‘A dream come true’ — S.A’s cricketers get first field
Monterrey Park Cricket Grounds open for league play after years of pushing from local players and fans
Syed K. Shah was all smiles on the final day of San Antonio’s fall cricket season. After handing out trophies Sunday to members of Patel Brothers, the championshipwinning team, he proclaimed the moment as the start of something much bigger. San Antonio’s cricket community had finally gotten its own field in the heart of the city.
Cricket is English, of course, but it came to the Alamo City mostly via immigration from former British colonies, particularly in South Asia, where it’s wildly popular. And yes, there are quite a few players here, more than enough for league play. The problem, until this year, was where.
The city has set up a pitch and wickets in Monterrey Park. Problem solved.
“This is just the beginning for us,” Shah, the director of the San Antonio Premier Cricket League, said. “This is like a dream come true.”
The field opened in August after a years-long push from players to get the city to build one. Sunday’s championship match marked the successful culmination of the field’s first season in use.
Until last summer, local players had to shell out thousands of dollars to buy time on privately owned fields in other counties. Now, they have access to a free facility.
“It’s a blessing,” Shah said. Anwar Tahir, chairman of the SAPCL, said he first asked city officials to fund the construction of a cricket field in 1999.
As president of the Association of Convenience Store Retailers,
Tahir began working with District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez on an array of local business matters. Eventually, he raised the issue once again: more than 600 cricket players in San Antonio had no place to play.
Pelaez listened, and in the past couple of years, he and District 5 Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales have spearheaded the effort to build a field that was accessible to the community, Tahir said.
After the championship match Sunday, league leaders and players welcomed Pelaez; Teresa Menéndez Myers, Gonzales’ chief of staff, and Mayor Ron Nirenberg to the field to thank them in a celebratory ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The guests of honor took turns batting and bowling (pitching, in cricket terms), and Nirenberg even signed a few bats and balls for appreciative players.
“This is probably one of the things about which I’ll be most proud,” Pelaez said. “This was really a small gesture on our part, but you can
tell from the smiles on their faces that it was a huge gesture and it was a really big accomplishment for them.
“I have to learn how to
play cricket now,” he added with a smile of his own.
While the field is not yet finished, it has the essentials needed to play the game. At the center of the circular field is a rectangular pitch with wickets and all. Tahir said the city plans to add more grass, benches for players on the sides and a second pitch for practicing or warming up.
League leaders like Tahir and Shah hope that the new field will attract leagues from other cities, like Austin and Houston, to come to San Antonio to compete. Week-long tournaments would draw hundreds of players and create revenue, not only for the SAPCL, but also for San Antonio, Tahir said.
The San Antonio league has 11 high-tier teams that use a leather ball, and there are an additional 30 lowertier teams that use a softer ball. Each team has about 15 players. The next SAPCL season starts in January and ends in March.
“This is great,” Tahir said of the new field. “The teams were so happy to play.”