By Kiev Chesney
Three of the most distinguished cricket voices from the commentary box, two of whom are masters of the game, graced the Savannah Suite of Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel on Tuesday evening for the ‘Reds’ Perreira Foundation’s Night of Nostalgia.
Former West Indies fast bowlers Michael `Whispering Death’ Holding and Ian Bishop entertained the well-attended gathering with thrilling anecdotes of their individual journeys to stardom, while the region’s number one cricket writer/commentator Tony Cozier, who witnessed both careers unfold, was the moderator.
The bowlers’ stories gave a glimpse into two eras of West Indies fast bowling and the 40-year-old Bishop jokingly made clear the age distinction between himself and the 54-year-old Holding on a few occasions.
Both Bishop and Holding shared a similarity in the fact that each first began as a spin bowler and then later switched to fast bowling.
Bishop, who started as an off-spinner, confessed that his diversion from a spinner was mainly because he was not a big turner of the ball.
Holding, on the other hand, said that he too was an off-break bowler but had switched to bowling fast in order to survive in school-yard cricket games since players only got to bat when they took wickets and fast bowling accomplished that for him.
Holding said that the introduction of One-Day cricket by the late Australian television tycoon, Kerry Packer, was solely responsible for his decision to play professional cricket since he had been an excellent student all through school and was reading for a degree in computer science when called to play professional cricket.
“The advent of Kerry Packer’s new form of the game was the main reason why I took up a career in cricket; otherwise I would have furthered my education.
“Although I had been a good cricketer, I was an excellent student in school. I entered KC College which is a top school in Jamaica one year earlier than I should have and, after completing secondary education, I received a scholarship to study at the university,” he said.
Holding also said that his passion to excel in academics came from his mother who instilled that value in him by always repeating, “Boy, you need to have a paper behind your name,” he recounted.
However, he said, playing the Packer form of the game was much more lucrative and he was able to earn more money than he would have earned even with a computer science degree.
Bishop recounted that coming up as a young cricketer in Trinidad he had the most regard for West Indies cricketers and though he loved the game, he never could imagine having enough talent to match the skills of his heroes whom he thought of as being super-human.
“I remember coming up and looking at these guys as super-human and trying to emulate them in every way. For me, I remember especially trying to combine all the skills of four different bowlers; Michael Holding, Colin Croft, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall,” Bishop recounted.
The two bowlers answered questions from members of the audience and even disclosed who were some of the batsmen that they preferred not to bowl to during their careers.
Bishop said that he found it difficult to bowl to Sri Lankan batman Sanath Jayasuriya and India batsman Sachin Tendulkar who he recounted as being very hard to play against since he played a variety of shots.
Holding ranked Zaheer Abbas, Ian Chappell, Graham Gooch and Geoffrey Boycott as some of the most difficult batsmen to bowl to during his career.
After the stars finished regaling the audience with their nostalgia, host Joseph ‘Reds’ Pereira, said the evening was indeed stimulating and gave his take on some of the events that the players had recounted.
“With these three speakers here tonight, all in attendance was surely treated to more than they bargained for,” Perreira said.
He also said the United Insurance Company had donated a cheque for $500,000 to the `Reds’ Perreira Foundation.
