Caribbean Beat — 25th Anniversary Edition — March/April 2017 (#144)

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10 • Casting a net Summer 1994 Photo by Eleanor Chandler 13 • Actress Renée Castle Spring 1995 Photo by Sean Drakes 11 • Purple honeycreeper Autumn 1994 Photo by Roger Neckles Back in the 1990s, it seems, a colourful outfit of batik or handpainted fabric was de rigueur for well-dressed Caribbean women. In our first four and a half years of publication, no fewer than five cover images featured subjects in batik attire. 12 • Trinidadian cricket legend Brian Lara Winter 1994/5 Photo by Shaun Botterill/Allsport 1994 was the year Brian Lara was popularly anointed “Prince of Port of Spain,” as in the space of two months he broke two major cricket records — most runs scored in a single Test innings and most runs ever in a first-class match — and entered the realm of legend. Profiling Lara in our Winter 1994/5 issue — where he made the first of two Caribbean Beat cover appearances — B.C. Pires wrote: “The only real question . . . is how high and how far he can go.” Now, looking back more than two decades over one of the most illustrious sports careers of our times, Vaneisa Baksh explains what Lara meant for the game of cricket and his fans around the world: 14 • Trinidadian Bharata Natyam dancer Shwetha Verma Summer 1995 Photo by Sean Drakes 15 • Barbadian windsurfing champion Brian Talma Autumn 1995 Photo by D.W. Hollenbeck 16 • The Jolly Roger cruising off Barbados November/December 1995 Photo by Eleanor Chandler 17 • Catching some rays January/February 1996 Photo by Eleanor Chandler 20 • Jetty view July/August 1996 Photo by Roxan Kinas 21 • Batik, sari-style September/October 1996 Photo by Sonya Sanchez/Camera Art 22 • Courland Bay, Tobago November/December 1996 Photo by Mark Lyndersay 23 • Songs of the Earth on Victoria Avenue January/February 1997 Detail of painting by Brian Wong Won 44 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
To be the holder of multiple world records — highest individual score in a Test (twice: 375 and 400), in first-class (501), runs in one Test over (28), and the only batsman in first class games to have scored one, two, three, four, and five centuries — is rightfully to be acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen in cricket history. The impact of Brian Charles Lara’s personal achievements was amplified by the circumstances under which he accumulated them. From 1993, when he scored 277 and captured international attention, to his last West Indian appearance in 2007, he was part of a team on an unhappy trajectory towards cricket ignominy. West Indies supporters were regularly crushed by the unrelenting losses, but Lara gave them — gave the world — something that sparkled beyond the gloom. On the field, he embodied greatness, and for West Indian societies, struggling with rampant mediocrity in leadership and politics that was manifest in weak economies, growing crime, and brazen corruption, he was a reminder of the magnificence that has periodically erupted in our history. Lara’s feats were celebrated worldwide, and West Indians were able to bask in that reflected glory. Bestowed with high honours — the Trinity Cross (as it was then known in Trinidad and Tobago), the Order of the Caribbean Community, the Order of Australia — he had a remarkable career that was dogged by difficulty, not least of which was the ongoing adversarial relationship between players and the West Indies Cricket Board. He was named captain of the West Indies team three times, and despite his super status as a batsman, could never claim to be a winning captain like Clive Lloyd or Viv Richards. Instead, he presided over a team with wildly fluctuating fortunes, where victories were few and embarrassments were many, though individual performances were often brilliant. But, in his time, he became one of the first of the breed of wealthy cricketers who brought business savvy to their dealings, and saw endorsements and sponsorships as a natural extension of their cricket incomes. That breed changed international cricket forever. In his retirement, apart from his event management business, he has become a global ambassador for cricket, travelling extensively, often alongside Sir Garry Sobers, who recently described him as “my dearest friend.” Lara, says Sobers, is doing very well. “Brian’s got his own agenda. He travels a lot and he does things all over the world. He does a lot for cricket. And he’s a nice boy.” 18 • Guyana’s Kaieteur Falls March/April 1996 Photo by Mark Lyndersay 24 • Trinidadian Penny Chow, Miss Universe 1977 March/April 1997 Photo by Abigail Hadeed 19 • Trinidadian sprinter Ato Boldon May/June 1996 Photo by Gary M. Prior/Allsport Heading into the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Trinidadian sprinter Ato Boldon seemed one of the Caribbean’s best hopes for a medal. A year before, he’d won the 100-metre bronze at the World Championships in Gothenburg — at just twenty-one, the youngest athlete ever to medal in the sprint event. And, indeed, he did take home two medals from Atlanta — bronze in both the 100- and 200-metre races — though precious gold eluded him this time. That wasn’t the case the following year, when Boldon won the 200-metre World Championship gold in Athens, or in 1998, when he took the 100-metre gold at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, setting a stillunbeaten Commonwealth Games record of 9.88 seconds. A serious hamstring injury took him out of the 1999 World Championships, but hopes were high, nonetheless, for further Olympic glory at the 2000 games in Sydney. There, Boldon won the silver in the 100 metres, beaten by US sprinter Maurice Greene (and with Barbadian Obadele Thompson in third place), and the 200-metre bronze. That was to be his final Olympic medal — after a car accident in 2002, Boldon never again ran under ten seconds in the 100 metres or under twenty seconds in the 200. But his Olympic silver and three bronzes still place him in rare company: only three other male athletes have ever won as many or more Olympic individual event sprint medals. And in his post-competition life Boldon has turned his knowledge of the game and on-camera charisma into a thriving career as a television commentator — most recently, Sports Illustrated named him 2016’s best TV analyst for his coverage of the Rio Olympics. WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 45
Page 6: ADVERTORIAL Celebrating our storyte
Page 10 and 11: Contents No. 144 March/April 2017 1
Page 13 and 14: Cover Martiniquan filmmaker Euzhan
Page 15: Benefits of Flying Caribbean 1st Ba
Page 20: datebook If you’re in . . . BELIZ
Page 23 and 24: St Patrick’s Day Parade Christian
Page 25 and 26: hayley madden for the poetry societ
Page 28 and 29: the look Thank God it’s Monday Fr
Page 30 and 31: Bookshelf Canouan Suite and Other P
Page 32 and 33: playlist Bright Eyes Victor Provost
Page 34: SCREENSHOTS Site of Sites Directed
Page 37 and 38: WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 35
Page 39 and 40: Immerse Euzhan Palcy in 1992 — an
Page 41 and 42: WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 39
Page 43 and 44: “I will never compromise in a way
Page 45: 2 • Ariane rocket lifts off from
Page 49 and 50: “I would hate to be a superstar,
Page 51 and 52: 36 • Phagwah celebrations March/A
Page 54: 54 • Writer Oonya Kempadoo March/
Page 57 and 58: NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 It’s one o
Page 59 and 60: B94 cover.indd 1 B106 cover.indd 1
Page 61 and 62: SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 INFLIGHT MAG
Page 63 and 64: ADVERTORIAL Miami: what an experien
Page 65 and 66: The brilliant orange paint and trad
Page 67 and 68: • • • • • • •
Page 69 and 70: ARRIVE nikhil ramkarran 68 Offtrack
Page 71 and 72: Rough dirt roads cross the sparsely
Page 73 and 74: The Pakaraima safari route cuts thr
Page 75 and 76: The journey Georgetown to Karasabai
Page 77 and 78: Chiung Falls near the village of Ka
Page 80 and 81: NEIGHBOURHOOD wilfred dederer Port
Page 82 and 83: LAYOVER Anton_Ivanov/shutterstock.c
Page 84 and 85: INSPIRE Innercity art When a group
Page 86 and 87: GREEN Progress report Over the past
Page 88 and 89: on this day Calypso with a conscien
Page 90 and 91: puzzles 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 CARIBBEAN CRO
Page 92 and 93: 87% (2017 year-to-date: 31 January)
Page 94 and 95: For more information, visit us at c
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www.caribbeanairlinesdutyfree.com
Page 98:
parting shot Mangrove view Barbuda
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Caribbean Beat — 25th Anniversary Edition — March/April 2017 (#144)

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