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By Peter Della Penna

Former USA U-19 vice-captain Greg Sewdial made a return to organized cricket last month after more than 15 months on the sidelines. This weekend at the USA U-19 trials in New York, he is eager for the opportunity to show selectors that he is worthy of a spot in the 14-man squad that will go to Ireland next month for the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier.

“I definitely think I have something to prove and I’ll always have that chip on my shoulder,” said Sewdial on Thursday. “People are always gonna write you off and say what they want to say. I basically disappeared from the cricketing world of New York and USA for over a year so I just want to come back strong and let people know what they missed.”

Sewdial was USA’s leading scorer at the 2010 ICC U-19 World Cup in New Zealand. However, he has been out of action since the end of that tournament due to a serious ankle injury. The 19-year-old first sustained the injury to his left ankle in May 2009 just a few days before the start of the 2009 U-19 National Tournament in New York. He decided to play through the injury during both of USA’s qualifying tournaments in Canada as well as at the World Cup, which exacerbated the damage to his ankle ligaments.

After returning from New Zealand last January, Sewdial waited until the end of his spring semester at Hofstra University before having surgery in May. The hope was that he would be back to normal after six months of rehab. Instead, he got the crushing news that a second surgery was needed.

Image (right) - Greg Sewdial file photo. [Courtesy: ICC/Bryan Vandenburgh]

“I was heartbroken,” said Sewdial. “I thought that one surgery, one shot, it was gonna be over with. I come to find out six months later when I went for a second opinion when my ankle was giving me some more issues, the doctor told me I may need some screws in here. A week later I took an MRI. The MRI turned out positive. I had the surgery two weeks later.”

The second surgery, performed in December, was deemed a success by Sewdial’s doctors but three more months of rehab meant he had to miss out on a chance to be a part of the ICC Americas title-winning USA U-19 squad in February. That left him itching to get back on the field.

“The hardest part was seeing all the scores online when the Under-19 team was playing and not being able to play,” said Sewdial. “I just want to leave whatever’s in the past in the past and just move forward.”

“I’m just hungry. I just want to go out there. Over a year of missed cricket feels like forever for me. With two operations, it was really something I’ve never experienced before. It could set you back or it could motivate you and I’m just trying my best to keep on the right path and let it motivate me to be even better than I was.”

Sewdial says that he needs to lose some weight he gained while being away from the field, but that the greater obstacle to being fit again is getting enough time out in the middle. He’s played four matches in the last month for Seven Star CC in New York’s Commonwealth League, making a couple of starts but no major scores.

“I’m definitely not 100% yet, but I’ll slowly be there. I’ve been going to the gym very often, like four or five days a week, just trying to rehab it as soon as possible. The main thing is I just need some batting practice and some real cricket practice to really find some form at least before any major tournament I play in. I just want to have that reassurance in myself that when the real time comes I can provide for the team.”

At this weekend’s trials, Sewdial hopes he can do enough to convince selectors that he’s “a leader, that I’m capable, I’m dependable” and that those attributes, along with his batting, make him a desirable player to have in the USA U-19 squad going to Ireland that will be attempting to qualify for a second straight ICC U-19 World Cup.

“I think the side that we have now will do good with an extra batsman in the middle order anyways,” said Sewdial. “I think if I were to go to Ireland, that would show some stability on paper at least. I think overall I’m just ready to go out there and make up for a year of lost cricket on my part.”

The USA U-19 trials are scheduled to take place June 11-12 at Idlewild Park in Queens, just around the corner from JFK Airport. The New York metro area received heavy rain overnight and more rain is in the forecast throughout Saturday and Sunday so it remains to be seen how much work the players will get to do outside.

An 18-man preliminary squad has to be sent from USACA to the ICC by Monday June 13 before the final list of 14 is submitted to the ICC on June 28. Cricket Association of Nepal released their country’s 18-man squad on June 1 for the ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier. Among the players selected was Rahul Vishwakarma, who took 7 for 15 in a match against the USA senior team at ICC WCL Division Five in Nepal in February 2010. Vishwakarma was also a member of Nepal’s squad at the 2008 ICC U-19 World Cup in Malaysia where he played in all six of his country’s matches, taking 10 wickets as a 15-year-old in the event as Nepal lost to the West Indies in the final of the Plate Championship.