"Cricket Returns Home" by Marcus Bethel

What’s the most American of sports? Baseball? Basketball? Perhaps the honor, in fact, has to go to cricket, which was first played in what is now New York City in the 1780’s. And it continued to be played in New York City for two thirds of the time since then.

“The history of American cricket extends far back into the colonial era … but the sports modern phase began with the New York’s St. George Cricket Club in 1839,” write historian George B. Kirsch.

The first cricket clubs were established in what is now the United States 50 years before that, shortly after the game appeared in England, and the first international game developed through a rivalry between the U.S. and Canada in the 1840’s.

When the first annual cricket game between Canada and the United States was played at Bloomingdale Park in New York, attended by some 10,000 spectators, it was the oldest international sporting event in the modern world – established 50 years before the Olympic Games were born.

Cricket was brought over to the British Colonies, including the United States, as a gentleman’s sport mainly played by officers of the British Army. The growing interest in the sport gave rise to the formation of a U.S. team which toured abroad, resulting in teams from the West Indies, Australia and England touring the U.S. and Canada as late as the 1920’s.

The popularity of the sport declined in the U.S. when Americans sought a shorter alternative to the game. Cricket facilities were converted to accommodate golf and tennis. Baseball, a game that many cricket players believe is derived from cricket, grew up and replaced cricket.

It wasn’t until after World War II, when immigrants from former British colonies started coming to the United States that the game was revitalized. Working men from the Caribbean, Pakistan and India began playing the sport in their communities, challenging each other as the rivalry was reestablished.

“Cricket is the only thing that unifies us in the Caribbean and without the caliber of players we won’t have this legacy,” said Cameron Cuffy, an ex-West Indian professional cricketer who currently plays with the Cavaliers Cricket Club in the Brooklyn League. If anyone questions this statement, all they have to do is take a ride out to Marine Park, Sea View, or the Floyd Bennet Field during the summer when cricket is being played. You are sure to meet someone you haven’t seen in years, or a few world class players, who come to Brooklyn to play a few games with the local cricket clubs.

Played in the warm summer months on flat open pitches, cricket is the main pastime of many West Indians and East Indian immigrants. Cricket is played between two teams of 11 each, with two umpires or referees making sure the game is played according to the rules, in the best spirit of the sport. There are similarities to baseball. A bowler or pitcher throws and ball at the batsman, who tries to hit it with a flat bat to score.

Though the game was originally played in the 18^th century by newly minted Americans and European immigrants, it is now mainly played by West Indians, Pakistanis and Indians, the real diehards of the sports. As of June 2006, the United States Cricket Association had reported a total of 35 cricket leagues within its eight divisions or Regions, with the New York Region proudly boasting the greatest participation, having eight leagues.

With the first junior cricket league in the U.S. opened in Brooklyn in 2004, and twice as many leagues and associations today as there were in 1990, it is clear that cricket is back home to stay. With this steady growth and the continued effort of the United States Cricket Association to promote the game, we can anticipate much more in the future for the second most popular sport in the world.

The USACA is not alone in its promotion of the game in New York. The West Indies Cricket Board pledged its support for the New York Region, and with the West Indies Team’s participation in two one-day games against a US team last summer at the Floyd Bennet field, New York can claim its stake once again.

Both games were won by the West Indies team, but not without the US team showing some resistance to Brian Lara, the best cricket triple record holder, and his boys. For Roy Sweeney, president of the Cricket Promoters Association, who has been called “the greatest cricket commissioner in Brooklyn” it was a success. Sweeney has been instrumental in promoting cricket around the New York region, having brought in major West Indian teams, hosting major games in Mt. Vernon and Randall’s Island in the 1980’s. He has also pledged his support, assisting in the development of cricket facilities here in Brooklyn. Presently, parts of Carnasie Park used to play cricket are being refurbished.

With the 2006 cricket already past, provisions has been set in place for bigger things for the Brooklyn Cricket League, an establishment that has been around since 1936.

“I was astonished to see on a letter head that this league has been around such a long time and is still in this condition,” said Leroy Peters, president of the league. Peters has been playing in the Brooklyn League since 1997, with the Grenada United Cricket team. Having been elected to the post in February of 2005, he has been able to lift the standard of the game from the low it reported in the three preceding years.

Hopefully, with a good response from the Caribbean and other interested business in the New York area, the league will be able to mobilize some sponsors, so greater strides could be made.

With ESPN-Star signing a $1.1 billion, eight-year deal with the ICC, cricket’s world-governing body, for the television rights from 2007 to 2015 to bring cricket into homes all over the world, the business owners can see this as an opportunity and thus pledge their support for this great sport here in Brooklyn. This move could very well be a signal of greater things for cricket everywhere including metropolitan Brooklyn, right here in New York.