By Sean Devers
I remember it like if it was yesterday. I had just started Secondary School and back in those days whenever there was Test Cricket at Bourda our School would have ‘double sessions’ which meant that School would close for the day at ‘break time’ (10:20am).
I had gone to Bourda to watch Shell Shield (Regional First-Class tournament) in fact, just two weeks prior to the Test match, I had watched Andy Jackman score a century against Barbados and I was again in the ‘Schools Boys’ Stand a week later when ‘Jacko’ scored a brilliant century against the touring Australians.
I had first met Jackman when the NSC I sent him to Richard Ishmael Secondary School to Coach the year before. Jackman would be the National Youth Coach when I first played for the Guyana U-19 team in 1987 in Jamaica.
But that is another story for another time so let’s get back to the real story which began on March 2, 1984.
On a hot sunny morning I did not go to school, instead I went directly to Bourda, a very excited boy who turned 14 a few weeks ago, going to see my first ‘real life’ Test match.
West Indies was four years into their 15 years of dominance, often referred to as glory days.
So here was I with about 50 other wide-eyed boys in the School Boys at the famous GCC Bourda where I first walked on to that hallowed sward two earlier when I was taken by a friend (Nevil Murray) to join the GCC Nursery which was run by late Desmond Watkins (Wato) on Saturday mornings.
West Indies had Greenidge, Haynes, Richardson, Richards, Gomes, Lloyd, Dujon, Harper, Davis, Garner and Daniel.
Kim Hughes was the Australian Captain, they also had Wessels, Ritchie, Border, David Hookes, Wayne Phillips.
The left-arm spinner was Tom Hogan while Geoff Lawson, Terry Alderman and Rodney Hogg were the pacers.
Being an off-spinner, I wanted to be like Clyde Butts and Harper, so when Harper took four wickets, including Greg Richie for 78, I was among the capacity crowd shouting with excitement.
A few things I will always remember about that game apart from Harper’s bowling were the shots that Greenidge and Haynes played as both scored unbeaten centuries as they added 250 without loss on the last day.
I believe that if there was an hour or so more to go West Indies would have easily have reached the 322 they were set to win. This was the first time I was seeing most of the West Indies players since not many people that I knew at that time, had TVs and to a little kid, players like Joel Garner looked like a big tall monster.
I remember last man Rodney Hogg playing some mighty shots in his 52 before Garner ended the innings.
Alan Border got a fifty in that game but I was hoping to see Greg Chappell. I had listened to Tony Cozier and Reds Perreira describing in the middle of the night (in Guyana) Chappell’s brilliant shots against Michael Holding and Andy Roberts but unfortunately for me, he did not come to West Indies…that was the series when Kim Hughes cried at the press conference to announce his retirement.
I was also disappointed that the great Sir Viv Richards made just eight runs. I vividly remember when Jeff Lawson snatched his cap from Guyanese Umpire David Narine after had turned down an appeal and that was my first ‘taste’ of the ruthlessness of the Australians.
Over the years I have watched a lot more exciting Test matches but as the saying goes ‘you never forget your first time’ and to a little boy, everything looked bigger than it actually was…Bourda looked like Melbourne to me back then.
Back then, things were very different to now. There were long lines at the ticket booths and people came from Berbice and slept in their trucks since there were no pre-sold tickets back then. Those were the days when fans would take turns watching the match from a huge tree outside the ground near Regent Street.
We would imitate our favorite players as we walked home after the match. I was an opening batsman at school and would pretend to be Gordon Greenidge.
I attended all five days and on the second day the horse ridden by a female police officer kicked me and some other boys into the trench outside the ground. But it was all fun for us.
We would wait for close to an hour just to see the players come out after the day’s play had ended to board the bus to go back to the hotel.
I would never would have thought that I would work with Lloyd, Harper and Sir Viv and Dujon who played in the Test match I saw, during Radio Commentary much later in my life.
I have four unforgettably cricket-related moments with the first being when I captured four wickets for Guyana against the Leeward Islands on my U-19 debut in Jamaica in 1987 when I finished as Guyana’s leading wicket-taker that year.
This was the first time I has ever been on an aircraft and when I reached Kingston I was feeling quite sick and could not eat anything.
I had taken the most wickets in the inter-county tournament and was the leading wicket-taker in the Guyana trial matches and I was an automatic pick for the first game two days later. I was allowed to miss Guyana’s first practice session
Fast bowler Barrington Browne (who later played ODIs) was one of seven players from my club Malteenoes on that tour and he recommended that I drink a tin of Supligen (a milky food drink) and I drank only that for three days including the first day of my debut game.
My second most memorable moment in cricket was when I made my Test debut as a Radio Commentator for CMC at Bourda in 2021 when West Indies played South Africa.
Guyanese cricket Journalist Frederick Halley (who now resides in Canada) was in Jamaica to cover a Regional First-Class game for the Guyana Chronicle and CMC. He was the one who told me that I was selected while we were at the Hotel. It was a dream come true.
My third unforgettable was doing Radio commentary in the 2007 World Cup semi-final between Australia and South Africa in St Lucia for CMC and Radio South Africa. Reds Perriera and I are the only two Guyanese to commentate on a World Cup Semi-final live.
My last unforgettable cricket-related moment was on air and describing the shot which give Carl Hooper his only Test double century (against India).
This was my best description of a batsman’s century on Radio. Hooper is my favorite batsman and the atmosphere at Bourda was fantastic and that was my most enjoyable time on Radio. Chanderpaul also made a century in that game