By Sham Ali
(Celebrating 28th Anniversary). The glory days of cricket conventional white clothing, the strategic mind game among Captains, Batsmen and Bowlers and the absorbing enjoyment of a days play, has given way to the ‘attention deficiency’ razzmatazz of Twenty/20 cricket. Cosmos and like all other cricket clubs, is charmed into the fore of ‘modern times’ and “changing dynamics” in the name of excitement and the new norm of ‘keeping the game alive.’ So after seventeen years of our traditional annual Memorial weekend tour to Keeney Park in Hartford, Connecticut in memory of Lowell ‘Slim’ Sutherland the architect of the West Indian Social Club, in this the eighteenth year, it is the 20/20 format that Cosmos will accompany a team of guests for the weekend.
Dennis Evans
The warm up match on Saturday was changed, thank god, from 20/20 to a sensible 35 overs match. Dennis Evans played his hand for a composed 43 runs while Dixeth Palmer stroked a breezy 24 runs. As the wickets fell at regular intervals, Cosmos Sham Ali anchored the inning with a solid 78 runs before he was run out in the 30th over from a George Adams’s (25) straight drive that ricocheted off the bowler’s boots onto the stumps. ‘Cosmos’ inning closed on a reasonable 201 all out. Cosmos pacemen Robert Brown and George Adams gave the opposition very little time to catch their breath as they fired with the new ball. Kevin Darlington, on first change then sent the crowd in an uproar with a spell that left the opposition middle order in disarray as he produced a rare feat with the ball; he got a hat-trick to return with his figures of 3 for 11. The veteran Shadi Khan, 3 for 3, found his line very early with his orthodox left arm spin and with the score on 37 for 4, proceeded to mopped up the tail as his team completed a comfortable 139 runs victory.
The Sunday extravaganza, the big 20/20 encounter between the four teams vying for the ‘Slim’ Sutherland trophy drew a large crowd and ‘Cosmos’ was ready for the challenge. After winning the toss and elected to bat, Cosmos suffered a slight hiccup at 94 for 7 in the 15 over with Ordelmo Peters (2), Morris Powell (9), Ahmed Proverbs (0), Dennis Evans (18), Palmer (28), Austin Hutchinson (11), and Adams (13) were all back in the pavilion. The home crowd became quite vocal sensing a possible victory to knockout the formidable tourists team, but ‘Cosmos’ ladies spearheaded Sonia and Faizah took the crowd on in spirited exchange of word for word as they rallied behind their team while a worried Nathan Henderson (Cosmos public relations man) paced restlessly in front of the pavilion. Robert Brown (30) and Sham Ali (12) then combined experience and good running between the wickets to construct a crucial 40 runs partnership to give their team a fighting total of 134 runs and Mr. Henderson some reason to relax.
The pitch offered some pace and bounce and George Adams maintained a steady line to dislodge the stumps in his second over while the disciplined Robert Brown’s pace proved to be lethal as he bagged 3 for 24 on his debut for cosmos with an excellent all round performance and thus left the opposition limping uphill. Youth player Morris Powell’s off spin then made further inroads into the batting line up as he bagged 3 for 7, and the opposition crumbled to 57 runs all out.
Shadi Khan
The final for the ‘Slim’ Sutherland trophy was reduced to fifteen overs (15/15) and the firework between the two teams is expected to light up the park while a very vocal home crowd combined with Cosmos ladies supporters were prepared for the showdown. ‘Cosmos’ won the toss and elected to bat. The crowd around the park, before their first sip, was then entertained for a full quota of overs. Dennis Evans pulled for six and four over mid wicket and then held his pose for the camera as he lifted the next ball over mid off for another six on his way to a blistering 47 runs off 24 balls as he featured in a 59 runs opening partnership with Peters (25) in only 5 overs. Proverbs fresh from a pair of ducks followed up with a brief 7 runs. After Evans and Peters tore the opening bowlers apart and cosmos at 87 for 3 off 8 overs, Austin Hutchinson (10) had brief spark at the wicket with Palmer (27) for another 23 runs in two overs. George Adams then sent the crowd ducking for cover as he further dented the bowling attack and a few cars on the mid on boundary with four lusty sixes as he raced to 30 runs off just 10 balls in 40 runs partnership with Palmer. The last over had its own drama as a few wickets fell in succession. After Shadi, like proverbs, bagged his pair in the two previous matches and had left Darlington stranded at the non strikers end in the last two innings, this time was different, Darlington’s one ball fell just short of the mid off boundary into the fielders hands and now he is on a pair.
When the ‘Cosmos’ inning closed on formidable 157 for 8 of the allotted 15 overs, Mr. Henderson had some spring in his feet, a smile on his face and a sip of ‘something’ in his hand as the trophy tilted to the ‘Cosmos’ side. Adams was not done as yet, he dislodge the woodwork twice to silence just one side the crowd. At 61 for 2 after 10 overs, the opposition was limping; Myers and Kevin Baugh batted to the end and concede defeat by 56 runs bringing the Twenty/20 excitement to a tame end.
While the Twenty/20 version of the game is perhaps here to stay and offered some excitement for the spectators and cricketers alike and a convenient time frame in an accelerated society, it is furthermost from any form of developing cricketers for the future. Thought the format may offer a ‘good taste” for the seasoned cricketer, and rightly so, and is used to spark an interest among the youths to lure them to the sport among other good reasons.
Sham Ali
The young cricketer must be schooled in discipline and the finer points of the game in addition to the longer version; however that is an alien thought in these circles where duplicity, indiscipline, and disregard are in demand among opportunist. In the absence of proper techniques and the basics of bating, bowling, and fielding, 20/20 cricket is a potent dose for the youths and that will ultimately lead to the failure and demise of the young cricketer on a swing, hit or miss cricket. Any effort purported of promoting the youths on the basis of 20/20 cricket maybe a case of individual profiteering or a retarded perception of the sport of cricket itself.
When the presentation ceremony at the now spanking looking West Indian Social club house got under way, Mrs. Sylmeris Khan, the force behind the event over the years, along with the entire Sutherland family proudly lifted the trophy to honor the legacy of their father/grandfather Mr. Lowell ‘Slim’ Sutherland as ‘Cosmos’ in their eighteenth trip to the event on their 28th anniversary capped another successful tour.
Cosmos will play Liberty at Floyd Bennett Field on Sunday.
