(Reprinted from Cricinfo Magazine)

At Lord’s was the scenery, it bound to go down to history,” as the calypso goes, and so it did. It was in 1950, more than a decade before any of Britain’s colonies in the Caribbean was to become a republic, that West Indies defeated England in a Test match in England for the first time. This, of course, was more than a statistic. Professor Hilary Beckles, historian, and a vital social chronicler and compiler of cricket, tells the story of the photograph on the mantelpiece.

The photograph – a friend’s father, a Bajan working-class immigrant in Birmingham, a bus driver with the West Midlands Transport Board, fitted in tuxedo, top hat, gloves, and cane, and a face of uncontained pride. It was the happiest day of his life. It was not from his wedding, but the day after the Lord’s victory. He explained to his son: “For me, son, the empire collapse right there; not Churchill or Wellington could bring it back.”

But the extravagance, a