Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
The eyes of the cricket-loving world are fixed on Long Island Sunday, as the Cricket World Cup continues with archrivals Pakistan and India playing before 34,000 diehards.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s on a different New York island that the bat-and-ball game has thrived for more than 150 years.<\/p>\n
The Staten Island Cricket Club is the oldest continuously active cricket club in America, founded in 1872 by British Wall Street traders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn New York City, the Staten Island Cricket Club remains the most diverse,\u201d offered Clarence Modeste, the club\u2019s 94-year-old president. \u201cAnd the club\u2019s view has always been cricket belongs to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the decades, the club has played host to legends of the sport, including Australian cricket pioneer Don Bradman, iconic English batsman Geoffrey Boycott, and Garry Sobers, the Barbadian cricketer who played for the West Indies from 1954 to 1974.<\/p>\n
The club continues to organize weekend matches, and even offers a youth program. <\/p>\n
Modeste, who hails from Tobago and had to give up playing the game six years ago at the ripe age of 88, grew up around cricket. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s important is the spirit of the game \u2014 that it is not just a game,\u201d Modeste said. \u201cYou don\u2019t just go out to beat your opponent. You do want to win, but you go about it in a gentlemanly way \u2014 a civilized way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Modeste, a Queens Village resident who\u2019s retired from the medical field, learned about the Staten Island Cricket Club in 1961, and quickly joined.<\/p>\n
\u201cCricket has great meaning to us,\u201d he said. \u201cPlaying the game is of primary importance. Winning the game is a secondary\u00a0concern. The social aspect of cricket is extremely important.\u201d<\/p>\n
At SICC, matches honor traditional cricket rules, where play can last all day. The ones being played on Long Island are T20 matches, which are generally faster, higher-scoring affairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe younger teams playing the T20 version, they go, they play, and they go home \u2014 they don\u2019t socialize,\u201d said Modeste. \u201cWith the traditional game, you have the social aspect. After the match, you go have a beer with your opponents in the clubhouse, and try to enjoy the camaraderie\u00a0that envelops cricket and perpetuates it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, the club boasts some 50 members hailing from India, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Ireland, England, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the US. They come from across the five boroughs and New Jersey to the 5-acre Walker Park in Livingston to play the game they love.<\/p>\n
A raging fire in 1932 destroyed the clubhouse and its earliest records, so Modeste doesn\u2019t know how many members the club had at its inception, but at at its height, it had 500 members.<\/p>\n
Like baseball, the game features cork-and-leather balls and wooden bats, and teams attempt to score as many runs as they can. But the cricket playing field is circular, teams have 11 players instead of 9, and fielders don\u2019t wear mitts. There are no bases and in cricket, and there are bowlers instead of pitchers. <\/p>\n
Each time the two players cross paths, a run is scored, and each team plays until they get 50 overs, or outs. Then, the game\u2019s over. <\/p>\n
Six missed bowled balls results in an over. And if the bowler happens to hit the batter\u2019s stumps, dislodging the wickets atop them, that, too, is an over. An over can also result from a caught ball.<\/p>\n
In the middle of the field, or \u201coval,\u201d is \u201cthe pitch.\u201d Teammates stand on opposite ends of the pitch, in front of catchers and two stumps. Each holds a bat. The bowler launches the ball towards the batter. If the batter hits it into the air or grounds it, the two teammates start running back and forth across the pitch until the ball\u2019s returned by a fielder. <\/p>\n
After soccer, cricket is the world\u2019s most popular sport, with an estimated 2.5 billion fans. However, in the United States, it remains a fringe sport, with an estimated 30 million fans calling America home, according to the International Cricket Council.<\/p>\n
But the sport has grown. During the 1990s, it was estimated some 20,000 people played the summertime game in the U.S. Today, that number\u2019s 200,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cCricket has had to remain\u00a0somewhat in the shadows,\u201d said Modeste. \u201cBut you see it continue to grow as we get increasing numbers of immigrants moving here from cricket-playing countries, and that is what has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
This weekend on Long Island, teams from South Africa, India, the Netherlands and Pakistan will be facing off. Modeste has tickets for Saturday\u2019s match, and admits, he still can\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never really thought I\u2019d see this day, because over the decades I\u2019ve been here, there hasn\u2019t been a very strong, forward-looking United States Cricket Association,\u201d he said, \u201cbut at the same time, I\u2019m filled with excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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