Cricket Grows in Baseball-Mad Cuba

Three things come to mind when the nation of Cuba comes up in conversation: the criminal Castro regime, cigars and baseball. One of the most enduring urban legends brings all three together claiming the cigar chomping dictator once had a tryout with the Yankees -- sadly, he didn't, but he has quit his cigar habit. And yet, Reuters reported earlier this week that cricket is being played in 9 of Cuba's 13 provinces.

Since the Kensington Review proudly supports the West Indies international side (even in these dark days), the rise of Cuba as a cricketing nation is of more than passing interest. More talent in the Windies pool is an admirable goal. And if Guy Burgess could come out of Eton and Trinity Cambridge as a communist, there is clearly nothing counter-revolutionary in the game, even if it is the sport of toffs in England.

Before the revolution a great many immigrants from English possessions arrived in Cuba, and so there is a tradition of cricket at least at the picnic-on-a-Sunday level. But the Canadian Cricket Association is donating equipment to kids int he Alamar district of Havana, and the government has recognized it as a recreational sport, which gives players access to facilities if not actual bats and stumps. In 2002, Cuba joined the International Cricket Council, so perhaps official recognition beyond that is possible.

This is, of course, an aspect of soft power diplomacy. South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, the Windies countries, Britain and Canada are all winning friends with nothing more than a few sets of whites and new cricket balls. The Brits went over the top and donated an artificial pitch last month -- Cuban, though, are great baseball players and know that artificial surfaces are rubbish for any game with a bat and ball.

Indian embassy attache Santosh Rawat told Reuters that the Cubans are "good fielders, who caught and threw superbly, while their batting was strong on the leg side but poor on the off due to their baseball upbringing" -- offside batting outside the strike zone. Cricket and baseball, of course, are different games, but the connoisseur recognizes their unique excellence, just as a gourmand understands the perfection of lobster as well as T-bone. And could cricket someday help ease the relationship between Cuba and America? Don't laugh -- the first international cricket match was played in New York at the St. George's club in 1844; it drew 5,000 and the prize was $1,000.

So, how does one say "bowled a googly" in Spanish?


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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