The University of Guyana presented the first lecture of the 2007 Walter Chair Lectures delivered by Professor of history Winston McGowan at the National Library Auditorium on Tuesday.

History lecturer, Lloyd Kandasammy, who introduced Dr Mc Gowan, chaired the evening’s proceedings.

The presentation entitled “The Evolution of West Indies Cricket: A Historical Interpretation” examined the evolution of West Indies cricket from its origins to the present.

It divided this evolution into eight major chronological periods, each of which was marked with distinctive developments.

Special attention was devoted to the first and longest of these periods which focused on the birth and early spread of the game in the region up to the nineteenth century.

McGowan said it was in this initial formative period in particular that the region’s three dominant social forces of race, colour and class had immense impact on the development of the game.

The rest of the lecture focused on the sociology of cricket and dealt much more with the on field play, especially the region’s participation in Test cricket. It ended with an evaluation of the current state of West Indies cricket and stressed the importance of the game in the region’s history.

Professor McGowan was born in Georgetown, educated at Queen’s College and the University of the West Indies Mona Campus he graduated in, 1965 with a BA; he gained a PhD in African Studies from the University of London in 1979.

He has been a lecturer in the University of Guyana’s history department since 1970. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1980 and has been a professor since 2000. He still lectures in African and Guyanese history.