The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) on Wednesday evening unveiled their second edition of the “Guyana Cricketer” Magazine, while honouring a cricketing great in former Guyana and West Indies batsman Alvin Kallicharran.
The simple dinner ceremony held at the Pegasus Savannah Suite was attended by a capacity crowd which featured the compact batting legend along with executives of the GCB, Cricket Guyana Inc. Franchise (CGI), the 2014/15 Professional Cricket League (PCL) 4-Day champs the Guyana Jaguars and a bevy of past and present stakeholders of the fraternity.
The evening’s proceedings began with a minute of silence for senior sports journalist Calvin Roberts who passed away on Wednesday after a prolonged battle with his kidneys.
Speaking first, was former GCB head Paul Chan-a-Sue who spoke about his close relationship with the Port Mourant Cricket Club (PMCC) batsman, reliving the years he watched the stylish left-hander grow as one of the most recognised Guyanese cricketers of all time. Dr Billy Fung-a-Fat, another notable individual closely knitted to both the cricket fraternity and Kallicharran, also echoed similar sentiments to that of Chan-a-Sue as he too rolled back the years to a time where he admired the batsman as a pioneer of the sport and a gentleman, both on and off the field.
With the stage being duly set for the feature address, the iconic player then took to the podium and gained the undivided attention of the attendees. He first reminisced on when he was a young player and the struggles he encountered as he sought to forge a livelihood out of a sport he truly loved.
He pointed out as a youngster, being selected for a county team was not difficult, but rather the obstacles came in the form of financial strains which made it difficult to travel from Berbice to Georgetown and while $10 Guyana dollars can be relegated to chicken feed in the present time, Kallicharran described $10 dollars as “A hell of a lot of money” back then. A batsman with roughly 32,000 first-class runs under his belt, “Kalli” as he has been referred to over the years, lauded the efforts of the Guyanese cricketers who have been excelling over the years.
Kalli who scored his first ton at the age of seven as a schoolboy, has been in Guyana for the past few months monitoring and coaching the young players as he urged them to continue doing what they were doing as it generated some amount of success.
An emotional Kallicharran then turned his attention to the state of cricket in Guyana, again begging the government to assist the board in taking cricket back to its pinnacle while he also threw out a challenge to the government to reinstate their partnership with the sugar industry which has paved the way for many cricketers in Guyana in the earlier times.
A teary Kalli signed off with a cry for unity not only among the government, board and the cricketers but the entire country which he said should put aside differences and unite for one common goal.
Meanwhile, the GCB executives including Secretary Anand Sanasie, Marketing Manager Raj Singh and President Drubahadur all spoke of unity and progress for the sport in Guyana. They also credited the work of Kallicharran and thanked him for his present contributions to cricket. They highlighted the contents of the magazine which celebrates the success collectively and individually of the Guyanese cricketers and the teams which have been outstanding during the respective tournaments.
Articles by veteran journalist Sean Devers on Guyana and West Indies batsman Leon Johnson and a piece by the late Roberts on a few of the youths in Guyana will be remembered by all.
