The Fabulous Five Made It All Happen At Floyd Bennett Field

By Orin Davidson
The fans cannot stop talking about it, the West Indies players are still full of praises and everyone who attended last week’s promotion of the biggest weekend in New York’s cricket will never forget it.

Yes, the staging of the Caribbean All Stars versus United States All Stars series last Saturday and Sunday was a grand affair that lived up to all expectations and silenced every doubter out there.

Yet none of it would’ve been possible without the Fabulous Five who successfully promoted the event against serious odds.

Yes, Roy Sweeney, Peter Jolly, Richie Bierson, Vish Lekhram and Earl ‘Junior’ Lyn were the ones who pulled off the great event last weekend at Floyd Bennett Park.

They did what was previously thought off as impossible. They brought Brian Lara who set four batting world records and currently holds three, to New York, leading a near full strength West Indies team, representing themselves as the Caribbean All Stars, for the very first time.

With his career winding down, Lara, considered one of the best players ever to hold a cricket bat, is in heavy demand presently. But his busy schedule did not prevent the Fabulous Five from having him play two days in succession here in what could be our last chance to have the batting genius perform.

For those who do not know better, the Fab Five transformed the Floyd Bennett Field from a virtual pasture into playing standard, which might not compare to Lords, Melbourne or Calcutta, but good enough not to have elicited any complaints from the West Indies stars.

Floyd Bennett field has the size, location and potential to become the premier cricket venue for all of America.

But it’s a pity the many restrictions that go with a Federal controlled property, might not make that a reality.

Nevetheless the Fab Five has the tenacity to transform the impossible into the possible, so the future of Floyd Bennett must not be dismissed.

Last weekend’s promotion was also good enough to attract New York City’s biggest newspapers. The fact that the Times, Daily News, Post and Newsday covered the games says a lot about the high level organization that went into everything.

That fans were allowed to enjoy the games without having to worry about lugging food from home, because everything was provided within the facility which mirrored the staging of big time professional games at Yankee Stadium, Shea. Madison Square Garden or Flushing Meadows.

From all indications, mainstream America is also catching on to cricket if one is to judge from the favorable responses to the event from some city businesses.

And it goes without saying the games gave the World Cup 2007 organizers a huge advertisement in the run-up to next year’s extravaganza in the West Indies.

So many more fans have now developed a deeper yearning for the game, by the time the World Cup bowls off in March, a lot more New Yorkers will be jetting off to the islands and Guyana.

But without the Fab Five, this growing cricket fever would’ve never been created.
Thus, the sport is indebted to these five gentlemen for a long time to come.
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