The words “softball cricket” evoke fond memories of childhood, and images of a simpler time. In fact, for many of us, some of our most cherished memories and deepest recollections of childhood are of softball cricket. We become childishly nostalgic whenever we journey down memory lane to relive those wonderful moments.
Softball cricket is played throughout the cricketing world, but here in the United States of America it has special significance for immigrants. Indeed, it has become for them that inseparable link to “home”, and to all those wonderful memories that “home” reawakens. For these families, Sundays in the park are an opportunity to revisit the ‘old country’ for a few hours, and lose themselves in thoughts of long ago and far away. In 1996, I sought to relive some of those memories when I reconnected with some teammates from the old country to form the Belair Cricket Club of New York and join the Caribbean Softball Association (CSA), now NYSC.
In these pages, I have tried to chronicle some of the most memorable moments of the softball cricket scene in New York City. It is a chance to relive how a Belair team, with a dream and a prayer, stole the biggest championship in 1998. How the dynasty, known as Assassins, was born; and about Desperados, Assassins' worst nightmare. It is about the journey of Untouchables to their first taste of victory; and about the most lethal bowling arsenal of the late 90s, the Survivors cricket club; and the Buccaneers Cricket club staunchly defending the true spirit of cricket - not if you win or lose, but how you play the game.