See That Googly? It's Cricket in the Bronx
September 21, 1987
By SAM HOWE VERHOVEK
Source: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1DC153AF932A1575AC0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
LEAD: Consider the arsenal faced by those at bat yesterday in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx: not fastballs, sliders and curves, but inswingers, offspinners and - the trickiest throw of all - the googly.
Consider the arsenal faced by those at bat yesterday in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx: not fastballs, sliders and curves, but inswingers, offspinners and - the trickiest throw of all - the googly.
''When you have a googly, you simply don't know which way the ball is going to go,'' said Prakash Tilakdharry, a native of Guyana, explaining the problem of the batsman who faces the bowler in the game of cricket.
On a chilly, gray day in the Bronx, the sport seemed an unlikely transplant from the sunny lands represented in the predominantly West Indian Commonwealth Cricket League, which is winding toward the close of its 16th season in New York. Although cricket originated in England, the West Indies have for years produced prominent international players and teams. And while the sport has hardly slipped into the mainstream of American athletics, some of the best players in the world are competing here simply because they came to this country to find work.
''You see that guy out there?'' said one spectator, pointing to a white-clad fielder who had made a diving catch to prevent the rough equivalent of a home run, which in cricket counts for six runs. ''He was the Ozzie Smith of the West Indies,'' the spectator said, referring to the St. Louis Cardinals' shortstop who is a premier fielder.
The best players are generally the target of intense recruiting. There is no draft limiting the number of top players per club, but a player is allowed to compete for one team only. The teams usually have a pool of about 20 players, from which they pick the 11 players fielded in each game.
Even more important than the chance to win, lose or have their game suspended because of darkness, which often happens, cricket is a way for the players to savor a memory of their homelands.
Despite their personal enthusiasm for the sport, the understanding that nostalgia is partly at play has led few of the players in the Commonwealth League, or the older New York Cricket League, to push the game on their children. Indeed, during the quarter-final match yesterday between two teams whose very names seem to evince homesick thoughts -the Jets and the Wanderers - a group of the players' children took over a corner of the field for a pickup game of baseball. Limited Popularity
''When I got here, I felt I was too old to start learning how to play baseball,'' said Augustine Francis, 45 years old, who came from Jamaica five years ago. ''But the kids, they'll have a better future if they know how to play baseball, rather than cricket.''
The man considered the patriarch of cricket in New York is James Gabriel, 92, chairman of the New York Cricket League. Mr. Gabriel was born in St. Lucia and played until he was 72. With a dozen leagues and several informal clubs, more than 2,000 people play cricket in the New York region, he says.
Even if they wanted to become evangelical about cricket, many of the players in the park said yesterday that they doubted the sport would catch on in this country.
The matches can be long. Some international cricket matches last five days, and team scores go into hundreds of runs.
''I think that people in this country would probably say, 'What, are you crazy? Who's going to wait five days for a result?,' '' said Lesly Lowe, president of the 19-team Commonwealth League. Confusion for Uninitiated
But games here, he said, are played under amended rules and usually last no more than six or seven hours.
But the rules - let alone the strategy - of cricket often baffle the uninitiated.
''For a first-time spectator, there is no way I can ever explain the game so that they go home satisfied they understand,'' Mr. Lowe said.
Perhaps more important, many spectators fail to understand that, unlike baseball, batters are allowed to hit the ball in any direction. Thus the playing field consists of a circle radiating at least 400 feet out from the center, or pitch. And casual fans thinking they are standing safely in ''foul territory'' may unwittingly find themselves in the center of the action. Space Complaints
The wide space needed for play in Van Cortlandt Park - never quite enough, as evidenced by long balls yesterday that traveled onto the middle of Broadway, in one direction, and into a horse stable, in the other - has been a source of complaint, Mr. Lowe acknowledged.
He said local residents had asked the city's Parks Department to limit the size or number of cricket fields in the park. The Bronx parks coordinator for field permits, William Schouten, said that calls came in almost weekly during the cricket season from people who want to know why the players need so much space.
''I try to tell them that they have been playing the game for a while that way,'' Mr. Schouten explained.
Yesterday, one player said he could not understand the complaints. He said he had often heard - from his fellow players, he admitted - that the Van Cortlandt the Park was named after was, in fact, English, not Dutch, and a prominent cricket fan. And, the player's story went, this Mr. Van Cortlandt had stipulated in his will that as many of the 1,146 acres of the park as was needed should be set aside for cricket.
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