Date-stamped : 24 Jun94 - 14:24 AMERICAN CRICKET: A GLORIOUS PAST AND FUTURE Steve Devaux Every spring, as winter snows fade and the weather turns warmer, thoughts naturally turn to the sight and the sound of bat strik- ing ball. Only, for hundreds of Greater Bostonians, the bat is made of willow, not ash, and the ball is of a bright red leather. Their sport is cricket, the grandfather of baseball, and still the world`s second most popular team sport (after soccer) when measured by total attendance. Cricket is not new to North America. In 1751, a New York team trounced a visiting team from London. In 1859, a crowd of 24,000 was attracted to Hoboken for a game against England. And from 1878 to 1908, Philadelphia produced teams that were a match for any in the world. What happened? Well, among other things, the Imperial Cricket Conference (or I.C.C.) was formed in 1909 as the governing body of world cricket. One of its first acts was to restrict interna- tional competition to "members of the British Empire." Deprived of quality competition, weakened by changing demographics due to immigration from the European continent, and faced with the grow- ing popularity of baseball, cricket declined. Clubs like Long- wood and Long Branch devoted themselves to tennis. For half a century, U.S. cricket seemed consigned by history to being a cu- riosity item, played occasionally by English immigrants and visi- tors at a few sites like Haverford College in Philadelphia. But the nice thing about history is that it does not remain stat- ic forever, even in the British Empire. Like soccer before it, cricket steadily grew out and away from its Anglosaxon roots. The I.C.C.`s restriction still permitted a never-setting sun to shine on the sport, in India and Pakistan and Sri Lanka and the West Indies and much of Africa. By the early 1960`s, the best cricket in the world was being played in countries far from the British Isles. And these Asian and Caribbean peoples were a part of the newest immigration wave to reach American shores in the Sixties and Seventies. The new arrivals brought their sports with them, and soccer was the first to profit. Within two decades, it went from being an unknown sport to one in which almost every high school fields a team. Cricket, which requires more equipment than soccer, and which was not shared by the Hispanic component of the immigration wave, was slower to expand. Yet soon cricket leagues, some aban- doned years before, sprang up around urban areas on both coasts. Over 20 teams now play in two Northern California leagues, almost 30 in Southern California. In Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia, cricket is booming. And it has even spread away from the coastal cities: Ann Arbor has a team in the Michigan league, Oklahoma teams cooperate with the Texas leagues, and the Portland, Maine, team (organized by American- born fanatic Barry Mothes) begins operations this year in anticipation of a 1993 entry in the Massachusetts league. Other changes have occurred in international cricket that tend to improve the sport`s viability in this country. In 1965, the I.C.C. change the I-word in its name from Imperial to Interna- tional. How much of a real change of attitude is represented by this amendment can be debated. But since 1979 the organization has sought to expand cricket`s base by sponsoring the I.C.C. Trophy Tournament. Held every four years for countries other than the eight Test powers (the strongest international teams), the winner qualifies for cricket`s World Cup, among the top teams. Such countries as Holland, Denmark, Fiji, Bangladesh, Ar- gentina, Canada and Hong Kong, to name but a few, have partici- pated in the I.C.C. Tournament. In 1987, the U.S. team tied for first, but lost on tie-break to Bangladesh. If current growth trends continue, it seems only a matter of time till a U.S. team qualifies. Another change which has occurred over the past three decades has been the introduction of a new game format called one-day crick- et. The old international format, where a game could take as many as five days, was necessarily antithetical to the American hunger for fast-paced action and quick results. The new version provides both, without sacrificing the kind of tactical subtlety that cricket shares with its grandchild, baseball. If current trends continue, who is to say that, twenty years from now, the U.S. might not be host for the World Cup of cricket? Anyone remembering the state of American soccer in the Sixties knows that stranger things have happened! Some Milestones in U.S. Cricket Apr 25, 1709: First mention of cricket in North America in the diary of William Byrd of Westover, Virginia. May 1, 1751: New Yorkers (80 & 86) beat Londoners (43 & 47) by 76 runs in New York, the first ever international match. Sep 24-26, Inauguration of the first ever international 1844: series, St. George`s Club of New York beats Toronto Cricket Club for a $1000 stake. The series was played fairly regularly until 1912, then revived in 1963. Oct 3-5, 1878: The first first-class match in the U.S. ends in a draw between Philadelphia (196 & 53) and a representative Australian team (150 & 51-4). 1896: The Philadelphians (282) crush the Australian Test team (121 & 101) by an innings. This was the same Australian team that lost a close series in England that summer by two matches to one. 1903: The touring Philadelphians play fifteen first- class matches in England, with an even record of 6 won, 6 lost and 3 drawn. 1908: The touring Philadelphians win 3 and lose 6 in England, but their captain, Bart King, leads English bowling averages with 87 wickets at 11.01 each. Contributed by Chico (ckhan@*.bbn.com)