Cricket edges its way into the melting pot of Brooklyn.

Brooklyn, one of the five boroughs that make up New York City, is well known as a melting pot of different people from all over the world. Now cricket is quietly making inroads into this city, which was once the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team before it relocated to Los Angeles.

 For many years cricket has been played on parks in Brooklyn, but now Linden Fraser, the United States senior women’s team coach, is teaching the skills and finer points of the game over summer at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York.

 The  college has a long history of successful athletic programs, but cricket has not been one of them until John Aaron, who is secretary of the United States of America Cricket Association and the college’s Continuing Education Director of Marketing and Corporate Training, persuaded the college to add cricket to the curriculum of its College for Kids program.

 Aaron, who has a reputation of being a hard worker at board level and on the ground in trying to improve the standard and growth of the game, is the architect behind the program.

 Fraser is the coach and with the help of other cricketers is passing on his knowledge to about 80 girls and boys aged six to 13 for two days a week in four hour sessions.

 Fraser said he began coaching about six weeks ago and that the program would end later in August. He said the plan was to resume the program in the fall, but only on weekends.

 “When we first started the kids were swinging the bats like in baseball,” he said in an interview with www.cricketusamag.com.

 Asked if the youngsters were picking up the new game, he said: “Surprisingly, yes. They are getting pretty good. They are improving and getting the gist of it. At first it was all about baseball and it was confusing to them. They do like it now.”

 Fraser, 45, who is from Guyana and has lived in the US for the past 18 years, is strongly in favor of the concept of introducing cricket at grassroots level to children. He wants the game to begin at school level so children can grow up with it like football, baseball, basketball and hockey, the mainstream sports.

 “I have always believed that for us to move forward we have to start at grassroots level,” he said.

 Fraser had his career as a fast bowler shortened when he was in his early 20s following ligament and cartilage injuries to his left knee because of wear and tear. He played with the Guyana Under 19 team and then the senior side before he turned professional and competed in Scotland and the Lancashire League in England for seven years.

 He has been coaching in the New York Region, including Under 19 boys, for the past 10 years and also works in the shipping industry.

 While the game still has a long way to go to reach the comparable heights of traditional cricket playing nations, Fraser says: “I love coaching and the game is slowly expanding. At last we have support from the administration.”

 Triholder Marshall, a fast bowler who plays with the US women’s senior side, has helped Fraser with indoor and outdoor coaching.

 Marshall recently helped the US team defeat Canada in a three-game series to advance to the next qualifying series for the women’s World Cup.