In New York, America's oldest cricket club turns 150

Baseball is America's national pastime, but in New York, a cricket club is celebrating 150 years not out thanks to the city's large immigrant communities.

Staten Island Cricket Club (SICC) is the oldest continuously active cricket club in the United States, with matches played there every year since it was founded in 1872 by British armed forces officers and Wall Street traders.

Along the way, it has hosted some of the game's greats, including Don Bradman, Geoffrey Boycott and Garry Sobers.

"There's plenty to be proud of in a non-cricket-playing country to have a club that has withstood the test of time. It's not been easy," says 92-year-old president Clarence Modeste.

Footnote: this Saturday, @SICricketClub plays the below-mentioned Gentlemen of Philadelphia at Walker Park as we celebrate our 150th anniversary. https://t.co/ZVuMhF00ur

SICC has survived two world wars, the loss of a clubhouse to fire and the Covid-19 pandemic. It has also navigated rudimentary facilities and indifference from local officials.

Before each match at the club's home ground of Walker Park, city-run since the 1930s, players nail down a canvas matting wicket and hammer in stumps.

Grass several inches high in the field forces batters to lift the ball rather than hit the groundstrokes that many of the club's 80-odd members learned to play as youngsters.

"You can't hit a lovely cover drive. It won't go anywhere," laments 66-year-old Charu Choudhari, who nonetheless travels two hours from his home on Long Island to play.

A footpath marks the boundary while shots that hit the leaves of a large tree are deemed a six. Bowling is only allowed from one end due to homeowners worried about well-struck balls hitting their property.

"This is the sort of handicap one