Cosmos Through A Dynamic Decade

By Sham Ali
(Celebrating 28th Anniversary) It has been decade of small strides and major accomplishments for the 28 year old COSMOS; a cricket club born out of humble beginnings from a group of school boys at Taft High School in 1982, boys who persevered through the years and matured into a formidable cricket club. Cricket subsequently became the thread for Cosmos to weave the fabric of the West Indian culture into the diverse complexity of the American society, and in the process extending arms and opening doors to cricketers from across the globe. The game served as a catharsis for Cosmos members with a link to home away from home. A club where resolve through years of stability and at times stagnation provided the prerequisite for adaptability in changing times and credence to the last decade; a decade that was complement by the ambiguity of fluctuating fortunes and coupled with sporadic challenges. Through it all, Cosmos rallied on a clean sole and a good heart through the exploring eighties and the nervous nineties. And, as the 21st century turn the corner it found Cosmos immovable with the strength and resilience again while growing roots in the storm, and in the process preserving a rich culture and a sport whilst delivering five championships and a wealth of talented cricketers in the last decade as they celebrate their 28th season.

An archive photo of members in the earlier days of Cosmos.

Cosmos has pioneered the way on the field over the last two decades and now they have reached beyond the boundary to further accentuate the clubs contributions to the game by implementing some purposeful programs. A program to offer a stipend to any of their younger players who are attending college while teaching them the finer points of sportsmanship and the art of playing the game in a very festive club atmosphere. Another program to sponsor youth teams in the West Indies has given hope to the game across the border. The stipend initiative though, is one that not only sets Cosmos on a higher path but one that offers a refreshing and useful motivational tool to encourage the club’s youngsters to pursue higher achievement, suggesting, “Cosmos is not only about cricket.”

As Cosmos celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2007, the stipend initiative gave the club a new dimension at the celebration. The program prompted one senior New York Region official to expressed, “I wish all the cricket clubs could take a page from Cosmos’ book.  The 25th Anniversary was simply an awe-inspiring year for the club where many of the founding members turned out to grace the family day at Floyd Bennett Field and the annual presentation ceremony at the end of the season where members were presented with a souvenir plaque depicting a written and pictorial history of the club. In 2008, the club added another important chapter to their history by recognizing and an honor their members with a benefit year and present them with a lifetime achievement award, members who have made important contributions to the club and in promoting the game in the United States. Shadi Khan became the first honoree in this endeavor for his contributions for almost thirty years.

Cosmos extended their humanitarian effort in this decade by responding with continued contributions to disasters around the world, the earthquake in Pakistan, Haiti, Tsunami, the American Red Cross and the Children’s’ Hospital. The club then extends an invitation through their manager Shadi Khan to welcome and hosts Clarke Road, Trinidad / Tobago 2007 1st division champions, for 10 days in New York. The effort received high praised from the visitors as their best tour and the friendship garnered between the two teams led to a regular exchange of players between the two clubs. It also opened a door for Cosmos to obtain contracts for players to participate in the TT first division domestic season.

The 21st century also brought a new era of hope and excitement to the cricket world, and cricketers began to witness and experiment with the new innovations in the sport. As the sport moved to new heights the dynamics of Cosmos also began to change along with that of the entire cricket community. Some of Cosmos players wanted to explore new pastures for varying reasons in 2000, 2004, however, that in 2008 was orchestrated, unnecessary and purely uncultured. These circumstances created some distractions and one that left Cosmos with the daunting task of finding new players in short order and ultimately forced Cosmos to tweak their membership requirements somewhat. That, however, gave the club the opportunity to explore new possibilities and to test the ‘waters’ for new players.  Some of the decisions taken on the periphery over the last decade with regards to membership, and away from the core policy of the club, may not have been popular but necessary to ensure that Cosmos move forward and remain competitive. In the context of Cosmos achievements in the last decade the minor distractions proved to be good for the organization. It opened the doors to players from various parts -Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India – and allowed the club to become more diversified with a deepened air of camaraderie as they embarked on their journey to rebuild.

Touring has been a ritual that punctuated Cosmos from the inception and their historic tour to London, England in 1994 and England/New Delhi India in 1998 was acclaimed with two others. The club landed on the Land of Lords, England again in 2000 and 2004 to the Durham International Cricket Friendship Festival. Cosmos earned a spot in the semi on both occasion and in 2004 they moved to the final. The tour served to reinvigorate cosmos pride as they battle with Dover cc from Barbados in the final. It was a thriller that resulted in Cosmos surrendering their total in the penultimate ball of the final over and returned to their homeland with their confidence at a peak and prepared for the seasons ahead.

Cosmos did not relinquished on their standing as a force to be reckoned with in the Metropolitan Cricket League (MCL) domestic season and the last decade was undoubtedly the most decorated in the club’s 28 year history. Cosmos administration changed guards and their captain for almost two decades Ashmul Ali; a brilliant leader of men and a one of the brightest ‘minds’ in the game made room for an equally competent and incisive tactician Dixeth Palmer as Cosmos gradually began the  transformation of their team. The challenge was met with a determined effort that thrust Cosmos into the spotlight and after their return from the English tour. They entered the playoffs in the MCL Premier Round Robin competition on every occasion in the last six seasons. With CAPTAIN Palmer and COACH/PLAYER Ali and later VICE CAPTAIN Kevin Darlington taking the lead roles Cosmos toppled one record after another in the MCL for Highest team score, Most Centuries in a season, Highest individual score, Highest Partnership, Most consecutive wins by a team and four MVP Awards whilst they positioned the team for the MCL Premier Round Robin (RR) Runners-up trophy in 2005, and Champions in 2006 2008 2009. In the color clothe Challenge Cup (CC) Competition Cosmos emerged as champions in 2005, 2006 and runners-up in 2007 and 2009.

A most recent photo of club members.

Cosmos success continue to stretch  on and off the cricket field and while the club has given a breath of life to many clubs and cricketers over the years the story of Cosmos can be told in some ways through the viewpoint of a majority of the established clubs from administrative struggles to team composition. The occasional exodus in many ways is a reflection of the norm in a topsy-turvy cricket atmosphere; one that quietly encourages loose tongue and an outwardly uncultivated behavior with an ongoing attempt to constantly infiltrate and infect most of the established clubs. Cosmos is not immune and the clubs’ ongoing initiative to lance the boils of occasional discontent is often derailed by traits that are unique to human kind. However, Cosmos managed somehow to maintain their standards throughout the years under a leadership that was intent on maintaining discipline in a club that has no appetite for mediocrity. Perhaps if they did their contingent would have been overgrown by now. It is flattering though to see the Cosmos brand stamped on other clubs, their thyme echoed, and Cosmos’s methods purportedly implemented whether falsely or not is a reminder that Cosmos must have done something right in contributing to the game for almost three decades.

As Cosmos began to enjoy their renewed success and feature again as a viable organization, they willingly opened its doors in 2006 to some of the old players who perhaps found that the grass was not so green on the other side. It was a regretful decision since not long thereafter the club began to experience an untold degree of frivolity in the middle of the 2008 season and the infection began to spread and attack the weak and vulnerable youths.

From the inception Cosmos has had mix of youth and senior players and is arguably the only club that invested in training youth players in the last two decades. The cause with the youths was a way to provide some discipline and direction through the culture of cricket and add some longevity to the game in the United States. Cosmos youths were called upon to grace the opening of two new cricket venues the Gateway Cricket Ground in 2003 and the opening of the Floyd Bennett Cricket Ground in 2004 where the youths took center stage in boosting a future for the game.

In 2008 The New York City Public School (NYCPS) introduced cricket into its curriculum. In an effort to facilitate the interest of the youths after the program concluded, Cosmos pioneered another initiative to create and fund a youth team – Cosmos Kings – that will engage in a full Saturday schedule to play in the New York Region (NYR) U-19 45 overs and Twenty/20 competitions as well as in the New York City Police Athletic League (NYCPAL) Twenty/20 competition.  Some of the youths were selected for the Cosmos senior team on Sundays to expose them to a higher level. Under the training and discipline of Cosmos Coach Ashmul Ali, the youths performed well throughout to secure a spot in both semifinals.  They bowed out in the semi finals of the NYR competition, however, they emerged deserved champions in the NYPD’s inaugural competition. And in view of the success with the youths and the quality players in the senior team, Cosmos felt that the youths will be even better served if they engaged in division I competition in the MCL on a regular basis, Cosmos made the decision at the end of the 2008 season to include at least seven of the youth players in the senior team for the 2009 season. Note: There were some who offered ‘sketchy agreement’ during the discussion.

Cosmos honor the youth team’s success in 2008 and the senior team – the MCL 2008 champions- and handed out the college stipend to the recipients at their annual presentation with the NYCPS Cricket Commissioner and NYCPAL development officer in attendance. The success with the youths in 2008 was hailed as another excellent innovation by Cosmos and instead of it being encouraged so that other established teams can follow, it lead to a disappointing development from some who came through the Cosmos door in 2006 fighting for ownership of the youth team by exhibiting a blatant disregard for the club, a club that was the source of their nurturing in the early years. Cosmos was expected to wet the ego of some whenever they were available and discard those who carry the team in their absence and when the club refuses to comply. The criticisms that followed were simply disingenuous of Cosmos’s team composition and methods. The youths were used as the convenient pawn and as such the seeds of division were planted to destroy the club. It was hard to recall a more needless and self-immolating row than the one that escalated from insularity and the refusal to follow simple procedures to the rampant bushfire that would consumed Cosmos.

The events that ensued thereafter leaves one in awe and will be registered as the most distasteful and cunning behavior that has ever been exhibited in the all of cricket, a type of behavior that has tainted the club and has deprived the game of its dignity, it will haunt the perpetrator(s) for a lifetime. Such squabbles in Cosmos has set a new benchmark for internal strife where compromise has become a dirty word and camaraderie a thing of the past and a reminder that cosmos must be cautious of whom to delegate responsibilities in the future.

Cosmos was blissfully unaware that while they were innocently celebrating their 26th Anniversary Awards Presentation and discussing the future of the club, that some members were receiving their awards with one hand, and with the other hand they were secretly planning to poison the club by preying on the youths, and go about it in such a barefaced manner, leaves a lot to be desired as it sets a chilling precedence. Such danger will continue to prowl and parading on the cricket scene perhaps proud of the method(s) whilst pretending to preach the gospel to the youths, and we wonder why the indiscipline has been as widespread in 2010 as one senior umpire reported.

One of the story lines used to lure the youths was that they have to play in a particular league and associated among a certain group if they want to be selected to represent the region or the US. They did not know that such story lines were a cover to satisfy the ego of the ring-leaders who were looking to dismantle Cosmos while creating room for their own selfishness. The method to plan a meeting on the same day and time that Cosmos had planned their annual general meeting and informed the youths that there is no more Cosmos and that the meeting of the new team is held at a different location was just a sickening act. The star plan to divide ‘worked’ The innocence of the youths were eventually clawed by the luring tentacles engraved with the proverbial hypocritical pitch ‘promoting youths’ a pitch that is shamelessly plastered on a cricket community and one that is as old as time. Sorry to say but such must be a morbid expression of ignorance, and sadly why none of the youths to date are on the region’s team is anyone’s guess. Promoting youths for the betterment of the game within the confines of discipline and sportsmanship is a very good thing, but to use them to in a destructive manner to parade “questionable traits” and where “freedom” and “rights” are often used to hide the true color of these traits while we sing God Bless America is a whole different story.

The tune the rebels sang in their colloquial tongue that Cosmos had dissolved eventually ran out of notes as it turned out to be a lie perpetuated on the youths. It was not long thereafter that the egos among the rebels clashed and the barrage of profanities exchanged among them and with the youths as their audience adds a whole new meaning to the phrase promoting youths (promoting my foot). It is only a matter of time before the youths will realized and how they were blind-sided and ill-advised and maybe then reality may prick the consciousness, if there is any, for the practicing such dim-witted methods.

All the maneuverings, the fabrication, deception and lies failed. Sounds like a soap opera gone south, right! Wrong! It is just the methods of a few to destroy a cricket club that plays the game in these parts for fun, a club that is dedicated to keeping the game alive, a club whose members volunteered their time and resources to train the younger players with the hope preserving a culture and providing some guidance and purpose. What began to blossom into a first-rate youth movement in Cosmos in 2008 withered into oblivion when it was met with a type of behavior that has stained cricket in the region over the years with the cry of freedom and rights as a front, unfortunately it will continue to reduce the game to mere mediocrity. And we wonder why and often asked, is the cricket going to hell in a hand-basket; the answer may reside within the stars.

The saga expired in a hurry as Cosmos Brushed off the cob-web with the occasional smile and looked ahead as they raised the MCL 2009 Round Robin Premier Championship Trophy again. They were unable to defend their crown in 2010 after rain marred the semi final match-up. A dominant show in the 2010 Challenge Cup would set up the showdown against Progressive in the final; however, Cosmos had to settle for the runners-up trophy.

Cosmos forged on and in an ongoing effort to promote the game there is always an affinity to other sports and activities, however, Cricket as a sport and past time relaxation has afforded many in Cosmos with a priceless enjoyment and respite over the years, and as such there is a desire to reciprocate. Cosmos in good measure has taken the initiative to promote the game in the United States for the last 28 years by building many bridges and has taken another giant step in 2010; to contribute to the youth programs in schools and clubs in the West Indies notably Guyana and Jamaica. This effort has vastly overshadowed and surpassed any which Cosmos has undertaken in their history so far, and to date the endeavor in Jamaica has received untold appreciation and undoubtedly gives hope to a program in need. One of the recipient clubs’ in Jamaica, and listen to this name in poetic justice ‘Star of the East’ Cricket Club in Negril. To date, Star of the East has proudly produced a promising and exciting player Paul Palmer – the current Jamaica U19 captain and Cosmos could not have envisioned a more rewarding effort to crown the end of the decade.

Like it was in the beginning, so it is now, that Cosmos – The Cricket Club with humble beginnings has paved the way and provided so many priceless opportunities for its members is now on a path of an even higher trajectory to attain outsize achievement with almost 913 games and 85 centuries their club’s history. Cosmos that has always been a gracious to anyone who has stepped onto their platform, and they will continue to play the game in the spirit in which the game is meant to be played and endeavor never to compromise on the finer qualities of sportsmanship.  And now to continue through these enigmatic times will be another challenge, one that COSMOS will pursue vigilantly and keep marching forward. In this decade though, Cosmos was all class, leading the way and setting the standard.