Guyana skipper Andre Kirton. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
By Sam Sooppersaud
The Rockaway T20 New York Cricket Fiesta will culminate on Saturday, August 26, 2017, at the Baisley Pond Park cricket field, 150th Street and Baisley Boulevard, Queens, New York. Two games will be played on this day. At 10:00 A.M. Semi Finalists Pakistan and Guyana do battle against each other. The winner of this contest goes on to meet New York XI in the finals. That game starts at 2:00 P.M.
Hard hitting Abdullah Syed of Pakistan. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
The 2nd Annual Rockaway T20 tournament started a couple of months ago, with Guyana, Jamaica, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and a select New York XI participating this year. The preliminaries are now completed and Guyana and Pakistan earned the honor of meeting in the semi finals. The New York XI, having topped the points table, automatically earned a berth in the finals.
This is the second season for the Rockaway T20 Cricket Fiesta. It was inaugurated last year. Trinidad and Tobago competed last year but was unable to do so this year. New to the tournament are Jamaica and India. The 2016 champion was Pakistan, who dominated their opponents. However, this season they are neck and neck with Guyana and a firefight is expected between these two rival franchises.
With respect to the New York XI, they accumulated the most winning points by playing exciting cricket and being unbeaten for the season. Although a few of their wins were virtual “walk overs”, others were close wins. Pakistan and Guyana have both vowed that whichever team gets to the finals, they would defeat the New York XI. So cricket fans come out and enjoy some exciting T20 cricket. Hey, two games for the price of one! You can’t beat that! More so when admission to Baisley Pond Park is free for both the semi-final and final.
The Rockaway T20 New York Cricket Fiesta is the brainchild of Hafeez Ali, CEO of the Rockaway Group of Companies, comprising the Rockaway Roti Shop and Restaurant, Rockaway VIP Car Service, and Royal Empress Hall. The Rockaway Group of Companies is the tournament’s grand sponsor.
Www.usacricketers.com will bring you a live scorecard of the games.