Sport Review

(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