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,