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| CRICKET CAPTAIN: Dominic Gomes plays for Newcomers High. ANDY NELSON – STAFF |
Cricket's new wicket: American high schools
The first league, which has its championships next week, is fully subscribed by teens from the far reaches of the former British Empire.
from the May 23, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
"There were a lot of blank stares," he recalls.
Modern cricket – a sport with some similarities to baseball – originated in England, although its most ardent fans are now scattered through the remnants of the British Empire. (Some place cricket as the second most popular pastime in the world, behind soccer.) Played on a strip of dirt, surrounded by an oval field, the game requires the brawn to hit a fast-moving leather ball with a thick wooden bat. It also requires a sense of strategy and patience foreign to fans of fast-paced American sports. Matches in professional cricket stretch for days. And for the uninitiated, the arcane rules of the game are impenetrable.
But students at Newcomers – and other schools across Queens and Brooklyn – had been playing informal matches for decades. Dominic Gomes, captain of the Lions and a senior, says, "We'd do it for fun anyway, in the backyard, or on the playground. We'd split the cost of a bat, and all get together and have big matches."
Mr. Goldstein's coup was to institutionalize that passion: to provide umpires, new equipment, and proper pitches, in a league filled with like-minded students. "We thought we'd try starting the league with four teams," he says. "We ended up with 14. Hundreds of kids. There was this overwhelming interest ... with a level of enthusiasm you don't see a lot these days."
Says Roman Koyes, a Bengali immigrant on the Lions squad: "I've been playing since I was about 7. I think this is true of most of the team.... So when the tryouts were announced, everyone was scrambling for a chance."
Decked out in white uniforms, and wielding shiny new bats, the Lions immediately rung up a string of victories, outscoring opponents by dozens of runs and finishing regular season play 9-2.
"I'll give a lot of credit to these kids – it's a game of serious mental focus and they've got that," says Newcomers' coach Christina Cavaliere, the only female coach in the league and a self-described "Bronx girl" who grew up watching the Yankees.
Still, challenges abound. Most of the team arrived here within the past few years, and many members have shaky English. They speak to each other rapidly in a host of languages, and Coach Cavaliere often runs the risk of losing their attention. And because she is a self-taught cricketer, she has had to learn on the job. But, she still gives credit to her expert charges: "This team was going places. I always knew that."
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