Veteran Caribbean Cricket Commentator
Joseph “Reds” Perreira has been
included as one of ten Guyanese to be
conferred with the Honorary Doctorate
of Philosophy Degree from the University of Guyana
as part of its 60th Anniversary celebrations. Reds
along with his fellow recipients Baroness Valerie
Amos, actress CCH Pounder, cricketer Rohan
Kanhai, Keith Waite, Bernadette Persaud, Frank
Woon-A-Tai, Jeanette, the late Richard
Allsopp, Abdool Sattaur Gafoor, and Kenneth
Singh will receive his honorary Doctorate during
a November 9, 2023 ceremony at the University’s
Turkeyen Campus.
The UG Honorary Doctorate will be the second
Guyana-based Honor Reds has received this
year. This past March 9 he was also honoured
during a night of recognition held at the historic
Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC), Bourda.Perreira’s first “live” cricket broadcast too place 1961
in a first-class match between his native Guyana and
long-standing rivals Trinidad & Tobago at Rose Hall.
Ten years later, he covered his first Test between West
Indies and India at Bourda Oval.
Prior to his official retirement, Perreira had also worked
on 250 One-day Internationals, including attending
the half of the dozen ICC Cricket World Cups to be
staged – 1975, 1979, 1983, 1992, 2003, 2007. Becoming
in the process one of the most accomplished radio
commentators in the history of cricket, nearly 52 years
since he first commentated on a Test match.
When Reds retired he had covered 152 Tests in every
cricketing country save Bangladesh, and numerous
first-class matches. In the process, he mastered the art
in the company of, and unfazed by, its most eminent
practitioners in the history of cricket: John Arlott, Alan
McGilvray, Brian Johnston, Dicky Rutnagur and his
great friend and mentor, Tony Cozier.
Reds belongs to this illustrious company by virtue of his
capacity to paint an instant picture for radio listeners
thousands of miles away. Reds’s style, his interpretation
of play, was uncluttered by tedious embroidery on
matters beyond the boundary. He sought to render,
with precision, what was taking place within the
boundary, so that you could feel as if you were there,
at Bourda, Lord’s, the MCG or Eden Gardens,
Calcutta. Reds, of course, conveyed those images to
us, for several decades, from all these historic grounds
and many more
Born in the remote district of Pomeroon in Essequibo,
nearly 84 years ago, Reds stammered severely until
he was about 20. And it got no better, away
from the security of his natural habitat, after his
family moved to Georgetown in 1945, when
he was six. In the unconscionable environment
of his boyhood in the capital, Reds survived
from day-to-day, learning to let the taunts and
provocations slide away. But it taught him to
swim against the tide, a skill he had absorbed
practically from birth, on the mercurial
Pomeroon River. Reds has listed doing ball by-
ball commentary during the 1975 World
Cup final when West Indies beat Australia at
Lord’s as the most cherished moment of his
career. His other highlights include Brian Lara’s
memorable 277 against Australia at the Sydney
Cricket Ground; Lara’s spic 153 not out to beat
Australia in Barbados in 1999 and Courtney
Walsh’s wicket of Craig McDermott when West
Indies won the Test match by one run at the
Adelaide Oval.
Joseph “Reds” Perreira has also covered
other major sporting event around the world
including: 1984 Summer Olympics in Los
Angeles; Pan American Games in Venezuela
and Puerto Rico; as well as the Netball
World Championships. As a senior sporting
administrator, he was Head of the Sports Desk
of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean
States as well as a Past President of both the
Guyana Basketball Association and the St
Lucia Boxing Federation.