Love and Cricket in Queens County

For a team of Indian immigrants living without papers in New York City, the quest for belonging and true love is what holds them together—until it tears them apart.

Illustrations by J. Longo

On one of the first cool days of fall, I wandered into a sprawling city park in north central Queens to watch a team of recent Indian immigrants – many of them living in the U.S. without papers – play their regular Sunday cricket match in the park.

The United Cricket Club team was undefeated in their league, and their star player, Davinder, was a thing of legend. He was twenty-seven and uncommonly handsome, bearded with a square, athletic build, and that day he did not disappoint. During the match, he caught ball after ball as his team looked on in awe. When it was their turn to bat, he almost immediately hit a six, the cricket equivalent of a home run. “Beauty! Good batting!” shouted Pardeep, the captain, who has kind eyes and a twirly beard, and leapt out of his lawn chair when excited. And then Davinder hit a pull shot, swinging the bat around his body to knock the ball far down the pitch. The shot ended the game.

With Davinder at the front, the team’s eleve…