May 2010 - Parks & Recreation - 14

Who, What, Where & how Around the Parks

Continued from page 11

New York Cricket club sponsored 2009 New York Mayor's
Cup: Eastern American Cricket League vs Nassau Cricket
League

" There has been a surge in tackle football and cricket, "
Spiegel continues. " There has been interest in lacrosse and
some of the funny games, like kickball. But the big shift has
been toward cricket and football. "
It was in driving around his borough that Spiegel came
to notice the sport most native-born Americans find impenetrable-cricket, a sport originating in England that spread
throughout its colonies worldwide. At cricket's peak in the second half of the 19th century, Philadelphia boasted having more
than 100 clubs before baseball began to supplant it. Cricket might well have remained a historical oddity in the United States were it not for changing immigration patterns in the
late 20th century. As Indians, Pakistanis, Caribbean islanders,
Africans, and others began concentrating in U.S. cities, they
brought along their favorite sport.
" And that's a real problem for us, because in Brooklyn we
don't have enough land, " Spiegel says. " Even though baseball is on the decline, it's very hard to take away someone's

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baseball field, especially if they are affiliated with
a local police precinct. "
The city constantly keeps an eye out for land
to acquire, and recently bought some waterfront
property in the Williamsburg/Green Point area. A
significant opportunity came Brooklyn's way five
years ago when proffers on a mixed-use project required the donation of open space by the developer. The developer originally figured on a Little
League ball field.
" This is where I came in, " Spiegel says. " Many
of the elected officials encouraged them to create
the baseball field, and I made an impassioned plea
for cricket. Some people looked at me cross-eyed.
But it didn't take a genius to figure it out-all you
had to do was drive around and see the changing
demographics.
" Cricket guys would set up a game on any and
every patch of land. There were probably a dozen
sandlot cricket fields. So I convinced them to build
a cricket field. It was the first dedicated cricket field
in New York City-that is, where city funds were
used to build a ballfield.
" And that got me into the cricket hall of fame [USA
Cricket Association], " Spiegel laughs, with pride, but
confessing, " I still don't quite get the game. "
Spiegel describes maintaining a cricket pitch
(the real name for a cricket field) as " financially
challenging. " " It's tough. Cricket requires a highly
manicured field and that's hard for a small department like ours to do. But, thankfully, most of the cricket guys
take care of their own pitches. "
In tracing the beginning of cricket in Brooklyn, Spiegel describes it as a quiet evolution. " It wasn't so much that demands
were placed on me-as is typical of some groups. They just
don't know how to work with government. When I started in
parks and recreation, there weren't any elected West Indians
in government-now there are quite a few. Back then, they
didn't know you could fight City Hall on this kind of stuff. "
Within the last two years, New York City has seen cricket
enter its public high schools as a sport and the New York Police
Department has established a youth cricket team, of which the
members are mostly Muslim kids. The city is in its fourth year
of sponsoring the Mayor's Cricket Cup, and for the 2010 edition, it has landed its first sponsor, Moët Hennessy USA, whose
CEO is passionate about the sport.
Will other demographically driven sports catch on in New
York? Spiegel is not betting on it. Cost is the main factor.
" I'm Canadian, and I wish we could build a curling rink, "
he laments. " But that's just not going to happen. "

-Phil Hayward

May 2010 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2010 - Parks & Recreation