Finally, the Berbice Cricket Board of Control (BCBC) Hall of Fame was launched on Thursday, with an elite six being the first set of inductees at the simple ceremony held in the BCBC boardroom, following the spirited efforts of the Special Events Committee (SEC).
The first six inductees who were awarded with certificates were Basil Butcher, Alvin Kallicharran, Joe Solomon, Rohan Kanhai and the late Roy Fredericks and John Trim.
Chairman of the SEC Hilbert Foster went back to one of Dave Martin’s hits entitled ‘Where are your heroes Caribbean?’, as a reference to the selection of the first set of inductees, noting that the question asked in the song exposes the lack of respect and care Caribbean people have for their heroes.
Foster continued: “We have to be proud of these gentlemen who played a total of 279 test matches between them, apart from being without a doubt, our finest cricketing heroes from the Ancient County of Berbice.”
“As we honour them today, we would like them to know that the BCBC, the SEC and the general Berbice cricketing public are very proud of them and their achievements.”
Underscoring the inspirational value of heroes, Foster declared: “The honest truth is that if we are to succeed at any level, then we have to get our youths to be inspired by our heroes of yesteryear. In England, today’s generation are inspired by Sir Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria and Sir Jack Hobbs, whilst there is Sir Abraham Lincoln and George Washington for the USA and from India Mahatma and Indira Gandhi and Sunil Gavaskar.”
“We in the Caribbean have had numerous heroes in the field of cricket, such as Sobers, Kanhai, Gibbs, Hall, Lara, Lloyd and Richards just to name a few. But in typical West Indian fashion, we have left their memories to the wind, which would leave one to ask the question, how many of our youths are aware of their feats?”
Asserting that you cannot be inspired by history if you are ignorant of it, Foster informed the small gathering, which included former secretary of the BCBC Milton George along with acting president Keith Foster, that the BCBC would not err in that regard.
“This Hall of Fame should have been opened a long time ago, but it is finally here and we should all be happy as it is being launched with the aim of acknowledging and at the same time honoring the contributions of our cricketing heroes, beginning with the first six, with two more being added every two years.”
The Hall of Fame is the latest in the long list of activities completed by the Special Events Committee, including the Berbice Educational Awards Scheme, Berbice Annual Awards ceremony and the Tribute to Heroes Programme, amongst others.
