Cricket becoming a hit on Long Island

On most Sunday afternoons from May to October, men carrying bats and balls and wearing white shirts and pants walk onto grassy fields on Long Island to play the sport of kings: cricket.

Zamin Amin, a Valley Stream resident and member of the Eastern American Cricket Association, began playing cricket as a boy growing up in Guyana, one of the many countries an ocean away where the sport is as popular as baseball is in the United States.

"It's a sport that's probably the main sport in Guyana," Amin said. "That's how I got involved, and that's how I got to love it, and that's how I am here still playing it."

Amin, whose home field is in Lido Beach, calls himself an "all-rounder," able to play every position, from bowler to batsman to fielder. "I enjoy all of them the same way," he said. "I guess it's the competitive edge that I have."

Nearly 250 men and women are involved in organized cricket teams on Long Island, according to Krish Prasad of West Hempstead, a member of the Everest/American Cricket Society (Everest/ACS) and New York regional representative to the board of the United States of America Cricket Association, the sport's official governing body in this country.

The two largest major leagues on Long Island are the Eastern American Cricket Association and the Nassau Cricket League. Teams include the Bay Shore Tigers and the Atlantis Cricket Club. They play on weekends in parks and on fields across the Island, and some players are also members of other New York-area cricket clubs and teams.

When teams in the metropolitan area get together, the competition can get fierce, said Rudy Persaud, president of the Eastern American Cricket Association, a league of 13 teams -- seven of them from Long Island, with players ranging in age from 12 to 65.

Things can get "very, very competitive" on the cricket field, he said. "Like playing a baseball game, you want to win. Like we [New Yorkers] have the Mets and the Yankees, we have our rivalries, too."

The game is only part of the draw. An international community of spectators from various countries joins friends and family on the sidelines, sharing food and cheering on their teams. With televised broadcasts of international cricket matches and schools starting to offer the sport, local interest in it is growing, said Prasad, a former player. Amin, who plays for Everest/ACS, said he, too, is excited at the prospect of a new generation embracing the sport.

"We have American kids who are playing," he said. " .?.?. Once you get to understand cricket, you will fall in love with it."

Amin and his team will compete against Meten-Meer-Zorg of Queens in the finals of the Eastern American Cricket Association's 40-Overs Tournament Sunday at the Baisley Pond Park Cage at Foch Boulevard and Barron Street in Jamaica.

The 'gentleman's game'
The origins of cricket lie somewhere in the Dark Ages -- probably after the Roman Empire, almost certainly before the Normans invaded England, and almost certainly somewhere in Northern Europe. How and when this club-ball game developed into one where the hitter defended a target against the thrower is not known.

The first evidence of cricket being played was recorded in the year 1550, by the pupils of Royal Grammar School, in Guildford, England. The first match is recorded to have been played at Coxheath in Kent in 1646.

Specs of the sport
The sport is a ball and bat game, played on a cricket field.

A match consists of 2 teams with 11 players each.

Primary equipment is a cricket ball, cricket bat, wicket, stumps and bails.

In a typical game, one team bats and tries to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, with the goal of dismissing the batsmen and limiting runs scored. At the end of each inning, the teams switch between batting and fielding.

The International Cricket Council, based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, is the sport's governing body. It consists of teams from 10 countries -- Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe.

Cricket dates
1624 -- Jasper Vinall becomes the first man known to be killed playing cricket; he was hit by a bat while trying to catch the ball at Horsted Green, Sussex, England.

1844 -- First official international match: Canada vs. United States.

Megastar. As in every major sport, there is a megastar. In cricket it is Donald Bradman, the renowned Australian batsman who died in 2001 and is still regarded as the greatest cricketer of all time.

Sources: International Cricket Council; ESPN; stickiewicket.com

Where to watch and play
Teams:  Bay Shore Tigers;  Hempstead Cricket Club; Eastside Warriors Cricket Club; Atlantis Cricket Club; Victory Cricket Club; Everest/ACS; Eastside Warriors; Long Island United Cricket Club; Hillside Cricket Club.

Playing fields:  Bay Park in East Rockaway; Heckscher State Park in East Islip; Point Lookout Town Park in Lido Beach.