T Becca: Cricket's role in Jamaica's Emancipation (1 Aug 1997)

August 1, 1997

Cricket's role in JA's Emancipation

Tony Becca , Sports Editor

JAMAICA'S return to the celebration of Emancipation will be highlighted by a number of events over the next few months, and fittingly sport is among them.

Starting today with a cricket match between a Jamaica X1 and a West Indies X1 at Melbourne Oval, the celebration will include a football match between Jamaica and Colombia at the National Stadium, a series of netball matches between Jamaica and Malawi at the National Stadium, and an international track meet which will see the best of Jamaica competing against the best of the world, also at the National Stadium.

According to the organisers of the celebration, sport was included because of its impact on the society over the years, and again according to the organisers, cricket, football, netball and track athletics were selected as the four because of their achievement and contribution to the national psyche.

There was no reason given as to why the cricket match is the first of the four events, and while it may be because it was simple to organise, there is good reason for it to be the first.

Cricket was the sport of the colonial masters, so much so that the story is told that when the British missionaries arrived in the West Indies and in Africa, they did so with a bible in the left hand and a bat in the right hand.

When the West Indies, who toured England in 1928, 1933 and 1939 without winning a Test, arrived in England for the start of the 1950 tour, the story is also told that Learie Constantine, a member of the earlier teams, told his English friends: "In the past we came to learn, this time we come to teach."

The West Indies did teach England a lesson: after losing the first Test, the West Indies won the second at Lord's and went on to win the series 3-1.

Cricket today is probably not the game of the Jamaican people - certainly not as it used to be. In the earlier days however, it was the game played by the Jamaican people, for the simple reason that it was the game to be played - it was the game which allowed Jamaicans to mix with "backra massa" and his friends, the game through which they could demonstrate their skill, and the one which, because of their skill, offered opportunities for a job here and there, a better job here and there.

Cricket not only paved the way for Jamaicans to stand equal with their colonial masters in the early days, but later on, through the performance of the West Indies team, it was a source of pride and inspiration to Jamaicans and other West Indians who migrated to Britain.

If any sport can seriously lay claim to playing a part in the social changes which took place in Jamaica, it is cricket, and as we celebrate today, under the motto of "out of many, one", we should remember not only the champions of the recent past and those of today, but stalwarts like J. K. Holt Snr. and George Headley - two Jamaicans who, through their exploits on the cricket field, contributed to the development of a Jamaica of which we are proud and which we now enjoy.

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)