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Jamaica at the Wicket: The book
Bertram officially launches book on Jamaican cricket
PAUL BURROWES, Observer writer
Saturday, February 07, 2009
COMBINING his love of cricket and history, Arnold 'Scree' Bertram officially launched his must-read, 685-page study of Jamaican cricket Thursday night in the ballroom at King's House.
Titled Jamaica at the Wicket and chock-full of statistics of Jamaican players in first-class and Test cricket as well as winners of all types of competitions throughout the years, the book chronicles and analyses the times and players identifying and enriching the sport locally and regionally.
Author Arnold Bertram (centre) with grandsons Elijah (left) and Joshua at the signing of his book Jamaica at the Wicket at King's House on Thursday night. (Photo: Paul Burrowes)
Bertram's extensive background in politics and sports journalism, meeting with and tapping into leading intellectuals and practitioners of both worlds, comes through in Jamaica at the Wicket, "A study of Jamaican cricket and its role in shaping the Jamaican society".
In the introduction of the book Bertram describes the period between 1918 and 1939 as the "golden age" of Jamaican cricket, experiencing the "most dynamic growth and development". The players' approach to the game, their commitment and creativity, ensured they achieved "standards of excellence", Bertram writes.
"At each stage of its development, cricket, more so than any other social activity, faithfully mirrored the struggle for social equality and popular democracy... the progress made by black Jamaican cricketers by 1938 in the game from which they had been previously excluded had not been achieved by the black population in any other social activity since emancipation. George Headley's elevation to the captaincy of the Jamaican team in 1939 was the high point of the process," he explained.
Bertram's effort marks the second attempt to write the history of Jamaican cricket, since journalist Coleman Beecher's Jamaica Cricket 1863-1926.
Beecher, he said, became a leading member of Marcus Garvey's Black Nationalist organisation and an elected member of the Municipality of Kingston and St Andrew.
The book makes a bold attempt to "pick the all-time Jamaica 11", but during his analysis Bertram reckons Easton McMorris, Maurice Foster, Jimmy Adams, Allan Rae and Chris Gayle as serious contenders "to open the innings".
Meanwhile, Professor Brian Meeks, of the Dept of Government, Faculty of Social Sciences, UWI, speaking at "From the Boundary" session of the book launch, noted that Bertram's encyclopaedic study spanned the sweep of cricket "from its role in the assertion of British imperial culture to its appropriation as a central instrument in the struggle for a Jamaican nation and within it, a more equal, colour-blind destiny and its many critical turns, from the formation of Lucas as largely black team of cricketers, to the rise of the great George Headley and inter alia, Alf Valentine, Gerry Alexander, Lawrence Rowe, Michael Holding, Courtney Walsh, and the contemporary of uncertainty".
Ambassador Michael Holding, speaking at the Off the Short Run session and who wrote a foreword to the book, noted that Jamaica at the Wicket would give Jamaicans and West Indians an appreciation of the game, and explained why cricket meant the world to people of his generation.
Bertram officially launches book on Jamaican cricket
PAUL BURROWES, Observer writer
Saturday, February 07, 2009
COMBINING his love of cricket and history, Arnold 'Scree' Bertram officially launched his must-read, 685-page study of Jamaican cricket Thursday night in the ballroom at King's House.
Titled Jamaica at the Wicket and chock-full of statistics of Jamaican players in first-class and Test cricket as well as winners of all types of competitions throughout the years, the book chronicles and analyses the times and players identifying and enriching the sport locally and regionally.
Author Arnold Bertram (centre) with grandsons Elijah (left) and Joshua at the signing of his book Jamaica at the Wicket at King's House on Thursday night. (Photo: Paul Burrowes)
Bertram's extensive background in politics and sports journalism, meeting with and tapping into leading intellectuals and practitioners of both worlds, comes through in Jamaica at the Wicket, "A study of Jamaican cricket and its role in shaping the Jamaican society".
In the introduction of the book Bertram describes the period between 1918 and 1939 as the "golden age" of Jamaican cricket, experiencing the "most dynamic growth and development". The players' approach to the game, their commitment and creativity, ensured they achieved "standards of excellence", Bertram writes.
"At each stage of its development, cricket, more so than any other social activity, faithfully mirrored the struggle for social equality and popular democracy... the progress made by black Jamaican cricketers by 1938 in the game from which they had been previously excluded had not been achieved by the black population in any other social activity since emancipation. George Headley's elevation to the captaincy of the Jamaican team in 1939 was the high point of the process," he explained.
Bertram's effort marks the second attempt to write the history of Jamaican cricket, since journalist Coleman Beecher's Jamaica Cricket 1863-1926.
Beecher, he said, became a leading member of Marcus Garvey's Black Nationalist organisation and an elected member of the Municipality of Kingston and St Andrew.
The book makes a bold attempt to "pick the all-time Jamaica 11", but during his analysis Bertram reckons Easton McMorris, Maurice Foster, Jimmy Adams, Allan Rae and Chris Gayle as serious contenders "to open the innings".
Meanwhile, Professor Brian Meeks, of the Dept of Government, Faculty of Social Sciences, UWI, speaking at "From the Boundary" session of the book launch, noted that Bertram's encyclopaedic study spanned the sweep of cricket "from its role in the assertion of British imperial culture to its appropriation as a central instrument in the struggle for a Jamaican nation and within it, a more equal, colour-blind destiny and its many critical turns, from the formation of Lucas as largely black team of cricketers, to the rise of the great George Headley and inter alia, Alf Valentine, Gerry Alexander, Lawrence Rowe, Michael Holding, Courtney Walsh, and the contemporary of uncertainty".
Ambassador Michael Holding, speaking at the Off the Short Run session and who wrote a foreword to the book, noted that Jamaica at the Wicket would give Jamaicans and West Indians an appreciation of the game, and explained why cricket meant the world to people of his generation.