Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor–News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

In Oc­to­ber, Ivy Ma­habir will re­ceive the pres­ti­gious Life­time Achieve­ment Award from the Crick­et Hall of Fame in the Unit­ed States. She will be­come the ninth re­cip­i­ent of this ho­n­our—and the first woman, the first per­son from New Jer­sey, and the first Trinida­di­an to achieve such recog­ni­tion. For more than three decades, Ma­habir has ded­i­cat­ed her life to de­vel­op­ing crick­et in New Jer­sey, leav­ing an im­pact that has been wide and far-reach­ing.

The award is the cul­mi­na­tion of a life­long pas­sion for crick­et that evolved in­to ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice.

“From a hob­by, it turned in­to a pas­sion,” Ma­habir re­called in an in­ter­view with WE Mag­a­zine.

As a school­girl in T&T, she of­ten played crick­et af­ter fin­ish­ing her home­work—an ear­ly love for the game that would de­fine much of her life.

That pas­sion was chal­lenged when she mi­grat­ed to the Unit­ed States in 1996.

“When I left, I was re­al­ly miss­ing crick­et,” she said.

In New York and lat­er New Jer­sey, few peo­ple played the game, but Ma­habir vol­un­teered to score match­es and prac­ticed with her young son. Be­fore long, oth­ers joined them, and crick­et slow­ly be­gan to take root in her com­mu­ni­ty.

A turn­ing point came in 2005 dur­ing a trip back to T&T. En­cour­aged by for­mer T&T Crick­et Board ex­ec­u­tive Lal­man Kow­lessar, she pur­sued um­pir­ing. He gift­ed her a Maryle­bone Crick­et Club (MCC) law book, which she stud­ied on her re­turn flight. Soon af­ter, she be­came New Jer­sey’s lone fe­male um­pire—break­ing bar­ri­ers in a male-dom­i­nat­ed sport.

“It was very chal­leng­ing, es­pe­cial­ly be­ing the on­ly woman of­fi­ci­at­ing men’s crick­et at the time,” Ma­habir said. “You have to show that you know what you’re do­ing and stand firm with your de­ci­sions. Some play­ers may not like it, but I al­ways gave my 200 per cent, and that kept me go­ing.”

Her ef­forts quick­ly gained recog­ni­tion. In 2007, she was ap­point­ed the first fe­male co­or­di­na­tor for crick­et in the At­lantic re­gion, cov­er­ing sev­en US. states. She al­so be­came a found­ing mem­ber of women’s crick­et in the Unit­ed States, help­ing es­tab­lish the first na­tion­al women’s team by 2009.

Ma­habir’s own play­ing ca­reer in­clud­ed a stint on the US Women’s Na­tion­al Team in 2009. She fur­ther strength­ened her ex­per­tise by ac­quir­ing mul­ti­ple coach­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, in­clud­ing Lev­el 1 with the West In­dies and ICC, and Lev­el 2 with the Amer­i­can Crick­et Fed­er­a­tion and Gary Kirsten’s CoachED pro­gramme.

Her aca­d­e­m­ic jour­ney par­al­leled her sport­ing achieve­ments. In 2009, she earned a dou­ble MBA with ho­n­ours in In­ter­na­tion­al Busi­ness and Man­age­ment from Mont­clair State Uni­ver­si­ty (MSU). While at MSU, she found­ed the uni­ver­si­ty’s first crick­et club—bring­ing the sport to an in­sti­tu­tion es­tab­lished in 1908.

By 2016, her re­lent­less con­tri­bu­tions earned her in­duc­tion in­to the US Crick­et Hall of Fame.

“They saw that I was pur­su­ing crick­et in every area—play­ing, coach­ing, and ex­plor­ing the men­tal side of the game,” she said.

Her stud­ies in mind­ful­ness, emo­tion­al in­tel­li­gence, and vi­su­al­i­sa­tion helped her men­tor ath­letes not just in crick­et but in life.

When news of the Life­time Achieve­ment Award reached her ear­li­er this year, Ma­habir said she felt “hum­bled, grate­ful, hap­py, and blessed.”

The recog­ni­tion was fur­ther ce­ment­ed by a let­ter from New Jer­sey Gov­er­nor Philip Mur­phy, who praised her as a trail­blaz­er.

“Through your ef­forts, you have be­come the first woman, first per­son from New Jer­sey, and first Trinida­di­an to re­ceive this out­stand­ing award,” Mur­phy wrote. “This serves as a tes­ta­ment to your stead­fast com­mit­ment and last­ing im­pact that is tru­ly wor­thy of spe­cial recog­ni­tion.”

Ma­habir cred­its her late moth­er, Elsie Ma­habir, as a pro­found in­spi­ra­tion through­out her crick­et jour­ney. And while ac­co­lades con­tin­ue to come her way, she in­sists her work is far from over.

To­day, Ivy Ma­habir con­tin­ues to share her knowl­edge, men­tor young tal­ent, and in­spire oth­ers with her un­wa­ver­ing be­lief that mind­set and self-be­lief are the true keys to suc­cess. Her lega­cy stands as proof that one woman’s de­ter­mi­na­tion can trans­form a com­mu­ni­ty, a sport, and a fu­ture.