Sports

New York schools swap baseball for cricket

by Amy Judd | April 4, 2008 at 06:36 am

343 views | 10 Recommendations | 1 comment

Children in New York are being encouraged to throw aside their baseball gloves and pick up their cricket bat and red ball as education chiefs have established a league in the city's schools.
Cricket has more commonly been associated with England and the Caribbean, but is trying to branch out before the sport dies out.

Cricket may be battling against declining interest in English and Caribbean schools, but it is becoming increasingly popular in a city more famous for the Yankees and Dodgers baseball teams.

Impressed by numbers of white-clad young players in the city's parks at weekends, New York's Department of Education has set up a league, with about 600 state secondary school students playing. Announcing its decision, the department said New York was the first and only state school system in America to offer competitive cricket.

It is a remarkable turnaround for a sport that was as popular with 19th century Americans as baseball.

Old maps of New York show cricket pitches on Central Park.