Was it prayer or Brian Lara
John ‘Bobby' Gilmore
The West Indies cricket team was in decline even if Brian Lara was still scoring runs and Courtney Walsh was taking wickets. There were many reasons for the decline; the incursion of other sports such as soccer and basketball were making inroads largely due to Jamaican stars in both sports abroad. Tourism had replaced other traditional industries in the Caribbean so investment in infrastructure for the comfort of tourists left large sections of Caribbean economies under-developing.
International debt on loans for tourist development took an inordinate share of national budgets at the expense of cutbacks in education, health, welfare and the social fabric of society. Investment in sports facilities, particularly in cricket, fell behind other cricketing nations that were investing in training facilities and special academies promoting young talent. Natural talent of itself was not adequate to compete with acquired academic technique anymore. The West Indies had the former, were lacking in the latter.
C.L.R. James and Michael Manley's observations about cricket being the heartbeat of the Caribbean were borne out as Australia played the West Indies at Sabina Park in Kingston. It was Sunday, the fifth day of the test. The West Indies were being thrashed, their batsmen were not staying at the wicket and the bowlers while flamboyant with bouncers were struggling with line and length, allowing the Australians to hit them around the ground. As a result the West Indies had an almost insurmountable target to overcome. However, according to people arriving at church it was a gettable total if the players had the required discipline.
Mr James, the church guitar player, an accomplished cricketer in his younger days walked slowly up the road with the transistor to his ear. Entering the church to prepare the music for the liturgy he took his guitar and disappeared. Placing the transistor on the ground with its volume raised so as not to miss the the first ball bowled, he chose the hymns and tuned his guitar as he hummed the tune.
As we were about to begin the Mass his wife called him in. Reluctantly, he switched off the transistor, put it in his pocket and took his place beside the choir. It was obvious after the opening hymn that the choir was not happy with the quality of the guitar music. But knowing that Mr James was an ardent cricket fan the members seemed tolerant about his urgency and absent-mindedness. Of course they and the congregation were as interested as he was in the outcome at Sabina Park. While they seemed able to manage concentration better than Mr James, nevertheless, their secondary attention was at Sabina Park.
Jamaicans are lovers of cricket and the social sideshow that goes with the game. In the countryside during a village cricket game the music is blaring, women cook curried goat, jerk pork and chicken, plantain, rice and vegetables in log fires around the edge of the park. Others sell a selection of beverages and sugar cane. In the midst of the noise, smoke and wafting cuisine whiffs, the umpire stands supreme as the contest swings. Sabina Park and its environs on a test day would be a larger reflection of the trauma, turmoil and excitement of village cricket. Of course it would be a more orderly presentation, conscious that it was going out to places like Mysore, Harare, Bradford, Lahore, Wollongong and other distant corners of Empire. But the enthusiasm for a West Indies victory would not be found wanting.
Anyway, conscious of the expectancy of our Sacred Heart congregation I felt that a prayer for a West Indies victory at Sabina Park would be appropriate. So, when the homily was over and the usual prayers of the faithful were offered I suggested a prayer for the West Indies would not go astray. Miss Bev, a member of the choir, on hearing the prayer responded in a loud voice, "Amen, alleluia."
At the end of the liturgy we went our separate ways. Those who had cars listened to a ball by ball account of what was happening in Sabina Park. Mr James departed for home on foot, his transistor to his ear, his wife struggling to keep up with him.
After lunch I went to the golf course and did not return until about 6:00pm. As I unlocked the door of the rectory I could hear the phone hopping off the hook. Thinking there was some emergency I ran and grabbed it. The voice at the other end shouted, "Praise de Lawd, we won, Him listen to our prayers." That was the message coming over the phone for the next three hours. Others claimed a miracle had taken place at Sabina Park. I suggested that they should inform the Archbishop of Kingston, Edgerton Clarke, a keen cricket aficionado, who lived next door.
Brian Lara stayed at the crease all day and hit a record score. Many hailed this win as a sign of resurgence, a new dawn for West Indies cricket. But there were other cooler heads that realised the West Indies cricket dawn needed more than a lone rooster to hail its resurgence.
But their analysis made little impact on the euphoria of the Sacred Heart faith community. Its members had their day in the sun and nobody was taking it away from them. For the next week, claims of divine intervention at Sabina Park, Kingston, spread around Montego Bay as members of the Sacred Heart faith community took delight in recounting their part in the victory.
‘Praise de Lawd.'
Fr. Gilmore worked in Jamaica. He now works in Ireland.
