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

54 • Writer Oonya
Kempadoo
March/April 2002
Photo by Jim Rudin
Over two and a half
decades, we’ve profiled
dozens of our region’s best
writers — novelists, poets,
dramatists, biographers.
We’ve run in-depth features
on Nobel laureates and
talented up-and-comers.
Our first story on Jamaican
Marlon James ran in 2006,
nine years before he won
the Man Booker Prize;
we profiled Trinidadian
Vahni Capildeo, winner of
the 2016 Forward Prize,
back in 2004. But in twenty-five years, only one writer has
appeared on the cover: Grenada-based Oonya Kempadoo,
profiled in March/April 2002.
Kempadoo had made an auspicious debut three years
before, with her novel Buxton Spice, which set off a fabled
“bidding war” among London publishers. Tide Running
soon followed. And her third novel, All Decent Animals,
was imminent, our 2002 article predicted. Except it was
another decade before it actually appeared. Our readers
got a preview in our May/June 2013 issue, when we
published an excerpt from the long-awaited work.
55 • Jamaican reggae musician
Beres Hammond
May/June 2002
Photo by Tim Barrow
57 • Pan passion
September/October 2002
Photo by Noel Norton
56 • Enjoying the holidays
on an Antiguan beach
July/August 2002
Photo by Sean Drakes
58 • Danse La Helene
November/December 2002
Illustration by Martin Superville
59 • Masquerader from
Peter Minshall’s Picoplat
January/February 2003
Photo by Sean Drakes
MARCH/APRIL 2003
Caribbean Beat
Free to BWIA
passengers
60 • Guyanese woodpecker
March/April 2003
Photo courtesy the Tourism and
Hotel Association of Guyana
MAY/JUNE 2003
Caribbean Beat
Free to BWIA
passengers
61 • Waiting at the crease
May/June 2003
Photo by Sean Drakes
It’s one of the permanently contentious issues of public
debate in the Caribbean: the state of West Indies cricket.
Over the lifetime of Caribbean Beat, fans of the game have
argued and agonised over the regional team, its players and
administrators, and wondered if the West Indies will ever
return to the form of its glory days in the 1970s and 80s.
In our May/June 2003 issue, we took a stab at predicting
what a future version of the West Indies team might look like.
After talking to experts at the West Indies Cricket Board and
regional cricket associations, we compiled our “next 11”: a
lineup of exceptional young cricketers under seventeen years
old, who seemed to have the talent and attitude.
So how solid were our predictions? Of our eleven
youngsters, one — Marcus Julien of Grenada — switched
sports, to football. Most of the others went on to play for
their national under-17 or under-19 teams. A handful —
including Kavesh Kantasingh of T&T and Javal Hodge of St Kitts and Nevis — have played
for their national senior teams. And two have represented the West Indies at the highest
levels of the game.
Trinidadian batsman Jason Mohammed made his first-class debut for T&T against
Jamaica in 2006. And in December 2011 he played his first One Day International match
for the West Indies, versus India. He subsequently represented both T&T Red Steel and the
Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premiere League T20 regional tournament.
Meanwhile, Barbadian batsman Omar Phillips found himself batting for the West Indies
in a 2009 Test match against Bangladesh. A contract strike by several members of the
regional senior team saw seven young players selected for that Test series. Phillips came
just six runs short of a debut century.
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