By Sham Ali
(Celebrating 45th Anniversary – Match #1283 / 20241110):- Cosmos kept writing a new chapter in their history in some of the most adventurous ways. After they held their Annual Presentation Dinner and Dance to celebrate their 45th Anniversary on Saturday evening, they packed up their cricket bags and with about two hours of sleep, and were on the road again, this time to the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, to play Philadelphia cricket club in the last scheduled match of the season. And just for confirmation, we are of sound mind and a mentally stable group, some may differ, but we are having lots of fun and travelling together in one vehicle is icing on the cake.
Fall has arrived and the trip to Philly was quite serene, colorful, and remarkably picturesque with the trees on a collage of changing colors. It looked as though someone had painted the scenery along the way. The Philadelphia cricket ground is also a site to behold. Vice captain Devindra Balgobin (Balgo) deputized for Ryan Ganesh who was still busy counting stocks. Balgo lost the toss, laaad, and we had to take the field. Doneshwar Dayanand steamed in for a good spell, it looks like he was well fueled up from last night since he was the man guarding the bar. Alvin Gobin couldn’t find his line on the wicket, but he was on target on the dance floor. Shafiq is addicted to cricket, he drove two hours to bowl two overs and left for another event, class personified. Raj managed well, but yours truly, Sohan, and Ras, were in very different zones, and the Philly boys kept us busy as they posted a competitive 194 for 7 in their allotted 25 over. That will take some batting but on an outfield where the ball raced to the boundary, the target is within our reach.
In addition to all the excitement over the weekend, there were some of yesterdays ‘brotherly’ news that made the airwaves. Let me preface by saying that over the many years, the New York region and the seven leagues administrations were strangled continuously by a level of vile, conniving, divisiveness, and all of that were coated by a crab race to the parks department in an attempt to tear down eachother. The reasons for those behaviors were difficult to comprehend, given that cricket is a weekend hobby, and as such, the region is non-existent and eighty percent the leagues have been reduced to rubbles.
Unfortunately, that behavior is still alive, and some of it have filtered over to many of the clubs. We, in Cosmos, were entertained as well a few days ago, actually five days before we celebrated our 45th Anniversary Presentation, Dinner and Dance. It appeared that Cosmos’ continued existence is a heavy burden for some of the undercurrents to bear. Unsurprisingly, these undercurrents brazenly wiggled out of the grass a few days before our 45th Anniversary presentation, cloaked in disguise in sheep’s clothing with the catchy title ‘Cosmos reunion’ perhaps to give credence to a hidden darkness, or to grease an ego, in an attempt to derail our 45th Anniversary celebration. Lord have mercy on their souls, it didn’t!
It is a regrettable attempt by ‘grown men’ who we hoped had found for sort of peace within themselves in old age, in the years left to live than those lived, however, deep the desire to disrupt only deepens. They were all invited to the Cosmos 45th Anniversary Presentation, instead, they decided, five days before the presentation, to plan a separate event called cosmos reunion. It confirms the ‘us’ and ‘them’ the ‘better that you’ mentality that resides deep in a haunted subconscious, given the steady flow of toxicity. If there were any doubts before, the attempt to pivot on a cockamamie explanation on the contrary confirms the intent.
That is a blatant disrespect to the youths who are currently holding Cosmos together. This is nothing new, Cosmos has been there before, and after several failed attempts in past to destroy the club, and then abandoned it, these undercurrents, now in old age, have resurrected a few days before Cosmos 45th Anniversary Presentation to plan a ‘Cosmos Reunion of brothers’. Not sure about forked-tongue, but quite rich indeed, given that they were all invited to the 45th Anniversary celebration.
One of Cosmos’s ‘old-timers’ (love that phrase, lol) puts it succinctly ‘so what was the 45th Anniversary celebration about then… why a Cosmos reunion, why not a reunion of the other million clubs that they attempted form and/or break up…up to no good then and now.’ This is the same jiggery-pokery all over again, nothing new. Free country, so knock yourselves out, and hopefully find Jesus one day. We dance up till late, hopefully, we will do it again next year same time same place. All are invited, if you don’t have prior engagements. We won’t hold our breath!
Cosmos just keeps going and going and going we did to the city of true brotherly love, Philadelphia. The trip not only confirms our insanity but a deep sense of resilience if the two can be tied together, and while you figure out those two opposites, we have a target to chase.
On a ‘Lords looking’ outfield the expectation was that everyone would want to bat, but no, late night powtie had the last say. Our premier batsman and the man who copped the most runs and century award only a few hours ago, Antanio, refused to open the batting. Something we taught would never happen, but it did, he was clearly on another planet, overdose on Jello and ice-cream form the presentation. Daniel refused to open the batting, overdose on stupidness and no sleep. Gohan had too much of Saturday night, he was still dizzy from watching uncle Sohan moves on the dance floor, so he decided to take pictures. The old-timers never refused, Narine, Raj and Charu are the soldiers who led the charge. It was a cool sweater day, but not uncomfortable. Raj, Baker, and Antonio kept Cosmos on par before they retired.
Balgo had his usual spark, and Daniel shook off some shut-eye, and took the score to within striking distance before he retired. Sohan and Alvin had a race to the finish line, one 60 and one 14 years on the legs, but instead of featherbed wicket and a fast outfield, Sohan looked like he needed a bed with a pillow or a dance floor to get his feet moving. Alvin was the man leading the charge trying to push uncle Sohan for twos on a few occasions, but he will have none of it. Let the win stay right there, these legs have to shine the dance floor next year again, and so the Cosmos inning closed on 187 for 4 in their allotted 25 overs at 3:32pm to conclude another remarkable season.
After an hour of socializing, we were on the road to Sohan’s house for another match, and on this one we won’t come up short. Balgo scored three centuries, Antanio two, Donesh two, Daniel two, and Alvin five. Sohan and I had to squeeze in for a spot as Auntie Sherry replenished the bowl with curry and reload the roti. Thank you auntie Sherry for all that food, we love you even more. The gaff about how successful and enjoyable time we had at the presentation finished at around 10pm, and it was time to go. It was a fantastic weekend and Cosmos boys needed a tap on their shoulders for putting on a remarkable 45th Anniversary Presentation, and headed to Philadelphia to complete the season. A blessed holiday season to everyone.
Cosmos coat drive and Year end dinner will celebrate the holiday season.
