By Troy Peters
Last Friday’s An Evening of Nostalgia was expected to reflect upon the past of four of the Caribbean’s top athletes in their time, but the panellists could not resist reflecting on the woes facing sport in Guyana and the region.
Organised by the `Reds’ Perreira Sports Foundation (RPSF), regional cricket icons Basil Butcher and Deryck Murray, tennis stalwart Ian McDonald and former regional middle distance athletic star George De Peana shared their experiences during the time they excelled in the field of sport back in the 1950’s, 1960s and 1970s.
But Butcher and Murray especially are also worried about the future of West Indies cricket, while De Peana feels that athletics in Guyana needs help.
McDonald and DePeana were the first to tell their stories prompted by provoking questions by moderator of the programme former sports administrator and broadcaster Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira.
McDonald, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago but adopted Guyana as his home in 1955, said he believed that sports had a lot to do with his success in life.
“Sport is a wonderful thing it gives you self confidence. Sport was always in my blood and my family also played an important role,” McDonald reflected.
He recalled the days when he visited the Queens’ Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago to watch cricket although he dominated lawn tennis regionally and played for four years at the prestigious Wimbledon tournament in England.
According to McDonald, Wimbledon was the greatest story of his life, “Wimbledon is a marvelous tournament, the winnings (prize money) were very small in those days but there were some great tennis players and the tournament was always very competitive.”
He said his best performance was against a top rated Spanish player but he also took a former champion Neil Fraser to four sets.
McDonald, now a renowned writer and marketing executive, also played for the West Indies in the first Davis Cup tournament in 1953 and was part of the winning team of the Brandon tournament, supremacy of lawn tennis in the Caribbean.
DePeana, who represented Guyana at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, said he started athletics by accident after he failed to excel at cricket and football.
He said he received valuable support from McDonald Bailey and Ken Richardson early in his career.
DePeana, who is trade unionist by profession and currently lives in Trinidad ruled the roost in the 5000 and 10,000 middle distance races in the Caribbean.
He also competed at the British Empire Games, Pan Ameican Games in the United States, the Caribbean Games and was a member of the Commonwealth team that participated in the West African Games in Nigeria.
According to DePeana, Guyana is in dire need of an athletic track if the nation’s athletes are to excel internationally.
De Peana, who held two national records until recently when one was broken, feels that a lot more can be done for the sport locally.
“If we do not have a proper track then our athletes will not be able to be competitive against top competition,” he noted.
During the second session of the programme, former Guyana Cricket Board President and manager of the West Indies team Major General (r’td) Norman McLean, a member of the audience asked Butcher and Murray to comment on the current problems facing West Indies cricket that sparked responses from the two former greats and other members of the audience.
Butcher, a former middle order batman started his career in Port Mourant in Berbice, an area that produced some of Guyana and the West Indies finest cricketers.
He recalled that it was difficult for out of town players to make the national team but he defied the odds and went on to represent the West Indies.
He remembered playing with such players as John Trim, Leslie Amsterdam, Joe Solomon, Sugar Boy Baijnauth and last but by no means least Rohan Kanhai.
His career started as a ball boy and he reflected on the time when he played in the Ancient County to travelling to Georgetown for trials and the joy of being at the GCC ground.
He said his stint in the West Indies team was chequered and every opportunity he got he had to make the best of it.
Butcher, who recently started a Foundation for young players in Berbice, said the movement would be ventured out nationally
