 years now.
1395-H mainly consisted of British and Australian expatriates who played on Thursdays against a team named IAL (Intl. Air radio Ltd.) comprised of British engineers who came for the training of Saudis in telecommunication systems at the airports. Two clubs, Pak Saudi and Jeddah Cricket Cub, used to play each other Fridays in Baghdadia old grave yard. The trio of Zain Khan, Rizwan Khan, and Zaki Siddique were the leading lights at Pak Saudi. Siddique captained the club from 1968 until 1977 when Shahid became captain and president to date.
Pak Saudi has won many major tournaments and is the only club that has won the Benson & Hedges Champions Trophy for three consecutive years to retire the Challenge Cup and the only club that toured UK in 1981 winning eight and losing four in 12 matches they played.
On April 14, 1976 Jeddah Cricket League was formed by Sheikh Zainal, Haig and Shahid. The first six-a-side tournament was sponsored by Shahid Amin and 16 teams participated. A 40 overs league for Alireza Cup was sponsored by Sheikh Zainal Alireza.
The JCL witnessed a phehomenal growth in their history so that in 2002 there were maximum of 54 teams on top of the 24 school and 12 social teams for a total of 90 registered with JCL.
The Alireza families organized a pure Saudi team in 1978 then known as Yellow Rose. The squad was led by Tariq Almaeena and Khalid Almaeena (editor in chief of Arab News).
Nostalgic about the good old days, Sheikh Zainal Alireza , who plays cricket with a passion, requested Shahid to organize the match betwen CGs-XI and Zainal Alireza -XI. Invitations are to be sent to the following consulate generals of the cricket playing nations: Great Britain, Australia, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, USA, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Holland.
Shiekh Zainal’s team include the Almaeena brothers, Yasin Alireza, Ali Alireza, Asim Alireza, Mustafa Alireza, Mehmood Alireza, Hassan Alireza, and Yousuf Alireza.
