Kavishwar Bridgepaul,NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly

Only after did he realize how seriously he was hurt, as the knife went in just under his lung,scratching it, and pierced his colon.

Last summer I watched Kavishwar Bridgepaul decimate the bowling, in the Finals of the NYC High Schools League and the NYPD United Cricket League, smashing 62 and 94* respectively – he was MVP in both Finals ! He was probably the hardest hitting young batsman in the USA. Arguably the best fast-bowler all rounder in the USA he reminded me of Imran Khan -batting with a “straight bat”, using his feet and technically sound.

At six feet one, and 225 lbs he also bowled very fast – elimination of a chip in his runup I felt, could possibly take him into the 90 mph range ! It was inexplicable why he did not make the USA Under 19 team that played in the 2010 U 19 World Cup, but he was looking forward to playing in American College Cricket.

The stab wound required surgery, and Kavishwar spent six weeks in the hospital. When he left the hospital, “I was down to 200 lbs – I couldn’t eat  for the first week after surgery. I feared that I would never play competitive cricket again ! Just walking was difficult, but as soon as I could I began jogging to get back in shape.”

Four months after that fateful Valentine’s Night Kavishwar showed up at Baisley Pond Park for Andy Mohammed’s MMZ Youths team, in the first round of the Under 23 Tournament organized by Ricky Kissoon.

I got to the field to see Bridgepaul padding up as Andy Mohammed played a beautiful flick and drive for 4s before getting out.Kaveshwar strode to the wicket and took strike- he told me “I felt like I was home !”.

What followed was remarkable – he looked like a batsman who was in peak form, using his feet to the spinners, driving the fast bowlers powerfully for 6s and 4s- he looked like the 2010 Kavishwar Bridgepaul – Big KB was back ! He later admitted some shots were difficult, “merely stretching for a forward defensive shot was tough”, but he made a magnificent 42 runs before getting out to a tremendous diving catch at midwicket.

“Bridge” later bowled medium pace off of 3 steps and looked like he would win the game for MMZ as he restricted the NYYCA batsmen, and with one ball left the scores were tied. However a boundary sealed an exciting win for NY Youth Cricket Academy !

At the end of the game he was cheered by the players, including USA Under 19s Steven Taylor (in from Florida) and Amarnauth Persaud, Zaeed Majeed, Troy Mars and Yogindra Dass.