The crack of bat on ball, the aroma of curry and jerk chicken, and the sounds of reggae and soca music are familiar features of summer weekends across Brooklyn and Queens, where cricket continues to unite Caribbean immigrants and preserve ties to home.
Thousands of multi-generational Caribbean and Asian Americans play cricket in grassroots clubs and leagues across Brooklyn and Queens.
The bat-and-ball sport features professionals using hard leather balls on turf, artificial matting, and concrete pitches, as well as amateurs playing with tape balls (standard tennis balls wrapped in electric tape).
From May to September, local leagues — including the Commonwealth Cricket League (CCL), the New York National Cricket League (NYNCL), the American Cricket League, and the Brooklyn College League — bring communities together.
Alicia Connell, the president of the Cambridge Sports Club, which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year, was at Seaview Park in Canarsie on Saturday, May 30, watching her club compete.
“You will find that the park will be full. It’s just the company, the social gathering that they are enjoying. Cricket is still popular,” she stated, naming popular venues in Brooklyn and Queens and describing games as 20-, 35-, and 40-over matches.
Major venues include Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx, Baisley Pond Park and Roy Wilkins Park in Queens, and Marine Park and Gateway Park in Brooklyn.
Wesley King, president of the American Cricket League (ACL) in Brooklyn and a member of the Cricket Hall of Fame in Hartford, Connecticut, recalled that the British were playing cricket in New York long before baseball, football, and basketball became popular.
“The reason cricket never got established in America is that it was too long. Cricket needs a player for five and six days at a time,” he said, referring to the traditional Test match that can last five days, while pointing out that the major American sports of baseball, football, and basketball are over in a few hours.
“This is a heritage that was brought over from West Indian and British culture. Asian culture,” King asserted.
These cricket gatherings build vital relationships and help immigrants access opportunities in their new home, but they desperately need investment and sponsorship in New York, according to King.
The city does not currently have a permanent cricket stadium. The 34,000-seat stadium built to host matches in the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, Long Island, was only a temporary structure.
Clubs pay fees to parks, but at times must prepare their own pitches. Some players complain that the level of preparation at the parks can fall below the attention given to the baseball fields.
Asked to share three wishes for the development of cricket, King said, “Sponsorship, sponsorship, sponsorship!”
“It takes money. We have a lot of youth who play the game, and for them to play, we raise funds. Cricket is an expensive game,” he added.
For Connell, investment in the game in New York is vital to training schoolchildren to keep the tradition going in the immigrant community, as these days, “younger people know more about their phones than playing.”
Organizers in New York are anticipating brighter days as the sport gains popularity across the country. Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, reported in May 2025 that 13% of Americans, or about 40 million people, are cricket fans.
That number is expected to climb with the much-anticipated men’s and women’s T20 (Twenty20) matches at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
