Papa loved Cricket!

Today the West Indies Cricket team will take on Pakistan for a semi-final spot in the World Cup. A few of our ancestors, especially Papa, will be cheering for the Windies. Our Papa was a huge cricket fan and in particular of the West Indian allrounder Garry Sobers. This is best demonstrated by the fact that he documented Roberts’ statistics in the same notebook as he recorded the family’s births, deaths, and other important events. The above photo shows a page from the said notebook in Papa’s handwriting! Notice just above Garry Sobers’ record is his mother’s maiden name and the year she came from Africa. Garry Sobers deserves to be declared an honourary Antoine!

Uncle Sedley shared Papa’s passion for cricket and continued to play late in his life for a Montreal team. Sedley even requested to be buried with his bat. The family had a cricket club called Spartan. Practices were held in the empty field across the street from the family compound, their meetings were held in the tent and they played at the Savannah every Sunday. I’m told that Spartan was quite a good team. Its members included Papa, Uncles Sedley and Theophilus; and the women’s team included my mother, Empress.

I know we have elite football/soccer players (and entrepreneurs), basketball and hockey players. And others, I’m sure. Who’s our current cricket star? Let’s have an online sports day to showcase our athletes!