Brian Charles Lara of T&T and West Indies cricket fame had his mentor, the late, hugely missed Michael "Joey" Carew, also a former Test cricketer. While "Joey" did not excel with his WI cricket-playing efforts, his adroit cricketing ideas and submissions as mentor, coach, selector and "everything man"� Mr Cricket - survive to this day.
"Iron" Mike Tyson of boxing fame had his life saved and drastically changed after being adopted by crusty old veteran Constantine "Cus" D'Amato. "Cus" was a tremendous boxing trainer, guiding heavyweight Floyd Patterson and light-heavyweight Jose Torres to world championships, while changing boxing's firmament forever by mentoring Mike.
Inspiring me to play cricket for WI was Sylvia, the "Old Girl". Strict, feisty, honest and abrasive, with not even a high school education, and whose adult male companion died when I was only 17, Sylvia demanded great efforts from her off-springs, especially the last one, me.
I still remember being awoken at 4 am daily to go for my morning run before I caught the train from Unity-Lancaster at 6 am to get to high school in Georgetown, 22 miles away. If I protested with the lame excuse when it was raining, her retort was always; "So what?" I just ran, rain or not, so she was quite proud when my running skills helped make me into a WI player.
But these episodes pale when compared to Richard Williams; father, mentor, driver and initial coach of unbelievably talented tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams. Most parents hope, pray, cajole, eventually expect their heirs would be of proper use to society in sports, politics, business, medicine etc. Richard Williams has been doubly blessed with world tennis champions.
A female aviation associate recently opined that scientists should have already cloned Richard Williams, especially freezing his orgasmic output, since people like him, while not entirely unique, must be extremely difficult to find. She suggested that Richard should be tasked, like race horses, with only siring off-springs, probable future champions, for he generates tennis royalty!
"King Richard" might indeed be a prodigy in some ways. His last of eight children, Dylan Starr Williams, was born in 2012 when Richard was already aged 70. Also, for the record, he mastered, cajoled and guided his daughters' tennis efforts to an incredible 137 singles and doubles titles. What a super man! Perhaps he ought to be cloned.
There is still time! John McEnroe, also a tennis genius and best voice in the sport, commentating at US Open 2015, lamented: "We will never know what a privilege we've had in seeing the Williams sisters, especially Serena, play. It will only be when she is gone from actively playing, hopefully not from the sport altogether, that we will appreciate what we had and saw. We should savour these last few years of her unbelievable abilities and talent, for she is definitely the best of all time!"
No-one could disagree with "Johnny Mac". Serena Williams has no peers in tennis, male or female. Indeed, it could be argued that no other sport, male or female, individual or team, has ever seen such a champion of all champions.
That Serena is a black woman dominating a predominantly white sport, having been rescued from the fringes of ghettos, then being coached, with her sister, by a fawning father into being this true world beater, is such a miracle that it would be extremely difficult to be replicated anywhere.
Male and female cricketing friends have pin-ups of Serena as desk-top screen-savers on computers, as she was depicted on Sports Illustrated magazine's "Celebrity Swimsuit Tennis Shoot". They probably hope to be inspired by Serena's sporting abilities and absolute fitness. When she often appears at presentation balls after tournaments, Serena does look like the "Nubian Queen".
On court, Serena has become more serious, cynical even, seldom smiling, while normally decimating opponents. Nearly 34, (September 26), she is mostly in control of her tennis and destiny. With maturity has come appreciation that her time as tennis player and all-time winner will soon end. But what a career!
It rained last Thursday night, so Serena had to wait until Friday to play her semi-final at US Open 2015 against Italy's Roberta Vinci, ranked 43rd. Maybe No 1 Serena was cold, as that absolutely massive upset loss to Vinci stopped, for the moment, Serena from joining tennis' immortality.
History was ready to be rewritten, as Serena was on the verge of becoming only the fourth woman ever to win all four major tennis titles in a single calendar year. Winning the four tennis majors; Australian, French and US Opens and Wimbledon (UK); in succession has been done previously, even by Serena herself � "Serena Slam". She even did the "Golden Slam" too, winning two gold medals at London Olympics 2012 to augment her Slams.
But Serena will not yet join USA's Maureen Connolly (1953), Australia's Margaret Court (1970) and Germany's Steffi Graf (1988) as the only women to win four Grand Slam events in one calendar year.However, hail King Richard. Despite his daughter's loss on Friday, Richard Williams must still be considered the ultimate "Queen Maker"! Enjoy!