Success story of an youngster from remote Baracara, and some black history !!

The only way to get to Baracara is by very small boat. From Guyana’s port town of New Amsterdam, the trip up the Canje River is about 225km but can apparently take up to two days, so thick and tangled is the grass that grows along the banks of the narrow waterway 

If you are 50+ - some of your conversation might meander to the lack of facilities of those days, when you grow up and if you are a Cricket fan, you might also think of those famed pace bowlers from the Caribbean islands !! 

Remember seeing the great Andy Roberts at Chepauk Pongal test in 1975 bowling alongside Keith Boyce, Vanburn Holder & Bernard Julien.. .. later came fast bowlers like – Michael Holding, Daniel, Colin Croft, Joel Garner Sylvester Clarke, Malcolm Marshall, Winston Davis, Eldine Baptiste, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson, Curtly Ambrose, Ian Bishop .. .. and slowly we started forgetting WI pacer names !

 

Today another Fast bowler from West Indies playing just his second test if making people talk about him.    It is a story of a young man from a tiny hamlet, isolated from anything resembling competitive cricket by its lack of telephone and internet access - and all that overgrown grass - making an international Test debut in Adelaide seems even less likely than West Indies threatening to upset Australia. The prospect of him dismissing Steve Smith off the first ball of that Test debut added another layer of awesome implausibility.. 

Baracara is, for all intents and purposes, in the middle of nowhere. And it is from the middle of nowhere where West Indies’ revelatory new quick hails. Second Test as it happened today at Brisbane : Windies claimed first win on Australian soil in 27 years. Baracara is the only maroon village in Guyana.   

When WI embarked on this tour of Australia, even supports could not back up the team as it was a new look side with seven uncapped players !!  Today, at Brisbane in the day night test the scorecard reads: 

West Indies :  311 & 193  beat Australia - 289/9d & 207 – WI won by 8 runs !!! 

The 24-year-old Shamar Joseph has had just five first-class matches under his belt but viewed as a very exciting prospect. Not long ago he was working as a security guard to help look after his young family. Made his first-class debut early last year and claimed 12 wickets in two matches on the A tour of South Africa. Was also part of the Guyana Amazon Warriors squad which won the CPL. 

He had a sensational start to his career at Adelaide when he removed Steven Smith with his first ball in the  first Test. Joseph, 24, had already made an impression on the opening day in Adelaide when he struck 36 in a last-wicket stand of 55 with Kemar Roach.  .. .. and when he was given the ball for the ninth over of Australia's innings that he wrote himself a place in the game's history. Hitting a good length outside off with his first delivery, he drew Smith - opening for the first time in Tests - into playing, and the thick edge was well held at third slip. It made him the 23rd bowler to take a wicket with his first ball in men's Tests, and just the second West Indian after Tyrell Johnson against England at The Oval in 1939. 

At Brisbane, Shamar Joseph returned from a toe injury and spectacularly ripped through Australia on day four with a remarkable seven -wicket haul to create history with magical figures of 11.5-0-68-7 !! 

Steven Smith stood  in West Indies' way of a monumental upset after he struck his first half-century as an opener. He defied the heroic Joseph, who summoned speeds around 150kmh, to reach dinner on 76 not out with Australia still needing 29 runs for victory at 187 for 8. Nathan Lyon was unbeaten on 5.  Australia appeared to be cruising towards the target of 216 at 113 for 2 until Joseph turned the match on its head with the wickets of Cameron Green and Travis Head in consecutive balls.  Joseph claimed his second five-wicket haul in as many matches by dismissing Mitchell Starc. 

There had been grave doubt over whether Joseph could bowl after he was struck on the toe by an inswinging delivery by Starc late on day three that forced him to retire hurt.  But he was cleared of a fracture and produced a spell in overcast and humid conditions that rocked Australia and set up a grandstand finish after dinner.

West Indies have not beaten Australia in a Test match since 2003 and their last Test win in Australia was in February 1997. There were fears of the day's play being majorly interrupted after heavy showers lashed Brisbane overnight and in the morning. But the bad weather cleared and play resumed on schedule 

Baracara was founded as a maroon community in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region of Guyana, located on the Canje River. A group of escaped slaves settled in Baracara in the early 19th century,  and occupied both the east and west banks of the river. The demographics are mostly Afro-Guyanese. The economy of the village is based on subsistence farming and logging.  Unlike neighbouring Suriname where tribes like the Ndyuka and Saramaka established autonomous territories, escaped slaves in Guyana were hunted by the local Amerindian tribes for reward.  The incentive was very successful: on 5 May 1764, after the Berbice slave uprising, the post holder at Courantyne, near present-day Orealla, reported that he had paid out ƒ 1,074 for captured slaves, and ƒ 1,080 for 180 cut-off hands of killed slaves.  In 1740, Thomas Hildebrand was given permission to look for silver in the Blue Mountains using slaves. The hard work and rough treatment resulted in six deaths among the slaves.  The next year, a group of mining slaves escaped to Creole Island on the Cuyuni River. The location was too difficult to conquer, therefore a deal was negotiated and concluded on 8 February 1742. The slaves would be freed, and never had to work in the mines, if they promised to perform a fixed amount of work on the plantations. Three slaves who did not accept the offer were hunted and killed by the local Amerindians. 

The gruesome history is wherever the Europe landed, they treated people of the land cruelly,  indulged in slave trade, plundered the riches and took tons and tons of wealth back home in ships and these people were hailed as promoting peace and harmony.  Some black History !!

 
With regards – S Sampathkumar
28.1.2024