Dear Editor,
I always look out for Dave Martins’ wonderful pieces in the Sunday’s Stabroek. Last Sunday, January 24, was no exception. The article, ‘Cricket riot at Bourda’ brought back memories. Bottles rained from all directions. Time stood still. Someone pelted a bottle at the clock at the pavilion. It damaged the face. The clock stopped working. A writer later posited that Bourda should be renamed Bottles. Yes, I was at Bourda during the Kerry Packer World Series of Cricket when the riot took place as reported by Dave Martins. I was a police corporal stationed at Mabaruma in Region One. I travelled out from that location, purchased a season ticket and took my annualised vacation leave to be at the world famous cricket ground.
I know the spectator with a white shirt who 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. He was my countryman, Preston Liverpool from Number 29 Village, West Coast Berbice. He emerged from South Stand A where I was seated and went on the ground. That stand was later renamed the Rohan Kanhai Stand.
Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Slowe was also there. He lost a book, a bestseller, The Man, written by Irvin Wallace. It was fiction about the first black man being appointed President of the United States of America and the numerous challenges he faced as President. There are many similarities in that book that President Obama has experienced and is experiencing. Later in his career Paul Slowe will regularly refer to the actions of that spectator in the white shirt when lecturing to numerous policemen on the topic of crowd psychology.
I remembered former Commissioner of Police Balram Raghubir, then an Assistant Commissioner of Police escorting Ian Chappell to the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court. Chappell pleaded guilty and was convicted of a criminal offence, even though he was represented by a battery of high profile attorneys-at-law. We did not ask the ICC to ban him for life from playing ICC cricket after he had committed a criminal act against a cricket official. In addition, it was reported that he exposed a part of his body where the sun does not shine to some persons.
Later as Captain of Australia during a one-day cricket match played between his country and New Zealand in Australia, the latter needed six runs off the last ball to win the match. Chappell instructed the bowler, his brother, Trevor Chappell to bowl the final delivery underhand thereby making it impossible for the opposing batsman to hit the delivery for six runs. Chappell apologized for his action. The rest is now history. Australia won the match and the series.
The Prime Ministers of both countries exchanged angry words. The ICC did not ban him but instead amended the law to state that if during a one-day match a bowler delivers a ball underhand it will be called a dead ball.
Perhaps, Ian Chappell has undergone an attitudinal metamorphosis. He is asking for Chris Gayle to be banned for life from playing matches under the auspices of the ICC for certain words he uttered when being interviewed by a female Australian journalist. Chappell was an excellent batsman but he was no bowler. Beyond the boundary he bowled Chris Gayle a no ball wide of the stumps. His remark is unadulterated piffle. Chappell is completely out of place.
Let Chris Gayle continue to play. Let those heavy bats do the talking. Let him excel and set more world records, but not against the Amazon Warriors or the Jaguars. They will maul him.
Yours faithfully,
Clinton Conway
Assistant Commissioner of Police (rtd)
