New York park feels like home for Indo Pakistani cricket players

On the lawn, the bowler, or pitcher, got a running start and hurled the ball overhead so it soared over a 66-foot-long burlap mat. Nine players gathered around the mat and watched the batsman swing as the small red ball bounced upward.

On the street, drivers slowed to look, and teenagers walking toward the basketball courts peered over. To them, it was an unfamiliar scene, but for the 40-odd men who gathered yesterday to play cricket in Ossining's Nelson Park, it felt like home.

"I grew up in Pakistan, and we used to play cricket in the alleys," said Tahir Mughal, vice president of the Sunrise United Ossining Athletic Club, which hosted the event. "It was very popular."…