Saturday, March 1, 2031, Bridgetown, Barbados.
Good bye to Test cricket
Lindsay Geddes Grant: “Jackie was sitting on top of the world. Twenty-seven years old, married to a beautiful woman, father of one son, George Russell (born in 1933), another one due in two months, happy teaching at his alma mater and at the pinnacle of his pursuit, captain of the first West Indian side to win a test series.
“However, Jackie was conscious that there was more to life than the game of cricket. Here are his thoughts: ‘This kind of priority, however, began to disturb me more and more even though I liked cricket very much and enjoyed playing it. For me cricket was a game, not my life. Also, it was not my profession. Therefore, in conscience, I could not give it the priority that others did and also expected me to do. I began to resent the demands which cricket was making on me. Eventually my thoughts were crystallised in the words, Cricket was made for man, not man for cricket.’
“Jackie’s initial attempt to extricate himself from cricket was made in January, 1934 a week before