NEW YORK: Baseball is America’s national pastime, but in New York, a cricket club is celebrating 150 years, thanks to the city’s large immigrant communities.
The Staten Island Cricket Club (SICC) is the oldest continuously active cricket club in the United States, with matches played there every year since it was founded in 1872 by British armed forces officers and Wall Street traders.
Along the way, it has hosted some of the game’s greats, including Don Bradman, Geoffrey Boycott and Garry Sobers.
“There is a lot to be proud of in a non-cricket playing country to have a club that has stood the test of time. It has not been easy”, says the 92-year-old president Clarence Modeste.
SICC has survived two world wars, the loss of a club by fire and the Covid-19 pandemic. She has also navigated rudimentary facilities and indifference from local officials.
Before every game at the club’s Walker Park ground, run by the city since the 1930s, the players nail a canvas jacket and hammer to the stumps.
The inches-high grass on the court forces hitters to lift the ball instead of hitting the ground shots that many of the club’s 80 members learned to play as youngsters.
“You can’t beat a nice car with a hood. It’s not going anywhere,” laments 66-year-old Charu Choudhari, who nonetheless drives two hours from his Long Island home to play.
A path marks the boundary while shots that hit the leaves of a large tree are considered sixes. Bowling is only allowed on one side because of homeowners concerned about well-hit balls hitting their property.
“That’s the kind of obstacle it faces,” says Modeste, who hopes to convince the parks department to erect netting 40 feet (12 meters) high so both ends can be used.
When Trinidad and Tobago-born Modeste joined the SICC in 1961, about 90 percent of the membership was white — mostly British, with some Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans.
Today, the vast majority are black people from cricket-loving countries in South Asia like India and Sri Lanka and the Caribbean. For many, the club is a connection to home.
“It means everything to me. Whenever I play cricket, I always remember my country,” says 50-year-old Sunil Nayyar, who moved to the United States from New Delhi 30 years ago.
The club has one or two American-born players, like Staten Island native Billy Teague, who recently joined. The 60-year-old would like to know about cricket when he grows up.
“I thought it was no different from croquet. It just seemed like a weird, weird game and now I’m in love with it,” he says.
Cricket was popular in the United States in the 1800s, but declined when its bat-and-ball cousin baseball rose in popularity, in part because it was faster.
Today, there are only 200,000 cricketers in America, according to governing body USA Cricket, representing less than one percent of the population.
Officials hope interest will be fueled when the United States hosts matches at the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. The SSIC has a youth program for players aged five to 18, and Modeste believes cricket will only grow in America when it enters schools.
“As long as cricket is filled largely with immigrants and not local stock, I think it will be extremely difficult to find the success that many of us have dreamed of for the game,” he says.
New York City boasts the country’s liveliest scene, with around 100 games taking place every weekend during the warmer months.
SICC is at its heart. In addition to competing in domestic leagues, the club welcomes teams from abroad and conducts its own overseas tournaments.
Batting great Bradman was part of an Australian team that played at Walker Park in 1932, while Sobers led an international team there in 1988. This weekend, the SICC will celebrate its tenth anniversary year with the unveiling of a plaque and a game against a Philadelphia team.
Modeste attributes the club’s longevity to solid beginnings and international recognition. “The club is known around the world and we continue to make sure that happens,” he says.
