Living in Guyana makes one very aware (I have written about this, as have others) that we simply don’t know many aspects of our country’s history that are essential to propelling us to see it in terms of unity as opposed to division. The gap in our knowledge is something successive governments must urgently address not only in our schools’ curricula, but also in public information exposures through such channels as NCN, roadside billboards, monuments, documentaries, social media, newspaper features, etc. In addition, we need individual efforts from persons who know the material to relay it to us at every opportunity, and I’ve been doing a bit of that, as well. In the latter vein, in the wake of the West Indies cricket team visiting Australia, I’m relaying a story I was introduced to by veteran radio commentator, Reds Perreira, featuring the same principals.
We’re back in the year 1979. In the Caribbean, a series of cricket Super Tests in the newly-formed Kerry Packer World Series of Cricket (WSC) tour has begun with the Australians coming into Guyana having won the previous Test in Trinidad. Scheduled for Bourda, the match had been rained out for two days, but the radio news on Sunday, 25th March was that there would be play that day. It was later learned, however, that all was not well. Both Reds and Tony Cozier who covered the game on radio, and Vic Insanally, who was handling PR for the WSC tour in Guyana, recall that it had become known, in the press box at least, that there was concern about the field conditions at Bourda, with the Aussies, in particular, feeling that the bowlers’ run-up area was hazardous. Writing two days after the event, Quintyn Taylor of the Chronicle reported that “as early as noon on Saturday, captain of the Australian team, Ian Chappell, had made up his mind that he was not allowing his team to take the field on Sunday” because of wet conditions at Bourda. No mention of Chappell’s decision reached the media, and the morning radio news on Sunday said that the game was on. In bright sunshine, the gates were opened and in short order 9,000 cricket fans were jammed in Bourda anticipating their Super Test.
Vic Insanally recalls that on the morning of the match, umpires Sang Hue and Gosein had inspected the run-up and agreed it was bad, but hope was still being held out for the match to happen, and there was a short p.a. announcement to this effect. By this time, well after noon, with no play, and p.a. reports of a pending pitch inspection, a spectator in a white shirt ran onto the pitch, rolled on the ground, including the run-up, and stood up with an unblemished shirt indicating to all watching that the ground was playable. Following this display, with alcohol consumption going on in the long waits, Insanally recalls the first overt signs of crowd animosity with some bottles being pelted from the rails section, and with demonstrations from sections of the crowd. However, with the p.a. announcement shortly thereafter that there would be “no play that day”, the dam broke.
The factors, combining with the several delays, were summed up by Quintyn Taylor in the Chronicle: “As early as 5 a.m. cricket fans had already lined up for entry to the ground, and after having waited nine hours, some of them in the broiling sun on the rails, others in cramped conditions in their seats, to hear ‘no play at all’ was just too much to take.” Some analysts later contended that letting the crowds into the ground in the first place was a mistake because it indicated that the game would be on, but leaving them locked out any longer might well have created the riot outside the gates instead.
Within minutes, Bourda was engulfed. Reds Perreira, watching from the press box, was taken aback at the speed of the change. “It quickly became total bedlam. It was an awful scene. It happened in a wave; the people just erupted; they came out of the stands in a rage, breaking stuff and pelting bottles. They moved across the ground, ripped the fence out of the ground in front the pavilion and swarmed inside; the bar was demolished, bottles and glasses smashed, it was bedlam. Players and officials were seeking shelter – there was just a wooden wall between the players in the dressing room and the crowd. Helmets had just come in, and the Australians were in their dressing room wearing them. I was concerned for Tony Cozier who was nowhere to be seen.” Recalling the incident, Tony Cozier said, “I had actually left the pavilion and moved around to the back of the crowd outside where I wasn’t in any danger of getting hit by anything.”
Reds Perreira and Vic Insanally had taken shelter in the restroom upstairs. Reds recalls: “The pavilion invasion was eventually checked by the late Shorab Rahaman who fired a warning shot at the top of the stairs that stopped the angry crowd from coming up to the top floor of the Georgetown Cricket Club.” They were obviously eager to get their hands on the cricket administrators in the comfort of the pavilion. A few minutes later, with the arrival of the Riot Police, order was restored, but Bourda was in disarray. As Quintyn Taylor later put it in the Chronicle, “The wanton destruction which occurred at the Georgetown Cricket Ground last Sunday is going to live with us for a long time.”
West Indies cricket has been the scene of several cricket riots over the years. Broadcast veteran Reds Perreira says: “In our history, we have had 5 test matches hit by bottles and riot; 2 at Bourda, 1954 and 1979; 1 at Port of Spain in 1960; 1 at Sabina Park in 1978; and 1 at Kensington in 1979. Bourda was the worst. Kensing-ton and Bourda were for the same reason – large crowds, waiting for hours in the hot sun, delay after delay, then still no game – but Kensington was mild compared to Bourda that day.” Tony Cozier agrees: “I’ve never seen anything like that. It was terrible.”
One addendum to the story is that in an encounter the day after the event, Ian Chappell accused Insanally of contributing to the chaos at Bourda with misleading p.a. announcements and bumped into him aggressively in passing. Insanally denied he was the source of the misinformation and seemed to take the confrontation in stride, but local cricket officials were incensed; the police were called, and Chappell ended up the next morning in court charged with assault; he was represented by attorneys Rex McKay, Stanley Moore and Richmond Reece. The Australian pleaded guilty, paid a fine of $125, and issued a contrite apology to Insanally, acknowledging that his accusations had no merit. “We shook hands about it” said Vic, “and I of course accepted his apology. As a sequel, it’s important to note that through the herculean efforts of many people – the National Service, for example, worked through the night to repair Bourda – the very next day the Super Test started on time there without incident.”
A further addendum: Ian Chappell is again in the news this week calling for an international ban on West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle following Gayle’s crude remarks to a female Australian interviewer on television. Watch your overseas media; 36 years after the first one, another Chappell apology could be forthcoming.
