Sincere congrats to (a) Derek Chin for winning the Champagne Stakes with his racehorse Rock Movistar; (b) Hugh Lee King, owner of Unquestionable, winner of the prestigious Easter Guineas; (c) jockey Jody Arneaud riding Rock Movistar for his personal 150 career victory; (d) Brian Boodramsingh for winning his one hundredth race before he turns 21; (e) Shiv Chanderpaul for his 25th Test hundred; (f) West Indies team with all batsmen scoring double figures, a rare feat in Test history; (g) The Under-15 table tennis team for winning three bronze medals in Cuba last week (h); and our young athletes for their 22 medal success at Carifta Games in Jamaica. What a nice positive way to start an article!
I also want to offer congratulations from another angle, namely to say how much I enjoy listening to the international team of cricket commentators bringing us the Test match on TV: Tony Cozier; Fazeer Mohammed; Mikey Holding; Nathan Bracken and Geoff Lawson. In our modern era with technology allowing viewers to see every minute detail, commentating has been forced to change presentation methods, and their knowledge of cricket history and interesting, pertinent facts along with the actual personal Test match experience and world travel of the above team, provides viewers with an ongoing education. Well done guys and thank you! The fact that West Indies lost a tough Test match has been dealt with by several others but two points struck me namely, (a) Darren Bravo with his scores of 51 and 32 showed again that the longer version of the game is his natural habitat (b) the large number of Aussie supporters in Barbados compared with so few locals. Where are West Indian crowds for Test matches?
Entertainment galore at IPL
Were you lucky enough to see the IPL game last Thursday when Dwayne Bravo's team beat Chris Gayle's with the last ball? Both teams scored just over 200runs, 19 sixes were hit in the game – an IPL record, Gayle and Kohli put on 106 for the second wicket with Gayle hitting six sixes, and in the first 14 games of the series, 145 sixes have been hit. What more entertainment could you ask for? As a comparison, Sir Everton Weekes hit only one six in his outstanding Test career and I hit two, including a glorious straight drive at Guapo, playing for Texaco against Shell in 1962. I was told that the ball landed in the tray of a truck passing on the main road, so for all I know the ball may still not have touched the ground. Hopefully the three spectators that day are still alive to confirm that story. Like Sir Everton, I preferred to score my runs along the ground though many were stopped by the tee-marie in the savannah in later years.
Changing face of language
Have you noticed how T20 cricket has changed the language of the game? A batsman is now a "batter"; the pavilion is now the "dug-out"; a six is now a "massive" or a "maximum"; a four is now a "boundary"; a deep cover fielder is now a "sweeper" or a "cut off man"; runs on the board is now "scoreboard pressure", plus names for all the new shots, like "reverse sweep" that have been invented. We also have a third and fourth umpire which we obviously need since presiding umpires seem to have great difficulty in deciding a run out. When we were married my poor wife, having spent her life in Venezuela, Martinique and Montreal did not know a bat from a ball and quickly concluded a bowler had to be a physical freak to have a square leg, a long leg, a short leg and a fine leg all at the same time! I also had to explain why something was "over" before it had started. Long before women's cricket, she questioned why a male bowler "needed three slips (petticoats)" and when I pointed out "third man" in the field, she quite logically asked "where are the other two?" From day one, she did understand that one had to be totally insane to field at silly mid-on. Now she is perfectly at home with T20 language and I am not!
Well played Dennis, Kerry
From congrats to sincere sympathy to the families and many friends of Kerry Corbie and Dennis de Souza, both of whom were members of Queen's Park 'A' team of which I was a member. I played often with opening bowler Dennis but somehow do not have standout cricket memories of him, since we usually talked about his musical touch, the sweet sound he produced on his piano was a dream for every romantic couple. I have no idea how many wickets he captured or runs he made, but for certain, Dennis won the musical hearts of countless thousands in the Caribbean and North America, literally "well played".
Kerry was also an opening bowler who unfortunately had a bad knee which did not bother our captain Vasco Texeira one iota, as he believed poor Kerry possessed the stamina of a horse and elephant combined and often kept him bowling long after he had almost stopped breathing. Kerry worked for a pharmaceutical company and came to each game with his pockets jammed with glucose tablets and after each over, swallowed a tablet to ensure his survival. One afternoon just before play started, I asked Kerry for a sample but he told me he could not risk sparing one as he was not sure how much bowling he would have to do. My best memory of Kerry was after what seemed like a three-hour spell, he staggered back to his mark muttering: "Dis damn man (Vasco) go kill me for sure. He only telling me 'one more', 'one more'. Ah can't take it!" As if on cue, my brother Roger piped up: "Kerry boy, its not one more OVER he talking about you know. It is one more HOUR!" Poor Kerry did not have the breath to reply. Rest in peace guys – thanks for adding fun and good company to my life.
My get rich plan
Imagine lowly Wigan beating the mighty Manchester United 1-0 last week, probably the biggest League upset in the last 80 years. On such evidence, I am seriously thinking of challenging either Usain Bolt (100m) or Mike Tyson (ten rounds) at odds of ten million to one. Who knows? They may catch a cramp or break a leg and I could be very rich! Good luck West Indies in the Second Test.
