Those who follow the gentleman’s game of cricket often celebrate the accomplishments of those on the field.
However, it is oftentimes through the hard work and dedication of those behind the scenes that make on-field success possible.
In Berbice, Hilbert Foster has been the driving force, nurturing and creating a legacy for the last three decades.
Foster was born on December 5, 1969 to housewife Claudette Foster and Hilbert Spence.
The late Spence, was a former Minister of Trade under the Forbes Burnham administration. He was also a senior manager of the Guyana National Trading Corporation.
‘Junior’ as Foster is known by his peers and close associates, was born in Rose Hall Town.
He was the second child of his father and third for his mother. His siblings are Keith Foster, the eldest son of Basil Butcher and Alex Foster who heads the St. Francis Community Developers.
Life was difficult for young `Junior’ growing up especially since family life was paramount to cricket and socializing.
“Well my mother had one simple policy, education is the key to overcome poverty so we were not allowed to play much. We were not allowed to have a lot of friends, in fact, if school over at 2.30 at Lower Correntyne and you weren’t home in 15 minutes was licks so you had to be home early,” Foster said while laughing that in perspective that their home was about 10 minutes away from school.
He recalled, “Friends were not allowed to come by us and we were not allowed to go by them because she believed family was first and, apart from that, our early days away from school, we had to go to the backdam seaside to bring wood to cook. We had to be fetching watcher and helping with the home.”
Nevertheless, Foster’s love for cricket stemmed from his big brother, Keith’s passion for the game. He reflected that it was just once a week they were allowed to play on the dam but still had to reach home in time and finish off their school work.
Despite the lengthy periods spending behind school work and assisting with chores in the house, as a youngster, Foster reminisced on waking up at 03.00 hours just to listen to the decorative commentary when the West Indies cricket team dominated the world.
This passion drove Foster to register with the Port Mourant Community Centre Cricket Club in 1986 which at the time, along with Albion Cricket Club dominated the sport in Berbice.
“Eventually, my mom allowed me to join the Port Mourant Cricket Club and I played a couple first-division matches there and then in 1986, I went to Trinidad and Tobago with the club along with players like Rajendra Sahadeo, Arjune Nandu and Deonarine Persaud who was the captain. The trip was paid for me doing well at my CXC exams,” he said.
In that same year, due to the situation of the family, Foster was forced to leave the club and focus on earning financially but it was at this juncture, fate led him to establishing the most dominant club in the ancient county, Rose Hall Town, Youth and Sports Club.
“I was working with the Co-op Bank during that period and in 1989, a guy which they named the Ramnarine Memorial Club, after came into the bank and I looked after him and we spoke about the opening of the bank account and I questioned him about the club and so I went home and spoke to my brother, Keith about opening a club for Rose Hall and he accepted the idea and he invited his friends because I had just a few friends,” he noted.
When the group met at the old Port Mourant Community High School to found the club, it was decided that the establishing date would be September 20, 1990, the same day that Rose Hall became a town.
Starting out with Foster as the Public Relations Officer, things were rough for the club financially, but with the aid of a few, the club got off the ground.
“We started about 18 members, with everyone except me being over 30 and I was appointed the Public Relations Officer because of the other activities I was involved in including St. Francis, who became our parent body because we started without any funds, without any gear and the late President Desmond Hoyte assisted us a lot with the construction of the first pavilion and providing gear. People like Kenneth King and Winston Murray played a part in getting gear for us,” he told Stabroek Sport.
Foster also functioned as the Cricket Manager and the club was off to a bumpy start which saw them losing 17 matches on the trot, mostly by 10-wicket margins.
However, they won their first match after the wicketkeeper decided to bowl with the opposition 95 for two chasing 106. He took six wickets and Rose Hall Town registered their first win.
“The following year Carl Moore contacted us to say there was a junior tournament going on and one team had pulled out and if we wanted to fill in. We readily agreed and our first match was against Bloomfield at Auchlyne, (Corentyne) and it was the only time in our history we played an overage player because we didn’t have enough players. One kid was overage and it was the first time around eight of those boys played hardball cricket,” he recalled.
Foster piloted a campaign to go around the community and recruit players since the most senior player on the side was Raymond Cecil who featured at the second division level.
In 1992, the club won their first tournament, the Sydney Sabsook Memorial 40-over second-division tournament which featured over 100 teams and opened the door for the club to join the first-division.
“We beat Police by three wickets in our first match but it took us a while to win our first, first-division tournament but that came when we defeated Albion in the Busta Champion-of-Champions tournament,” he recalled.
Foster elevated himself to the Secretary of the club in 2000 with most of the club founders migrating.
“At the beginning of the club, our membership was of the older version and by being the Cricket Manager before being Secretary I felt if we wanted to be competitive, we had to place emphasis on young people and then, our Patron at the time, President Hotye, encouraged us to get involved in other activities apart from cricket and as such the members felt I was the best qualified to lead the transition from an ordinary cricket team to what we have become,” he reflected.
Foster added, “I think he is partly responsible for what the club is today after winning 100 titles and organizing thousands of social programmes but my brother and I learned from our experience. With our mother being a single parent and struggling for us to become what we are and my late grandmother, Josephina who had a lot of influence over us always taught us that no matter how poor you are there is always someone poorer than you.”
An emotional Foster rolled back the clock to a time when he was criticized for wearing one shirt, but said that it was his only shirt at the time.
“One instance in my life I recall I was told I was wearing one shirt over and over again but that was the only shirt I had and it influenced me to make a difference in the lives of others and every single project I do now I undertake to make a difference in the lives of people is in the memory of my grandmother, who along with my mother and Keith made me and Alex into what we are today.
“There is no better feeling than to help those less fortunate,” he explained.
In our motto, “In Pursuit Of Excellence,” he highlighted that this passion did not only help in the development of his club but the entire county with the simple analogy that you must help your neighbours.
This led to the club assisting anyone that came through the doors and despite raising millions of dollars in cash and kind, the club’s account passed $1.5M only four times since the money was allocated for specific purposes.
During his tenure as the Secretary, Foster related, “I had submitted to the BCB, under Malcolm Peters (2004-2007) a comprehensive eight-page document and was told very quietly that I was living in a world of dreams that those things could never be accomplished.”
Despite that, when his brother became president of the BCB in 2008, he was tasked with being the Special Events Chairman, however, he had to step aside due to ill health.
Eventually, Berbice cricket fell to its lowest point ever when his brother stepped aside. In 2018, Foster was approached to contest the elections but refused, noting that his support was behind a friend who also pulled out.
Owing to the fact that his faction needed to win the elections, he took up the mantle and transformed the county within his first year.
“I remember telling a journalist that it would take a mad man to run Berbice cricket and a miracle to return it to where it was. We had about one tournament, the board had less than $50,000 in its account, club numbers dropped by half and young people were dropping out,” he said.
Foster revealed, “I am proud to say that all those proposals that were in the document, in 2021 all have been fulfilled. Since elected president, I have raised over $40 million, started or completed 82 tournaments and dozens of developmental programmes.”
Foster was recognized for his outstanding work by former President, David Granger, who awarded him the Medal of Service.
While he says he has no intention of becoming the President of the Guyana Cricket Board, he was elected recently as the vice-president with responsibility for Cricket Development and projected to be a director at Cricket West Indies.
Throughout the journey, Foster is thankful for the support of his wife, Sylvia and daughter Marissa as well as his friends and colleagues at the club and church.
He reminisced that while it has been a challenge, his proudest moments came when the club produced its first national cricketer in 1995 and when Assad Fudadin made his Test debut.
Foster was also proud of Royston Crandon making a century on national debut as well as when Shemaine Campbelle made it to the West Indies Women’s side as he recalled that it was a late decision to get involved in female cricket.
He plans to have a bigger impact in that department at the national level.
