BY ROBERT ELKIN | In recent years, more and more schools are adding new sports.
One of these is cricket, and the Public Schools Athletic League is certainly helping it along.
Stuyvesant High School, competing in the P.S.A.L. Manhattan-Bronx division, has a chance to contend for the playoffs in cricket.
They lost their first two matches of the season, to High School of Construction and Clinton High School. But they bounced back to narrowly defeat Lehman of the Bronx, 90-89, at Kissena Park in Flushing, Queens, where they also hold practices during the weekend and sometimes on Saturdays.
Due to the work of Athletic Director Chris Galano and his staff, the Stuyvesant athletic program has been growing. Galano has been very helpful in bringing cricket to the school.
Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world after soccer. And both are still growing.
Mohamed Khan is the head coach of the Peglegs’ cricket squad, and works very hard with the players.
Right now, they have time off until their next match, in May.
Sporting 11 players on a side, cricket is somewhat similar to baseball. Where there are pitchers in baseball, there are bowlers in cricket. But the bat is flat instead of round. And the batters run to one base and then return to the batter’s position.
“A lot of students playing this sport here at Stuyvesant are new to the sport,” said Jaydeep Baidyo, the team’s captain. “It’s very popular. Basically, we have to teach them the game. And we are basically starting to get more schools in Manhattan involved in cricket. The players are hard workers.”
Coach Khan said there has been a surge of interest in cricket.
“We have a lot of kids for the first time playing this sport,” he said. “They have to develop a sense of what the sport is all about. We don’t have a home field by the school, so we have to travel, even out to Queens, where we are now,” he said before the Lehman match.
The Stuyvesant team’s goal is to get into the playoffs.
“We have to win five or six matches to do so,” Khan noted. “It takes a lot of effort and perseverance to make it there. We have to play very hard and the kids are trying to do it.”
