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.
Staten Island Cricket The club (SICC) is the oldest continuously active cricket club in the United States, with matches played annually since it was founded in 1872 by British Armed Forces officers and Wall Street merchants.
Plus, it has hosted some of the sport’s greatest players, including Don Bradman, Geoffrey Boycott, and Gary Sobers.
“There is a lot to be proud of to be a club that has stood the test of time in a non-cricket playing country. It is not easy,” says 92-year-old President Clarence Modest.
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SICC has survived two world wars, a clubhouse fire and the loss of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has also navigated rudimentary facilities and apathy from local authorities. Before each match at Walker Park, the club’s home ground, which has operated in the city since the 1930s, players hammer a canvas matting wickets and stumps.
The grass several inches high in the field forces batsmen to lift the ball instead of hitting the groundstroke that many of the club’s 80-odd members learned to play as youngsters.
“You can’t hit a beautiful cover drive. It won’t go anywhere,” laments Charu Choudhury, 66, who still travels two hours from his home on Long Island to play.
A sidewalk marks the boundary while shots hitting the leaves of a large tree are considered a six. Bowling is only permitted from one end because homeowners are concerned with well-hit balls hitting their property.
“It poses a kind of obstacle,” says Modest, who hopes to persuade the Parks Department to put up a 40-foot (12 m) high net so that both ends can be used.
When Trinidad and Tobago-born Modest joined the SICC in 1961, some 90 percent of the members were white – mostly British, some Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans.
Today, people of color form the overwhelming majority of cricket-loving countries of South Asia such as India and Sri Lanka and the Caribbean.
For many, the club is a connection to the 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.
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The club has one or two Native American players, such as Staten Island native Billy Teague, who recently joined. The 60-year-old wishes he knew about cricket when he was growing up.
“I thought it was no different than croquet. It just seemed like a weird, weird sport and now I’m in love with it,” he says.
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Cricket was popular in the United States in the 1800s, but declined in popularity as a cousin of the bat and ball, partly because it was faster.
According to the governing body of United States Cricket, there are only 200,000 cricketers in the US today, representing less than one percent of the population.
Officials expect interest to pick up when the United States hosts matches in the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
SSIC has a youth program for players aged five to 18, and Modest believes cricket will only grow in the US when it is introduced to schools.
“Unless cricket is filled primarily with migrants rather than domestic stock, I think it will be extremely difficult to achieve the success that many of us have dreamed of for the sport,” he says.
New York City boasts the liveliest scene in the country, with an estimated 100 matches taking place every weekend during the warmer months. SICC is at the center of this. As well as competing in domestic leagues, the club welcomes sides from abroad and organizes its own tours abroad.
The batting great Bradman was part of the Australian team that played at Walker Park in 1932, while Sobers led an international XI there in 1988.
This weekend, SICC will celebrate its centennial with the unveiling of a plaque and a match against a Philadelphia team. Modest attributes the club’s longevity to a steady start and international recognition.
“The club is known around the world and we continue to ensure that,” he says.
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