Costa Rica: Hollywood comes to San Jose to keep alive a long tradition

On a football pitch in San Jose in late November a team including an English-American attempting to eject squatters from his land, a sailor, an agricultural economist, a tennis coach and a paper importer blended together to continue the long tradition of cricket in Costa Rica against the touring Hollywood Golden Oldies.

There the Combined Cricket Club of Costa Rica, featuring players from San Jose and the Caribbean port of Limon, faced down the 'challenge' of the Hollywood Golden Oldies and in the process kept alive an expatriate habit dating back to 1890.

The game (the second scheduled for the following day was washed out) was a filip for cricket in Costa Rica being the only the third match in recent times - San Jose had travelled to Limon in September and October winning both encounters.

For the last few years cricket activity was curtailed somewhat when the previous ground was sold and the cricket pitch was replaced by a supermarket. (The football pitch used for November's match is inside a private school).

It is not clear whether it was due to the hit-outs between San Jose and Limon in previous months or the focus of the Golden Oldies, but Costa Rican cricket's version of a national team overtook the Golden Oldies' 130 all out for the loss of five wickets.

Combined Cricket Club captain, Richard Illingworth, who came to Costa Rica from Wiltshire originally to invest in hybrid coconut seed production and eventually married and settled, said the Golden Oldies had travelled to San Jose with clear intent.

"Apparently the Golden Oldies were quite pleased with our hospitality but were also quite capable of locating and enjoying the San Jose nightlife for themselves - language was not a deterrent."

There again what rust the Combined Cricket Club may have possessed would have been matched by the Golden Oldies who only take to the field on their annual tour abroad.

So far the motley group, which comprises mainly Guyanese, English, Pakistanis, Trinidadians, South Africans and Barbadians, as well as a couple of Canadians and Americans, have played in Mexico City, Barbados, South Africa, Australia and England.

Illingworth is keen to broaden the base of Costa Rican cricket, transcending its Commonwealth roots which were first embedded when Jamaicans began playing in Limon all those years ago.

He has overseen the formation of the Costa Rican Cricket Assocation which is amongst the current batch of applicants seeking Affiliate membership of the International Cricket Council.

The next step, he says will be to get cricket established amongst the International schools in San Jose, and eventually into other Costa Rican schools.

For more information on cricket in Costa Rica you can fax Richard Illingworth on +506-255 1348.