Women’s Cricket Comes To Gateway As NY Tristate Battle Superstars

Roy Sweeney Cup
Gateway Oval in Brooklyn, New York will come alive over the Memorial Day weekend as women’s cricket returns with a showcase of megastars. New York Tristate women will field a strong team as they play host to Superstars Cricket Club women team. The teams will be competing for the Roy Sweeney Cup. The late Roy Sweeney was instrumental in getting Gateway and other grounds dedicated to cricket.

Candacy Atkins an will lead New York Tristate squad. Photo by Shiek Mohamed

The T20 tournament will bowl off on Saturday, May 25 at 9:30 am with an opening ceremony and two games. Another two games will be played on Sunday and one on Monday morning. There will be batting and bowling awards for each game and one for the overall MVP.

The New York Tristate organization, formed in 2003, have placed more U-19  and senior players on USA teams than any other organization in the USA and will be celebrating it’s 10th anniversary over the weekend. For the past five years, the organization has been fostering women’s cricket in a big way.

The Tristate team is the USA national champions and includes many USA national players and players who have represented the West Indies.  The team is led by the great, Candacy Atkins, whose excellent leadership skills have elevated her to the captaincy of not only Tristate but also the USA. She will be ably assisted by the brilliant and experienced Doris Francis who has represented the West Indies and the USA.

Other USA national players who will be on display are Triholder Marshall, Karen Byles, Delkash Shahriarian, Ivy Hahabir, Melissa Sandy, Shondel Warde, Anahita Arora and Geetha Shawkarla. Lorena Vitte, Nayesha Khan and Sharda Saroop have represented St. Lucia. The team will also introduce some new recruits in the persons of Rohanie Patel, Coleen Edwards, Carleen Edwards, Gul Imran, Shreeya Jain and Cynthia Lakhann.

The Superstars will be led by captain, Mona Persaud who is also a former captain of the Canada national team. She is a right hand batter and bowls medium pace.  Ave Morgan who bats left hand and bowls right arm spin, is also a former captain of the Canadian national team. She traveled to the Caribbean in 2003 as a member of a USA invitational team which was formed in New York and participated in the Caribbean women tournament that year.  Other members of the team are Abigail Rajkumar, Uzma Iftikhar, Aisha Iftikhar, Farah Aftab, Manisha Rathore, Keya Patel, Shoba Singh, Jarsheri Patel, and Achini Perera. Other players are awaiting time off from work and school.

The New York tradition of live commentary at the field with interludes of carnival music will continue, with Carl Bennett and Lenny Aichabar, two of the best in the business.  Scoring and live streaming on newyorkcricket.com will be done by Kerk Higgins, an ICC certified scorer and the hard working entrepreneur and journalist, Shiek Mohamed.

Umpiring will be done by the competent Eileen Norton and Patricia Whittaker. Tristate coach, Linden Fraser, will be taking his squad through physical, mental and technical training on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at Gateway. Under-15 players are invited to attend the session which will start at 11:00 am.  A large crowd is expected at Gateway over the Memorial Day weekend to support women cricket.

Schedule Of Games
New York Tristate Invitational Women Team
Versus
Superstars Sports Club Women Cricket Team