Steve Buckner is one of the most famous umpires in cricket history having appeared in 128 Test matches and currently oversees the recreational game in the borough of New York City.
Sometimes it's about being in the right place at the right time.
Earlier this month, I was fortunate enough to do just that. Ahead of this year's T20 World Cup, which is being played in the West Indies and the United States, I visited Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to speak to club cricketers about the tournament, which is being played on Long Island.
Van Cortlandt Park is where most of New York's recreational cricket matches are played every weekend. Eight World Cup matches were originally scheduled to be held here, but were moved to Nassau County on Long Island due to opposition from residents. Many club cricketers were also concerned about the tournament taking over the park during the summer.
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The World Series League match between the New York Kookaburras CC and the Connecticut Panthers CC was expected to generate a wide range of opinions from the field. What was unexpected was that former international umpire Steve Buckner would be officiating the match.
Buckner is one of cricket's best-known umpires. During his 20-year international career, the Jamaican officiated five World Cup finals and 128 test matches. Until his retirement in 2009, no other umpire had officiated more in the latter event; in 2019, Aleem Dar (145 test matches) surpassed him.
Buckner began umpiring in the Bronx after moving to the New York area seven years ago for family reasons. “I umpire here on weekends between April and October,” the cricket legend explained to Mirror Sports at Van Cortlandt Park.
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The 77-year-old had given up umpiring after retiring from international matches but was asked to help out in the Bronx after moving to the U.S. It's fair to say the standard of cricket in New York is not quite the same as that of England or Australia in the Ashes.
That was evident at the end of the Kookaburras' innings. The No. 11, wearing an aviator cap and with his hair spilling out from behind his baggy green tops, came sprinting down the track but quickly realised he couldn't hit a single. He turned and skidded off in the middle of the pitch, but some poor fielding saved his life.
Buckner, wearing his International Cricket Council jumper, could only watch this glorious pandemonium unfold – club cricket at its finest.
Though Buckner is no longer an umpire at the highest level, he values his work in the Bronx. “It's therapy for me, so I enjoy it. It's work, but it's also exercise.”
He also believes the cricket scene in New York is only getting bigger and better: “It's certainly growing. On a typical Sunday there are eight matches played in the park. It's always good to see more people coming together to play cricket.”
And Buckner is pleased that the World Cup has been moved to Long Island, allowing recreational cricket to continue at Van Cortlandt Park: “Long Island is better, for the simple reason that playing at this park would disrupt a lot of the competition. Hundreds of people would stop playing cricket. And why can't we play at this ground all season?”
Buckner said he doesn't plan to attend any of the tournament's games but is committed to watching them on television, and acknowledged there is “World Cup fever” in the city and growing interest in the U.S. “It's spreading throughout the Caribbean and the U.S.”
There won't be any world-class cricketers at Van Cortlandt Park this summer, but there will be one world-class umpire, and as one Kookaburras player told me, “The Bronx Bucks, that's the headline-making thing.”
