Lawrence George and Sabina: More than just a sign
by RAY FORDThere is no more painful a dismissal in cricket, than being given run out - especially when backing up at the non-strikers end.
Sadly, that seemed to have befallen the Jamaica and West Indies batting stylist Lawrence Rowe last year. Seemingly out of harms way, having settled into a quieter life somewhere in south Florida, Rowe fielded a call from the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA). The Association was proposing to honor the cricket legend by naming the players pavilion at the Sabina Park Test cricket ground after him.
When the stars aligned:
Few meaningful Test cricketing feats have been accomplished by players on their home turf and in front of their adoring local fans. This is particularly true for West Indians. The Trinidadian- born fast bowler Herman Griffith, by taking 5 for 63 in the second Test of the 1929-30 England series at the Queen's Park Oval, was the first to do so. But he played his club cricket in Barbados. The stars however aligned for Sir Conrad Hunte, `Collie' Smith, and Alvin Kallicharran who all got hundreds at their home venues in their maiden Tests. At the Recreation Ground in Antigua, their favourite son Sir Vivian Richards clubbed his record-setting 56-ball Test century against England in 1985-86. And also the Jamaican Franklyn Rose got his first five-for (6 for 100), on his home ground in his first Test against India in the 1996-97.
Unsurpassed in home-Tests performances in batting though, is Lawrence Rowe's double hundred and hundred in his maiden Test at Sabina Park. It remains the second only to England's Reginald Foster's who got his in the away Test against Australia in Sydney 1903-04. He could only manage nineteen in his second innings.
But Rowe's second innings 100 not-out, gave him the highest aggregate in a debut, and he remains the only man to score a double and a hundred on debut. This of course occurred in the first Test of New Zealand's first tour of the Caribbean in January 1972 at Sabina Park. For good measure, with his subsequent score of 22, Rowe still has the highest Test average anyone has ever had - 336.00. South Africa's Faf du Plessis is second with 293 after his second innings dismissal in the recently concluded third Test against Australia in Perth.
Some of his detractors might note that New Zealand's bowling attack might not have been the strongest. And others might remark that on that easy-paced strip, Glen Turner of the opposing side got a double century as well. But in cricket scorecards, except to denote a captain, there are no asterisks.
With such an auspicious start to a Test career, it is without argument that Rowe did not fulfill his potential. Even though most of his runs - seven centuries and seven fifties in his 30 Tests - were scored with grace, and an easiness of style, their frequency left cravings.
But, at his cataclysmic apex (to quote Easton McMorris, his Jamaica Shell Shield captain and former West Indies batsman), few other batsmen, paraded such elegance.
All around the world, his timing was that by which cricketing watches were set. And at Kensington Oval in Barbados where the cricket sages are always gathered, his triple century against England in March 1974 remains the talk of the town.
The fallout:
But Rowe had a falling out with the powers of West Indies cricket and a good many of his fans when he led two West Indies `rebel' tours to then apartheid South Africa in 1982-83 and 1983-84. In Jamaica and beyond, those two visits created societal fissures which go dormant but have never re-fused. The furor in the Jamaica newspapers shortly after his name was briefly emblazoned above the players pavilion at Sabina Park last June was testimony.
Regardless, with his South Africa loadstone and all, Rowe was sought out for the honor. “I did not seek it, but when approached, I was delighted at the proposition,” said Rowe. The honour though, was befitting of a cricketer who in 2004 at the Scotiabank West Indian Cricket Jubilee held in Jamaica to celebrate 75 years of West Indies cricket, was named one of Jamaica's all-time top-five. His batsmanship ranked him second only to George Headley's, and his triple century against England in Bridgetown, was voted the best Test innings by a Jamaican.
Caught by surprise, Rowe reminded the JCA of his involvement with the controversial `rebel' tours, and inquired as too how that might play. Even though the offer had not been publicly ventilated, the Association advised that those episodes were in fact considered, and that in spite of them, he was still deserving of the honour.
What the Association however did not say, was that it did not anticipate, and nor was it prepared for the fall-out that subsequently occurred. But in truth and in fact, this lack of preparation, if not wise, might have been understandable. Because, the signals emanating from the Jubilee awards gala, suggested that Rowe was once again welcomed back into the Jamaica cricketing fraternity. However, that welcome turned out to be only parochial.
Moreover, Sabina Park is home to a private entity - the Kingston Cricket Club. And it is not a well-kept secret that some members of that club, loathed to see Rowe's name emblazoned on anything they considered their preserve. Furthermore, the Association's decision, made public virtually on the eve of the India-West Indies Test match at the ground, was like a cat, mischievously shaken out of a crocus bag for the sole purpose of creating havoc. But the process, as clumsy as the process was, certainly wasn't of the benefactor's doing. “How could I have rejected an honor bestowed on me by my country?” Rowe was to later question.
When all was said and done, Rowe along with members of his family was flown to Jamaica as a guest of the JCA to be decorated. And when word got out, one Jamaican print journalist insisted that before receiving such an honour, Rowe should be made to apologize to Jamaica over the two ill-advised rebel tours - a pre-condition to which the former batsman was very disinclined. So much so that he offered to return back to south Florida empty-handed.
Rumblings:
First, as he had espoused in that wide-ranging 1994 interview with Michelle McDonald in CaribbeanCricket.com and as he reminds even to this day, Rowe had long wanted to visit South Africa, even if it meant going on his own. Secondly, it's still his belief, that leading a cricket team to apartheid South Africa might have done some good in inspiring some South African blacks to take up cricket. And with reason, he singles out Makhaya Ntini. Word has it that after Sylvester Clarke destroyed the Springboks, their cricket powers were instructed to find a bowler just as frightening.
Rowe also felt that the life ban on West Indies rebels lifted in 1989 by the Commonwealth was penance enough. Furthermore, no cricketer who ever went to apartheid South Africa or Rhodesia for that matter, was asked to apologize before making an appearance at Sabina Park. But then again, none was ever honored. Lastly, Rowe rightly recalled the Carl Stone poll taken shortly after his fist `rebel' visit, where some 60 percent of Jamaicans did not disapprove of his going.
Arm-twisted, at the commencement of the proceedings, Rowe read an apology hastily concocted by an attorney. “I had an uneasy feeling driving to Sabina Park that morning,” he recalls. And so he should have. Because when he read it, the apology directed to (quote): “those whom I had offended,” wore like an ill-fitting toupee.
The trapdoor:
Rowe's next step shortly after, was on a trapdoor. He had entertained an acerbic and confrontational radio conversation with a local presenter Dionne Jackson-Miller. It focused squarely on the timing of Rowe's pro forma apology, and had the ring of a `Joe-the-plumber' plant.
Caught unawares, Rowe navigated the best he could. But in suggesting that his excursions might be viewed with favour fifty years from now, Rowe used the Jamaican National Hero Paul Bogle as a reference - one he probably shouldn't have made. His choice-of-words was seized upon like hyenas mauling a hapless fawn. Damage had been done.
The Jamaica newspapers were inundated with condemnation, some of which suggested that many did not listen to the radio program in its entirety, or even at all. A change of a word here and there - a `will' for a `could' - skewed ever so shrewdly, what was Lawrence Rowe actually said on the radio program. And once again, he was a pariah.
The only written support of any stature came from the former Jamaica Prime Minister Mr. Edward Seaga, Mr. Orville Higgins, a sportscaster writing for The Jamaica Gleaner, Mr. Howard Campbell - a senior sportswriter for The Jamaica Observer, and Rowe's Jamaica captain Mr. Easton McMorris. “I am only disappointed that Rowe did not tell the truth when asked if he was going to South Africa,” the latter lamented. The rest of them, as Rowe put it: “ran for cover.” The former Jamaica and West Indies batsman was particularly hurt by the silence of another Jamaica sports journalist whom Rowe had, or was negotiating a contract to cover the tours. He had to tie out his cow.
The pressure on the JCA became unbearable when Delano Franklyn, an attorney-at-law, former Minister of State in Jamaica and chairman of the Foundation of the late Jamaica Prime Minister Michael Manley, weighed in. Mr. Franklyn who (erroneously or not) slipped in misquotes in his denigrations, lambasted Rowe for several things. Among them: calling Jamaica National Hero Paul Bogle a crook; betraying Alan Rae's legacy; saying he (Rowe) himself will be a national hero; describing a South African as (quote): `A stupid black man'; laying claim that his visit helped to dismantle apartheid; and, fabricating history.
At the crux of the matter, was the fact that Jamaica, governed by the People's National Party (PNP) at the time, was at the forefront of international opposition to apartheid. Some felt ashamed that Rowe a favourite son of Jamaica, had led the rebels to South Africa.
Selective shame:
No mention was however made of the collective shame Jamaican shared when Christopher `Dudus' Coke held part of Kingston hostage. Nor was the shame that most feel when some Jamaicans put personal gain ahead of their country, by using the country's flag-carriers to carry illicit home-grown cargo. This selfishness resulted in impoundment, caused embarrassment, and drew heavy fines. To add insult to Rowe's injury, a former Jamaican cricketer who had only played two Tests for the West Indies, was now being banded among others, as more worthy for (quote): `contributions to the game locally, regionally and internationally.'
At that point, the newly-elected president Mr. Lyndel Wright, contemplated resignation. Weeks later, Rowe received a telephone call from him indicating that the honor was being rescinded, for statements he had made in the radio conversation. When Rowe queried as to whether the president had in fact had listened to the conversation on tape, before arriving at the decision, amazingly the answer suggested that up to that point, he had not.
Exuberance:
The role of the attorney Franklyn in all of this was also curious. Ignoring Max Ehrmann's Desiderata the gentleman not once, but three times (at least) in his writings in the Jamaica press, helped to tighten the noose. And on the day after the sentencing was carried out, cheered the executioner.
In April 2010, Mr. Franklyn had visited the Cricket Hall of Fame in Hartford, Connecticut to promote two of his books. During that visit, he was apprised of their intention to induct Lawrence Rowe. However, the Hall of Fame sought clarification as to whether a ban on Rowe and other West Indians who had visited South Africa, was still in effect, and how the status might impact their intent. Mr. Franklyn as reported in the Jamaica newspapers, promised to look into the matter. Whether that was done, is not clear. But according to Rowe, Mr. Franklyn later contacted the Hall of Fame president and recommended against Rowe's induction. Lamp oil was spread, but Rowe was duly inducted.
In November 2011, Mr. Rowe initiated legal action against the JCA. It was reported that the suit was about seeking re-instatement of the honor. But again, according to Rowe, the suit was about seeking redress for his embarrassment. Regardless, and again according to Rowe, the correspondence his lawyers received from the JCA, was signed by Mr. Franklyn.
Short memories:
And how selectively short are Jamaica's memories?
In November 1998, the West Indies were invited to officially tour South Africa for the first time. En route, some of the senior players refused to go further than London, demanding of the West Indies Cricket Board, that their financial issues among others, be addressed. Board officials had to fly out from the Caribbean, and team management from South Africa, to resolve the stand-off. As a result, the start of that historic tour was delayed by several days.
“This was the most shameful incident in my whole career,” moped team manager Clive Lloyd. The West Indies went on to play sullenly, and were white-washed in the Tests and won only one of the seven One-Day Internationals (ODIs) which followed. Their performance elicited this from veteran South African journalist, Trevor Chesterfield: “These money-grabbing renegades have lost the respect of those South Africans `of color' who had supported the tourists.” In fact, according the Chesterfield, unlike the official tourists, the rebels played with more heart and purpose - a fact supported by Rowe: “We wanted to beat those white men, and show the blacks of South Africa what the black race could accomplish. It was not all about the money,” he recently said.
Among those who participated in that standoff, were Messrs. Courtney Walsh and Brian Lara.
Nobody in their right mind could begrudge these two gentlemen any accolades coming to them. They served West Indies cricket well and are still grand ambassadors of the great game. However for Mr. Walsh who was honored alongside Mr. Rowe, when one end of the ground was named after him, hardly is ever identified with the fiasco. Similarly for Mr. Lara who recently became the seventeenth West Indian to be inducted in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall of Fame, also wears Teflon. In their lavish editorial of September 15th last, The Jamaica Observer in - Hailing Brian Lara, made no mention of that matter, as embarrassing as it was to the Caribbean people.
Secondly, in run-up to the 2007 Cricket World Cup (CWC2007), when the executive director of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for the event, Robert Bryan, tapped Rowe to help promote ticket sales, not a whimper of him being a pariah was heard.
“I had discussions with Lawrence Rowe to explore how we could work with him. As a former great Jamaican and a former great West Indies player, I think he is a fabulous asset….a significant asset of Jamaica that certainly we at the LOC would like to utilize,” stated Mr. Bryan in the October 8th, 2006 issue of The Jamaica Gleaner. Again, no public furor was made at that time disapproving of Rowe's involvement with the event and/or his potential to, by association, disgrace Jamaica.
The South Africa question:
But the whole subject of boycotting apartheid in South Africa, is full of inconsistencies and various political stances - some well principled; others convenient. In addition, there are many schools of thought as to how well sanctions in general work, and whether sporting contacts helped or hurt the cause of black South Africa.
Jamaica is to be commended for - beginning in 1957 - being in the forefront of arguing for sanctions against apartheid South Africa. No doubt that stance was instrumental in furthering the process of dismantling the practice. And for that, and just recently, former Jamaica prime minister Mr. P.J. Patterson in office between 1992 and 2006, was one of the eight foreign leaders who received a national honour from South Africa - the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo, for: “playing a significant part in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa through lobbying the international community…”
Sanctions in the case of South Africa might also have been a two-edged sword. Because as Joe Nell, a Boer in Johannesburg thirteen years ago told me: “The blockade made us very self-sufficient and innovative, as we had to make everything for ourselves.”
Regarding the West Indies rebel tours, in Durban in 2009, views also varied. Aslam Khota, a mixed-raced commentator for the South African Cricket Union said: “So what if we could watch cricket in the same stadiums as whites, but at the end of the day we still would have to take separate-seating transportation home?” Dennis Done, managing editor of Kwana in the City, was more positive: “Those (West Indian) guys really made an impact. They played tough cricket and gave our fellas a run for our money.”
And for Rowe: “We did a lot of coaching in the townships, and we were well received there. If we weren't welcomed, then knowing the history of South Africa and violence, we would have been risking our lives.”
Contradictions:
As principled as that stance was, how does it square with the rise of skin-bleaching in Jamaica? As late as February last year, noted University of the West Indies professor and social commentator Dr. Carolyn Cooper explained this growing practice as: “an epidemic of color prejudice in our society…” Before, as early as June 2003 a Jamaican dermatologist Dr. Clive Anderson revealed that most of his patients had no skin disease but were convinced that `browning' in Jamaica literally offered a brighter life.
Cooper's broad-brushed characterization of Jamaica society was decades earlier explicated by Dr. Fernando Henriques in his 1953 Family and Colour in Jamaica. Even Marcus Garvey who is only of late being revered by some, had to seek refuge in London, England shortly after being deported to Jamaica from the United States. `Sometimes I long for peace, but where could I find it?' he lamented. For him, it certainly would not be found in Jamaica.
The great George Headley after whom the vast southern stand at Sabina Park is now named, outside of coaching, had difficulty finding meaningful work in colonial Jamaica as well. He moved around Jamaica with cheerfulness. But his hurt was hardly masked. His complexion in those days was bad for business. “For a man who knew the game of cricket so well, they wouldn't even give him a job as a radio analyst, where he wouldn't be seen,” moped one of his acquaintances, Vincent `Vinnie' Isaacs, a St. Georges College old boy.
Thanks to Bertram:
Thank goodness for Arnold Bertram's treatise Jamaica at the Wicket. It suggests that the lives of both Garvey and Headley took parallel tracks and met the same initial under-appreciation in Jamaica. Some might be quick to suggest that those were in long-gone colonial days. And so the Jamaican proverb `Tek-sleep-and mark-death' should be set-aside. It shouldn't.
But Bertram reminds that the Garvey Jamaica hails today, was the Garvey who in 1935, left Jamaica (quote): `a broke man, broken in spirit and broke in pocket.' Whereas, according to Bertram, (quote): `Headley nearly met the same fate.'
The word gets around.
“And I had to sit in the stands and watch Englishmen like Graham Gooch, Peter Willey and John Emburey - men who had also gone to South Africa - play at Sabina. Now how do you explain that?” lamented Rowe recently. Even Ezra Mosely who had toured South Africa with Rowe, played one of his two ODIs at Sabina Park. `The splattering of boos turned into cheers when he (Mosely) took a wicket,' my journal reads.
Then with Zuma's personal residence upgrades topping U$23 million, and Jamaica managing to find J$60 million to purchase top-of-the-line SUV's for their overlords to smooth the bumps, the gap between principled rhetoric and wonton disregard for the poor in both countries seems to be getting wider.
Making an Example:
But spare a thought for others who in the aftermath of the tours faired not as well as Rowe did.
What about the sight of one former West Indies rebel Mr. Richard Austin lay-waiting and then springing out from behind bushes at Kingston hotels when international cricket is on? Is he himself an embarrassment? Or is Jamaica, by the way it treats its fallen?
Like Saudi Arabia disarming a thief for theft. Does Jamaica prefer to make examples out of individuals, or, would it rather set examples for them? If a proud and staunch anit-apartheid man like Sir Vivian Richards can make peace with Rowe and the other transgressors, then why not Jamaica?
In May last year Messrs Franklyn and Chris Dehring were asking what had become of Jamaica's National Sports Policy, presumably to reap the sweets from the recent success of Jamaican athletes at the Olympics and World Championships. In return, some are suggesting that what is more needed is a safety net for some of Jamaica's sportsmen and sportswomen who have hit hard times. To side-step the issue by pointing to the fact that some of the fallen might have contributed to their own demise might not wash. Jamaica might want to rise above that sort of spite.
The Problem of Rowe:
Anybody who has followed Lawrence Rowe's career from its inception as an Under-19 player for Jamaica, knows of his penchant for glib, rapid-fire talk. That was Rowe then, and this is still Rowe now. He is not as reserved as say a George Headley. Rowe will expound on Rowe. He is supremely confident in speech. And for a black man in Jamaica, that can come across as uppity.
Furthermore, for a man who did not attend one of the more prestigious high schools in Jamaica such as Jamaica College, Kingston College, Munroe, St. Georges College or Wolmer's Boys School, that is a double-strike. In certain quarters of Jamaica, growing up in a poor neighborhood like Whitfield Town, and with no prestigious schooling, puts one at a disadvantage in the public's eye, when stacked against well-spoken attorneys and/or people of lighter hue. Rowe's frankness rubs some influential Jamaicans the wrong way, and remains a magnet for controversy. And therefore it is no great surprise that some of his critics who hold sway, chose to subtly switch his words to inflame and to incite.
Except for his reference to national hero Paul Bogle, nothing Rowe said in that radio conversation with Dionne Jackson-Miller, he had not said before. And if the JCA and Jackson-Miller had done their homework, specifically, going back to the transcript of that comprehensive interview Ms. Michelle McDonald conducted with him back in 2004 for CaribbeanCricket.com they would have known of Rowe's unwavering convictions for going to apartheid South Africa.
The sadness:
Rowe might not deserve, and neither am I advocating that, a pavilion at Sabina Park be named after him. His already has a mural on a wall located across from the National Stadium in Kingston, alongside other great Jamaican athletes. And that might be good enough. It might speak to his affection by common folk that to-date, and in spite of everything, it has not yet been defaced. Besides, his feat at Sabina Park even if expunged from the annals, is indelible in the mind. However, Rowe deserves to be treated fairly, and with the respect to which all human beings are entitled.
The Jamaica Cricket Association has sullied his whites. And dry-cleaning expenses are in order.
* Ray Ford who has been a freelance writer for over thirty years, has profiled Sir Vivian Richards, Michael Holding and Lawrence Rowe for The Cricketer International Feb. 1986, Jan. 1990 and Jan. 1994. He also profiled Brian Lara and Christopher Gayle for the Digicel West Indies Tour Brochure - Mar. 2004 and Mar. 2008. His latest work on Easton McMorris is to be reprinted in the Dec. 2012 issue of the KCOBA Newsletter to be found at http://www.kctines.org