Commentary: Honouring the region's cricketers
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| Published on Monday, August 11, 2008 |
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By Oscar Ramjeet
Outstanding cricketers in the Commonwealth are being honoured by their countries with national awards. Knighthoods are bestowed in England, Australia, New Zealand - but they are very few.
Caribbean cricketers are also being knighted. I refer to Sir Vivian Richards of Antigua and Barbuda, and several others in Barbados: Sir Frank Worrell (now deceased), Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Clyde Walcott, and Sir Conrad Hunte.
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| Oscar Ramjeet is an attorney at law who practices extensively throughout the wider Caribbean. He is also a special correspondent for Caribbean Net News. Feedback to: oscar@caribbeannetnews.com |
I think the 166-square-mile island of Barbados, with a population of fewer than 300,000, has the most cricketing knights in the world, and the government of Antigua and Barbuda has seen it fit to knight outstanding nationals of other countries such as pre-eminent jurists like Sir Fenton Ramsahoye of Guyana, and Sir Bryan Alleyne, Dominican-born, former acting Chief Justice of the OECS
Guyana has abolished British awards and, as such, knighthood no longer exists for Guyanese nationals since 1970, when the country became a republic state. The highest award in Guyana is the Order of Excellence (OE), which is restricted to 25 and has been awarded to top-notch Guyanese like Sir David Rose (posthumously), Forbes Burnham, Arthur Chung, Shridat Ramphal, Mohamed Shahabudeen, Jimmy Carter (honourary), Janet Jagan, Boysie Ramkarran, Walter Rodney (posthumously), and Ashton Chase, the last awardee in the year 2000.
The second highest is the Order of Roraima (OR) with a 35 limit, the Cacique Crown of Honour (CCH) a maximum of 100, the Arrow of Achievement (AA) 250 and the Medal of Service 350.
I was happy when I read that Guyana and West Indies star batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, was given a national honour, but was extremely disappointed that the Order of Arrow of Achievement was bestowed on him. He deserved a higher level of honour such as the Order of Roraima (OR), which was given to Clive Lloyd by the Burnham administration in 1983.
If the Bharat Jagdeo government had seen it fit to honour the reliable batsman, he should be given an award he deserves. AA is the second to last level of honour, just above MS - the Medal of Service.
If the Government did not feel that he deserves to be in the same bracket as Clive, Sase Narain, Cecil Kennard, Aubrey Bishop, Joseph Pollydore, Derek Jagan and others, then it should consider the next tier -- the CCH -- the Cacique Crown of Honour.
Chanderpaul is the first Guyanese to score 8,000 runs and the fourth highest by a West Indian after Brian Lara (11,953) Sir Vivian Richards (8,540) and Sir Garfield Sobers (8,032). He is only 33 years of age and is well on his way to score 10,000 runs. He won man of the series award in the three-Test tournament against Australia, having scored 442 runs in the three matches with the remarkable average of 147.33. He scored 118 and 11 in the first Test; 107 not out and 77not out in the second Test; and 79 not out and 50 in the third Test.
He has played in 112 Test matches and scored 19 centuries and 49 half centuries. He also played in 231 One Day Internationals and scored 7,405 at an average of 40.14
He also captained the West Indies in 16 Tests and 16 ODIs.
Lloyd played in 110 Tests and scored 7,515 runs and scored 1,977 in 87 ODIs. | | | | Reads : 207 | | | |
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