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| Newcomers are PSAL Inaugural Cricket Champions in New York |
| by DreamCricket USA |
| Jun 18, 2008 |
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Newcomers are PSAL Inaugural Cricket Champions in New York
By John L. Aaron
June 13th, 2008
The lead up to the final
The two teams that played the finals, Newcomers HS and John Adams HS, had a tremendous regular season. Newcomers defeated Richmond Hill HS in an exciting semi-final on May 29, 2008, where they reached their target of 118 for the loss of 5 wickets in 19.2 overs after being 29 for 4 early on. John Adams HS eased their way past Dewitt Clinton HS on higher run-rate in their rain-affected semi-final on May 27, 2008.
 Newcomers skipper Gomes
with trophy
Pic: NewYorkCricket.com
How the championship was won?
John Adams High School won the toss and chose to field. A decision that opening batsman Git Das of Newcomers was happy to prove was favorable to his side. Git attacked from the very first ball and the run rate steadily rose to 10 per over after the 7th over.
Git had compiled a blazing 37 runs when John Adams HS captain, Thakur Singh's spin successfully uprooted the stumps. Similarly tight bowling by Hugh Craig and Kamaljit Singh ensued and the run rate started to drop. Azmain Hossain was run out for a duck and Robin Das was out LBW Kamaljit Singh for 1 run. At this stage, John Adams let go of two chances to dismiss Newcomers HS Captain Dominic Gomes. Dominic scored 30 in the event and the Newcomers HS posted 149 for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. Nurus Salam was the second highest scorer for Newcomers with 34 runs.
Targeting 150 runs at a required run rate of 7.5 was not going to be easy for John Adams HS. And after seeing their rivals' success with spin, Dominic Gomes used his spinners early and his decision was on the mark. John Adams HS was in deep trouble early in their inning. Thakur brought some stability for a short while along with Randy Nurse but the captain fell on 15.
John Adams dropped their pinch-hitter Kamaljit Singh down in the batting order so that he could have a go at the Newcomers' pacemen Saiful Islam and Dominic Gomes. In one Saiful over, Kamaljit hit one straight back over the bowler's head for a six before cutting the hapless bowler to a four in the very next delivery. But just as the target looked achievable, with the score reading 111, Kamaljit fell for 30.
In the end, John Adams was all out for 124 runs with one over to go. Newcomers were crowned the PSAL Cricket Champions - 2008.
A major break-through for cricket - 600 school cricketers participate
The spotlight in this year's young cricket season belongs to the 600 or more young cricketers, representing 14 schools who participated in the PSAL's high school tournament, representing schools in all of the five boroughs.
Dominic Gomes in accepting the prestigious high school athletic achievement award for scholastic and cricket accomplishments did so, on behalf of many other youngsters who yearn to play the sport of their forefathers in the land where newcomers are always welcomed, even if their sport takes something like three centuries to do so.
Newcomers have arrived
 Newcomers Team before a regular season game
Pic: Columbia News Service
Earlier this year, the PSAL added cricket to its growing list of sports afforded the city's high school athletes, right alongside baseball, swimming, American football, track & field, fencing, tennis, gymnastics, cross-country running and some twenty-seven other events.
The difference being that cricket, the second most popular sport in the world and introduced to America almost three centuries ago, was only this year introduced as a mainstream sport within the city's high school system.
It is ironic that the newly introduced sport was won by a high school named Newcomers and coached by a dynamic and focused lady named Christina Cavaliere, a newcomer to the sport of cricket herself. However, that is where the difference ends, as the Newcomers cricket squad consisted entirely of high school students born in cricket-playing nations, or are the offspring of those born in the Caribbean and countries and other countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, located in South Asia.
At the Top of Their Game
Nineteen-year old Dominic Gomes was born in Bangladesh and has been playing cricket for the past nine years. The olive-skinned young man is the captain of the Newcomers High School team that won the inaugural PSAL cricket championship two Sundays ago at Spring Creek Cricket Ground, in Brooklyn.
A modest, but very assertive individual, Dominic's cricket experience, a tad too short to be described as a cricket career, is indicative of his response to the question of which individual or cricketer has had the biggest impact on him, so far, answers very simply, "I would like to say my friends." Such is the modesty that belies the young man's contribution to his high school winning the championship and putting cricket on the PSAL's sporting agenda and the New York City sports calendar. He adds that he admires his cricketing friends and some of his fellow high school seniors.
On Monday evening last, the New York Athletic Club at Central Park South in New York City was where the PSAL recognized thirty-five of the city's best high school athletes for their accomplishments on the field, as well as in the classroom. It was the "Heisman" awards of high school sports, as each of the athletes strode to the microphone to thank God, their parent(s), teachers and coaches for the opportunity and fuel that made them shine so brightly over the past year.
Fellow athletes cheered, parents cried, coaches glowed with chests held high, siblings applauded proudly, but most of all scholastic athletes like Dominic Gomes stared starry-eyed into the limelight of the evening and a future, with sport playing a significant role in helping to shape their minds, bodies, and personalities.
Winning the PSAL championship is but only a small part of the lives of these male and female athletes. In the words of Dominic Gomes, "Oh, I can say all of our hard work paid off, but mostly for our coach Ms. C, because it was tough at the very beginning. It was a little hard, but my vice captain and I discussed the issues with each other and together we solved the problems. In addition, the support received from our school administrators, parents and friends worked for us."
 PSAL Executive Director Douglas, and coach Cavaliere flank Gomes
Pic: NewYorkCricket.com
The attacking batsman and sometimes bowler, added, "From the first game we won playing against John Adams High School, I felt we were going to win the championship." Such is the confidence of the high school senior who sat at the dinner with his dad, mom, younger sister, and brother, along with his coach Christina Cavaliere, PSAL cricket commissioner Bassett Thompson, former Guyana national cricketer H. Carlyle Miller and United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) Executive Secretary John L. Aaron.
According to Dominic Gomes, coach Cavaliere was instrumental in getting the cricketers to be more disciplined and focused on dealing with the sport. He credits the high school gym teacher for maintaining a strict work ethic, despite it being her first time coaching cricket. He added that Ms. C is very nice and according to him, she "knows how to deal with the game and stuff, by encouraging the squad to practice every day after school in the large Flushing Meadows Park in Queens."
Ironically, the Queens high school indirectly represented that borough in the PSAL championship and emerged winners just like their adult counter-part cricketers of the borough, who last weekend won the Mayor's inter-borough cricket cup championship for the second year in a row.
Champion: Newcomers High School
Runner-up: John Adams High School
MVP: Git Das of Newcomers High School
Best Batsman: Kamaljit Singh of John Adams HS
Best Bowler: Hugh Craig of John Adams HS
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