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Ricky Singh the cricket king

Ricky Singh the cricket king
By Howard Koplowitz

When he moved from his native Guyana to the United States 16 years ago, Ricky Singh found it difficult to find and purchase cricket equipment so he could play the sport he loved.

So he took matters into his own hands.

Singh, now an Ozone Park resident, started Singh’s Sporting Goods out of his Bronx home in 1993.

“As a player, it was very hard to get equipment in those days,” said Singh, who has been playing in recreational leagues since he emigrated, most recently with the Nassau New York Cricket League. “It was expensive and it was very hard to find equipment.”

Now Singh, 46, has two storefronts — one in the Bronx and another in Queens — and is the official supplier of cricket apparel to the U.S. and Bermuda national teams.

Singh’s Queens location, which he opened at 100−06 101st Ave. in Ozone Park 10 years ago, is the only specialty cricket shop in the borough.

Cricket was established in England in the 16th century and became the country’s national sport in the 18th century. The sport gained popularity in English territories and colonies, like Australia, India, Pakistan, the West Indies and the Caribbean.

“Cricket is a world sport,” Singh said.

The game bears a resemblance to baseball in that the goal is to hit a ball with a wooden bat in an attempt to score runs. Like baseball, cricket has a softball version played with a larger ball.

In Queens, the sport is mostly played in parks and fields in Richmond Hill and Ozone Park, where there are large Guyanese, Caribbean and South Asian populations.

“You have an influx of Asian and West Indian immigrants who are settled in this area,” Singh said. Cricket “is the sport we knew, like how an American would know football, baseball and basketball.”

The neighborhood’s demographics are what led Singh to set up shop in Ozone Park.

“This is a bigger community,” he said. “Here is where the population is.”

Singh said the sport is the world’s second−most popular after soccer and there are 20,000 cricket players on 600 professional teams in the U.S. and an additional 300 softball teams.

“If the equipment is available at an affordable price, the game will grow,” he said. “And it has grown.”

The sport is expanding its reach to younger players after the city created a pilot program last year in which 16 high schools participated in a cricket league through the PSAL, Singh said. The program has since expanded to 24 teams.

Singh, whose son is the captain of Thomas Edison High School’s cricket team, sells equipment to the high school players.

“Cricket has grown among the youth,” he said, especially among first−generation Guyanese and Caribbean children in America, including his son.

Most of Singh’s customers are recreational players from surrounding communities who play in competitive leagues in the borough.

About 100 varieties of cricket bats are sold at Singh’s Sporting Goods, which Singh imports from England, Australia, India and Pakistan. Bats range in price from $50 to $300.

“A bat is like a human being,” Singh said. “Nobody can tell the life of a bat. Nobody can tell you how many runs it will score.”

Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e−mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 173.